long term weather forcasts don't look good for rainfall. Much of the state looks like the scorched earth, alot of range isn't getting water or feed supplementation, and wildlife has already been impacted.


Do you think the states wildlife can sustain another year of drought?

Natural selection-mother nature is a b@tch. It will be years to recover from this drought

It has happened before in the past and will happen again. Over-populated areas will be set back to below normal CC. Browse levels will be hurt but most of those plants are drought tolerant just overgrazed in many areas. With many ranges over CC it is those areas that will take the biggest hits. Some areas have been in a 15 yr drought already. More people manage today than in the past. More water wells and deeper tanks in a lot of areas. More hunters feed year round. The recovery period if it does get really bad again will depend on what people have done since the last one and in the coming season(s) with their pop numbers. Most of the state is way over populated.

They'll survive, but you may have age gaps in your structure. We are looking purdy good.

We were way down last season In Brown co. Can't imagine it being any better this coming yr.. quail , rabbits coyotes are all down to minimal numbers on our lease west of Odessa. If it wasn't also the only place I have to shoot rifles and take my son out in the country near home I wouldn't even keep that lease.. other than that the nearest place I have to hunt with my son is brownwood at 3.5 hrs away.. headed to brownwood tomorrow , hoping for some activity on game cameras..

what do you hunt at the lease in odessa?

I don't know but just got home from Rocksprings and it is scorched dried earth out there. Very little greenery, dried grass and dust. Gotta' be tough on the creatures. Glad I've got a water tank for things to drink, but it doesn't help the flora any.

I think the worst part of the drought now is the large population of hogs/exotics. Hogs will eat anything and most exotics will graze on grass when times are lean. The whitetail are the ones who suffer the most.

I dont pay attention to any forcast beyond 10 days. I have seen them be wrong to many times.

I remember when Sam Rayburn got almost 20' low several years back. All the so called experts said it may never be full again. Within weeks of those predictions it was full again. Lavon was the same way and it filled back up almost overnight.

I also remember forcasters saying that the year after Katrina our hurricane season would be even worse than that year. Well not only did that prediction not come true but it was one of the most uneventfull huricane seasons on record.

Mother Nature has a way of always correcting its self.

And Psychic predictions havent proven any better that meteorologists predictions either.

The weather goes in cycles, When we first got our place in Junction in '97, it rained like crazy the first couple of years. Someone was always getting stuck, State Troopers would have Hwy-83 shutdown due to flooding, the grass was thigh high we were thinking that was normal.

It all depends on what La Nina and El-Nino are up to.

We need rain but we're looking pretty good so far, the tanks are full and pastures are starting to green up.

i just got back from san angelo, that country looked terrible. of course its still cold up there, spring hasn't really hit yet

The wildlife will make it, same as they always have. It sure looks bad though and the dust is a killer.

Dosnt it always look like that? lol

I guess he has never been to Angelo before Nav, they have been in a 15+ year drought period now

Loss of browse, cover, etc continues to be a problem but the gorilla in the room is tank water. What rainfall we have had in the last two years has been extremely spotty and some tanks are drying up. I was able to hold deer in some parts of the ranch last year by hauling water to some areas were the water was gone but my neighbor still had mud puddles but there is a limit as to how much you can do.

I used to hunt near Barnhart. The rancher said they got 6" of rain per year...all in 30 minutes. Any wildlife in that area that can't survive a drought is long gone.

I was in west Texas back in early '50s, this does not come close. Then again, this isn't over.

It is spotty. In the 50's, we got our drinking water from the creek. When it dried up, Dad hauled water from a tank on the ranch to the house. Last summer, the creek dried up again and that tank was only a mud puddle for the hogs.

We'll get rain I predict, based off the insane levels of tree pollen this year.

Mostly positive thinking to keep my depression over the drought at bay.

My tank was brim full last March, I stocked it then and fed the fish and they were coming on nicely, now it has about 2' of water in it .....sucky.

No

no

I bet they do, or die trying

Is there an option where humans make a difference in a drought that is nearly state-wide?

I disagree drought slaughters hogs far more effectively than anything else. They are extremely water tolerant for body heat regulation.