FENCE POSTS

NEWS ABOUT HUNTING, GUN RIGHTS, AND LEGISLATIVE ITEMS

First Hunt Foundation Observes National Mentoring Month

President Biden proclaimed January as National Mentoring Month, a nationwide observance honoring today’s mentors and encouraging communities to engage in mentoring activities to ensure positive outcomes for youth. “A rising number of adolescents are experiencing mental health challenges, including from bullying and social media harms,” President Biden said. “That is why, as part of my Unity Agenda I announced in my State of the Union address, my Administration is pairing children with mentors who can help them navigate these complexities, open up doors of opportunity, and give them the additional support they may need to excel in school and in their communities.”

The First Hunt Foundation continues to invest in youth mentoring nationwide. The FHF has the goal of being the largest boots on the ground, new hunter mentoring organization in the nation and is well on the way to reaching that goal. First Hunt Foundation currently has 840 volunteer mentors working across 41 states and growing. FHF will announce a new program focusing on bringing more diversity into the hunting ranks. To learn more about the organization’s mentoring efforts, go to firsthuntfoundation.org.

—courtesy FHF

TPWD Opposes U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Listing Lesser Prairie-Chicken

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Executive Director David Yoskowitz said he applauds 16 years of “tremendous” voluntary collaboration with private landowners and industry to conserve lesser prairie-chicken habitat and reiterates the department’s opposition to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) listing the species. “This decision jeopardizes decades of voluntary conservation efforts, increases regulatory burden and does not assure recovery of the species,” Yoskowitz said.

USFWS published a final rule Nov. 25 listing the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Implemented in January, the decision will affect 14 counties in Texas, listing the bird as threatened in some and endangered in others. “Notwithstanding this very unfortunate decision, TPWD stands committed to working with private landowners and industry to conserve the lesser prairie-chicken and its habitat, just as we have for decades,” Yoskowitz said.

The new designation comprises a Northern Distinct Population Segment (DPS), where the bird will be listed as threatened in seven counties in the northeast Texas Panhandle, and the Southern DPS, where the species will be listed as endangered in seven counties in the southwest Texas Panhandle. The listing under the ESA went into effect Jan. 24, 2023, and makes “take” of lesser prairie-chickens or their habitat a federal violation. Take means to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect or to attempt to engage in any such conduct. Incidental take refers to takings that result from, but are not the purpose of, conducting an otherwise lawful activity.

Under the final USFWS ruling, a 4(d) rule for the Northern DPS provides for incidental take exemptions for routine agricultural activities on cultivated lands, prescribed grazing conducted under an approved plan and prescribed fire. Landowners in the northeast Texas Panhandle interested in receiving an approved prescribed grazing plan under the 4(d) rule should contact a USFWS-certified prescribed grazing planner to initiate enrollment into that plan. A list of FAQs and certified planners will be continuously updated and available at www.fws. gov/lpc, and a list of FAQs is available on the USFWS Lesser Prairie-Chicken Listing FAQs website.

In 2006, TPWD entered a 20-year Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) with USFWS to work with private landowners to manage and improve lesser prairie-chicken habitat in exchange for assurances that no additional regulatory burden would be placed on participants if the species were listed. The 91 properties currently enrolled in the program, which cover 649,780 acres across 19 Texas Panhandle counties, are exempt from take and habitat management restrictions while they operate under a TPWD-approved wildlife management plan.

“The CCAA provides landowners the assurances that they can continue to manage their properties to meet their goals while also benefiting the lesser prairie-chicken,” said John Silovsky, TPWD director of wildlife. “We appreciate the tremendous collaboration with private landowners during the past 16 years and we want to continue those important partnerships for the benefit of the lesser prairie-chicken habitat.”

In 2013, TPWD along with the state wildlife agencies for Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, developed the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Range-Wide Plan (RWP). The plan established population goals for four lesser prairie-chicken ecoregions and designated focal areas and connectivity zones to incentivize voluntary conservation for the species and its habitat.

Under the direction of WAFWA, the RWP also produced a CCAA for oil and gas companies to voluntarily mitigate for new development and operations across the species’ range. This CCAA provides funding to private landowners to improve or maintain lesser prairie-chicken habitat on their lands and provide a net conservation benefit to the species and regulatory certainty for industry.

