Passport to Texas

Also Leopold's Five Tools for Land Management Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Aldo Leopold, widely accepted as the father of wildlife and habitat management in America, outlined five types of habitat management practices used to restore and maintain habitat.

05—And those involve the ax, cow, plow, fire and gun.

Wildlife Management Area (WMA) facilities coordinator, Dennis Gissell, says these tools have served Texas well, on WMA sites…and explains what they are and how they work together to support healthy ecosystems.

37—The axe actually conveys to the use of mechanized equipment as well as chain saws and loppers that we use to remove invasive species of vegetation, which are not beneficial to wildlife. Cows are used for grazing, and grazing helps to stimulate production of forbs and browse. The plow is used to plant food plots when it’s necessary to help wildlife to survive winters and long summers. Fire is used to restore habitat and to stimulate the growth, once again, of forbs and browse. And, of course hunting is good to control and manage wildlife populations so they don’t become out of synch or too large for the carrying capacity for the habitat.

A $48 dollar annual public hunting permit or a $12 dollar Limited Public Use Permit can provide access to WMAs all year. Learn the difference between the permits at the Texas parks and Wildlife website.

The WSFR program supports our series and is celebrating 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti