Dale Rollins: February 2005 Archives
In case you haven't heard, TPW is proposing at its April Commission hearing the adoption of a MLQP. The wording of the proposal is attached at the end of this narrative.
If a landowner files a TPW management plan and conducts practices X, Q, & Z (one of which would be a pre-season population estimate), he would qualify to double the bag limit on his property. According to top TPW officials, the intent of the plan is to promote more intensive quail management. The program is voluntary, as is the opportunity to double the bag limit if you meet the stated criteria.
Below, see Mike Leggett's article on same in Sunday's Austin American-Statesman (similar articles appeared in Sunday's Dallas Morning-News and Tyler Morning Telegraph). While it's being touted as a habitat-based incentive, I predict a major black eye for TPW on this one from the landowner, conservation, quail professional, and hunting communities. The idea of doubling the bag limit will be the bathwater that results in getting the baby (good habitat management) thrown out I'm afraid.
I received this question via e-mail today (23 Feb 05) from a quail hunter whose lease is in Concho County, near Millersview.
I have a situation that I'd like to share, in the hope that you might have some comments. We have a real nice 1800 acre habitat, and a very sizable quail population, finding an average of 8-10 coveys in a 3 hour walk with dogs. In mid-January, our nice quail population virtually disappeared, over the space of one week. We didn't hunt them out obviously, nor was there a weather factor that could have wiped out so many birds so quickly. The rancher had salted the pasture road that week with some 10-year old wheat that was dry and very hard. It didn't look moldy, but it laid on the road for a month, uneaten for the most part. I'm wondering why doves or other birds in the area haven't eaten it, and suspicious that the wheat may have done our quail in. Do you have any thoughts or experiences that might help to explain what happened to our quail, maybe related to bad grain? We have more of the wheat, if you think it should be tested.
