“A white-tailed doe, grazing in a lush green yard, hears a noise. Her head pops up. She stares, turning into a momentary statue. Suddenly, she darts across the yard toward the nearest bunch of trees, leaping over the fence so graceful it seems she is flying, and disappears into oblivion. Much of the landscape in Central Texas, even urban areas, includes deer. They are fun to watch, especially for those residents moving in from places without wildlife. But Turk Jones, a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden, cautions residents to be careful when feeding and coming in contact with urban deer, and remember to follow state
laws regarding wildlife.

 Deer mating season is referred to as the rut. Turk says, “The rut begins in October and continues into January.” The bucks, who normally stick together, begin to disperse and chase does. Being aware of your surroundings, during the rut, is a good idea. “Bucks will come into the yard to get food, but when the homeowner comes out to feed, they are putting themselves in danger by being between the buck and doe. Bucks can be aggressive, and you may not realize you are between the doe and buck.” explains Turk. “It’s just animal nature,” he adds.

Deer versus vehicle accidents rise during during the rut. Most Georgetown drivers have dodged a deer or two. “It’s a good idea to slow down in neighborhoods like Sun City and Seranada, but you can still hit a deer on I-35, so just watch for them,” advises Turk. It isn’t mandatory in Texas for a vehicle owner or driver to notify law enforcement of a deer collision. The majority of them go unreported.

“We have approximately 4 million white-tailed deer in Texas, and the Hill Country has the highest density,” says Derrick Wolter, a Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist. He explains that it’s not a good idea to start feeding deer in a neighborhood. “They lose their natural ability to find food, congregate in neighborhoods, eat expensive landscaping, and cause traffic hazards. When we feed deer we artificially create deer overpopulation, compounding these problems,” says Derrick.

Another problem deer face, is residents often believe fawn, found alone, have been abandoned. Turk stresses that this is not the case. The fawn has been placed there for a reason. “Fawns have spots so that predators can’t see them, and no scent, so predators can’t smell them. If a human touches a fawn, it allows a predator to smell it. and it puts it in danger,” says Turk. By leaving her baby in a safe place, the mother keeps her scent away from the fawn. “She will return at feeding time. She knows what she’s doing,” Turk assures. The citation for picking up a fawn costs up to $500, which is another good reason to leave them be.

Georgetown residents are fortunate to have deer in the area to enjoy. Remembering to follow some basic guidelines and state laws will help make it even more enjoyable for humans and deer alike.”

Regulated hunting is a proven technique for curbing whitetail population growth. However, deer hunting is not always considered feasible in urban or suburban areas because of logistics, although the biggest obstacle is public acceptance of the direct take (killing) of animals. For every person that accepts regulated hunting as a tool for urban deer management there is another person that considers in unacceptable. Though people may not agree on the methods needed to control urban deer populations, they can agree that deer are an issue that will continue to be addressed into the future.

The range management workshop is scheduled for April 9-13 at the G. Rollie White Visitor’s Center. The workshop is designed to help new landowners improve their understanding regarding management of the various resources they find on their Texas ranch properties, said Dr. Larry Redmon, AgriLife Extension state forage specialist.

Registration is $500 per person and attendance is limited to the first 50 people who enroll. To register online for the class and to get more information, check out their website and enter “ranch management” into the search window. From there, landowners can find out more about the workshop and get an idea of what to expect.

Redmon said they have offered the range management workshop twice a year for two years. This spring’s topics cover: soils, forages, hay, weeds and brush, winter pastures and livestock production, including cattle, horse, sheep and goats. Chute-side talks will be made on live-animal handling and demonstrations of vaccinating, dehorning and castration of cattle.

An agricultural economist will cover profit plans, marketing plans and alternative enterprises, he said. Additionally, wildlife management topics regarding white-tailed deer, turkeys, fish and feral hogs will be addressed.

Field demonstrations will include learning how to assess body condition scores of cattle, how to take proper soil samples and hay samples, and how to assess the fish populations in ponds for pond management, Redmon said. There will also be a discussion regarding pond weeds and a demonstration on hog trap design. All participants will receive a resource CD containing more than 100 publications covering ranch resource management. For more information, call 979-845-4826.

