Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission
Public Hearing
April 6, 2000
Commission Hearing RoomTexas Parks & Wildlife Department Headquarters Complex
4200 Smith School Road
Austin, TX 78744
7 BE IT REMEMBERED that heretofore on the 6th 8 day of April 2000, there came on to be heard 9 matters under the regulatory authority of the 10 Parks and Wildlife Commission of Texas, in the 11 commission hearing room of the Texas Parks and 12 Wildlife Headquarters complex, Austin, Travis 13 County, Texas, beginning at 9:12 a.m., to wit: 14 15 APPEARANCES: 16 THE PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION: 17 Lee M. Bass, Fort Worth, Texas, Chairman (absent) 18 Dick W. Heath, Carrollton, Texas Nolan Ryan, Alvin, Texas 19 Ernest Angelo, Jr., Midland, Texas John Avila, Jr., Fort Worth, Texas 20 Carol E. Dinkins, Houston, Texas Alvin L. Henry, Houston, Texas 21 Katharine Armstrong Idsal, Dallas, Texas Mark E. Watson, Jr., San Antonio, Texas 22 THE PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT: 23 Andrew H. Sansom, Executive Director, and other personnel of the Parks and Wildlife 24 Department. 25 .0002 1 OTHER APPEARANCES: 2 Rene Barrientos, 11 ME 624, P.O. Box 542, 3 Cotulla, Texas 78014; 4 Dave Richards, 25935 Fox Brian, Boerne, Texas 78006, representing Gary Grant Sales; 5 Dr. James C. Kroll, Route 5, Box 2585, 6 Nacogdoches, Texas, 75964, representing Texas Deer Association; 7 Margie Raborn, Route 2, Box 206E, Allevton, 8 Texas, 78935, representing TSA; 9 Gene Riser, P.O. Box 809, George West, Texas, 78022, representing Texas Deer Association; 10 Jerry Johnston, P.O. Box 79117, San Antonio, 11 Texas, 78279, representing Texas Deer Association and Texas Trophy Hunters Association; 12 Larry Grimland, 2610 Manana, Dallas, Texas, 13 75220, representing Whitetail Ranch; 14 Ellis Gilleland, P.O. Box 9001, Austin, Texas, 78766, representing Texas Animals; 15 Walt Glasscock, 408 Shriley Oaks Drive, 16 Columbus, Texas, 78934, Representing Texas Sportsmans Association; 17 Jack Brittingham, Route 3, Box 3560, 18 Palestine, Texas, 75801, representing Briar Lakes Ranch; 19 Marty Berry, representing self; 20 Bill Grace, 126 Mustang Creek Road, Salado, 21 Texas 76571, landowner, representing TDA; 22 Don Casey, 897 Shovel Mt. Road, Cypress Mill, Texas, 78654, representing Blanco County; 23 David Hayward, 8300 Que Pasa Ranch Road, 24 Anderson, Texas, 77830, representing Que Pasa Ranch; 25 .0003 1 OTHER APPEARANCES (CONTINUED): 2 David K. Langford, representing Texas Wildlife Association; 3 Tomme R. Actkinson, 3002 Magnolia, Temple, 4 Texas, 76502, representing Lone Star Bowhunters Association; 5 Kevin Hilbig, 4905 FM 535, Cedar Creek, Texas, 6 78612, representing Lone Star Bowhunters Association 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 .0004 1 APRIL 6, 2000 2 *-*-*-*-* 3 PUBLIC HEARING 4 *-*-*-*-* 5 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: This meeting is 6 called to order. Thank you. Before proceeding 7 with any business, Mr. Sansom has a statement to 8 make. 9 MR. SANSOM: Madam Chairman and 10 members of the Commission, a public notice of 11 this meeting containing all items on the proposed 12 agenda has been filed in the office of Secretary 13 of State. This is required by Chapter 551 of the 14 Government Code and referred to as the Open 15 Meetings Law. I would like for this action to be 16 noted in the official record of the meeting. 17 Ladies and gentlemen, so that 18 everyone will have a chance to address the 19 Commission today, I'm going to talk to you a 20 little bit about kind of how we do these 21 meetings. And we're thrilled that all of you are 22 here, and we appreciate the fact that you've come 23 to participate. 24 Chairman Dinkins is in charge of the 25 meeting and I will sort of assist her as usual as .0005 1 kind of a sergeant at arms. Now, out there in 2 the corridor we have some cards that are required 3 for you to sign up if you wish to speak. 4 Chairman Dinkins will call your name from those 5 cards. So you must fill one out if you want to 6 talk. Everyone who has filled out a card will be 7 allowed to speak from the podium here in front of 8 me, one at a time. When your name is called, I 9 would like for you to come forward, to state your 10 name, and who you represent, if someone other 11 than yourself. If there's a lot of folks that 12 want to talk on a particular issue, the chairman 13 may call the name of the second person in line, 14 and I would like for you to come and stand at the 15 back of the room so that we can move the process 16 along. 17 Everyone will have three minutes to 18 speak and I will keep track of that with this 19 little traffic light that I have here and notify 20 you when your three minutes are up. If the 21 Commissioners ask you a question or if they 22 discuss things among themselves, that time will 23 not be counted against you. 24 In order for us to show proper 25 respect not only for our board, for our staff, .0006 1 and for each other, I will not be tolerant of any 2 statements which are simply argumentative or 3 critical of others. And I know that you will 4 adhere to that and cooperate with me in that 5 regard. 6 If you have any kind of written 7 materials or tapes or videos or anything that you 8 would like for the Commission to see, please give 9 them to Ms. Lori Estrada here on my right and she 10 will make sure that the Commissioners get them. 11 Thank you very much, all of you, for 12 attending our meeting today. 13 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 14 Mr. Sansom. The commissioners have all received 15 a copy of the minutes of the last meeting. And 16 the Chair would entertain a motion for the 17 approval of those minutes. 18 COMMISSIONER HENRY: So moved. 19 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you. 20 Motion by Commissioner Henry and second by 21 Commissioner Angelo. 22 Is there any discussion? All in 23 favor say aye; those opposed nay. Motion 24 carries. Thank you. 25 (Motion passed unanimously.) .0007 1 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Our next order 2 of business is the acceptance of gifts. And 3 there is a list of those in the briefing book, 4 the agenda book that was sent. Mr. Sansom, do we 5 need a motion for approval of those gifts? 6 COMMISSIONER RYAN: So make a 7 motion. 8 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: All right. 9 Motion by Commissioner Ryan, second by 10 Commissioner Watson. Any discussion? All of 11 those in favor say aye; all opposed nay. 12 Motion carries. Thank you. 13 (Motion passed unanimously.) 14 TPWD DONATIONS OVER $500 15 Name of Donor: Jimmy Silva, Chambers County Judge 16 Description: Small Boat Radar Purpose of Donation: Law Enforcement 17 Name of Donor: Texas Black Bass Unlimited 18 Description: CASH Purpose of Donation: Tram Improvements at TFFC 19 Name of Donor: Texas Parks and Wildlife 20 Foundation Description: Food, Lodging, Tour, Prizes 21 Purpose of Donation: Natural Classroom Symposium 22 Name of Donor: Treesearch Farms Description: Trees and shrubs 23 Purpose of Donation: School habitats in Houston 24 25 Name of Donor: ALCOA Alumina & Chemicals LLC Description: Equipment .0008 1 Purpose of Donation: Lake Texana State Park 2 Name of Donor: Partners in Palo Duro Canyon Foundation 3 Description: Radios Purpose of Donation: Palo Duro Canyon State park 4 Name of Donor: Travis Audubon Society Inc. 5 Description: CASH Purpose of Donation: Special Nongame and End. 6 Spp. Conservation Fund 7 Name of Donor: Temple-Inland Forest Products Corporation 8 Description: CASH Purpose of Donation: Special Nongame and End. 9 Spp. Conservation Fund 10 Name of Donor: Bolivar Peninsula Chamber of Commerce 11 Description: CASH Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic 12 Name of Donor: Victor Emanuel Nature Tours, Inc. 13 Description: CASH Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic 14 Name of Donor: Austin Woods and Waters Club 15 Description: CASH Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic 16 Name of Donor: Central and South West Services, 17 Inc. Description: CASH 18 Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic 19 Name of Donor: Park Board of Trustees, City of Galveston 20 Description: CASH Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic 21 Name of Donor: Frank Boggus 22 Description: CASH Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic 23 24 Name of Donor: KOWA OPTIMED, Inc. 25 Description: CASH Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic .0009 1 Name of Donor: KOWA OPTIMED, Inc. 2 Description: Three scopes and eyepieces Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic 3 Name of Donor: Michael C. Delesantro (Weslaco) 4 Description: CASH Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic 5 Name of Donor: Reliant Energy HL&P 6 Description: CASH Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic 7 Name of Donor: Swarovski Optik North America 8 Ltd. Description: CASH 9 Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic 10 Name of Donor: Swarovski Optik North America Ltd. 11 Description: Four binoculars Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic 12 Name of Donor: Boy Scouts of America 13 Description: CASH Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic 14 Name of Donor: John G. and Marie Stella Kennedy 15 Memorial Description: CASH 16 Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic 17 Name of Donor: Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau 18 Description: CASH Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic 19 Name of Donor: Reliant Energy 20 Description: CASH Purpose of Donation: Great Texas Birding Classic 21 Name of Donor: Texas Wildlife Association 22 Description: Shotgun shells Purpose of Donation: Youth Shooting Sports, 23 Chaparral WMA 24 TOTAL: $78,250.68 25 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: And now we come .0010 1 to the great part of -- 2 MR. SANSOM: It is the great part, 3 Madam Chairman, and I would like to ask you to 4 come down here at this time and join me for the 5 part of the meeting that I think many of us 6 consider very, very special. 7 I would like to note that last 8 evening we participated in the recognition of 9 many of our incredible volunteers from throughout 10 the state in our second annual Lone Star Legends 11 Volunteer Awards program. A number of those 12 winners, or at least one, I know, is here with us 13 today. And I would like for Leonard Ranne and 14 anyone else who was recognized last night in the 15 volunteer awards program to stand so that we can 16 recognize you. 17 (Applause.) 18 MR. SANSOM: I think some of our 19 staff certainly put in plenty of volunteer hours, 20 theirselves. Because many, many, many, many 21 people in this department, in fact most, put in 22 far more than a 40-hour week for the citizens of 23 the State of Texas. 24 Today we have the great privilege of 25 recognizing two of them who will be retiring. .0011 1 The first is Antonio Buenano from Coastal 2 Fisheries who has worked for Texas Parks and 3 Wildlife as a technician for 32 years. During 4 all of that time he has been in Rockport and he 5 helped and was an integral part of the 6 development of the field sampling technology in 7 the early '60s and '70s that has made the famous 8 Texas coastal monitoring program and database one 9 of the most influential scientific instruments in 10 the country. 11 His biological collection techniques 12 and tabulation of data is a model to other 13 technicians, which he spends a good deal of time 14 training. Antonio has trained numerous staff 15 over the years in the use of all gear, equipment, 16 and scientific instruments. He gives workshops 17 and he is known throughout our system as a leader 18 among the people who really get their work done 19 out in the field. And that's our fish and 20 wildlife technicians. 21 Please recognize, retiring today 22 with 32 years of service, Antonio Buenano from 23 Coastal Fisheries. 24 (Photographs were then 25 taken; applause.) .0012 1 MR. SANSOM: Members and ladies and 2 gentlemen, for the past several years we have 3 almost been totally preoccupied in our system 4 with its repair. As all of you know, some 20 5 percent of our state parks are more than 50 years 6 old, having been built largely by the Civilian 7 Conservation Corps during The New Deal. Over 20 8 percent of our parks -- 60 percent of our parks 9 are more than 20 years old. The bedrock of that 10 repair program has not only been in our 11 infrastructure division but in our regional 12 maintenance specialists who have struggled to 13 keep these facilities open and ready for the 14 public. 15 Today we recognize John Rochelle who 16 is the regional maintenance supervisor and 17 specialist at Waco, who is retiring with 27 years 18 of service. He started out as a seasonal worker 19 at Lake Whitney State Park over 27 years ago and 20 he has worked for most of his career in the 21 maintenance program as a supervisor in Waco. His 22 work has reflected the dedication that it has 23 taken to keep these facilities, sometimes in the 24 face of some real daunting deterioration, open, 25 safe, and clean for the public. And he has been .0013 1 very, very instrumental in the progress that we 2 have made in terms of automatic maintenance 3 programming and cycling. 4 So please recognize from Waco, in 5 the State Parks division, John Rochelle, retiring 6 today, 27 years. 7 (Photographs were then 8 taken; applause.) 9 MR. SANSOM: Many of the law 10 enforcement officers that you will be introduced 11 to today who will be receiving service awards 12 were members of the 34th Game Warden Training 13 Academy which graduated in 1980. 14 But first let me introduce to you a 15 man who is receiving a service award for 25 years 16 of dedicated service to Parks and Wildlife. 17 Bruce Bunn has been a person who is known 18 throughout our system. He started basically as a 19 summer intern at Huntsville in 1974. He's worked 20 at Lake Colorado City, at Sabine Pass, Sea Rim, 21 Lake Livingston, Fort Richardson. When I first 22 met him, he was a superintendent at McKinney 23 Falls. 24 In all of these positions, including 25 regional directorships at two locations, Waco and .0014 1 Lubbock, and a headquarters assignment, he is 2 known throughout our system as a respected leader 3 and colleague and one who I think has clearly 4 demonstrated a lot of leadership and mentorship 5 for younger people coming along. 6 Today he is a regional director for 7 State Parks in Lubbock and we recognize Bruce 8 Bunn for 25 years of service to Texas Parks and 9 Wildlife. 10 (Photographs were then 11 taken; applause.) 12 MR. SANSOM: One of those graduating 13 cadets in 1980 in that 34 class was Jose 14 Esparza. Jose got out of the academy and joined 15 the ranks in -- of the department actually in 16 1975. He's received many awards during his 17 career, including officer of the year of St. 18 Hedwig. He has got an urban assignment because 19 he spent most of his career in San Antonio and so 20 he has had some unusual things to have to 21 handle. He lost part of his thumb while trying 22 to take care of a mountain lion incident in the 23 middle of San Antonio. He was one of the major 24 players in the Hill Country buck case, which we 25 all read about in Hill Country Village a couple .0015 1 of years ago. He's a very well-known person 2 throughout Bexar County and he's thoroughly 3 involved in his community in everything from FFA 4 to 4H and other such programs. 5 So please recognize, with 25 years 6 of service from the law enforcement division, 7 Jose Esparza from San Antonio. 8 (Photographs were then 9 taken; applause.) 10 MR. SANSOM: Our next awardee, 11 having served TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT 12 for 25 years, immigrated to this country from 13 Mexico and started as a seasonal worker at Lake 14 Brownwood State Park 25 years ago. He has spent 15 his entire career in that park and he has had a 16 wonderful, wonderful association not only with 17 all of the visitors to the park but all of its 18 staff. 19 Juan Gonzales is a new American and 20 an important part of our system and a strong, 21 active member of the staff at Brownwood State 22 Park. Please recognize Juan Gonzales, with 25 23 years of service. 24 (Photographs were then 25 taken; applause.) .0016 1 MR. SANSOM: All of us who have 2 worked around the building here -- and I know 3 many of you commissioners and members of the 4 legislature -- by the way, I would note that Vice 5 Chairman of the State Recreation Resources 6 Committee, Robin Cooke, who joined us yesterday, 7 is also here today. And we welcome him to this 8 meeting. He knows Jack King. 9 Jack King is a director II in our 10 law enforcement division, having worked in that 11 division for 25 years. He got out of the academy 12 in 1975 and was assigned to Corpus Christi, where 13 he worked as a field game warden for ten years. 14 He became a staff lieutenant, which was where I 15 first met him, in the Corpus Christi regional 16 office in 1985. He became the district 17 supervisor down there in 1992. And he was 18 promoted to assistant commander here in law 19 enforcement headquarters in 1994. 20 Over the years since he has been in 21 this office, Jack King has supervised programs 22 that all of us are familiar with, including 23 Operation Game Thief, the Civil Restitution 24 Program. He's been directly involved with 25 emergency management activities, not only here .0017 1 but throughout the state. Today, he is director 2 of policy and planning in the law enforcement 3 central headquarters. 4 Please recognize Jack King, from the 5 law enforcement division, 25 years of service. 6 (Photographs were then 7 taken; applause.) 8 MR. SANSOM: Once again, from the 9 State -- from the State Parks Division, we 10 recognize David Lopez. David began his 11 employment in 1974 as a ranger at Varner-Hogg, 12 which many of us have visited down there in 13 Brazoria County, Commissioner Ryan. David's duty 14 assignments have been at Sea Rim, at Lake Corpus 15 Christi, and as a park ranger at Lake Texana 16 before it opened in 1981. 17 In 1998, just two years ago, he was 18 promoted there to park manager, and he runs one 19 of the neatest parks we've got, which is at Lake 20 Texana. 21 Please recognize David Lopez, with 22 25 years of service. 23 (Photographs were then 24 taken; applause.) 25 MR. SANSOM: Also from headquarters .0018 1 here in the law enforcement division, Dennis 2 Johnston. Dennis came to work for the department 3 in 1980 in Franklin County. He became a 4 lieutenant in the Temple regional office in 1990 5 and became district supervisor there in 1994. 6 Three years ago he was promoted to the director 7 of Fisheries Enforcement at the Austin 8 headquarters. 9 Please recognize Dennis Johnston, 20 10 years of service. 11 (Photographs were then 12 taken; applause.) 13 MR. SANSOM: Also from law 14 enforcement, Audie Nelson. Audie started in 15 Rockport in Aransas County where he was 16 recognized by GCCA as the coastal warden of the 17 year in 1983. He transferred later to San 18 Antonio, where he remains today as a law 19 enforcement officer. 20 Please recognize Audie Nelson, 20 21 years. 22 (Photographs were then 23 taken; applause.) 24 MR. SANSOM: I spent one of the most 25 memorable days in my tenure here at Parks and .0019 1 Wildlife with the next gentleman that I would 2 like to introduce to you. He is -- his name is 3 Carl Perry. He works on the railroad. He 4 started there as a force account employee in 5 1980. He served there as a park ranger and a 6 maintenance foreman as well. He supervises the 7 maintenance and repair of 29 timber trestles, the 8 completion of all bridge replacements at the 9 railroad, all track and equipment repairs and 10 maintenance. 11 During his tenure, the railroad has 12 become, as all of our sites, computer friendly, 13 and he helped set up the computer systems there, 14 began the automation process, and currently 15 assists with virtually all computer-related 16 problems at the park. He is an example of real 17 leadership in our department. 18 I had the wonderful opportunity to 19 spend the afternoon with him and his crew along 20 the railroad one day and I watched him interact 21 with his employees. And the way that he 22 supervises them and manages them as a team is one 23 of the most exemplary efforts I've seen at Texas 24 Parks and Wildlife. That leadership is evident 25 in that after 20 years of service he is going .0020 1 back to school at the Trinity Valley Community 2 College and will complete his associate's degree 3 in business management. 4 Please recognize Carl Allan Perry, 5 with 20 years in the State Parks division at the 6 Texas State Railroad. 7 (Photographs were then 8 taken; applause.) 9 MR. SANSOM: From Palestine, Texas, 10 Michael Pike graduated from the academy in 1980, 11 assigned to Anderson County in Palestine. He's 12 been there and performed faithful service for 20 13 years. We've had some extremely interesting 14 issues over there, particularly as the Post Oaks 15 Savannah has continued to change. But he has 16 been a stalwart in our efforts over there to 17 protect the resources of Anderson County. 18 Please recognize Michael Pike from 19 Palestine with 20 years of service to law 20 enforcement. 21 (Photographs were then 22 taken; applause.) 23 MR. SANSOM: The next lady that I 24 would like to introduce to you came to work at 25 Parks and Wildlife when she was only 17 years .0021 1 old, as a seasonal. Cathy Piper started working 2 in State Parks 20 years ago. She became a park 3 ranger at Dinosaur Valley and moved on to 4 becoming a safety officer and interpretive 5 ranger. 6 She has served on numerous 7 leadership committees in the department, 8 including a career development and advancement 9 committee to regional directors advisory board. 10 She developed the grant for funding of the 11 Dinosaur Valley's new ADA Trail and she works 12 there today as volunteer coordinator. 13 Please recognize Cathy Piper from 14 State Parks, with 20 years of service. 15 (Photographs were then 16 taken; applause.) 17 MR. SANSOM: From Hankamer, Texas, 18 Don Robertson. His first duty station was in 19 Livingston when he got out of the academy. In 20 1983 he went to La Porte in Harris County and he 21 transferred to Chambers County, where he remains 22 today. 23 Please recognize with me and welcome 24 Don Robertson from law enforcement with 20 years 25 of service. Let me tell you that Don holds a .0022 1 master peace officer's license, he's got 80 hours 2 of TCLOSE mounted patrol time in. He's attended 3 the Federal Marine Offshore Patrol School and 4 he's a very, very active participate in both the 5 Houston and the Pasadena rodeo associations. 6 Welcome Don Robertson. 7 (Photographs were then 8 taken; applause.) 9 MR. SANSOM: Alfonso Vielma. First 10 duty station was in Texas City on the upper 11 coast. He started work there in 1980, worked 12 until '84. 13 He transferred all the way from 14 Galveston Bay to Comstock in Val Verde County, 15 where he worked along the Texas/Mexico border on 16 Lake Amistad and the river for ten years. As 17 part of that service he received a National Water 18 Safety Congress Appreciation Award on his work on 19 boater education and water safety in the Del Rio 20 area. 21 He became the administrative 22 sergeant in region five in San Antonio in 1994. 23 And in '96 he was appointed lieutenant game 24 warden in San Antonio. He received a meritorious 25 service award for his work done with a number of .0023 1 our law enforcement officers during the 1998 2 floods in New Braunfels. 3 Please recognize and welcome with me 4 Alfonso J. Vielma, with 20 years of service, from 5 San Antonio. 6 (Photographs were then 7 taken; applause.) 8 MR. SANSOM: Finally, a gentleman 9 whom I have had the pleasure of knowing 10 throughout my service here at Parks and Wildlife, 11 Louis Washington. Louis graduated in that 34th 12 class and was stationed in Dallas for ten years. 13 He was promoted after that time to lieutenant and 14 went back to the academy as a trainer and 15 affirmative action recruiter. His service took 16 him all over the state to work with young people 17 in different colleges and universities to help 18 them become interested in becoming law 19 enforcement officers at Texas Parks and 20 Wildlife. 21 In '92 he transferred from here to 22 Harris County as a district supervisor. And 23 today he serves in that capacity as district 24 supervisor in Temple. 25 Would you welcome with me, Louis .0024 1 Washington from the law enforcement division, 2 with 20 years of service. 3 (Photographs were then 4 taken; applause.) 5 MR. SANSOM: Members, as we have 6 discussed in the past few days, we have just 7 completed -- or I should say the Sunset 8 Commission staff has just completed its review of 9 Texas Parks and Wildlife. And Mr. Cooke and 10 Mr. McCarty and I were visiting with the senior 11 person on that staff a couple of days ago and 12 reviewing their work. And this gentleman told us 13 at the end of the interview that the one thing he 14 wanted us to know was that over the past six or 15 seven months, as they have surveyed our 16 department, that he has met some of the most 17 finest and dedicated people that he's ever met in 18 his life and that these employees are very 19 special. And we appreciate you taking the time 20 each time you come to Austin to recognize them. 21 Much of what our agency is able to 22 accomplish is dependent, as we learned last 23 night, on volunteers. Some of these groups go 24 well beyond the normal commitments to help us 25 accomplish our mission. One such group that I .0025 1 would like to ask you to recognize with Phil 2 Durocher and I this morning is the Lake Ray 3 Roberts Sportsman's Association. 4 The emergence of Lake Roberts as one 5 of the premiere bass fishing lakes in the state, 6 and I should say the nation, is due largely to 7 the efforts of this organization. They've worked 8 with the staff since the reservoir was built, 9 from the very beginning. They've supported our 10 efforts to make Lake Ray Roberts become what it 11 has meant to us and what it is continuing to 12 develop. 13 Their efforts with creel surveys 14 were particularly significant. After the local 15 biologists, who I will introduce to you, Bruce 16 Hysmith told them about the need for creel data 17 to assist with the future management decisions, 18 they took on the task. 19 During a two-year period they worked 20 72 days, a majority of the weekends to collect 21 the data we needed. 26 members of the 22 organization took part and spent over 1800 hours 23 in the effort. They provided their own boots and 24 their own fuel and covered all the costs of the 25 labor. I'd like to ask Phil Durocher and Bruce .0026 1 Hysmith from Lake Texoma to come up and 2 recognize -- and call Mr. Jim McIlroy, Pete 3 Hollar, Steve Coffey, and Mike Neblitt to be 4 recognized today from the Lake Ray Roberts 5 Sportsman's Association. 6 (Photographs were then 7 taken; applause.) 8 MR. SANSOM: Madam Chairman, that 9 concludes our awards for this morning. Thank you 10 very much. 11 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 12 Mr. Sansom. And, again, congratulations to all 13 of you who were recognized this morning. And we 14 appreciate the hard work of the Lake Ray Roberts 15 association. And thank you for coming to Austin 16 to be recognized. 17 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Our next order 18 of business is the approval of the agenda, which 19 you have before you. The Chair would entertain a 20 motion for approval. 21 COMMISSIONER WATSON: So moved. 22 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: It's been moved 23 by Commissioner Watson. Is there a second? 24 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Second. 25 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Seconded by .0027 1 Commissioner Avila. Any discussion? All in 2 favor say aye; those opposed, nay. Motion 3 carries. 4 (Motion passed unanimously.) 5 AGENDA ITEM NO. 1: ACTION - CONSENT AGENDA 6 ITEMS. 7 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: The next item 8 is the consent agenda. And the items eligible 9 for the consent agenda are Item 7, the TPRA grant 10 rules; Item 8, the local park funding; Item 10, 11 land transfer in Bexar County; and Item 11, land 12 exchange in Burnet County. 13 The Chair would entertain a motion 14 for approval of the consent agenda. 15 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Moved. 16 COMMISSIONER RYAN: I'll second. 17 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you. 18 It's been moved by Commissioner Angelo and 19 seconded by Commissioner Ryan. Any discussion? 20 All in favor say aye; those opposed, nay. Motion 21 carries. Thank you. 22 (Motion passed unanimously.) 23 AGENDA ITEM NO. 2: BRIEFING - FISHING 24 PREVIEW. 25 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Our next item .0028 1 is a briefing on the fishing preview. And I am 2 very eager to hear how it's going to be this 3 year. And I want a guarantee when you finish. 4 (WHEREUPON, a briefing 5 item was presented to the 6 Commissioners after which, 7 the following proceedings 8 were had:) 9 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: I believe that 10 concludes this briefing item. 11 AGENDA ITEM NO. 3: ACTION - 2000-2001 12 STATEWIDE HUNTING AND FISHING PROCLAMATION. 13 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: The next item 14 is an action item, which is the Statewide Hunting 15 and Fishing Proclamation. And we have a number 16 of people who have signed up for public comment. 17 But first, we'll hear from Mr. Durocher. 18 MR. DUROCHER: Madam Chairman, 19 members of the Commission, I'm Phil Durocher, the 20 director of the Inland Fisheries Division. What 21 I'll be presenting today is the proposals for 22 regulation changes for the Inland Fisheries 23 Division for the year 2000 and 2001. 24 All of our regulation changes that 25 we're recommending this year deal with one of the .0029 1 species with black basses. The first proposal is 2 for spotted and Guadalupe bass. The current 3 statewide limit on those species, a 12 inch 4 minimum length limit, five fish daily bag, in 5 combination. We're recommending to change that 6 to a no minimum length limit and retain the five 7 fish daily bag. 8 On three lakes, Lake Jacksonville, 9 Cleburne State Park, and Meridian State Park, the 10 current bass regulation is a 14-inch minimum, 11 five fish daily bag, which is the statewide 12 limit. We're recommending to change that to an 13 18-inch minimum length limit and retain the five 14 fish daily bag. 15 On two lakes, Town Lake and Buescher 16 State Park Lake, the current large mouth bass 17 limit, again, is the statewide minimum and daily 18 bag limit, and we're recommending to change this 19 to a 14- to 21-inch slot limit, five fish daily 20 bag, only one bass 21 inches or greater. 21 We held public hearings and received 22 public comments from other sources, such as on 23 our web site and letters. And for all of these 24 recommendations, they ran about three to one in 25 favor of these proposals. .0030 1 The only proposal that we had 2 negative comments of, we had a proposal to change 3 the limit on Lake Austin. And because of the 4 concerns, we felt like some of these concerns 5 were legitimate, we decided to drop the proposal 6 on Lake Austin and we will continue to monitor 7 that situation to see if what our biologist 8 predicts is going to happen will happen. But 9 those are the proposed changes we have for 10 2000-2001. Any questions? 11 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Questions? 12 Thank you, Mr. Durocher. Mr. Osburn? 13 MR. OSBURN: Thank you, Madam 14 Chairman, commissioners. Let me brief you on the 15 coastal fisheries portion. I'm Hal Osburn, 16 coastal fisheries division director. Our first 17 proposals deal with moderate increases in the 18 size limits on billfish, sailfish, white marlin, 19 blue marlin. These changes will help 20 conservation and also will provide compatibility 21 with the rules in federal waters. 22 Public opinion was overwhelming in 23 favor of these. I think it kind of demonstrates 24 that catch and release ethic, that there was very 25 few anglers that felt like they shouldn't .0031 1 continue to release these fish. 2 Staff also proposes some shark 3 regulations, decreasing the daily bag limit from 4 five to one per person, establish a 24-inch 5 minimum size limit, and establish a commercial 6 season compatible with the federal waters. 7 Many of our shark species in the 8 Gulf have become overfished, primarily due to the 9 long -- commercial long line fishing that's 10 promulgated in federal waters. These proposals 11 will compliment the conservation efforts that are 12 being proposed in some areas of the federal 13 waters. 14 Once again, we had very good 15 favorable response on this. A good majority in 16 favor of the proposals that -- those that opposed 17 generally wanted a two-fish bag limit, which for 18 our anglers would not allow for very much of a 19 reduction in harvest, actually. 20 So we continue to support the 21 adoption of the original set of proposals with no 22 modifications. Thank you. I'd be happy to 23 answer any questions. 24 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Any questions? 25 Thank you, Mr. Osburn. .0032 1 MR. HEATH: Madam Chair? 2 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Oh, yes. 3 Mr. Heath? 4 MR. HEATH: I just wanted to make a 5 comment for the record that my daughter, 6 Brittany, who recently caught a 180 pound -- ten 7 pound -- 8 MR. OSBURN: How much does she 9 weigh? 10 MR. HEATH: Brittany weighs 80 11 pounds. Thank you. We need that there. But she 12 wanted it to be known that she comments very 13 positively in support of staff's recommendation 14 for billfish. And I just wanted to get that into 15 the record. 16 MR. OSBURN: Thank you. 17 MR. HEATH: That's Brittany, 180 18 pound ten-foot blue stripe marlin. She weighs 80 19 pounds. 20 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: I'm sure the 21 marlin and Brittany both appreciate your 22 publicity on their behalf. 23 MR. HEATH: Thank you. And excuse 24 me, Mr. Gilleland, anything you could do to 25 publish this far and wide would be very much .0033 1 appreciated. 2 (Applause.) 3 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 4 Mr. Osburn. Doctor Cooke? 5 DR. COOKE: Madam Chairman and 6 members, my name is Jerry Cooke, program director 7 for Upland Wildlife Ecology, and I'll be 8 presenting to you the wildlife division's 9 proposed changes to the 2000-2001 hunting and 10 fishing proclamation. 11 We're proposing to add Camp, 12 Franklin, Hunt, Morris, Panola, Rains, and 13 Shelby, and Titus Counties to the currently open 14 eastern spring turkey season in East Texas. They 15 have the same seasons, bag limits, and other 16 particulars as exist in those other counties. 17 In Cass, Marion, and Harrison County 18 we proposed to create four doe days. This will 19 open on Thanksgiving Day through the Sunday 20 following Thanksgiving. And this map shows the 21 relationship of those counties to those currently 22 having that season. 23 In a portion of East Texas they 24 currently have 23 doe days. We would propose to 25 redefine those doe days as being the days from .0034 1 the opening day of the season through the Sunday 2 following Thanksgiving because 23 days doesn't 3 always include the Thanksgiving holidays. 4 And we would also propose to add San 5 Jacinto, Trinity, and Walker Counties to that 6 compartment. 7 In the 11 counties that currently 8 have the 23 doe days, we would propose to open a 9 muzzleloader-only season. This would be opening 10 the first Saturday following the close of the 11 general season, and continue for nine days. And 12 the bag limit would be two antlerless and/or two 13 spike deer during that season. 14 This map shows the distribution of 15 whitetail deer in Texas. We're basically -- over 16 a third of the whitetails in Texas exist in less 17 than a fifth of the state, which is used to 18 justify the proposed -- proposal that we have for 19 the Edwards Plateau Counties, 25 counties, and 20 I've added Bexar County for you, Mr. Watson. 21 It would include a portion of 22 Kinney, Uvalde, and Val Verde Counties, all of 23 Bexar County, and half of Travis, Hays, and Comal 24 County where we would propose to go to five deer, 25 no more than two bucks during that season and .0035 1 include a 14-day antlerless and spike season 2 following the close of the general season. 3 We went to the public with a 4 proposal to increase the mule deer season in a 5 portion of the Panhandle, western portion of the 6 Panhandle. With discussions with the regulations 7 committee yesterday, staff recommends that that 8 extension be for nine days from the five day 9 current in those counties, and add Cochran County 10 to that regulation compartment. 11 In a portion of Henderson County 12 currently game can be hunted only with a shotgun 13 or archery, lawful archery equipment. We would 14 propose to delete that restriction in that 15 portion of the county. We've had favorable 16 comments from the public on that proposal. 17 We had a proposal to change the 18 regulations related to the MLD program and it's 19 my understanding the regulations committee, 20 yesterday, would recommend that we not include 21 those proposed changes in the adoption of the 22 coming proclamation. 23 For all of our presentations, 24 coastal and freshwater fisheries and wildlife, we 25 recommend the following motion, that the Parks .0036 1 and Wildlife Commission adopt 2000-2001 statewide 2 hunting and fishing proclamation located in 3 Exhibit A of your booklets, with changes to the 4 proposal as they were published. 5 And I will be happy to answer any 6 questions you may have at this time. 7 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 8 Doctor Cooke. Any questions by any of the 9 Commissioners? 10 Thank you. And we did, indeed, pass 11 for the consideration by the full Commission this 12 morning the proposed regulations without the 13 changes to the MLD program. 14 We will now take public comment. 15 The first speaker is Rene Barrientos. And next 16 will be Dave Richards. 17 Rene Barrientos? Yes, thank you. 18 MR. BARRIENTOS: Good morning, Madam 19 Chair, Commissioners. I did not quite understand 20 that there will be no changes to the MLD 21 program? Or is it completely deleted? 22 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: There will be 23 no changes. It will be left as it is. 24 MR. BARRIENTOS: Essentially three 25 things I would like to address in support as .0037 1 the -- I'm a landowner from La Salle County. I'm 2 also the volunteer county attorney. With 3 reference to the enforcement, it is -- the 4 changing of the regulations and upgrading of the 5 penalties has had a significant effect on -- in 6 the deterrence factor. The enforcement is 7 there. You have a tremendous game warden group. 8 But there has to be prosecution. 9 We've seen other counties in 10 surrounding areas begin maximizing the fines and 11 we're actually incarcerating the violators on the 12 serious offenses. I have been able to take 13 advantage of the TTT program and those deer 14 permits and the managed land deer permits. I 15 believe wholeheartedly that they should be 16 continued to be based solely on the biology of 17 the deer in the natural habitat; that it should 18 not be geared to anything other than that. 19 With the assistance of the 20 technicians, the biologists, we've seen a 21 dramatic increase in body weights and quality of 22 deer. And certainly that's been assisted by your 23 allowing the MLD permits. And thank you. 24 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Appreciate your 25 comments, Mr. Barrientos. .0038 1 And Dave Richards? Next up, if you 2 would be prepared, please, is Doctor James 3 Kroll. 4 MR. RICHARDS: Good morning. My 5 name is Dave Richards. I'm a citizen of the 6 state of Texas and I'm a manufacturers 7 representative in the sporting goods industry. 8 And over a year ago, myself and several other 9 private citizens and people from different 10 interest groups stood before this commission and 11 asked that you would legalize crossbows during 12 the general archery season. And at that time it 13 was brought to our attention and we knew that the 14 legislature was in session, and Mr. Bass said 15 that because the legislature was in session, that 16 we would allow that to go over and let them rule 17 on it and see where it stood after that took 18 place. 19 In the meantime, as I'm sure most of 20 y'all are aware, what happened was, it got caught 21 in committee. Just like hundreds of thousands of 22 bills do, ours got caught in committee and it 23 never saw the light of day. And so I'm back 24 before you today to ask that y'all would consider 25 legalizing crossbows for the general archery .0039 1 season. I'm not going to go into a long 2 dissertation about crossbows and how they are a 3 short-range weapon. I'd be happy to answer any 4 of those kind of questions. 5 What I will say, though, is in the 6 beginning, the reason we wanted to go through the 7 legislature is so that we could be fit under the 8 archery stamp, so it could generate more dollars 9 for hunting in the state of Texas, and also for 10 Robertson Pittman funds and all those things. 11 It has come to -- and as we've 12 looked at it, more of the information that we've 13 gotten is, when you look at the stamps that are 14 actually purchased, more people buy a super combo 15 license which encompasses all the stamps. And so 16 we want to relook at that and say, are we missing 17 the forest for the trees or whatever? If people 18 are all buying super combos, which a huge percent 19 of them are, we're not going to -- we're going to 20 lose revenue from the loss of hunter opportunity 21 of the women and the kids and the people that 22 want to hunt with a crossbow during our only 23 short-range weapon season. 24 The other issue that I'd just bring 25 up before you, you know, and everybody knows in .0040 1 this room, we live in a state that's 98 percent 2 private property owned. Even if they were legal 3 on private property, what difference does it make 4 in a 30-day season whether my dad in Leon County 5 wants to hunt, in his mid 70s, with a crossbow to 6 the guy who is on the next lease over on his 7 ranch over? We just wanted to bring it back 8 before you and hope that y'all would reconsider 9 to legalize crossbows for the general season. 10 And thank for you the opportunity to come before 11 you this morning. 12 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 13 Mr. Richards. Doctor Kroll? 14 DR. KROLL: Good morning. Ladies 15 and gentlemen of the Commission, I'm Doctor James 16 Kroll. And I'm here to speak for the members of 17 the Texas Deer Association concerning recent 18 application of managed land and deer permits. 19 Before I get going, though, I'd like to extend 20 our best wishes for a speedy recovery to Chairman 21 Bass. He's very important to us. 22 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: We'll be sure 23 he gets those good wishes. Thank you. 24 DR. KROLL: Thank you very much. 25 About 20 years ago many of us in .0041 1 this room worked hard to pass the Uniform 2 Regulatory Authority legislation, resting away 3 from the county road commissioners, the authority 4 to manage wildlife. Texas was a patchwork quilt 5 of regulations numbering in the dozens. Under 6 this law we simplified wildlife management in our 7 state. 8 Some 20 years later the private 9 landowner is again faced with an ever increasing 10 complexity of laws and regulations. To 11 exacerbate the situation, local biologists now 12 are given the authority to make significant 13 policy decisions. The MLD program, we feel, is a 14 wonderful tool in which we can manage our deer. 15 Unfortunately, however, the interpretation of the 16 program by a local biologist is not. The program 17 is now being applied -- is not being applied 18 uniformly and objectively. As one who has 19 observed in the field an objective habitat 20 evaluation firsthand, and as one who, for 20 21 years, has directed one of the largest whitetail 22 deer research facilities in the nation, I did not 23 see anything objective nor scientific about it. 24 We want to modernize deer management 25 in our state. One important way is to give .0042 1 landowners who want to intensively manage deer 2 the tools and freedom to do so. Why is there 3 always the assumption high fences and intensive 4 management is bad? Where is the bad? Is what's 5 going on outside of fences good? 6 There's a growing number of 7 landowners, large and small, who are willing to 8 put everything they have on the line to save 9 their little piece of Texas. Saving habitat is 10 not about browse surveys. It's about making 11 decisions whether or not to sell out and move to 12 the city. 13 Texas agriculture is hurting, ladies 14 and gentlemen. In the near future we will see 15 the end of what we all think is Texas. Wildlife 16 in the marketplace is the salvation of wild 17 places, not regulations. Please give us the 18 tools to operate. I have given my friend and 19 colleague, Mr. Sansom, my word, we will work to 20 resolve these issues, and I give you my word, 21 also. But please take some temporary action 22 today to assure landowners who are waiting to 23 make decisions about leases and hunts, they will 24 be in business this fall. For now restore MLD 25 policy to its original intent. Together we can .0043 1 work to assure all Texans have access to quality 2 hunting and quality wildlife experiences. Thank 3 you. 4 (Applause.) 5 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 6 Doctor Kroll. 7 Next up is Margie Raborn. And next 8 after that is Gene Riser. Ms. Raborn? 9 MS. RABORN: This was a learning 10 experience. We have had -- we sent some 11 petitions forward from the Texas Sportsman 12 Association. And so I pass. It seems that most 13 of what you're doing now, we're a little late to 14 get in the process. But hopefully next time 15 we'll do better. Thank you for the opportunity. 16 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 17 Ms. Raborn. 18 Gene Riser? And next up will be 19 Jerry Johnston. 20 MR. RISER: Thank you, ma'am. I'm 21 very proud to be here with you this morning, and 22 appreciate the opportunity to address you and be 23 in the company of all these people that are 24 interested in wildlife. 25 And I come to you as a landowner in .0044 1 South Texas, a deer manager that's interested in 2 modern deer management, and a member of Texas 3 Deer Association. And I want to say that I agree 4 with and appreciate the comments that you just 5 heard from Doctor Kroll. I agree with all the 6 things he said. And I would add a couple of 7 things as my own observations. 8 First of all, I would like to 9 generally ask the Commission to instruct the 10 policy of the wildlife division about whitetail 11 deer, that you should change the overall thrust 12 of the policy from one of protection of a 13 threatened resource, to the management and 14 utilization of a mature and abundant herd. 15 Because that's what we have now. And as long as 16 there is an economic value recognized in those 17 deer, they will not be threatened anymore. And 18 that's proven itself out all over the United 19 States and all over the world. 20 In so many parts of the world where 21 there are a lot of people, there is no wildlife. 22 That's not the case here, and largely it's 23 because there is an economic value appreciated 24 and assigned to wildlife in the United States. 25 And when sportsmen have the animals -- we have .0045 1 lots of animals. When sportsmen take care of the 2 turkey, we have lots of turkeys. Whenever the 3 government takes care of the bald eagle, it's a 4 threatened species. That's just sort of a 5 synopsis of the way we see it playing out over 6 and over again. 7 Another thing I would like for the 8 Commission to do is instruct the policy of the 9 staff to change their overall attitude from one 10 of what seems to a lot of us to be coercion, 11 change it to one of cooperation. I think 12 together, we can get a whole lot more done in the 13 new age of modern trophy management and deer 14 management all the way around. 15 A couple of specific issues are -- 16 I'm just going to leave the specific issues out 17 for right now. But I'm looking forward to being 18 a part of this committee that will go over some 19 of these things with you and just say that we 20 look forward to cooperating with you-all in the 21 future because we think there is a great future 22 for whitetail deer and management right ahead of 23 us. Thank you very much. 24 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 25 Mr. Riser. And we appreciate your comments and .0046 1 your offer to help. 2 Jerry Johnston? And next up will be 3 Larry Grimland. 4 MR. JOHNSTON: I'm Jerry Johnston. 5 Good morning, Commission, director. 6 I had a pretty good thing written 7 down but I don't even think I want to mess with 8 it. I just want to talk to the Commission a 9 little bit, try to maybe put this thing in 10 perspective the way I see it. 11 Commissioners, the landowner of 12 today is a different landowner than he was -- I'm 13 talking about a man that raises deer and loves 14 his deer and he loves his country. Is a 15 different person than he was 15 years ago or 20 16 years ago. And what I mean by that is that these 17 folks that put these fences up, they basically 18 are in love with deer. I mean, they -- it's 19 their passion in life. And there probably -- the 20 last guy in the world that would want to do 21 anything that would be detrimental to the habitat 22 or his deer herd, I wish some attention could be 23 brought to that. It's all on a voluntary basis 24 and it's because he loves that part of his life. 25 Folks like that and me -- you know, .0047 1 we'd like to just maybe be able to break even, 2 you know. You know, some of us didn't inherit 3 property, we went out and bought it. And, you 4 know, when you clamp down on these regulations so 5 tight to where there's no flexibility, you know, 6 in some cases it might end up that you're going 7 to lose it. And then what happens is, you've got 8 to sell it off or fragment it, cut it into 9 pieces. And I just think that the answer to this 10 is to recognize that probably Texas would be 11 among the leaders in terms of how landowners 12 voluntarily manage the wildlife. 13 And I think Andy has got a great 14 idea in the perspective of maybe we need to study 15 this. Because it's a big industry and it's not 16 getting smaller. It's getting bigger. So I'd 17 just like to say that on behalf of the Texas 18 trophy hunters and TDA, I would really like to 19 see his plan go forward. Thank you. 20 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 21 Mr. Johnston. 22 (Applause.) 23 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Larry 24 Grimland. And next up will be Ellis Gilleland. 25 MR. GRIMLAND: Good morning. I .0048 1 would just like to read a statement to you. My 2 name is Larry Grimland. I live in Dallas, 3 Texas. I own a whitetail ranch in Bosque County 4 which is 35 miles west of Waco. I high fenced 5 the 400-acre ranch in 1984 for the sole purpose 6 of producing trophy whiletail bucks. My ranch 7 was the first to be high fenced north of 8 San Antonio exclusively for whitetail deer. I 9 tried to get a managed land deer permit in 1998 10 but was turned down because I had too many deer. 11 The local biologist said I have to agree to shoot 12 the herd down to where I have one deer per 20 13 acres. I have 150 deer on 400 acres. So TP&W's 14 plan was to kill 130 deer. 15 I fertilize the pastures each 16 spring, plant food plots, feed protein and corn, 17 but this does not matter to TP&W. I could go by 18 their management plan and shoot two mature bucks 19 each year or my plan and shoot 20 mature bucks 20 each year. 21 The same biologist goes ten miles 22 north in the same county and tells another high 23 fenced landowner he can run a deer per five acres 24 and he gets his MLD. My question: Is this fair? 25 TP&W needs to do away with carrying .0049 1 capacity on high fence ranches. Let the 2 landowner run as many deer as they want. TP&W 3 needs to give an MLD to all high fenced ranches, 4 period. If TP&W will not give every high fenced 5 ranch an MLD, at least create a special permit 6 where landowners can buy tags from TP&W. The 7 landowner will give the tags to the hunters. 8 This would solve a huge problem of not being able 9 to shoot low-end bucks in October before the rut 10 with a rifle and solve the other major problem of 11 trying to run a trophy deer operation in a 12 one-buck county, where many hunters fly in from 13 all over the U.S. and can only shoot one buck. 14 TP&W's refusal to give MLD permits 15 is costing landowners millions of dollars each 16 year. I talked to Andy Sansom in October of 1998 17 about the MLD problem. He said, Larry, when we 18 set up the MLD permit, we did not take into 19 consideration a ranch like yours. There are 20 hundreds of miles of high fence being built in 21 Texas each year and almost all these ranches 22 north of San Antonio are 1,000 acres or less. 23 It's time to do something in a positive way for 24 these ranches. 25 Please approve a set of regulations .0050 1 that is fair for everyone, regardless of your 2 last name, who you know, or how large or small 3 your ranch is. My three minutes are up. What I 4 need is three hours to tell you everything I have 5 uncovered in the past two years concerning MLD 6 and TTT permits. 7 MR. SANSOM: Thank you. 8 MR. GRIMLIND: Again, as long as 9 carrying capacity is in the mix, permitting will 10 never be done fairly. It is time for a change. 11 MR. SANSOM: Thank you, Mr. 12 Grimlind, your time is up. 13 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 14 Mr. Grimlind. 15 Mr. Gilleland? And next up will be 16 Walt Glasscock. 17 MR. GILLELAND: My name is Ellis 18 Gilleland. I'm a private citizen and speaking 19 for Texas Animals, which is an animal rights 20 organization on the Internet. I'm not an 21 authority on deer but I want to present to you 22 two people that you recognize as authority. The 23 first is Ray Sasser, who you have been given a 24 copy of what he published in the Dallas Morning 25 News on the 11th of March 1999. And I agree with .0051 1 him wholeheartedly when he says, "Bonus tag 2 proposal means more bucks for the rich." In 3 other words, our millionaires and billionaires 4 and those of you that in that category will 5 understand what I'm talking about. I refer you 6 to the part I've underlined in yellow at the 7 bottom in the middle. 8 The other authority was your own 9 authority. And he's sitting here with us now, 10 gray-headed gentleman over there, Graham, Gary 11 Graham said, "Less than two percent of Texas 12 hunters now use the five deer tags on their 13 license." 14 So that being the case, Gary is an 15 expert and you pay his check. And we assume he 16 knows what he's talking about. That means 98 17 percent of the folks get along just fine. I 18 understand this to be a democracy. So I beseech 19 you to take care of the 98 percent which seem to 20 be well taken care of. I don't see special 21 legislation for two percent of the population. 22 And I'm sure your chairman can quote you 23 something on that, whereby you cannot enact 24 legislations or laws for one specific person. 25 Laws are enacted for the general coverage of the .0052 1 entire population. 2 So I think Sasser is right. The 3 bonus tags proposal would mean more bucks for the 4 rich. In other words, these people bellyaching 5 about what they do behind the high fence. Behind 6 the high fence, from what I've seen, is their own 7 kingdom. They do anything they want. There's 8 nobody telling them how many deer this and how 9 many deer that. They've got their own little 10 fiefdom. You've added a month at the beginning, 11 you've added October to them. You're now -- 12 you've added 14 days on the other end. You now 13 want to add some more days, modify the MLD. You 14 want to make four bucks instead of -- you want to 15 make five. Well, you're already getting eight. 16 The man shooting his wife's four bucks and his 17 four, that's eight. Now you want to give them 18 one more. That makes ten. That's absolutely 19 ridiculous. So I don't see these people hurting 20 behind the high fence. The -- 21 MR. SANSOM: Thank you, 22 Mr. Gilleland. Your time is up. 23 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 24 Mr. Gilleland. 25 Next up is Walt Glasscock. And .0053 1 following Mr. Glasscock will be Jack 2 Brittingham. 3 MR. GLASSCOCK: Commissioners, I 4 sincerely appreciate this opportunity to share 5 the concerns of the Texas Sportsman Association. 6 We have membership out of the state, in the 7 state. And the largest part of our membership is 8 in a three-county area, Colorado County, Fayette 9 County, and Austin, Lavaca. 10 I note in -- on page 74 of your 11 little document, that Austin, Bastrop, Bell, 12 Caldwell, Colorado, and Comal all fall together, 13 with a list of other counties. 14 We seem to have a one rule fits all 15 when it comes to deer regulation. And where 16 we're living, it's not working too well. We have 17 a lot of people that have decided to move from 18 Houston out into our area and they're buying five 19 acres, ten acres, a little here, a little there. 20 And they may park next to the gentleman that has 21 500 or a thousand acres, and he's been working 22 his deer herd diligently, building it up, and 23 this fellow with the smaller acreage comes along 24 and he sets up deer feeders all over the place 25 and he brings in his three sons from college and .0054 1 their 17 buddies and four uncles and the guy's 2 boss from work and they all kill a deer apiece 3 and cripple ten. 4 But the people around him with the 5 larger acreages, many of them this year didn't 6 even see a deer. Without trampling on property 7 rights, which I think we all hold dear, we 8 propose that deer not be killed with less than 9 four points on an antlered side, one side because 10 somebody might see what he thinks is an eight 11 point buck, shoot it and find out it's only a 12 seven. So four points on an antlered side is the 13 proposal. That would increase the number of 14 bucks, it would increase the number of bucks that 15 are able to breed does, and the hunters would 16 have to exercise a little more caution in 17 shooting their deer. 18 Now, I understand that such 19 proposals are not real popular. But we have a 20 unique situation. And I know the deer running 21 all over the country in Comal County. You can't 22 get rid of them. We can't build our herd up. In 23 fact, I understand the only way to get a deer in 24 Colorado County is to go out and buy a new car. 25 Then you'll probably find one just before you hit .0055 1 it. 2 So those are our concerns and we 3 appreciate the opportunity to share that with 4 you. We feel like this advent of the smaller 5 acreages has produced a real problem, and the 6 only way to address it is to increase the antler 7 size and improving, then, the number of shootable 8 deer. I can't tell you how many people we've run 9 into who this last year didn't even see a buck 10 they could shoot. And they've been there for 11 years. And I think they know what they're 12 talking about. Thank you so much. 13 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 14 Mr. Glasscock. Jack Brittingham? And next up 15 will be Marty Berry. 16 MR. BRITTINGHAM: Good morning, 17 Commissioners. Thank you for allowing me to 18 speak. I've chosen to speak on only one topic in 19 hopes that the commissioners will focus on what I 20 have to say. 21 For 20 years, Texas Parks and 22 Wildlife has told landowners that supplemental 23 feeding and supplemental food plots were a 24 habitat improvement that was beneficial to 25 wildlife. A little over a year ago they suddenly .0056 1 changed their mind and now they say food plots 2 don't count. On my 1700-acre ranch where I live 3 in East Texas, I maintain over a hundred acres of 4 year-round food plots. In the spring I plant 5 alfalfa, iron and clay cow peas, clover, and 6 ceratro. 7 In the fall I plant rye grass; albon 8 rye, a cereal grain much like wheat; crimson 9 clover; rose clover; Louisiana S-1 clover; 10 Cherokee red clover; and alfalfa. This 11 overlapping system of food plots provides enough 12 high quality forage to support more than 300 deer 13 without any of them ever taking vitamin naturally 14 existing forage species native to my ranch. 15 Yet Texas Parks and Wildlife now 16 says food plots don't count. My annual plantings 17 are no small undertaking in terms of labor or 18 expense. By providing these food plots I have 19 raised the nutritional plain of my habitat by 20 over 200 percent. 21 At the same time I have provided 22 important nesting and escape habitat for a 23 variety of game and nongame species. I have 24 reduced the incidence of predation for many 25 species of ground nesting birds, rodents, .0057 1 whitetail fawns by greatly increasing the amount 2 of ground cover available in the spring for their 3 utilization. 4 Of course, Texas Parks and Wildlife 5 says food plots don't count. For them to 6 maintain this position -- they expect the 7 landowners and private wildlife managers to 8 accept this -- is an insult to the intelligence 9 of everyone involved. Many years ago the cattle 10 ranchers in the rolling plains area of Texas 11 began the practice of planting winter wheat to 12 increase the carrying capacity of their land for 13 cattle. As a result of this successful 14 supplemental feeding program, they not only 15 increased the number of cattle they could 16 support, they also provided a new home for over 17 half a million wintering waterfowl. 18 At the same time the deer herd in 19 this region has likewise expanded and has 20 increased as a direct result of this supplemental 21 feeding practice. 22 Further south along the Texas coast 23 millions of wintering waterfowl are supported by 24 the farming and ranching practices of private 25 landowners. Our ranch next to the McFadden .0058 1 National Wildlife Refuge, we plant approximately 2 a thousand acres of rye grass for our cattle, 3 which also supports 10 to 20 thousand geese of 4 various species along with heavy usage by the 5 local whitetail herd. If tomorrow all 6 agricultural practices cease in the rolling 7 plains and Texas coastal regions and all of our 8 wintering waterfowl relocated to Louisiana and 9 Mexico, would Texas Parks and Wildlife still say 10 food plots don't count? 11 The fact is, all agricultural 12 practices are nothing more than supplemental food 13 plots for our wildlife. These practices, 14 combined with a maintenance of a percentage of 15 quality habitat is exactly what has allowed our 16 states and our nation's wildlife to prosper so 17 greatly. In closing, I would like to thank you 18 for allowing me to speak. 19 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 20 Mr. Brittingham. 21 Next is Marty Berry. And after 22 Mr. Berry is Bill Grace. 23 MR. BERRY: Good morning, 24 Commissioners, I'm Marty Berry. I'm from Corpus 25 Christi, Texas. I'm a landowner in the state and .0059 1 have a couple of issues I want to address this 2 morning. First of all, Jack did a great job on 3 his research and I follow that exactly. I feel 4 like in any business you're in, in any industry 5 you're in, end results is exactly what counts. 6 Not how you get there. 7 And when the State sets forth our 8 habitat and how our habitat should look and how 9 it should be and how strong the plants should be 10 versus looking at the animals and saying how much 11 pelvic kidney fat are on them? How heavy are 12 they? What's your fawn crop? Antler sizes, 13 other criteria that mean much more to landowners 14 than the habitat. What the department is trying 15 to do is use these permits, which modern wildlife 16 managers need every day to manage their herds, to 17 control the habitat in the state. 18 And the only control of this habitat 19 in the state is going to be what its highest and 20 best use is. Go to the valley. It used to be 21 citrus. It's now houses. The same thing will 22 happen to that brush country when the deer or the 23 cattle are no longer the highest and best use. I 24 think that it should be changed to an end result, 25 set their criteria, give us some levels or .0060 1 weights you want to see on our animals and don't 2 tell us how to take care of the brush. We know 3 how to take care of our brush way better than any 4 biologist that can walk across my country and 5 look at it. I've been with one. I've used many 6 of your permits. I go through it just like 7 everybody else, to get the permit. I think it's 8 ridiculous but I do go through it. I'm not going 9 to destroy my habitat. I love it more than 10 anybody. 11 The second thing I want to address 12 this morning is, I'm in a business and I'm in a 13 service industry business where I have to react 14 or I lose my customers. I feel like the Texas 15 Parks and Wildlife is a service to the State. It 16 does a great job. And I don't want to hound any 17 of the people but I want to point out that when I 18 have to go to a biologist and I have to wait two 19 to three months to get one to look at my 20 paperwork for one of these permits, it slows me 21 down. 22 Time is money, as you're well aware 23 of. I hear from the State, we don't have any 24 appropriations for hiring new biologists. That's 25 no excuse. I pay good money. $1,000 for one of .0061 1 these permits. His time is not worth $1,000 a 2 day. God knows he's probably worth it. Y'all 3 aren't paying him that much. 4 Why don't y'all open it up to 5 accredited, private biologists to review these 6 permits, let them sign off on it. Make them have 7 a master's degree, a doctor's degree? It makes 8 no difference. Set the criteria for them. Let 9 the private industry take care of it. They will 10 do a better job. Because you don't have the 11 money to hire them and we're suffering because of 12 it. I appreciate your time. Thank you. 13 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, Mr. 14 Berry. 15 Bill Grace and then Don Casey. 16 MR. GRACE: Hello, Commissioners, my 17 name is Bill Grace and I'm a landowner in Salado, 18 Texas, also a member of TDA. And I just want to 19 mention a few quick, short things here. 20 We just need some short-term 21 assurances that we will continue to receive our 22 MLD permits, TTT, things of that nature. It 23 helps us to have consistency so we can rely on 24 the permits which we have received for the past 25 three years in my case. .0062 1 We have been booking hunts based on 2 our ability to utilize these MLDs. These permits 3 help us to effectively manage our resources and 4 modernize our whitetail deer management. Thank 5 you very much. 6 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 7 Mr. Grace. 8 Don Casey and then David Hayward. 9 MR. CASEY: I would like to thank 10 you for giving me the opportunity to take a few 11 minutes of your time. I'm Don Casey, I'm with 12 the Blanco County Farm Bureau. I was here last 13 year and I left licking my wounds and I had time 14 to try to reflect on what I did wrong in trying 15 to pursue my interests. 16 And I realized from your point of 17 view that you're dealing with five groups. 18 You've got the hunters, you've got the people 19 like the gentleman here selling the crossbows. 20 And then within our landowners, which I'm one of 21 the landowners, there are three groups. There 22 are the new, small fragmentation divisions. I 23 represent the open range group of no high 24 fences. Really, it's more like the old-time 25 situation. And then we have the high fence .0063 1 group. 2 I think that us open range people 3 are still the majority. One of my big 4 concerns -- and I asked Mr. Macdonald if he would 5 be willing to put his job on the line and come 6 tell you what he heard in Gillespie County. 7 There was a group that wouldn't even come close 8 to fitting in this room, and they were 98 percent 9 against extending the season. And we don't feel 10 like our voices are being heard. 11 Now, there may be some other data 12 that came in in e-mails and however that's 13 proliferated. But I realize that in the future, 14 the biggest thing facing you folks is going to be 15 the conflict between us open range people and the 16 new ten acres next to us, as the gentleman from 17 Columbus so adequately explained. 18 I would just plead with you to hold 19 off on extending that season and let's maybe have 20 a group, and I'd volunteer to serve on the 21 commission, representing the open range people. 22 And see if we can find -- identify the conflicts 23 between these five groups, the hunters, the 24 hardware salesmen, the small groups, the high 25 fence, and the open range. .0064 1 I can assure you that the open range 2 people, with all due respect, now, think a lot of 3 you folks about like the people in Miami think of 4 Cuba, they just don't feel like their voice is 5 being heard whatsoever. So, please, maybe just 6 hold off two weeks -- a year. And let's see if 7 we can understand the conflicts between these 8 groups, and maybe there's a compromise. Thank 9 you very much. 10 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you. 11 Mr. Hayward and then David Langford. 12 MR. HAYWARD: Ladies and gentlemen 13 of the Commission, I appreciate your time here. 14 I just wanted to make a few comments on what's 15 been said. In response to the gentleman that was 16 just up here about extended seasons, extended 17 seasons help those of us with high fences manage 18 our deer with inside the fence. We can harvest 19 does before the breeding season so the bucks 20 don't waste their energy on that. We can harvest 21 lower end, lower genetic quality deer before the 22 breeding season so that we can help to increase 23 the genetic quality of the herd. 24 Three years ago the Texas Parks and 25 Wildlife Department awarded Que Pasa Ranch of the .0065 1 Post Oaks Savannah area the Lone Star Land 2 Steward Award. Now, according to your MLDP 3 programs, we should go through and kill out 50 4 percent of the deer which we carry on that 5 property, yet you awarded us one of your most 6 prestigious awards. 7 Now, my point is, the MLDP program 8 is a good program but there needs to be some 9 changes made. The biologist came in and said 10 that we have a deer per seven acres, and we 11 should only have a deer per 14 acres. But on the 12 other hand, when it came up for the award, he 13 backed us wholeheartedly. 