Since then, USFWS has also approved an Oil & Gas Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) and Renewables HCP that provide additional opportunities for industry to mitigate for the incidental take of the species.

Landowners or industries interested in the Texas Lesser Prairie-Chicken CCAA, industry CCAA or HCP options should contact Brad Simpson, TPWD Panhandle Wildlife District Leader, 806-651-3012, brad.simpson@tpwd.texas.gov or Russell Martin, TPWD Panhandle Wildlife Diversity Biologist, 806-452-9616, russell. martin@tpwd.texas.gov.

—courtesy TPWD

TPWD Collaborates with Major League Fishing on Habitat Restoration at Lake Bryan

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Inland Fisheries Division, local anglers, and the Bryan Texas Utilities Department (BTUD) collaborated with Major League Fishing (MLF) on a recent project to install new fish habitat in Lake Bryan.

MLF Fisheries Management Division, in partnership with Berkley Labs, spearheaded the initiative to improve catfish, crappie, largemouth bass and bluegill spawning survival, adult population density and catchability. TPWD’s Inland Fisheries Division deployed its brand-new habitat barge to aid in the installation of the new habitat structures, assembled by TPWD, MLF and BTUD staff along with local volunteers. The two-day project showcased how the agency, industry and anglers can work together to enhance Texas fisheries.

“We were excited when we were contacted by Steven Bardin (MLF Fisheries Management Biologist) about this project,” said Niki Ragan-Harbison, Fisheries Biologist for the College Station — Houston Inland Fisheries Division District. “BTUD has been a tremendous asset as well by not only allowing the project to take place, but also by providing their equipment, facilities, and manpower, as well as contributing to the habitat additions. Exciting things are happening at Lake Bryan, and we all look forward to seeing how the fishery responds in the coming years.”

The structures deployed included 14, 40-inch MossBack Fish Habitat Conservation Cubes, 12 Spawning Beds, 21 Trophy Tree XLs and 21 Safe Haven XLs. In addition, BTUD provided 33 concrete trash receptacle enclosures for use as catfish spawning habitat. Lowe’s of Bryan donated 100 cinder blocks for the MossBack structures and pea gravel to fill the spawning beds.

TPWD has downloadable GPS coordinates for the new fishing structures on the Lake Bryan fish habitat structures website. For more information visit the Inland Fisheries Division College Station-Houston District Facebook page and the MLF website. —courtesy TPWD

SCI Denounces Canadian Bill Amendments Banning Hunting Firearms

Safari Club International condemns the Canadian government’s latest sneak attack on hunters, which if implemented as intended, would qualify as the most extensive firearm ban in the country’s history. Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) Paul Chiang introduced two shady amendments (with designations G4 and G46) to the Liberal Party’s gun control legislation, Bill C-21. Although the bill was initially targeted at handgun control, both amendments would restrict thousands of long guns commonly used in hunting and sport shooting. Passage of the first amendment (G46) will add a 478-page list of specifically banned firearm models to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s already extreme list of 1,500 firearms immediately banned in 2020. These include thousands of additional models of hunting rifles and shotguns. MP Chiang’s second amendment (G4) expands the definition of prohibited firearms to include those “designed to accept a detachable cartridge magazine with a capacity greater than five cartridges of the type for which the firearm was originally designed.”

Bill C-21 was initially sold by Liberals as a way to target weapons most commonly used in crimes involving a firearm, so these amendments have no practical goal except to target law abiding hunters. Members of Canada’s Conservative Party have said as much and have already clarified their opposition in the media, highlighting how these amendments are not a solution to improving public safety and would have harsh impacts. Conservative MP Raquel Dancho said the Liberal government is “going after Grandpa Joe’s hunting rifle instead of gangsters in Toronto.”

While this outrageous ban poses a clear threat to law-abiding gun owners and hunters in Canada, it’s also highly concerning for American hunters who will not be able to travel to Canada with their firearms or otherwise use many commonly owned hunting firearms once in Canada. This will disincentivize Americans from hunting in Canada, creating a devastating economic impact on the industry and communities that has contributed approximately $1.13 billion Canadian dollars to the country’s GDP this year alone.

Furthermore, the implementation and enforcement of the amendments remains very unclear, giving credence to arguments of Conservatives and the sporting community that this is nothing more than a way for emotionally driven political leaders to check a box on their gun control agenda, all at the expense of hunters. The ban’s projected cost has also been severely lowballed, contributing to its unrealistic and unfair elements.