In many areas, lowering deer numbers to appropriate levels will improve the health of both the plant and animal communities found in the area. Fewer deer will actually improve the quality of the habitat for deer, producing large-bodied deer, and other wildlife. Deer management is a numbers game, often accomplished through regulated deer hunting. A balanced harvest of bucks and does can also improve the age structure of whitetail bucks, resulting in larger-antlered bucks. Fewer deer will also translate into bigger does, which will recruit more fawns into the population each year.

Another big issue for some landowners is getting the habitat management benefits of cattle grazing without owning the cows. Many properties are overgrazed, which impacts the plants and wild animals found on a property. Periods of cattle deferment – rest – can be very beneficial to a property. This will allow plants to rest or re-establish. Sometimes it takes years, especially in semi-arid areas. Areas with more rainfall will recover faster.

The removal of cows can be great for habitat recovery. However, the long-term removal of grazing from the land can be detrimental to certain plant species,a and maybe even to a landowner’s long term goals. In general, periodic grazing can maintain and improve native grasses stands and at the same time can increase beneficial forbs (weeds) that are eaten by whitetail deer.

Most landowners do not have enough property to provide all of the resources of large ranging species, such as deer or wild turkey. This habitat management challenge can be addressed by working with neighboring landowners. Over the past few years, wildlife co-ops, sometimes referred to as wildlife management associations, have been formed around the country by groups of landowners interested in managing the habitat on their properties and the wildlife populations found in an area.

Many wildlife co-ops have been formed to increase the quality of white-tailed deer. Landowners in these management co-ops know that their neighbor shares the same goals and land management objectives for local deer and wildlife populations. They realize that together they can have the desired impacts on the deer numbers and their habitat.But wildlife co-ops are not the only examples of landowners working together. Livestock grazing co-ops have also been organized in different areas. This type of co-op permits the temporary grazing of neighboring livestock for habitat benefits.The trick to using cattle as a land management technique is to provide a property with periodic rest.

Habitat management is the key to wildlife management. In Texas, wildlife co-ops have achieved great success. Small properties can provide good areas for native wildlife, especially when smaller properties develop wildlife management co-ops. Whether you want to improve the quality of the deer and other wildlife on your property, or use cows as a practice for habitat improvements, you may want to touch base with your neighbor to see if you can pool your land and management efforts.

Since the mid-2000s, TPWD’s State Parks Division has explored non-lethal options such as live trapping to remove the burros. Live trapping of feral hogs has been successfully used in some parts of the country, but can wild burros be trapped? Well, the results are in. State parks staff met early on with veterinarians and other experts with the USDA-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) based in Presidio, but APHIS was unsuccessful in trapping feral burros along the US-Mexico Border within the state park.

In 2007, no feasible alternatives had been found and TPWD began lethal burro control. In 2008, the agency temporarily ceased lethal efforts to allow Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue to try live trapping burros at the park, but after nearly two years of efforts by the group no burros were caught.

In 2011, TPWD Executive Director Carter Smith challenged critics of the department’s burro control methods to bring resources to bear on the problem and to suggest practical alternatives.

“We have said consistently that Texas Parks and Wildlife does not have the financial resources to control burros at Big Bend Ranch State Park (BBRSP) through alternatives such as capture and quarantine, but that we are open to substantive discussions with interested parties who wish to offer their own resources to help address this problem,” Smith said. “However, any proposed plan must account for adequate and sustained funding, and we must be clear that the goal is to remove feral burros from the park.”

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has offered its resources to assess non-lethal options. In January, state parks and HSUS staff met at Big Bend Ranch to allow HSUS to assess the landscape and conditions. HSUS is working with a private contractor to conduct an aerial survey to determine the numbers and locations of burros at the park, an essential first step to assess costs and feasibility of control options. TPWD has agreed to cost-share up to $10,000 to help pay for the survey, which should occur this spring.

If HSUS determines that non-lethal alternatives are feasible, the organization will prepare and submit to TPWD for its consideration a proposed timeframe, strategies, methods and resources required to accomplish non-lethal management alternatives. At present, there is no formal proposal or agreement between TPWD and HSUS.

