Landowners unite to better manage wildlife

By JULIET BRISKIN | Central Texas Edition

The Simms Creek Wildlife Association pose for a group picture during their annual educational meeting at the La Paloma Ranch. The organization is 20,000+ acres strong and growing. -Staff photo by Briskin

April 11, 2002 -- The Simms Creek Wildlife Association is a group of landowners and hunters from Mills and Lampasas counties that got together a little over a year ago with the goal of improving the wildlife habitat in the area. With the help of Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist Mike Krueger, the Association members ran five census lines three different times last summer to get an idea of where the deer population in that area stood.

Based on the census numbers, Krueger recommended what the kill should be for that year. According to Don Jackson, president of the Association, the goal of this type of program is to "get the deer back, get the numbers balanced and to get the range program working for the number of deer we have per acre."

According to Jackson everyone involved benefits from this type of program. "Not only do we promote the land and get the landowners property more productive, but the deer hunters benefit as well," he said. "If this works we will start having the big deer and the hunters can start chasing the big bucks that are in the 170 to 180 (lbs.) class. Our goal is to bring back wildlife so the landowner can market his property to the hunter."

In addition to deer, the Association is concerned with quail management, range management, fishing, stocking ponds and more. On April 6 the Association hosted an educational meeting at the La Paloma Ranch outside Lometa. The topic of discussion was quail and the improvement of the population.

Dale Rollins, Extension wildlife specialist, spoke to the group about quail in Central Texas and how to bring it back. "These wildlife management associations are a great mechanism to try to reverse the decline of quail," said Rollins.

He asked the group if anyone there was mad at the quail. When all present said no, Rollins asked, "then how come the country looks like it does? If you don't have quail on your property the primary responsibility falls on the person you see in the mirror."

According to Rollins a landowner can have quail and livestock on their property at the same time, but they cannot maximize both. "As a landowner you must prioritize," he said. "Do you want to focus on the livestock or do you want to maximize the quail population on your land?"

The biggest threats to the quail population in Texas according to Rollins are fire ants, lack of cover, habitat, predators, drought and feral hogs. "All those things are increasing in Texas," said Rollins. "What are we going to do to curb them?"

Rollins stated that statewide the bobwhite quail population has declined about five percent annually. "As far as economic impacts go, quail are the driving force behind rural real estate in Texas," he said. "What's the value of a grass lease versus a deer or quail lease worth? In many cases the deer and quail leases have risen above that of the traditional grass lease."

After surveying 250 members of Quail Unlimited on how much they spent on quail hunting in the year 2000, Rollins discovered that the average amount spent was $10,354. "The average QU member owns 4.9 bird dogs and spent $900 in dog food alone," Rollins stated. "The average QU member shot an average of 47 quail that year. If you do the math those birds figured out to be $207 dollars per bird or about $32 an ounce!"

According to Rollins 65 percent of the dollars spent by the QU members were spent in the destination county. "This alone shows how economically important quail is to county economics," he said.

He went on to discuss the variability in the quail population. "About half of the variability in the quail population is the weather," he said. "The other half is the landowner. The landowner through his or her management of the land can mitigate some of the effects of the weather situation."

According to Rollins there are two types of factors on quail -- abiotic and biotic. Abiotic factors on the quail population include the weather and habitat fragmentation. "The beauty of associations such as this one is your goal of trying to slow the fragmentation of habitat down," he said. "You are trying to manage the deer at a landscape level as a collective resource and if we are ever going to be successful at restoring quail this way we cannot do it on a quarter section of land at a time."

The biotic factors include predation, exotics, over hunting, brush control and over grazing. "These things are really affecting the quail situation," he said. "If you are a quail, predation drives your life. They depend on cover for their life."

The overall message Rollins presented was the quail population is in decline and the landowners, if action is taken, can help reverse the trend. It is through associations such as the Simms Creek Wildlife Association that landowners are tapping into the resources available to help improve the land. By working with the Texas Cooperative Extension Service and Texas Parks and Wildlife local associations are learning what it takes to reach their conservation goals. For more information on the Simms Creek Wildlife Association contact Don Jackson at 512-454-0476.