Posted 7:48 pm Thursday, January 22, 2009
Legislative Season Always Has An Impact On Hunting And Fishing
It is a different type of season for hunters and fishermen in Texas, one that fortunately only arrives every other year.
During this four-month season, hunting and fishing leaves the fields and lakes and moves below the Capitol dome in Austin.
While sitting in a deer blind or over a crappie hole, hunters and fishermen may not realize it, but they are affected by the Texas Legislature. Sometimes it comes in the form of special interest legislation or a mandate from politicians. It can also come in the form of budget constraints on Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, which is told by the legislature not how to spend its money, but how much it can ultimately spend in a year.
It is early in the session and there is still a lot of confusion in the House where committee assignments are uncertain following the election of Joe Straus as speaker of the House.
"So far, so good," said Carter Smith, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's executive director about the beginning of the legislative session. "It is so early in the session it is hard to tell what is going to crop up."
When the legislature is in Austin, Smith and other TPWD staff members forge a trail between their South Austin headquarters and the Capitol downtown. Although unable to lobby for legislation, staff members are often sought to testify on bills that either impact the agency or the state's natural resources.
While there hasn't been any major wildlife or fisheries bills introduced, there is one issue that has had the department on its toes for months. TPWD is going through Sunset Revue, a legislative process every agency goes through to determine if that agency is still necessary and what can be done to improve it.
TPWD has had its ups and downs in recent years, most of which have been tied to bookkeeping methods. With a lot of that behind them, it appears that the agency is going to have an easier time with its review this go around.
Smith said the committee looking at the department is currently completing its recommendations for improvement and one of the key suggestions is an effort to improve the control over exotic and invasive aquatic plant species coming into the state.
"Right now we are spending millions of dollars and a lot of man hours working with other agencies and water authorities to control these invasive species," Smith said.
The biggest threat to Texas waterways is currently giant salvinia, but the department and other agencies are constantly working to control hydrilla and water hyacinth as well.
The department maintains a list of which plants may not be brought in for aquariums, water gardens and other uses. The problem is the list is in continual flux, but too slowly for what is arriving.
Following a suggestion of the Sunset Commission, Carter said the department is likely to switch to a list that contains only the approved vegetation. Anything else must receive approval to be brought in.
Smith said another change that could come from review is that Texas might join 30 other states in an interstate license compact. The bottom line of this move would be that TPWD hunters from other states who violate minor game laws and hunters from Texas who violate similar laws in other states would be treated the same as if they had gotten a speeding ticket.
"Now when wardens confront an out-of-state resident who has violated a minor law, the wardens have to take them to a Justice of the Peace or magistrate and process them immediately," Smith said. "This provides a means where wardens can write them a ticket and send them on their way. When they go home they have to correspond with us. If they don't we have the ability to revoke their license and in their home state they could suffer a similar circumstance."
Conversely, the estimated 250,000 fishermen and 70,000 hunters from Texas who travel to other states would be treated similarly.
Outside of the Sunset Review the department faces another battle for park funding, and in a year with state revenue down this could be a tough one.
Because of a public push, the department received additional funding for parks in 2007. More importantly it received authority to spend the money.
There has already been legislation introduced that would give parks 94 percent of the funds from a state sporting goods tax. The additional 6 percent would go to the Historical Commission to support sites moved from TPWD's Parks Division to the Historical Commission in the last session.
Before that bill gets consideration, legislators are going to have to determine exactly what falls under the tax.
Legislators, whether they hunt or fish, have always targeted TPWD for their constituents. This is no doubt just a start. The legislative season has just begun.
