Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've spoken to some of you in person, but in case some of y'all don't know--

I'm "working" on a presentation, will most likely be in PowerPoint, to distribute to all the pertinent legislators well before next year's session. By "working" I mean "in my free time" which is currently in short supply.

Basically, this presentation will be a compilation of all the RATIONAL (backed by data) arguments for lifting the ban. There are MANY valid arguments. I have a laundry list of information I plan on including, and I've seen some GREAT points made in recent threads here.

That's where I need your help...could you please PM me some of your material you've been posting here so I can incorporate it into my presentation? Scrubbing the forum for all the good ideas is definitely on my "to do" list, but I'm afraid threads will get deleted by mods, or otherwise buried, before I get time to pull the info.

An example of such "good points" is the comparison of population density, land privatization, and herp laws. Beautiful--reminds me of the summary I did a few years back of hunting opportunities lost (paved miles in TX and associated ROWs calculated as acreage lost when the ban went into effect--too bad TX isn't a "no net loss" state).

Ideally, this presentation would be distributed to each legislator, perhaps as an "extra" on the Alterna Rush documentary DVD (if it ever gets finished!).

Related note: not everyone in TPWD is "against" us. I think we need to focus on getting those who can help our cause, to help us (within limits of job security considerations).
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

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The numbers by rpelaez....

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Herp Conservation Unlimited

If people really learn from their mistakes, I should be like the smartest guy in the world

why not try to expand on it. If theres a sticking point, then think of a solution. A talk isnt going to accomplish anything. God himself could tell the commitee that theres no harm in hunting snakes, and theyll dismiss him. Besides, that approach has already failed. What hasnt been tried is to offer P&W something. My idea offers them more enforcement abilities and more money. Please, before anyone comes up with a problem and wants to shoot down the permit idea, try to come up with a solution to the problem. If everyone can focus on that then maybe we can address all the sticking points, and we could present a proposal that works well for us and them. For example, a bag limit for Texas residents is a sticking point. If residsents were allowed to log 5 alterna a year with a permit, then after 5 years they could have 25 in their posession. Oooooh I can already hear it, "what about captive bred snakes." Document them well. Save reciepts, photo hatchlings, etc. Im just brainstorming, can someone please help me.

In CA, as you know, we can commercially propagate Califonia Kings, Gophersnakes and Rosy Boas. If you are a breeder/seller you do have to allow them to search your breeding faclity and/or the part of your home that acts as a breeding facility. If you are not breeding/selling you don't need a permit, just a reciept from a permit holder. As long as you retain your reciepts you can keep any number of legally produced captive born specimens.

IMHO this is a very good system except for the fact that the bag limits and possesion limits on wild caught are the same. If bag limits were annual and possession limits were a separate matter it would be great.

Forgot to add if you are not a breeder/permit holder they need a warrant to search. They cannot search you just because you bought or have captive borns from a permit holder.

They should be limited on searches of permit holders like once every two or three years without a warrant for some general inspection, not an open door that they can just come and go... and it should be scheduled to make sure you are home etc and so on.

As for "bag limits" that is a tough one and should be avoided as it is just muddy water for people trying to keep captive produced offspring. It should be encouraged in every way for people to work with captive offspring as they have zero impact on natural populations.
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Herp Conservation Unlimited

If people really learn from their mistakes, I should be like the smartest guy in the world

A talk isnt going to accomplish anything. God himself could tell the commitee that theres no harm in hunting snakes, and theyll dismiss him. Besides, that approach has already failed. What hasnt been tried is to offer P&W something. My idea offers them more enforcement abilities and more money.

The drawback to your proposal, if I'm thinking of the correct poster, is that it proposes GIVING UP MORE RIGHTS to get TPWD to throw a few bones our way. I think that is a bad way to start the dialogue.

Words mean something, and I think we need to carefully frame our arguments. I'm not talking about just making a speech; my project is an interactive media solution, and coupled with a documentary-in-the-works may help light bulbs come on for some of these legislators.

That, and money talks. The money issue has (at least) two sides: revenue lost to local businesses (and TPWD in lost license fees--though that amount is relatively small), and revenue to be gained by the Dept. through special herp permits/stamps. Lobbyists and campaign contributions don't hurt, either.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

One way to collaborate on a PowerPoint with many herpers in real time is to share Google Docs. If you don't have one already, you can create a Gmail e-mail account, and people who have Gmail accounts can work and collaborate on Google versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc. documents in real time.

Even while you are working on it, you can see who else is working on it at the same time, and it shows their updates to the document in real time too.

Once it is deemed finished, you can present it as a Google doc or save it as a Ppt and present it that way.

I do this in school quite often when we have a multi-person presentation.

This would lighten your load, Chris.