Flood Impact Alert
As floodwaters recede across the state, conditions remain dynamic. Learn about the impact of flooding on state parks, wildlife and lost vessels.
FORT WORTH – With rutting, or deer mating season and also hunting season, deer are moving about more than usual. And as a recent fatality in this area demonstrates, there is a greater risk of damage to your car, serious injury or even death from hitting a deer. Experts offer tips to avoid doing so, or at least tips that could help avoid a more serious crash.
Information from Texas Parks and Wildlife is available on radio and television, as well as the newsstand.
EDITORS NOTE: In this issue of TPWD News, we forsake our usual format for the most part and provide a summary of the top conservation stories of the year. Details about these topics can be found in the online news archive. Please note that TPWD will take its customary two-week annual hiatus from distributing weekly news during the coming holidays. Unless important news develops that is worth sharing, we are not at this time planning to issue news on Dec. 27 and Jan. 3. Our current plan is to resume news distribution on Jan. 10. Happy Holidays!
ZAPATA, Texas — At and around the Falcon Lake area on the Mexican border, game wardens had a busy November.
The following are excerpts from recent Texas Parks and Wildlife Department law enforcement reports.
UNDATED – If you think you can make it across water in the road, think again and opt to take the long way home.
AUSTIN, Texas – Captain and Chief Pilot Lee Finch flew choppers for the military in Vietnam and Bosnia, but as Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s chief pilot, he’s not looking for just a thrill ride anymore. Though some of his work involves chasing bad guys like poachers along the Gulf of Mexico, he says his most rewarding flight has been a wildlife survey in which a team counted bighorn sheep in the Sierra Diablo Mountains.
EL PASO, Texas – In January, dozens of students from Texas and California will board horse-drawn wagons to retrace the route of gold rush adventurer William P. Huff, whose 300,000-word diary shares the most detailed account available of the less-known southern gold rush trail, recounting Huff’s mid-1800’s trip from near Houston to near Fresno, California.
ROCKPORT, Texas — On Nov. 9, a manatee was spotted just outside of Rockport at an area known as Cove Harbor North, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department experts. The manatee was caught on video by some local residents and T.P.W.D. personnel were also on hand to witness this rare sighting. Aransas County Game Warden Danny Flores and Coastal Fisheries Biologist Dennis Pridgen also responded to the sighting.
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is looking to clarify the hunting regulations by standardizing seasons and simplifying rules relating to white-tailed deer and turkey.