I call it "pissing in the wind". TP&W is concerned with revenue. Quail hunters provide little.

I have looked around trying to find exactly how many Texas Hunting licenses are sold. 1.1 million seems the best estimate.


"Slightly more than 1 million state residents and non-residents hunted in Pennsylvania in 2006, surpassed only by Texas with 1.1 million resident and visiting hunters. Pennsylvanians, though, were more active than Texans and led the nation in days afield."

And all super combo licenses have the $7 upland bird habitat stamp.

Even if only 20% buy a super combo license that is $1.4 million a year. Not chicken feed. I wonder what the Texas Ranchers' Welfare Dept does with the money????


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07182/798452-358.stm#ixzz0fYvhryEl


HHHHHHMMMMMM???

Dr. Dale can only do the research and study. He's very good at it. He then passes the info on. Its up to us, quail hunters, ranch owners/managers, leasers ans leasees to care enough to pay attention and follow thru.

BTW-I have a friend that hunted Boone Pickens ranch as a guest 2 weeks ago. 22 coveys in 5 hours. I get a lot of quail hunting reports from some VERY reliable and dependable hunters. This isnt happening anywhere else in TX (or any other state for that matter) this year.

Management is not brain surjury, it can be done and the bigger we support the Texas Quail Coalition, the better, quicker, and more reliable the info.

quailguy what is ranchers wellfair???? I would like to know, and Im sure the rancher whos place you hunt would like to know also.


HHHHHHMMMMMMMMMM????

x2 Kind of curious on this one too!!

Your money stays in Texas and is spent on ensuring the survival of our quail here. That alone is enough to get me involved. Better than sitting around and doing nothing. I think they have a great thing in the works.

I would have to see a detailed disbursement report after two years before I would give them a dime. Bet the salary report might change your mind. Hopefully, I'm wrong.

Cable

What this is like is what if DU or Delta had only one pot hole to work with, would that bring us more ducks???? I dont think so.
This has to be more broad than one or two places.
If I join does that mean as a member I can hunt T boons ranch for just the cost of my membership??
I mean He11 I helped restock it.

I'm still want to know about the TXranchers wellfare program!!!

Jeff did you get your check yet.... I just check the mail box and I still haven't gotten one.

NO!!! Went down to the NRCS and raised cane about it.. Said they never heard of it

lmao... same thing for me at FSA office...

You guys are funny!!

Cable thanks for the info on the quail coalition. A difference will be made one hunter banding w/ another hunter and so on. Jeff34 your lack of knowledge of quail and quail habitat is embarassing. Definition of welfare (or wellfair) is asking for a helping hand from the government. Such as when one would like the government to put quail on his property.

Not really Jeff makes a huge point, you want to get ranches and land owners involved then find a way to push it into a farm program. Some of the farm programs have had a huge success for wild life over all may be not the entended result but none the less the out come.

You can have all the money and hunters in the world but until you can get landowners involved its doesn't mean a hill of beans.... Take DU as an example... Half thier habit in the US they have worked on came from mainly getting land owners into Farm programs (WRP and FWP).

If you want ranchers to change thier habitat, then its not going to come from lease fees its going to be something that makes up the cost for less cattle, CRP, ect.

No way any ranchers is going to plow up his coastal to plant more sustable quial habitat for a 6-10 dollar an acre quail lease. Unless he has the something else to even out his losses for doing so

I personally think the quail colition is a good thing, after all it's got to start somewhere in the state.There has been a lot of good ideas brought up on this thread, one being getting the state involved.

The state in my opinion will only spend money to get the most bang for their buck, which in this state is deer hunting. Hunting license numbers are down, so with a decreased budget, they have to spend it that makes the most sense, thus deer hunting. I think it's a great idea if the state would, but I really don't think they are willing.

Someone asked what will the Quail Colition do for me, nothing if you don't support it, but maybe just maybe, we might have a chance to turn it around. I know I would rather give my money to a Texas based group, than to out of staters. At least the money will stay in Texas, I hope.

I think the only tangable way to see more wild birds, is to induce the landowners to develop quail habitat on their property. That means that the focus has to shift to upland hunting and not so much deer hunting, and their agricultural practices will have to change to develop habitat condusive to quail. All this will cost money so, the only way I see to do that is to increase the size of the landowners profits, to even think about a change. Hunting is business in Texas, and if you can make more by doing things diffrent, then you might convince others to change their way of thinking.

I am new to forum, so I hope I did not insult anyone, just trying to give a opinion on what I hope is not a dying species.

WELFARE, it is spelled WELFARE.

Oh, you know, that very same Texas Ranchers' Welfare Dept that believes that the landowners of Texas are its core constituency, not the saps that buy Texas hunting licenses, thereby funding the Texas Ranchers' Welfare Dept and paying their salaries, all the while stupidly thinking that HUNTERS ought to be the audience that TPWD is most concerned about.

