TPWD seeks comments on MLQP

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The proposed Managed Lands Quail Program (MLQP) is offered primarily to encourage the production of more and better quail habitat. It is hoped that this program will be an incentive to landowners/land managers to produce more and better quail habitat on the land under their stewardship, and that in doing so they would have the option of an increased individual bag limit if they so desire. Hopefully, this program will encourage some landowners to feature quail as their cornerstone species in the future.
The proposed MLQP very closely follows the Commission’s direction over the last 14-15 years to offer additional hunting opportunity for hunters and more flexibility to landowners/land managers as long as the resource (quail) can handle it.
As a professional wildlife biologist, and experienced land and wildlife manager, I believe that this is one of the best proposals that has come forward to improve our quail habitat and populations statewide. This entire program is based on habitat improvement. I do not believe that this program will hurt quail populations or distribution in Texas in any manner. Land and wildlife managers in this program will not abuse this program or over-harvest their quail population. This program REQUIRES the production of more and better quail habitat.
The proposed program is totally voluntary; if you do not want in it, do not get in it. Landowners in this program will control and manage the number of hunters and the quail harvest on their property very carefully, and will be required to keep and report quail population and harvest data as part of their wildlife management plan.
The criteria for this program have not been finalized, but I am thinking that at least initially a landowner/manager should be required to be in a good, approved quail habitat management program for 2-3 years BEFORE he would be granted the flexibility of an increased bag limit. Something along that line is what we typically have done in our “managed lands” programs. I believe that our staff and their contacts will develop a list of 10-12 habitat and management criteria from which a cooperating landowner will be required to implement 5-6 practices and achieve positive habitat results in order to qualify for the program.
The concept of managed lands programs and incentives is not new or experimental in Texas. Texas has almost 15 years experience with this type program. It is a proven and accepted success model that results in better habitat for wildlife, and increased management flexibility and options for the land manager. The fundamental principle in this program is that landowners and land managers in Texas control and decide how their habitat will be managed, and who hunts on their property, and what is to be harvested on their property. We continue to look for ways to encourage land managers to produce more and better habitat for all wildlife species.
No one knowledgeable about quail believes that the hunter’s daily bag limit of 15 birds in Texas is responsible for the decline in quail populations in Texas or across the nation. It is primarily because there is less habitat and/or that the habitat is of poorer quality for quail.
I welcome better ideas and suggestions to produce more and better habitat for quail and/or other wildlife. We invite the critics of this proposal who truly have the resource’s best interest at heart to work with us to create a better plan than what we now have.

Thank you.
RLC
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