“This cowardly attack on hunters and rural livelihoods flies in the face of repeated statements from Prime Minister Trudeau and members of the Liberal Party who insisted they weren’t coming after the hunters who play a critical role in wildlife conservation,” said SCI’s CEO W. Laird Hamberlin. “The motives of these political figures cannot be trusted, and sportsmen and women in Canada and across the world must stand firm against proposals like MP Paul Chiang’s knowing they have the full support of SCI members in Canada and across the world.”

SCI will continue its fight against repeated assaults on Canada’s hunting heritage and strongly urges Members of Parliament to strike down this radical proposal. —courtesy SCI

Largest Poaching Case in Wyoming Foiled by Suspicious Request

Three men orchestrated one of the largest poaching operations in Wyoming’s history that spanned four counties and resulted in more than 100 violations, officials announced in mid-December. After realizing law enforcement was on to their scheme, the men went to extremes to hide their violations, according to a Wyoming Game and Fish Department news release. The men bought Wyoming resident hunting licenses using a Wyoming address, but they lived in Alabama, Oklahoma and South Dakota, the release said.

In 2015, one of them asked for an interstate game tag to ship a deer head to Alabama for taxidermy work, officials said. It was a suspicious request considering the hunter had listed a Wyoming address when he purchased resident hunting licenses for years before then. The game warden in Gillette started unraveling “the case that would eventually identify dozens of wildlife violations in four different counties in Wyoming.” Investigators pieced together information from the hunter’s cellphone records and social media pages, which ended up implicating his acquaintance in Oklahoma and that man’s son in South Dakota, the release said.

For years, they had shared the same Gillette address on applications for resident hunting licenses and preference points, officials said. “Investigating and successfully prosecuting a case of this size and scope required years of effort by many individuals and agencies,” Game and Fish chief game warden Rick King said in a statement. “Dozens of people worked hard to make sure that even though some of these violations occurred a decade or more ago, they would not go unpunished.”

In 2017, law enforcement and wildlife officials searched the men’s homes in Alabama, South Dakota and Oklahoma and confiscated elk, deer, pronghorn and a bighorn sheep ram mount, the release said. They also uncovered violations of Alabama law associated with the man’s taxidermy shop and confiscated poached alligators and migratory birds, the release said.

Officials said they later learned he had stashed more than a dozen wildlife mounts in a trailer over 60 miles away from his home. This included three bull moose and three bighorn sheep rams, the release said.

Across four Wyoming counties, the Alabama man was charged with 43 poaching violations dating to 2003, over $113,000 in fines and ordered to pay $87,000 in restitution. He spent more than a year in jail and was banned from hunting and fishing for life. The Oklahoma man faced many but not all of the same charges dating to 2003. Across three counties, he was charged with more than 35 poaching violations, $46,060 in fines and ordered to pay $36,550 in restitution. His jail sentence was 50 days, and his hunting and fishing privileges were revoked for life.

His son in South Dakota was charged with more than a dozen of wildlife violations dating to 2005. He was fined $12,045 and ordered to pay $8,035 in restitution. His hunting, fishing and trapping privileges were revoked for five years in Weston County and his hunting privileges revoked for another 15 in Campbell County, “beginning at the end of his five-year suspension from Weston County.” All three were charged with trespassing on private property to hunt.

The Alabama man surrendered multiple mounts, including four bull elk, one buck antelope, three buck mule deer and one gull, and dozens of poached animals including three bighorn sheep rams, three moose, seven elk, eight antelope, one mule deer and one walrus mask. The Oklahoma man gave up eight buck mule deer, two bull elk, a cow elk and a bobcat. The South Dakota man “forfeited a bighorn sheep ram shoulder mount, three buck antelope, eagle parts, elk antlers, elk meat and two buck mule deer.”

State statute requires the $171,230 in fines to go to public school funds in the counties where the violations took place. It also requires the $131,550 in restitution to go to a Wyoming Game and Fish Department account used to buy access easements to public and private land, the release says. And because 48 other states participate in the Wildlife Violator Compact, the men’s hunting and fishing licenses are revoked in all 49 states.

—courtesy Sacramento Bee