Passport to Texas

 
This is Passport to Texas

The state has more than a million acres of public hunting land including wildlife management areas, state parks and state natural areas, where sportsmen and women may harvest a wide variety of game.

And an annual public hunting permit is only $48-dollars.

While hunting on public land offers outstanding opportunity, Todd Merendino, a former Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist—who currently manages conservation programs for Ducks Unlimited—says doing so requires planning and flexibility. We spoke with him during a public waterfowl hunt on Matagorda Island.

37—Public hunting is just a different style or type of waterfowl hunting, primarily because unlike a guided operation or your own private lease, there is an element of unknown of where you’re going to go because folks that are in front of you may pick the spot you wanted to go to, or you may just be unfamiliar with the place and not know a good site to hunt. So there’s a little bit of kind of an uncertain element to in just the fact because of the check in procedure and a paperwork procedure sometimes you’re out in the field extremely early. Just like this morning, these guys will be set up an hour before shooting time. Whereas on a private lease, or a guided operation, you’d probably be getting set up right at shooting time.

The Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series… and funds the operations of wildlife management areas in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.