Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
We start off by checking in with Sundance Ranch’s Wade Burton. Sundance Ranch is a small Hill Country Equine Community. Properties in this rural community are between 2 and 5 acres and bowhunting has long been an acceptable method used to help control their ever increasing deer population. With one deer for every 3 acres, things have gotten out of control. The deer have become an nuisance but there is a small faction of community members who want the bowhunting to stop and one member is suing to try to end bowhunting completely. Wade discusses the problems deer are causing and why bowhunting needs to continue at Sundance Ranch. The overall health of the herd is suffering and automobile accidents are increasing. Situations like the one below aren’t good for us or the deer:
The we are joined by longtime Texas outdoor writer Bob Hood. Bob has been goose hunting in Texas for 42 years and his recent article Ghosts of Goose Hunts Past – was featured in the latest Texas Fish and Game Magazine. Things have changed significantly over 4 decades and Bob has seen and done it all. From the rice fields of the Katy Prarie to the peanut fields of West Texas he has experienced the highs and lows of Texas goose hunting. Are things better now than they were back then- when a decoy spread consisted of a bunch of rags? Bob tells it all. Below is South Texas goose hunting pioneer Marvin Tyler, credited for beginning the rag decoy craze back in the 1960s.
We then round things out by talking water easements when Texas Nature Conservancy State Director Laura Huffman stops by. In November, Proposition H will be voted on by the legislature. This important bill offers Texas landowners tax breaks for allowing water on their property to be available for public use. And with 96% of our state privately owned- it’s important for us to start thinking about alternative water sources for both us and our fish and wildlife such as the private wetland seen below.
