Summer 2016

TEXAS LAND / Market
TEXAS WILDLIFE ASSOCIATION
MAKING TWA EVEN BIGGER AND BETTER
BY DAVID YEATES, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
As most outdoor-minded Texans are aware, Texas had its first
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) finding in white-tailed deer in
June 2015. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD)
and the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) responded
immediately by halting all permitted movement of deer.
With broad stakeholder input, emergency rules were enacted
quickly to maintain business and management continuity for
those who use special permits (Captive Deer Breeding, Deer
Management; Trap, Transport & Transplant; and Trap, Transport
& Process) to move deer. Those rules were adopted by the
TPWD Commission on an interim basis to get through the 2015-
16 deer hunting season, with the stated intent of revisiting the
rules post-season when there was more testing information
available and more time to spend working through the rules’
intricacies.
By the close of the 2015-16 hunting season, additional
white-tailed deer CWD positives were located at the original
detection site, at a ranch a few miles west of that site and at
a breeding facility that had purchased positive deer from the
original detection site. Surveillance for CWD during the hunting
season reached an historic high with more than 7,000 samples
collected from breeding pens and more than 10,000 samples
collected outside of breeding pens across the state.
With that sampling in hand and a season of operation under
the interim rules for perspective, TWA joined several other
stakeholders in a series of working meetings with TPWD
and TAHC to craft rules governing CWD surveillance of
artificial movement of any deer in Texas. TWA’s goal was to
avoid creating undue risk of spreading CWD while providing
reasonable continuity for all deer managers and business
operators across the state.
The working group submitted a report to the TPWD
Commission with recommendations, items of consensus, and
items without consensus. TPWD staff and its Commission
took that report under advisement and issued proposed rules
following its March 24 meeting for
public comment. As of this writing, the
Commission will adopt final rules at its
May 26 meeting.
The proposed rules allow for liveanimal
testing to be incorporated into the
surveillance regime along with options for
different rates of post-mortem testing to provide flexibility to permit
holders and their individual business models. TWA has taken the
position that testing options should maintain a high confidence of
probability of detection, whatever the blend may be.
TWA was steadfast in our position that all deer releases
should be restricted to high-fence enclosures only. Until the
emergency rules were enacted last summer, low-fence releases
were allowed. Texas is the only state to have allowed that, so it
seems prudent to discontinue that practice. The proposed rules
reflect that position.
TWA has also taken the position that visible, external
identification is paramount to a reliable biosecurity system.
This is even more important in light of the ability to co-mingle
captive-bred deer with wild (pasture born and bred) deer here
in Texas.
Current statute requires only an ear tattoo in released deer.
Unfortunately those tattoos are unreliable, oftentimes fade or
fail, and are not clearly visible from a distance. We believe there
are viable options to provide reliable identification that will not
adversely impact business owners and game managers. At
the time of this writing, we are actively encouraging the TPWD
Commission and the deer breeding community to move toward
adopting those identification systems for the health of all Texas
deer and all deer hunting interests, commercial or otherwise.
The “deer debates” have been contentious for many years,
but I truly believe that we are closer to finding a meaningful and
mutually acceptable solution than we have ever been. While
the long hours spent in the working group were taxing, they
helped foster a better understanding of the issue and the many
perspectives around the table. It reaffirmed that difficult issues
are best handled through teamwork and mutual respect for
diverse viewpoints.
If you are interested in learning more on this issue please
feel free to contact me at dyeates@texas-wildlife.org for
more details.
TEXAS LAND BROKERS NETWORK BY TYLER JACOBS, PRESIDENT
Mix a wet Texas spring, an oil and gas economy on life support,
an ever changing demographic among the Texas landscape,
and what do you get? The consensus among our TLBN
professional membership is that we just don’t see any particular
pattern. There are some strong sales, even in the markets
driven by agricultural commodities, but there have also been
some properties discounted rather deeply to get them moved.
As reported last time, values seem to be ever dependent on
location and quality especially among
the larger ranches. Transaction volume
has been fair, and probably larger than
previous quarters. Again, there seems to be some evidence
of oil and gas minerals being included to consummate a sale.
Interest rates are still low, and there is an abundance of cash
purchasing power in the market, but will the demand hold out?
Contact your TLBN broker today, and get the details!
TEXAS ALLIANCE OF LAND BROKERS BY DAVID FAUST, PRESIDENT
September 28 - Speaker Matt Wagner with Texas Parks
and Wildlife will give us the latest on the 2016/2017
hunting season, CWD updates, and TPWP programs.
This meeting will be held at Old 300 BBQ in Blanco, TX.
October 26 - Speaker Dan Hatfield will give us
the current legislative report and updates on the
upcoming election at Buzzie’s BBQ in Kerrville, TX.
November 16 - Speaker Ken Maxwell and January
Wiese will talk to us on the booming wine industry in
the Texas Hill County at the Torre di Pietra Vineyards
in Fredericksburg, TX.
December - Christmas party details will be
available soon and will take the place of our
December meeting.
Thanks again to our hard working and committed members and especially Jane Brown. See you at our next meeting!