Wildlife management area

So what kind of license do I need to hunt on Forest Service land? General Forest requires hunters to obtain a Texas state hunting license.

What about a WMA? Texas hunting license and annual public hunting permit, also referred to as a type 2 permit, yes, on WMAs with the required endorsements and or stamps.

WMAs in the National Forest and Grasslands in Texas include Alabama Creek WMA, Davy Crockett, Bannister, Angelina National Forest, Caddo National Grassland, and the Moore Plantation WMA in the Sabine National Forest.

The entire Sam Houston National Forest also is a WMA.

And then it goes on from there.

Right.

So our contracts that we have with those landowners has verbiage in it that basically makes those properties similar to RWMAs, where it's a hunt at your own risk scenario.

So in that contract, when we're letting people go out there and hunt through the permit system, those people are showing up knowing that it's a hunt at your own risk and that the game and fish and the landowners are not liable for, like I said, injury, property damage or anything like that.

So, you know, that's something that.

But, uh, I just don't see the quality of care.

I don't see the quality of work that used to go into the, to the WMAs and the, uh, the waterfowl management areas.

And actually I, and here's why I, I, I boldly say that is because my eyes tell me different.

Um, These access points, these spots where you used to have a parking area that you used to have groomed, that you used to have graded, that you used to have gravel on, they're deteriorated.

We want to take this model and then start looking at more grants year after year and start doing this across the landscape.

Not just at one WMA, but let's start looking at five, ten, fifteen WMAs over the course of ten to fifteen years.

It might not be a mosaic on one landscape, but you start creating these mosaics across the state.

And a lot of people say the word conservation, and when they say conservation, hey, we need to save these big trees.

And someone who may not use some of these.

areas the same as you might might end up influencing the direction of the management so particularly wmas they're asking how you're using uh waterfall man uh waterfall wildlife management areas around the state and also aquatic management areas i don't we don't have a ton of amas around us dan have you ever done anything on an ama i don't know what you can do on them Good question.

I'd assume it's very similar to WMAs.

I think they're more maybe in the I think I've seen it more in the north, maybe where there's maybe some more water than where we are on the prairie.

I really don't know because plenty of WMAs have water.

So I don't know.

Well, if you partake in activities on either one of those areas in the state of Minnesota, they want to know.

And so we just don't, you know, like we need to do everything we can to, I mean, this is obviously speaking, you know, waterfowl directly related, but we got to do everything we can to protect as many acres as possible.

Yeah.

And the water in the WMAs, obviously, you know, these WMA areas are set aside for wildlife, right? And to kind of protect migrating birds and provide that food and that water and shelter they need.

So talk about like, I guess with the water, like why would we release it and when would we release it versus keep it?

Yeah, so some of that water can be held back to ideally grow the food availability.

So sago pondweed is one of our most important wetland plants that these WMAs produce for migrating waterfowl and shorebirds.

So having that ability to maintain that pond level at an appropriate height to grow that sago pondweed is very important.

Because that plant is utilized in every piece of the plant.

And the idea is we're hoping to understand what we need to do inside the impoundments in low water years like this or high water years.

habitat, and I've heard right around 7,000 Audad they've chopper shot in the last two years, just out of that one small mountain range there.

And I know, like on any of the state WMAs that have Desert Bighorn, you've got Black Gap WMA, Elephant Mountain WMA, and I think they're doing it also in Big Bend State Park, which is right next to Big Bend National Park.

But they're killing every odd ad that sets foot out there.

So the WMAs are those wildlife management areas? Affirmative.

And are they public or private down there?

Those specific WMAs are public.

They're owned and managed by the state of Texas.

And their main goal is to manage for desert bighorn, but they manage for several different species.