This is the TPWD that:

Not only allows but encourages landowners to high fence in the game animals that according to TEXAS state law belong to all the people. This allows a private person to sell access to a public resource which they control 100%. No sane person questions a landowner's right to charge a tresspass fee, but I know of no other state that allows anyone to fence in the public's property (wild game animals) with no compensation to the state for the loss of its property.

Did a survey of the hunting publics' feelings and concerns re hunting in Texas. The NUMBER ONE CONCERN was access to hunting land the average guy could afford. So to address this urgent primary worry of Texas hunters the Ranchers' Welfare Dept PUT A LINK ON ITS HOME PAGE TO PRIVATE FOR PROFIT LEASES. The EXACT PROBLEM the survey respondents most complained about was miraculously presented as the solution.

Texas has no real walk-in public hunting program such as Montana, North Dakota, Kansas and many more states. Ever wonder why?? The answer is the TPWD doesn't want to cramp landowners' style. To hell with the hunters, the Ranchers' Welfare Dept couldn't care less.

The problem with this attitude towards hunters and landowners is very obvious in this thread about quail losses.

Why should anyone spend their hard earned cash by joining and contributing to the Texas Quail Coalition (or QU before) when all the benefits of those contributions go to private landowners whose ranches YOU will never set foot upon??? Or if you do set foot on one of those places, you, gentle reader, will pay many times over for that priviledge? Your taxes pay for CRP, your cash funds the Quail Coalition and you get to pay $6-10 an acre for access. What a deal.

NOT.

Problems with Texas quail are many and wide spread and will require landscape level solutions. Why should the average guy pay so a few can benefit from greatly increased quail numbers?

The answer is the average guy is NOT going to pay and so there will NOT be a landscape level solution unless Texas allows the average quail hunter to get in on the benefits as well.

Its simple really. Qui bono? Who benefits? If a person cannot benefit why would they pay?

Quailguy

You contradict yourself on your last post and some of your first.

And since my family has been in the ranching business for over 100 years I still have never seen any checks from TPW.
We get NO MONEY from any Gov funding. I think you are confusing us with FARMERS!!!

Now all I keep trying to say is for this project to succeed it is going to take a all hands on deck approach. One group is just not going to cut it. But if you all want to keep it that way then fine. You can tell your grandkids how you use to drive 300 miles to kill wild quail but we just wouldnt get any other help so now you kids only get to hunt pen birds. . Those D@MN RANCHERS

First Quail Guy all those states mentioned above are strickly volenteer on private land access... Maybe you should see what they get in return before you open your mouth.

Second You example of CRP is a joke... Not even remotely accurate. CRP is to stop soil erroison on less then desirable land and stop the dust bowl from rehappening,and balance the trade boards. SO you don't have to spend 20 dollar for a loaf of bread. Wild life is an extra benefit. Not to mention CRP program pay a 10th of what farming would bring on it. Most farmers know why it was important and see that its a less risky way to deverisfy their income and keep the grain price from crashing up and down ever year.

Your biggest problem is playing poor pitful pearl and not looking at the facts.

No ranchers is going to change his habitat with out incentive, that like me renting out my extra bed room for free. Your $6-10 acre lease money isn't even close to an incentive. The moment he takes out his coastal feilds or hay fields he just lost the hay income and his weater feed source.

The places that have great quail populations are usually those that have less then good cattle land, like south tx and the high plains. It makes since for those ranchers and farmers to make adjustments.

Actually the more I think about no matter what happend you wouldn't be happy unless everyone opened thier front door to you and offered you thier food and beer. Because Say jeff did have a ton of Quail... One of your fellow hunters is going to price you off the property any way. Problem is your only looking at your ability to hunt and not the actual survival of the quial. Guess if you can hunt them it doesn't matter!!! D@MN FARMERS

Another pissing contest.

No just makes me mad. People want to blame things on how people make money.. They don't think of how the rancher actually makes money and feeds his family... Only thing they want to do is point fingures because they don't have hunting access.

Thier are alot of good people out thier that donate to DU, Pheasants forever or buy a license but don't hunt, why becuase they see the benefit to wild life. Their are also a lot of land owners that take pay cuts for wildlife just to help the wild life. Understandbley not every one can do that so why lash out on those that can't. The are entitled to feed thier families also.

Ah, grasshopper, never give someone else power over your mind, or emotions.

i was under the understanding that quialguy was never leasing or hunting in texas again so why is he so concerned with the way it's hunting and tpwd is ran ? am i missing something ?

Im not pissing with anyone. Im defending my family. We have farmed and ranched the Panhandle for 127 years to be exact. I spent a decade of my life on the regulatory side of the USDA, while my wife spent the time on the production side of the USDA. The reasons CRP and LDP and any other govt subsidy or payment was set up was to protect the CONSUMER of the USA, not the producer.



Budreau is probably a millionaire on paper and just works 7 days a week every week of the year for his health.


After all he is one of those greedy landowners.

there are lots of us out there- greedy bastages- i just sit around all year coming up with all kinds of evil ways to rob the quial hunters of their money. ha ha ha (kinda like dr. evil)