AUSTIN — In 2016, there were more than 35 boating fatalities and hundreds of boat accidents and injuries on Texas waters. As part of National Safe Boating Week May 20-26, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department boater education and law enforcement staff are reminding Texans to be safe Memorial Day weekend and all summer long by following the law and taking basic safety precautions while on the water.
HOUSTON – Trading on the internet can be a wild experience with deals on practically anything and everything one can imagine just a click away. Some online sellers in the Houston area learned this week that illegal sales of wildlife products can become high ticket items.
AUSTIN – The state’s top land conservation award typically goes to a private ranch, but this year the honoree is a North Texas-based nonprofit which manages not one, but six different ranches, all of them devoted to demonstrating how good land management using cattle grazing can lead to more and better water for people and wildlife.
TEXAS—The Texas Trustee Implementation Group (TIG) is working to restore the Texas coast along the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and is seeking public comment on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Texas Trustee Implementation Group Draft 2017 Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment: Restoration of Wetlands, Coastal, and Nearshore Habitats; and Oysters. The draft plan, published May 18, 2017, proposes a suite of restoration projects to compensate for injuries to natural resources caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Texas TIG reviewed more than 800 restoration projects suggested by the public, state and federal agencies, and other various stakeholders. Of these projects, the Texas TIG included 13 preferred projects in the draft restoration plan and environmental assessment.
AUSTIN— The upcoming hunting seasons may still be months away, but starting today you can enter the Big Time Texas Hunts drawing to win one or more of nine premium guided hunt packages. These exclusive packages include food, lodging, a professional guide, as well as taxidermy in some cases.
The following items are compiled from recent Texas Parks and Wildlife Department law enforcement reports.
BALMORHEA— Starting Memorial Day weekend, Balmorhea State Park will be limiting its day-use visitation to 1,300 park goers per day. This change is a new effort at Balmorhea to preserve the delicate resources at the park-including some threatened and endangered species- as well as the quality of experience park visitors expect to have.
AUSTIN – A case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been validated in a captive white-tailed deer at another breeding facility in Medina County. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) are conducting an epidemiological investigation into this new case.
AUSTIN- The Gulf of Mexico commercial shrimp season for both Texas and federal waters will close 30 minutes after sunset on Monday, May 15 until a still-to-be determined date in July.
ATHENS – Over the 31-year history of the Toyota ShareLunker program, few fish have made as many headlines as the five largemouth bass entered this season. With two landmark genetic connections, two reservoirs producing their first 13-pound or larger ShareLunker bass, and a new water body record set at a lake not often considered to be a largemouth bass fishery, the anglers who caught and donated these fish made their mark on Texas fishing this year.