“We understand concerns that have been expressed by many people and are open to considering feasible, non-lethal alternatives,” Smith said. “However, our basic policy is unchanged. Our responsibility to protect BBRSP’s sensitive lands and waters is our highest priority. The need to control feral burros to protect park resources remains, and if non-lethal methods are determined to be unfeasible, we retain the option to conduct lethal control as conditions require.”

Smith said if HSUS is able to commit to adequate and sustained funding for burro control, and if the methods proposed by the humane society are accepted by TPWD, the agency will facilitate HSUS efforts by furnishing access, information and other available resources.

The burros are a feral, exotic, invasive species threatening the state park’s native plants and animals, precious desert springs and seeps, and other natural and cultural resources, a threat similar to that posed by feral hogs and other invasive plants and animals across Texas. TPWD has a statewide policy to control all such exotic, invasive plants and animals on its public lands. In 2011, the agency posted an online factsheet with photos and video detailing the park burro problem.

Removal of burros has been an opportunistic activity that occurs in the state park at times when visitor safety can be assured. The high season for BBRSP visitation is October through April. It is normal and customary for TPWD to curtail burro control during these months due to heavier public use in back country areas. Although burro control is an important habitat management practice for the sensitive plant communities in the area, Smith said it is not likely that TPWD will conduct lethal burro control in the near future, until it has been determined whether any non-lethal methods are feasible. TPWD is trying to protect Texas’ natural resources as well as financial resources, so it appears that organizations interested in saving the burros at BBRSP need to bring their money to the table.

One of the rationales for shortening the season and/or reducing bag limits for quail in Texas is that many people think Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) needs to “send a message” out to people. One can only presume that the people who are calling for these additional limits think this message is: “Quail numbers are so low that you should stop hunting them or drastically reduce the extent to which you hunt them.” However, I suspect many quail managers and hunters already know and heed this message. Rarely are people more conservative than a landowner when it comes to the harvest of wildlife.

I don’t like the idea of shortening the quail hunting season in Texas. Research has found that hunting has little impact on quail numbers. Besides, a lot of non-hunters will perceive this message in a way that somehow makes them think quail hunting has been responsible for the low numbers of quail. This would be a big mistake. Too much quail hunting pressure is not the cause of the dire situation for quail in Texas.

Again, self-regulation on the ranch level is already being done in many areas. Properties that still provide quail habitat have done so for the sake of the birds and are already protecting them. Landowners with little regard for wildlife have seen their quail disappear long ago. Changing the quail season will have zero impact on properties that lack quail, which is a growing percentage of the state. Hunting, again, is not the problem.

Changing the quail hunting season by shortening the season length or reducing the bag limit will only cloud quail management. This is because the problem with quail in most of Texas is too little habitat, not too much hunting. When quail numbers are low, quail hunters self-regulate. They do not need any one to tell them that there are too few quail to hunt. They already know this.

On the other hand, when quail numbers do recover, having a shortened season and reduced bag will only limit opportunity and punish hunters who have already self-regulated their efforts during the bad years. Why should people with little regard for wildlife habitat impact those that are actively involved in quail population and habitat management? If the quail hunting season was shortened then the guys that did the most for quail would not get the benefit of their actions.

The solution to the quail problem in Texas lies in creating and restoring habitat in a large-scale, purposeful manner that provides for the annual life history needs of the birds. A genetic study in Texas found that the dispersal of bobwhite quail takes place over a radius of more than 30 miles, or across an area of habitat greater than 200,000 acres! Many will argue that they can grow pen-raised birds and release them and rebuild a local quail population, but this is false.

Research has found that pen-raised birds of every type die quickly, within seven days or less. Released birds are only good for shooting. They will not start a new population on their own, especially on a property devoid of suitable habitat. Predators will be blamed, but pen birds do not have the skills to survive. Predators, however, are not limiting wild quail. Quail management at an appropriate scale that provides nesting, brooding, loafing, escape cover and food needed for quail to survive and reproduce will work.

Reducing the quail hunting season and/or reducing the bag limit, even if done on a regional scale in Texas, is simply the wrong thing to do. Quail will not recover because of a shorter hunting season. Wildlife and habitat management is the key. Food, cover, water and space is all that any animal needs to survive. Quail are no different. Look around. If you don’t see any quail it’s not because of hunting. It’s because there is not suitable quail habitat. There is no easy answer.