14 A gentleman down the road has the 15 same situation, plants all the food plots, yet he 16 was turned down for him as an MLDPs. 17 Mr. Brittingham made the point about 18 food plots. And that was all part of the reason 19 we received the award from Parks and Wildlife, is 20 because in 2200 acres inside that game fence, 21 which I have managed for seven years, I put in 15 22 percent of that property, planted every summer 23 and every winter in food plots. I manage the 24 entire forested areas so that those deer have 25 everything they need to eat, which, in turn, has .0066 1 helped all the other populations of wildlife 2 found within that area. 3 One of the other things I would like 4 to comment on, the -- Mr. Gilleland, the bonus 5 tags for the rich. It's all part of supply and 6 demand. If you supply us with more tags, we can 7 supply hunters with more deer, which will, in 8 turn, bring the cost of hunting for deer down. 9 He said two percent of the 10 population uses the tag, but he does not mention 11 what percentage of the population benefits from 12 those tags. 13 And last but not least, I agree with 14 Mr. Glasscock that -- 15 MR. SANSOM: Thank you, sir. Your 16 time is up. 17 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 18 Mr. Hayward. David Langford and then Tomme 19 Actkinson. 20 MR. LANGFORD: Good morning, members 21 of the Commission. I'm David Langford, 22 representing my family's two ranches and the 23 Texas Wildlife Association. I guess I fit 24 probably into four of those five categories that 25 were described here a minute ago. I support what .0067 1 Dave Richards came to say about crossbows. One 2 of our ranches in South Texas is a high fence 3 ranch, has been high fenced since the early 4 '70s. And there probably weren't more than a 5 dozen high fence ranches in the whole state when 6 we built ours. We're four generations on that 7 ranch. We're seven generations on the ranch in 8 the Hill Country, which is in Kendall County, 9 which is a low fence ranch. So I've got all 10 kinds of hats I can wear. 11 Before I finalize my comments, I 12 would like to make, again, one of the comments 13 that I made at the public hearing. I know it's 14 registered somewhere, floating around. But I 15 think we should consider a lifetime nonresident 16 hunting and fishing license. We have them for 17 residents. We should also consider them for 18 nonresidents. 19 We have a lot of members from out of 20 state who own ranches in Texas and it's quite 21 expensive to maintain the ranch and then pay -- 22 depending on how many family members hunt, 23 another, 15 to 18, 21, 24 hundred dollars to come 24 down and hunt on a ranch that they own. 25 I would like to address the managed .0068 1 lands deer permit and the TTT permit and make 2 sure that Mr. Sansom and the Commission, that you 3 all know that we're willing to serve on the 4 committee to address a lot of the problems. Many 5 have been eloquently brought forward here this 6 morning. And hope that TWA will be represented 7 on that committee. 8 Also, Doctor Kroll made a very, very 9 important point about -- as did a couple of the 10 others, about being in business and trying to 11 hold it all together by being in the hunting 12 business and being able to make decisions for 13 next fall. We've got to do this with a degree of 14 urgency. As I understand how the process works, 15 we've got until June to fix it so that it can go 16 out for public comment and then be addressed in 17 August; otherwise it's too late to put into 18 operation next fall, where people need to depend 19 on and make their business decisions. 20 I'd also like to address one thing 21 Mr. Gilleland said. It's not a democracy. The 22 very first thing that most of us memorized in 23 school was, I pledge allegiance to the flag of 24 the United States of America and to the 25 Republic. This is a Republic. It is a .0069 1 representative democracy, not a democracy. We 2 expect to come before you and help present the 3 issues and have you make the decision, as do our 4 congressmen and senators. 5 The last thing I'd like to say is, 6 what a great event last night. Thank you very 7 much. It's the only time in my life I've ever 8 had any fun on the TU campus. 9 (Applause.) 10 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Let me just say 11 that all that applause was out of order. 12 Mr. Actkinson? And next up will be 13 Mr. Hilbig. 14 MR. ACTKINSON: My name is Tomme 15 Actkinson, and I'm the president of the Lone Star 16 Bow Hunters Association. LSBA opposes use of 17 nonarchery equipment in the special archery 18 season. I will show why attempts to do this 19 cause dissension and why they're not needed. I 20 would also like to offer alternative solutions. 21 In the last two years I've heard bow 22 hunters called ignorant, selfish, greedy, 23 misinformed, elitist, conservative, and stupid. 24 One writer went further when he said the bow 25 hunters who oppose crossbows and draw locks are .0070 1 giving support to the anti-hunting movement. 2 Hunter dissension is harmful, especially when 3 much of it is based on myth and misinformation. 4 One myth that has been exploited is 5 that crossbows are needed to give women and 6 children the opportunity to hunt. I say 7 exploited because this argument has been repeated 8 over and over as if sheer repetition would make 9 it factual. It's not factual. 10 My five-foot two-inch wife took up 11 bow hunting in 1976. Her compound bow allowed 12 only a 30 percent let off. She was holding 31 13 pounds. With modern bows she would only have to 14 hold eight pounds to hunt. At LSBA tournaments 15 and in the field there are many women and 16 children shooting a bow and hunting. The LSBA 17 brochure shows an 11-year-old boy and his trophy 18 buck. He had the opportunity to hunt. 19 In his book, No Hunting, Truths Lies 20 and Myths, Doctor David Samuels pointed out that 21 while the number of rifle hunters has declined 22 there's been an increase in the number of bow 23 hunters and an increase in the number of female 24 hunters. 25 Connie Balusek was the LSBA youth .0071 1 essay contest winner this year. At age 11 Connie 2 wrote of harvesting her first whitetail with a 3 bow. The argument that crossbows are needed to 4 give women and children the opportunity to hunt 5 is a myth. 6 Another argument is since that we 7 are all hunters, bow hunters should allow 8 nonarchery equipment during archery season. 9 Suggestions have ranged from crossbows to 10 muzzleloaders. One writer even argued that since 11 he was a better shot with his muzzleloader than 12 his bow, then he should be allowed its use in the 13 archery season. Bow hunters are not against any 14 other group of hunters but we've long supported 15 hunting in Texas and the special archery. Our 16 season should be respected. 17 Solutions: Consider a primitive 18 arms season the first week in November. This 19 would allow manufacturers a chance to sell their 20 products, ranchers a chance to help control their 21 deer herds, and Parks & Wildlife an opportunity 22 to sell a primitive arms stamp. It would also 23 allow a logical progression from the most 24 primitive weaponry of bow and arrow through 25 muzzleloaders and crossbows to finally rifles. .0072 1 If you decide to go this route, 2 please don't take away the last weekend in 3 October from bow hunters. We already hunt the 4 hottest part of the season. Sometimes we get 5 lucky and get a cool front the last October 6 weekend. 7 Do we need a bow hunting season? I 8 think so. Dedicated hunters are close to 9 nature. As a group, I think this is especially 10 true of bow hunters. For success with archery 11 equipment, you have to become a student of 12 nature. As you practice with your bow and learn 13 about wildlife you become a more dedicated 14 sportsperson. We need to encourage more 15 dedicated sportspersons, we need to encourage 16 more bow hunters. Please keep the archery only 17 season archery only. Thank you very much. 18 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 19 Mr. Actkinson. 20 Mr. Hilbig? 21 MR. HILBIG: Yes, ma'am. I'm Kevin 22 Hilbig, vice-president of the Lone Star Bow 23 Hunters Association. 24 Your honorable commissioners, in 25 '50s, '60s, and '70s, Bow Hunters United worked .0073 1 hard for bow hunting opportunities and seasons. 2 The Lone Star Bow Hunters Association worked 3 together with Texas Parks and Wildlife to 4 establish an archery only season funded by the 5 archery stamp. To be a bow hunter was accepting 6 the challenge of taking game with a bow and 7 arrow. 8 Archery seasons in most all of the 9 lower 48 states occur before general firearms 10 season. This structure allowed the opportunity 11 to hunt game that was still undisturbed. I say 12 opportunity because bow hunting is not instant 13 success when attempting to take wild game with 14 bow and arrow. It takes accurate shooting 15 skills, getting close to the animal pursued, and 16 drawing the arrow in the most silent and 17 unobscured manner. Even with early seasons bow 18 hunter harvest a game remains at a very low 19 percentage rate. The success is measured in the 20 challenge of the hunt. 21 Many bow hunters, including myself, 22 consider hunting with the crossbow far easier 23 than that of the modern day bow. That actual bow 24 and arrow is taken away with the crossbow. Two 25 things can happen when a bow hunter attempts to .0074 1 draw a bow. One is movement, the other is 2 sound. 3 I'm sure that most of you know the 4 keen sense the whitetail deer and a vast majority 5 of other game have for detecting movement and 6 hearing strange, unnatural noises. It would be a 7 rare statement if a bow hunter told you that they 8 never had spooked an animal by drawing their 9 bow. 10 Well-known Texas bow hunter ranches 11 will not even allow the crossbow for use during 12 the general season when crossbows are legal. Why 13 is this? Simple. An outfitter cannot afford to 14 overharvest his deer herd, especially for prices 15 far cheaper than the cost of other package 16 hunts. The low success rate of bow hunting 17 ensures this. The outfitter can bring in a 18 larger volume of bow hunters and not overharvest 19 their operation. At the same time they generate 20 increased revenues through larger volume. 21 With obvious differences, crossbow 22 manufacturers still claim that the crossbow is no 23 different than the compound bow. Crossbow 24 enthusiasts are still pushing to have them 25 legalized in the special Texas archery season. .0075 1 Statements have been made that we 2 are all hunters. That is correct. We are all 3 hunters, and should stick together instead of 4 creating division amongst ourselves. 5 Crossbow manufacturers and 6 proponents certainly know that every time they 7 push for legalizing the crossbow during special 8 archery season, they are creating division among 9 the hunting fraternity. One can read the 10 August/December '99 issue of Bow Hunter Magazine, 11 Talk Between Bow Hunters section to get an idea 12 of how bow hunters feel about having a crossbow 13 in the archery season. One reader responded by 14 saying that a bow is not a crossbow, it's more 15 similar to a rifle. 16 Bow Hunter Magazine editor M.R. 17 James did an editorial in '85 at a magazine 18 stance against the use of the crossbows in 19 archery season. The magazine reaffirmed their 20 belief against the use of crossbow and a new 21 editor, Dwight Shoe, printed an editorial in the 22 August/September '99 issue of Bow Hunter 23 Magazine. 24 The State of Texas has a lengthy 25 general season where a hunter can choose the .0076 1 weapon of his choice. As I mentioned earlier, 2 crossbows are legal. Why, then, are crossbow 3 manufacturers and advertisers continue to push to 4 legalize crossbows in the archery season? Do 5 they not care about the division they are going 6 to create between bow hunters and crossbow 7 users. Division will happen. 8 MR. SANSOM: Thank you, sir. Your 9 time is up. 10 MR. HILBIG: Okay. Just one more. 11 The reason the crossbow died in committee last 12 year was lack of interest in opposition against 13 it. Thank you, ma'am. 14 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 15 Mr. Hilbig. 16 Any further comment by staff? Any 17 questions or comments by members of the 18 Commission? 19 Hearing none, the Chair would 20 entertain a motion for approval of the 21 recommendation of staff. 22 COMMISSIONER IDSAL: So moved. 23 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: It's been moved 24 by Commissioner Idsal. A second, please? 25 COMMISSIONER WATSON: Second. .0077 1 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Commissioner 2 Watson. Thank you. Any further discussion? All 3 in favor say aye; those opposed nay. Motion 4 carries. 5 (Motion passed unanimously.) 6 "The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission 7 adopts the 2000-2001 Statewide Hunting and 8 Fishing Proclamation (located in Exhibit A) 9 with changes to published in the March 3, 2000 10 issue of the Texas Register (25 TexReg 1840)." 11 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: And I did want 12 to welcome the members of the Texas A&M class who 13 are joining us today. It's very good to have you 14 here. And notwithstanding the applause, which 15 was out of order, I hope that you will return and 16 the Commission wishes you much success in your 17 studies. And we hope you'll come back when 18 you're through with school, too 19 AGENDA ITEM NO. 4: ACTION - PROPOSED 20 FINFISH LICENSE LIMITATION PROGRAM. 21 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: The next item 22 is the proposed finfish license limitation 23 program. And Paul Hammerschmidt will address the 24 Commission on this. 25 MR. HAMMERSCHMIDT: Madam Chairman, .0078 1 Committee, my name is Paul Hammerschmidt, program 2 director for the Coastal Fisheries Division. My 3 presentation today will review staff's proposals 4 to fulfill the legislative mandate to implement a 5 licensed management program for the commercial 6 finfish fishery in Texas. 