Passport to Texas

Texas Drawn Hunts.

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This is Passport to Texas

It’s time to put in for drawn hunts. The drawn hunts system is online only; adult application fees are $3 per adult, except Private Lands and Guided Hunt categories, which are $10. No application or permit fees for youth applicants or supervising adults on Youth Only hunts.

16—Our applications are not all at one time; they’re actually distributed through the month of August into January. We have regular gun/deer in September, and feral hog and exotics…and some of the later hunts for feral hog and spring turkey will actually go into December and January.

Kelly Edmiston, public hunting coordinator, says selection notification will be faster than ever.

20— We will probably be able to draw one to three business days after a deadline because we’re not having to rely on data and mail and late arriving applications. Before you had to get it here by 5 o’clock the day of the deadline. Now, because it’s online, you’ll basically have until that last day – probably up until 11:59 [p.m.]—to be able to submit an application.

Preference points of the past are loyalty points today.

22— You can now apply more than once within a category. Your loyalty points will still apply to each application you submit in that category equally. So, if you have five preference points for a
gun/deer either sex category, and you submit three gun/deer either sex applications, each at a different area, you’re going to get five points on each of your three.

Find a full list of the applications deadlines on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

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

Download the Hunt Harvest APP

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The My Hunt Harvest APP, which allows hunters to report their harvests, debuted in time for spring turkey season. Hunters who bag Eastern Wild turkeys must report their harvest at physical check stations, which can be miles from their lease.

16—And we did great this year. We had a lot of reports through that app. And next year it’s actually going to be the only alternative. You can use the app on your phone, or you can actually go on Parks and Wildlife’s website; go to our turkey page and report your harvest that way.

Jason Hardin is upland game bird specialist with Parks and Wildlife and turkey program leader for Texas. One goal for the app was higher reporting compliance.

12— We’re always concerned that if we have a check station in the county, and it’s halfway across the county—or all the way across—are our hunters taking the time to go across the county to report that bird. So, with the app, the check station is in the hunter’s hand.

Preliminary results are positive; even Rio Grande hunters used the app. The My Hunt Harvest App provides real time data, which benefits researchers and hunters, alike—whether hunting turkey, quail or deer.

17— It helps us understand and track how the harvest is going throughout the season. If something is going slow, we might be able to look at weather patterns, and try to explain some of that. It also just helps us with our relationship with the hunters. This day and age people want immediate information, immediate data, and we’re able to provide that more efficiently using this technology.

Download the My Hunt Harvest app free from the Apple app store and Google Play. The Wildlife restoration Program supports our series.

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

Preparing for Youth Hunt

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The average age of Texas hunters is mid-forties. As these hunters decrease their time in the field, some increase their time in the classroom.

05—Some become [hunter education] instructors, and really want to give back to something they’ve enjoyed all throughout their lives.

Nancy Heron is director of outreach and education at parks and wildlife. She said the program has a need for instructors with special skills.

12—Parks and Wildlife has a lot of constituents who are bilingual, and who just speak Spanish. We are looking for bilingual instructors that are able to teach the hunter education program in Spanish and English.

The Spanish speaking population in Texas is growing, and Parks and Wildlife wants to ensure this group has easy access to hunter education, and a great outdoor experience.

11—We certainly could use those instructors to help us reach those constituents that we normally wouldn’t be able to reach. And, we do want to offer them [Spanish speaking constituents] an opportunity to get out in the outdoors and enjoy it.

We have information on becoming a volunteer Hunter Education instructor at passporttotexas.org.

The Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series.

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

Hunting for white-tailed deer.

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People interested in hunting, born on or after September 2, 1971, must take a hunter education training course. However, Nancy Herron, says there is a way around it—at least temporarily.

09—Anyone who has not been certified by the time they turn seventeen, can go and get a deferral. They must buy a hunting license, and ask for deferral type 1-6-6 at the point of sale.

Herron is director of Outreach and Education. The deferral allows people to hunt as long as a certified licensed hunter accompanies them.

05—And if you like it, go get certified; you have by August 31st of the current license year to do that.

It costs $10 for a deferral. The deferral program started in 2005, and about 10-thousand people sign up each year.

14—It offers an opportunity for someone who has not hunted before to give it a try and it brings in lapsed hunters. If they’ve been out of hunting for awhile, and didn’t get certified, they can come in, take the deferral, and then have an opportunity to get back into the outdoors.

A deferral may only be obtained once and is only valid until the end of the current license year; after that, hunters must complete the certification course.

Find hunter education information on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series.

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

Feral big mama sow.

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Hunting is not an ideal means of control for feral swine.

09- Although they’re very good to eat, and we have very liberal means and methods to take feral hogs, it’s just not proven effective as a control measure.

Approximately 2.5 million feral hogs roam Texas; wildlife biologist, Donnie Frels, researches controls for feral hogs at the Kerr Wildlife Management Area.

11- They have been documented in just about every county in Texas, although we see higher densities in eastern Texas, along the coast, and in South Texas.

Frels is among a group of researchers studying the use of sodium nitrite in a bait matrix as a control method. The compound is toxic to swine as it reduces their blood’s ability to carry oxygen.

13- We began investigating sodium nitrite as a potential toxicant back about 2010; since that time we’ve come a long way in bait development.

We need up to 70% control of the swine annually to hold the population stable from one year to the next. Frels says the ultimate goal of his study is to develop bait that is economical and environmentally safe.

10-We would like it in a pelleted form that a landowner or land manager could utilize themselves, within a specific feeder, so that it doesn’t provide access to non-targets.

Commercial availability is still several years away.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series.

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