Can Texas wildlife handle another year of drought?

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.

exotics exist in only certain regions of texas. not like they are statewide.

and exotics like axis deer are primarily grazers, they switch to browse when times get tough,not vice versa. Whitetails don't eat grass

The term "handle" is a bit subjective. One extreme is , no they can't handle it and all will die. The other is that they will get a bit thirsty, but all will be fine. I think the drought has already had a significant affect in recruitment and a less than top shelf healthy herd. More of the same weather this year will only deepen that situation. We'll see age group gaps for a variety of reasons. The affects of this will be with us for several years to one extent or another.

That said, we have fed both corn and protein year around on our place. Though a lot of our natural browse suffered, we have received just enough rain at the right times to keep some alive and growing.....weak, but there. We dozed a big new tank last year that actually filled and remains in good shape. Most of our other main tanks are in good shape also. About 2" of rain this week has helped. It's not what it could be in our area, but we are hanging in there.

Exactly. We weren't supposed to have had any rain this year either but it's been wetter than predicted.

Forecasters generally can't predict this type of thing unless there is El Nina or El Nino going on. The ONE exception is a Limey that uses solar/gamma predictive models to good effect. His service is expensive though and not perfect either. He decries global warming also.

We just got 3/4 this week. Mesquite is starting to bud and the wheat field might be ok.

[quote=Creek Henry...Exactly. We weren't supposed to have had any rain this year either but it's been wetter than predicted....
[/quote]

Painting with a pretty broad brush there fellow. There is a lot more to Texas then your backyard.

It hasn't been wetter around here. If we don't get a decient rain around here soon the Medina river is going to quit flowing again in Bandera and I am going to have to start hauling water.

The short answer is, they have to. When I was in Tucumcari last year it hadnt rained there in 16 months at the time and the people didn't talk about how bad it was or if they were gonna make it they just did it, the wildlife will do the same. Some will die, strong will survive and pastures will burn and come back greener and help boost the health of the ones that made it. It's the way it is, we deal with it learn from it and prepare better for next time.

Look at it this way fellas,,every day your one day closer to a flood. I got mine this week with the 5" I got.

I don't put much stock in long term forecasts. Seen them wrong more than right..Nothing you can do about it anyway.

I know our place in Jim Hogg is dead nothing but sandy dust. Weather predictions are about as accurate as a final 4 pick in December, but like 1 guy said 1 day closer to some rain.

Or as some say- "We are one day farther away from the last rain".

.....or we got a bunch of rain earlier in the week......

No

At some point you can dig a well with some sort of pump as hauling water is an endless job. But the vegetation is on its own.

Not true in all areas of the state. I have property were water is 4,000' deep and now of other areas were water is 5,000' deep just for drinking water. Just to drill a well you are now talking $300,000 or more. I know of an area were guys will not even attempt to drill a well.

Then the second it quit you are into the start of the next drought period....

There's something to be said for hunting deer in the rainforest instead of the desert

Forecasted for a week long drought

Yeah in the desert we have more quality bucks than in the rain forest...

They don't have a problem living in the RF.

We have an 80% chance tonight and Sunday that it won't rain....followed by another 80% chance it won't rain on Wednesday that will improve to a 60% chance it won't rain on Thursday.

They do not have that problem here either since there are more of them...they metabolize the needed moisture thru plants.

Plants have to have it to live too.....just sayin'

More deer ---- less moisture ----more competition for surviving plants ----- no water = disaster

Most of the plants in South Texas are from the legume family that have adapted to the climate. They have a taproot.

That is why we manage the herd.

Those lovely pines that you adore have tap roots

Yeah I know....what value do they have for your wildlife again? Those desert plants provide nutrition for all wildlife...can you say legume?

i learned here that east texas deer lived off of pine needles and oak leaves

Right now it looks like we will find out.

You should see the ones that are on a strict cypress diet

I think what he is trying to say Is that once again south Texas is better

Better deer, better quail, better dove, bass fishing is better, our women have more teeth and better tans,etc

The real question is. Can Texas hunters handle another year of drought? It is probably taking a bigger toll on stressed out hunters worrying about it.

The rising cost of protein feed is worrisome

Well...ya got the deer part right... Goat-like creatures are all that's suited to live there

Just where did those East Texas deer come from again?

Etx, Stx and KS, just better hunters in ETX back in the day to put that big of a dent in the population

Lol.. Best statement on the board this year

Anyone can shoot them in bar ditches

And at night all year long

We can only see 100yds in the big woods and the cream of the crop got-r-don....the deer from other locations were willing to go and face sure death to get more yearly rainfall.

Those deer from other locations that where forced into relocation to East Texas felt as if they were sent to prison and given the death penalty

They were given the death penalty, but they felt as if they were hearing their hooves click on the streets of gold....

Actually it was streets of copper and lead, followed by the clicking of a saftey into the fire position....

Remember, these deer willingly loaded themselves onto trailers on their on accord.....no one said they were smart.

In history you should have also learned that the "El Camino Real" started as a deer trail from deer traveling to the Nac area

That is what the dumb culls opted for over staying down here.

The bridge washed out in a flood stopping the blood bath.

No such thing as a cull in them days

Culling started a long time ago in South Texas.

392 more to go for 30k

Not back in the 20s with deer....

Not hap'nin' this week...going to go home for a week or so

Yep in Atascosa County they started right around the 30's.

The Tx Revolution doesn't count

Dang I might make some ground up then.

Probably will

[quote=smh264]Is there an option where humans make a difference in a drought that is nearly state-wide? If there is ground water and some sort of supplemental feeding the adult deer should be okay. It's the fawn crop that will suffer. I saw very few fawns this past season and I'm expecting much of the same this year. If conditions continue, which I'm sure they will. You have to remember, that even though a doe is bred, she will abort the pregnancy in order to survive by using what little nutrition is available for herself and not a developing fetus. Not all the does in a given area will abort but those does that are a little less healthy more than likely will in order to survive and wait for conditions to improve enough to allow her to carry to full term. Some does may not even breed at all. What does all this mean? Less fawns in a given year= gaps in a given age structure.

Forecast

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/season_drought.gif

Yep, South and West Texas are going to stay dry. I dont' think you could consider them damp very many years over the past century though. West Texas will always be desert-like so what little rain that does fall is quite valuable.

I had hopes that la nina lessening would change the weather patterns dramatically, but it doesn't seem to really work that way. I can't imagine someone ranching in that part of the world but I know some folks like a challenge!

Maybe we will get a real hurricane this year!

For most wildlife it may be to late by that time. Fill lakes and ponds up for a change but not do much good for our suffering landscape.

Sooo...we've gotten about 3hrs of hvy sprinkle the past 2 mornings...

Agree but it would be nice to get the water tables back up and water in the lakes out west. Deer are very resilant and I bet they will do just fine given some time and water. Actually, I see nothing wrong with deleting alot of our heard in Texas. I may get crucified on that statement but less deer should equate to better quality in my mind.

thats a broad generalization.

some places have already taken a big hit population wise.

Your right too. But my point was that there are alot of areas that a thinning may not be a terrible thing. Also, don't get me wrong, I want it to rain as much as anybody. My lease is dry as a bone and we suffered pretty bad two years ago.

We need to thin herds out with bullets not droughts

Sooooo.....it's raining again.....

Having been hunting for 41 years, the drought to me is just natures way of trying to balance the scales. I have seen several die offs and at first it hurts but then those that make it through the drought will be the better quality animals.