7 The 76th Legislature under Senate 8 Bill 1303 granted the Parks and Wildlife 9 Commission this authority. The various proposals 10 that were put together were implementation of a 11 license management program through the new 12 finfish fishery proclamation. Within this 13 delegates administrative authority to the 14 Executive Director, establishes rules for the the 15 display of a license plate on a vessel, sets the 16 date for transferability of the licenses to any 17 time beginning September 1, 2000, and lays out 18 the framework of a licensed buyback process. 19 In addition, it sets commercial 20 finfish fishermen license and transfer fees in 21 the -- in the finance proclamation of $300 for a 22 resident and $1200 for a nonresident. 23 Finally under the statewide hunting 24 and fishing proclamation, it sets the total 25 number of trotlines and crab traps that a .0079 1 commercial finfish fisherman may use, and 2 establishes marking requirements for those gear. 3 From the round of public hearings 4 and via e-mail and other sources of public input, 5 staff received 53 responses, of which 83 percent 6 were favorable toward adoption of the proposals. 7 In addition to this, during the 8 public hearing process, members of the commercial 9 fishing industry asked the Commission to consider 10 new, less restrictive criteria which are used to 11 determine whether fishermen can leave trotlines 12 in the water during the weekend trotline ban. 13 Currently trotlines must be removed 14 from the water no later than 1:00 p.m. on Friday, 15 unless the National Weather Service has issued a 16 small craft advisory or wind speeds of 20 knots 17 or greater. 18 The industry asks that the criteria 19 be lowered to a newly adopted advisory category 20 called small craft take caution where wind speeds 21 are 15 to 20 knots. 22 Staff obtained weather data from the 23 National Weather Service and found that the 24 number of Fridays eligible for the new advisory 25 would increase from ten percent for the year to .0080 1 50 percent of the Fridays for the year. Due to 2 this significant increase in potential fishing 3 effort, staff felt no action should be taken at 4 this time. However, staff would like to continue 5 to evaluate the proposal. As part of this 6 evaluation, we will solicit more input from the 7 general public, we will look at the potential 8 effects of this change from a resource 9 perspective, and we would like to assess how the 10 new license management program, pending the 11 Commission's adoption, may affect future 12 commercial fishing activities. Now, if you have 13 any questions, I'd be happy to answer them now. 14 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Any questions 15 from any of the members? Thank you, 16 Mr. Hammerschmidt. 17 MR. HAMMERSCHMIDT: Hearing none, 18 then staff recommends the following motion, and I 19 just knocked it off the screen. Bring it back. 20 "Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission adopts 21 new Finfish Fishery Proclamation, Chapter 22 58.301 through 58.304, and changes to Chapters 23 53.6 Finance, 65.72 Fish and 65.78 Crabs and 24 Ghost Shrimp as published in the 25 March 3rd issue of the Texas Register." .0081 1 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you. 2 There are no members of the public signed up to 3 speak on this item. Are there any other comments 4 by members of the Commission? 5 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Move approval 6 of the recommendation. 7 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you. 8 It's been moved by Commissioner Angelo. 9 COMMISSIONER RYAN: Second. 10 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Seconded by 11 Commissioner Ryan. Any discussion? Hearing 12 none, those in favor say aye; those opposed nay. 13 Motion carries. Thank you. 14 (Motion passed unanimously.) 15 "The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission 16 adopts new Finfish Fishery Proclamation 31 17 TAC Chapter 58.301 through Chapter 58.304, 18 and amendments to 31 TAC Chapter 53.6 19 Finance, Chapter 65.72 Fish, and Chapter 65.78 20 Crabs and Ghost Shrimp, with changes to the 21 proposed text (located at Exhibit A) as 22 published in the March 3, 200 issue of the 23 Texas Register (25 TexReg 1813-1912.)" 24 25 .0082 1 AGENDA ITEM NO. 5: BRIEFING - STATE PARKS 2 PREVIEW. 3 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Our next item 4 is a briefing item. And that is a preview of the 5 State Parks. 6 (WHEREUPON, a briefing 7 item was presented to the 8 Commissioners, after which, 9 the following proceedings 10 were had:) 11 AGENDA ITEM NO. 6: ACTION - PUBLIC HUNTING 12 LANDS PROCLAMATION AND PROPOSED STATE PARK 13 HUNTS. 14 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Our next item 15 is an action item, the Public Hunting Lands 16 Proclamation and Proposed State Park Hunts. Herb 17 Kothmann, please. 18 MR. KOTHMANN: Madam Chairman, 19 members of the Commission, my name is Herb 20 Kothmann. I'm the director of public hunts. 21 This presentation deals with the proposed changes 22 to the Public Lands Proclamation and the proposed 23 2000-2001 public hunts on state park lands. The 24 first portion of the presentation deals with 25 changes to the public lands proclamation. .0083 1 One proposal -- proposed change 2 would promote youth participation hunting by 3 lowering from 21 to 18 the minimum age at which 4 young adults could supervise youth in hunting 5 activities. 6 Another staff proposal would be that 7 we would authorize holders of an annual public 8 hunting permit, a limited public use permit, or 9 either the silver or gold PCP to access public 10 hunting lands for the purpose of getting to 11 adjacent public waters. And they could fish from 12 the bank of those public hunting lands in those 13 adjacent public hunting waters. This would be a 14 relaxing of the current requirement that there's 15 a $40 permit required to enter those lands for 16 the purpose of hunting or a $10 permit for all 17 nonconsumptive use. 18 We do not anticipate this would 19 impact the current 38,000 of these $40 that are 20 being sold for hunting activity. That 21 requirement would not change. But it hopefully 22 would improve the access to our public waters in 23 the state. 24 Another proposal would eliminate the 25 current provisions applicable only to U.S. forest .0084 1 service lands within the Parks and Wildlife 2 public hunting program that allows hunting of 3 small game and feral hogs under a $10 limited 4 public use permit. Where everywhere else this 5 serves simply as a nonconsumptive access permit. 6 Staff has requested now that that 7 proposal be withdrawn, that request of the forest 8 service which would like additional time to 9 evaluate the impact on their users. 10 Another proposal on dealing with the 11 U.S. forest service lands within our public 12 hunting program would establish a special 13 antlerless deer permit to regulate the harvest of 14 antlerless deer on those lands during the general 15 deer season. This permit, if authorized, would 16 be issued by the forest service to people who 17 have the $40 permit. It would not be at an 18 additional cost to the department to administer 19 and we do not recommend charging a fee to the 20 sportsmen for the permit. 21 Another proposal would waive the 22 applicable regular permit fees for activities 23 other than hunting. These are nonconsumptive 24 visitors to our wildlife management areas. We 25 currently waive these fees for our hunters. If .0085 1 there's a regular fee and they have the annual 2 permit, we don't require them to again pay that. 3 This would give equity to the nonconsumptive 4 user, to what we currently allow for the hunter 5 out there. 6 Another proposal would prohibit the 7 distribution or removal, primarily we're 8 concerned about the theft, of rock, gravel, sand, 9 soil, or shell from our public hunting lands, 10 except as authorized by the department. This has 11 become a recently identified problem in some of 12 our units in the lower Rio Grande Valley 13 specifically. 14 On our proposals that were published 15 in the Texas Register, we had received no 16 comments on the proposed changes in regulations. 17 Of course, we did receive extensive input from 18 the U.S. Forest Service, and that is why we have 19 recommended withdrawal of that one proposal. 20 The second portion of the 21 presentation deals with the proposals for the 22 State Park hunts. We're proposing, again, 23 hunting on 42 units of the State Park system. 24 This is the same number that were hunted this 25 past season. 41 of the 42 recommended are the .0086 1 same parks. 2 There's one change. That is 3 Dinosaur Valley has dropped out for this proposal 4 and South Llano River has been added. I have a 5 list of three slides or three slides that show 6 the 42 by name. I will not read these but I will 7 go through them slowly so that the audience has a 8 chance to look at them. 9 Inks Lake and Longhorn Cavern are 10 shown as a joint area because although they are 11 two parks in close proximity they are hunted as 12 one combined public hunt area. 13 And South Llano River Bend 14 highlighted is the new addition that was not on 15 the list last year. Although we have hunted it 16 prior to that time. 17 We did have the proposals of State 18 Park hunts aired at public hearings around the 19 state. They have been posted on our Internet 20 home page, distributed through the news media. 21 We did receive only one comment to those 22 published proposals. That was favorable, 23 supporting the proposal for hunts. 24 The staff makes a recommendation to 25 three motions and I would like to read those. .0087 1 Motion Number 1 says that the Texas Parks and 2 Wildlife Commission adopts the amendments to 3 Sections 65.191 to 65.193 and Section 65.199 4 concerning the public hunting land -- or Public 5 Lands Proclamation with changes to the proposed 6 text as published in the March 3, 2000, issue of 7 Texas Register. And this is important. 8 Withdraws the proposal to establish uniform 9 requirement of an annual public hunting permit to 10 enter public hunting lands for the purpose of 11 hunting. 12 This motion is slightly different 13 than the one in your agenda book. 14 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Could you put 15 that on the screen for a moment, please? I think 16 we have Motion 2 up there. 17 MR. KOTHMANN: Okay. 18 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you. 19 MR. KOTHMANN: This is Motion 1. 20 And the bottom portion is that withdrawal of that 21 elimination of the $10 permit, which we're asking 22 the withdrawal of. 23 Motion Number 2, the Texas Parks and 24 Wildlife Commission authorizes the hunting 25 activities designated in Exhibit B to be .0088 1 conducted on the 42 listed units of the State 2 Park system. 3 And Motion Number 3, states that the 4 Parks and Wildlife Commission authorizes an open 5 hunting season on public hunting lands to run 6 from September 1 of 2000, to August 31 of 2001. 7 This is an action that's required in order to 8 hold hunts on any of our State Parks or wildlife 9 management areas. 10 But there are three motions that I 11 am presenting for consideration. Madam Chairman, 12 are there any questions? 13 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you. Any 14 questions by any of the members? Thank you. 15 We have two people signed up for 16 comment. The first is Ellis Gilleland. And the 17 other is David Langford. Mr. Gilleland? 18 MR. GILLELAND: My name is Ellis 19 Gilleland. I'm speaking for Texas Animals which 20 is an animal rights organization on the 21 Internet. I would like to ask the Commission if 22 I could show this three-minute clip, video clip 23 to the Commission in lieu of my three minutes of 24 speaking. I asked when I came in if I could show 25 this. I brought my own VCR to show this, or we .0089 1 could show it on yours. 2 MR. SANSOM: Mr. Gilleland, I 3 appreciate you bringing the video. And as I 4 mentioned to the crowd this morning, if you would 5 like to give it to Ms. Estrada, we will 6 distribute it to the Commission at a later time. 7 Thank you very much. 8 MR. GILLELAND: I wanted to show it 9 and be here to narrate what's happening in it. 10 There's no audio with it, so it will not be 11 meaningful if you just look at it like it is. 12 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Mr. Gilleland, 13 thank you, but that won't appear in the minutes. 14 And so if you would provide a copy, that copy of 15 the video to Ms. Estrada and then make your 16 remarks, we'll be glad to receive those. 17 MR. GILLELAND: You cannot silence 18 the truth. And so I will just inform you that if 19 you do not allow me to present it to you, the 20 tame animals which exist in Choke Canyon State 21 Park, and I suspect that the tame animals exist 22 in probably all -- nearly all the parks, the tame 23 animals, I wanted you to see these tame animals 24 that you're authorizing people to kill, then make 25 your decision based on that. .0090 1 I suspected you would not let me 2 show this because it's the truth. So I have made 3 arrangements, I will just put it on the Internet 4 and we'll just let the whole world evaluate it. 5 We'll do it that way. We'll rachet up one. I 6 want the whole world to see the tame, and I 7 emphasize, t-a-m-e, tame animals that you people 8 are killing. The world will see it on the 9 Internet. Thank you. 10 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 11 Mr. Gilleland. 12 Mr. Langford? 13 MR. LANGFORD: Thank you, 14 Commissioners. I'm David Langford, Texas 15 Wildlife Association. And we would urge you to 16 support the staff recommendations and vote 17 positive on those three motions. 18 And I would also like to say, I 19 guess that's one more example of you can't 20 believe what you see on the Internet. 21 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 22 Mr. Langford. 23 Any comments or questions by any of 24 the members? 25 Hearing none, the Chair would .0091 1 entertain a motion for approval of the 2 recommendations by staff. 3 COMMISSIONER AVILA: So moved. 4 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Second. 5 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you. 6 It's been moved by Commissioner Avila and 7 seconded by Commissioner Henry that the three 8 recommendations that were presented by 9 Mr. Kothmann be approved. Is there any further 10 discussion? 11 All in favor say aye; those opposed 12 nay. Motion carries. Thank you. 13 (Motion passed unanimously.) 14 1) "The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission 15 adopts an amendment to 31 TAC 65.191, 65.193, 16 and 65.199, concerning the Public Lands 17 Proclamation, with changes to the proposed 18 text as published in the March 3, 2000, issue 19 of the Texas Register (25 (TexReg 1848), and 20 withdraws the proposal to establish uniform 21 requirement of an APH Permit to enter public 22 hunting lands for the purpose of hunting." 23 24 2) "The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission 25 authorizes the hunting activities designated .0092 1 in Exhibit B to be conducted on the 42 listed 2 units of the state park system." 3 4 3) "The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission 5 authorizes an open hunting season on public 6 hunting lands to run from September 1, 2000 to 7 August 31, 2001." 8 AGENDA ITEM NO. 9: BRIEFING - TEXAS BIRDING. 9 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Our next item 10 is a briefing on Texas birding. John Herron and 11 Vernon Bevill, I believe, are our presenters. 12 (WHEREUPON, a briefing 13 item was presented to the 14 Commissioners, after which, 15 the following proceedings 16 were had:) 17 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you. 18 The next item is an action item, land transfer, 19 Bexar County, Mike Herring. 20 MR. HERRING: Actually, I believe we 21 had those two on the consent. 22 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: I'm sorry. 23 I've got the wrong one, I think. 24 MR. HERRING: It's Bexar County. 25 It's land acquisition. .0093 1 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Yes. Items 10 2 and 11 were on consent. And Item 12. 3 MR. HERRING: Yes. 4 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you. 5 Sorry, I crossed out the wrong ones. 6 AGENDA ITEM NO. 12: ACTION - LAND 7 ACQUISITION - BEXAR COUNTY (GOVERNMENT 8 CANYON). 9 MR. HERRING: My name is Mike 10 Herring. I'm director of the Parks Land 11 Conservation Program. The original 4,717 acres 12 comprising the Government Canyon State Natural 13 Area were acquired in 1993 with an additional 14 1100 acres acquired in 1995. The trust for 15 public land, a nonprofit land conservation group, 16 was instrumental in facilitating the acquisition 17 of both tracts. 18 In January 1999 TPL negotiated a 19 contract for the 805-acre Davis Ranch, upland 20 tract, adjacent to the park, and successfully 21 secured funding for its purchase and subsequently 22 donated the property to the department. 23 TPL, in coordination with the 24 department staff, has continued to monitor 25 adjacent lands for potential conservation .0094 1 options. The approximately 4,000-acre Gallagher 2 Ranch has been identified as a desirable addition 3 to the park and the trust has negotiated an 4 option to purchase it. 5 Through independent fund raising 6 efforts TPL is securing funds to cover all but 7 $500,000 of the total contract price. TPL is 8 requesting the department to fund the remaining 9 500,000. Staff recommends the adoption of the 10 motion shown in your agenda item. And I might 11 add that Valarie Bristol, the Texas director for 12 TPL is also available here today should you have 13 any questions. 14 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 15 Mr. Herring. Any questions or comments by any of 16 the Commissioners? Hearing none, the Chair would 17 entertain a motion for approval of the 18 recommendation. 19 COMMISSIONER IDSAL: So moved. 20 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Second. 21 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you. 22 MR. SANSOM: Madam Chairman, before 23 you vote I would just like to say that this 24 represents an extraordinary effort on the part of 25 the trust for public land. All the way from the .0095 1 beginning, this has been one of the most creative 2 transactions that has been brought before you in 3 this decade, and one in which, I would guess the 4 overall cost of the property there has probably 5 been somewhere around 15 to 20 cents on the 6 dollar over the life of the project. 7 And in addition to that, one of the 8 things that I think is most significant is that 9 when the original project was turned over to the 10 department, the trust created endowments for 11 friends organizations and natural history groups 12 on the site. So we made a commitment beyond just 13 the acquisition itself but to the ongoing 14 operation and stewardship, as well. 15 Ms. Bristol is a former County 16 Commissioner here in Travis County who has 17 recently been named to State director. Anjali 18 Kaul is with her and also I see Deirdre Hisler, 19 who is manager of the park. And so they're all 20 doing a terrific job down there. And we 21 appreciate them. 22 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 23 Mr. Sansom. And welcome to all of you. We 24 really appreciate the hard work and the good 25 results from the Trust for Public Lands. And .0096 1 it's been a great partnership. I'm looking 2 forward to being on that property. It will be 3 great. 4 We have a motion pending, motion by 5 Commissioner Idsal. Was the second by 6 Commissioner Henry? Thank you. 7 Any further discussion? All in 8 favor say aye; those opposed nay. Motion 9 carries. Thank you. 10 (Motion passed unanimously.) 11 "The Executive Director is authorized to take 12 all necessary steps to consummate the 13 acquisition of the 400 acre Gallagher Ranch as 14 an addition to the Government Canyon State 15 Natural Area." 16 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Mr. Herring, do 17 you have the other item? 18 AGENDA ITEM NO. 13: ACTION - LAND 19 ACQUISITION - PRESIDIO COUNTY. 20 MR. HERRING: Yes. The La Mota 21 Ranch comprising of approximately 31,000 acres is 22 located adjacent to the north boundary of Big 23 Bend Ranch State Park in Presidio County. The 24 ranch was owned by the late John W. Rice who died 25 unexpectedly in September 1999. In his will, .0097 1 Mr. Rice left a legal life estate to his 2 son-in-law, James Donnell, with title then 3 passing to Texas Parks and Wildlife. For various 4 reasons Mr. Donnell does not wish to hold his 5 portion of the property as a life estate. 6 Therefore, he has requested that the ranch be 7 divided in such a way, that he obtains a fee 8 title ownership to a portion of the ranch equal 9 in value to his remainder life estate, with the 10 department receiving fee title to the remaining 11 acreage. 12 Based upon Mr. Donnell's current age 13 and the applicable treasury tables for valuation 14 of life estates and remainders, the value 15 attributable to the life tenant is 65 percent of 16 the value of the property. 17 The department staff, working with 18 Mr. Donnell has developed a division of the ranch 19 whereby Mr. Donnell would receive approximately 20 18,000 acres and the department would receive 21 12,747 acres. 22 The difference between the appraised 23 value of the 12,000 acres and the department's 24 entitlement will be paid to Mr. Donnell. The 25 12,000 acres is in the southern portion of the .0098 1 ranch adjacent to Big Bend Ranch and includes the 2 more scenic portions of Terneros Creek and the 3 associated canyon lands. The upland portion of 4 the 12,000 acres is in good condition and similar 5 to comparable parts of Big Bend Ranch. 6 An excellent example of a cottonwood 7 gallery forest is also included in the 4.7 miles 8 of Terneros Creek. The 12,747 acres is a logical 9 addition of Big Bend Ranch adding significant 10 habitat and recreational opportunity while not 11 incurring additional operating expenses. Staff 12 recommends the adoption of the motion as shown in 13 your agenda item. 14 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 15 Mr. Herring. Are there any questions of the 16 members? Did you want to add something, 17 Mr. Sansom? 18 MR. SANSOM: Yes. I would like to 19 just say, members, that Mr. Rice and his wife 20 were wonderful friends of our department and 21 long-time neighbors. Mrs. Rice was an artist 22 whose works are displayed in Marfa. Mr. Rice was 23 a close associate with our employees out there. 24 In fact, Luis Armendariz was a very close friend 25 of Mr. Rice. .0099 1 I believe that this transaction will 2 honor his wishes, but at the same time create an 3 additional opportunity to be good neighbors with 4 Mr. Donnell, who is also named in the estate. 5 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Well, it's a 6 very special gift that Mr. Rice has made to the 7 people of Texas and one that I think we all 8 greatly appreciate. 9 And I think Mr. Donnell has achieved 10 a good result in his work with the department 11 here. And I think that many, if not all of the 12 commissioners, have been to Big Bend Ranch State 13 Park and we can appreciate that this will be a 14 great addition. Thank you. 15 Hearing no questions, the Chair 16 would entertain a motion for approval of this 17 recommendation of staff. 18 COMMISSIONER WATSON: So moved. 19 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Motion by 20 Commissioner Watson. Is there a second? 21 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Second. 22 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Second by 23 Commissioner Angelo. Any further discussion? 24 All in favor say aye; those opposed 25 nay. Motion carries. Thank you. .0100 1 (Motion passed unanimously.) 2 "The Executive Director is authorized to take 3 all steps to consummate the acceptance and 4 purchase of approximately 12,747 acres of the 5 La Mota Ranch, Presidio County, as an addition 6 to Big Bend Ranch State Park." 7 AGENDA ITEM NO. 14: ACTION - LAND 8 ACQUISITION - CAMERON COUNTY (LAS PALOMAS 9 WMA). 10 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: And our last 11 item is an action item. Land acquisition in 12 Cameron County. Mr. Bauer. 13 MR. BAUER: Good morning, my name is 14 Jack Bauer with the Land Conservation Program. 15 Wildlife division staff of the Las Palomas 16 Wildlife Management Area manage Resaca de la 17 Palma State Park and the Brasil Unit near 18 Brownsville as native brush habitat and 19 cropland. 20 A 25-acre adjacent cropland tract 21 has become available and is recommended as a 22 white-winged dove habitat addition. Staff 23 recommends the Commission consider the motion 24 before you to acquire the tract as an addition to 25 the Las Palomas Wildlife Management Area using .0101 1 white-winged dove stamp revenue. 2 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 3 Mr. Bauer. Any questions? I think a number of 4 us have seen that tract. And it's an exciting 5 prospect for management for the white-winged 6 dove. 7 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Move approval. 8 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you, 9 Commissioner Angelo. 10 COMMISSIONER RYAN: Second. 11 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: And second by 12 Commissioner Ryan. Any further discussion? All 13 in favor say aye; those opposed nay. Motion 14 carries. Thank you, Mr. Bauer. 15 MR. BAUER: Thank you. 16 (Motion passed unanimously.) 17 "The Executive Director is authorized to take 18 all steps necessary to acquire approximately 19 25 acres in Cameron County as an addition to 20 the Brasil Unit of the Las Palomas Wildlife 21 Management Area using white-winged dove stamp 22 revenue." 23 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: With that, we 24 conclude the business of the Commission at this 25 public hearing. .0102 1 And the Commission yesterday stood 2 in recess from its committee meetings. And I 3 would like to announce that pursuant to the 4 requirements of Chapter 551 of the Government 5 Code, referred to as the Open Meetings Law, an 6 executive session will be held at this time for 7 the purpose of consideration of land 8 transactions. 9 Mr. Sansom, as parliamentarian, is 10 it appropriate for us now to adjourn the 11 hearing? 12 MR. SANSOM: We would essentially 13 recess and go into executive session. And once 14 you're complete, you will need to come back down 15 here and adjourn. 16 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: Thank you. I 17 wanted to be sure we did it in the right order. 18 We appreciate all of you being here 19 today. Thank you. 20 (Whereupon, an executive 21 session was held, after 22 which, the following 23 proceedings were had:) 24 VICE-CHAIR DINKINS: We'll resume 25 the Commission Meeting, and unless there is an .0103 1 objection, we'll stand adjourned. Thank you very 2 much. 3 (HEARING ADJOURNED.) 4 *-*-*-*-* 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 .0104 1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 2 STATE OF TEXAS ) 3 COUNTY OF TRAVIS ) 4 5 I, MELODY RENEE DeYOUNG, a Certified Court 6 Reporter in and for the State of Texas, do hereby 7 certify that the above and foregoing 45 pages 8 constitute a full, true and correct transcript of 9 the minutes of the Texas Parks and Wildlife 10 Commission on APRIL 6, 2000, in the Commission 11 hearing room of the Texas Parks and Wildlife 12 Headquarters Complex, Austin, Travis County, 13 Texas. 14 I FURTHER CERTIFY that a stenographic record 15 was made by me a the time of the public meeting 16 and said stenographic notes were thereafter 17 reduced to computerized transcription under my 18 supervision and control. 19 WITNESS MY HAND this the 10TH day of MAY 20 2000. 21 22 MELODY RENEE DeYOUNG, RPR, CSR NO. 3226 Expiration Date: 12-31-00 23 3101 Bee Caves Road Centre II, Suite 220 24 Austin, Texas 78746 (512) 328-5557 25 EBS NO. 40482 .0105 1 2 3 Carol E. Dinkins, Vice Chair 4 5 6 Dick W. Heath 7 8 Nolan Ryan 9 10 11 Ernest Angelo, Jr. 12 13 John Avila, Jr. 14 15 16 Alvin L. Henry 17 18 Katharine Armstrong Idsal 19 20 21 Mark E. Watson, Jr. 22 23 *-*-*-*-* 24 25
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