Sunday, May 19, 2024
Game Wardens cover all 254 counties of Texas.
Tarrant County Game Warden Angel Miller enjoys hunting, and wants to ensure that it is something future generations can continue to take part in for many years to come.
White-tailed deer season is about to start, with bow hunting opening on Oct. 1 and rifle on Nov. 5. While hunters are preparing their gear and deciding on the best spots to hunt this season, Texas game wardens are also getting ready to ensure a fun, safe season for all.
Texas Game Wardens are part of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. More than 550 game wardens serve across the 254 counties in Texas. There are five game wardens covering Tarrant County and one for Parker County.
Tarrant County Game Warden Angel Miller said that one of the biggest concerns that wardens face during hunting season, especially in a populated county like Tarrant, is people knowing where they can and cannot hunt.
“Do you have permission; do you have enough property?” Miller said. “Because Tarrant County does have a city ordinance that basically says if you don’t have a certain amount of acreage, you can’t discharge a bow, and if you don’t have 50 acres, you can’t discharge a rifle.”
Miller said game wardens don’t enforce those ordinances but rather “just kind of make sure you’re being safe and you’re not trespassing on another person’s property.”
But Tarrant County law enforcement could get involved, so it’s important for hunters to make sure they are aware of the laws where they are hunting and make sure they are in a place where they have permission to hunt.
Another concern of game wardens is making sure that every hunter born after Sept. 1, 1971, has completed hunter education. The most common citation given during hunting season is for people not having hunter education.
“We’re getting to the point where, you know, pretty much everyone needs to have it,” said Miller.
Another challenge game wardens and hunters will encounter this season is the new electronic tagging system.
“Beginning with the 2022-23 license year, Texas residents will have the option to purchase a Digital Super Combo that authorizes digital tagging of harvested deer, turkey and oversized red drum,” according to the TPWD website. “The digital license option is available through online purchase online. A digital license holder will not receive a printed license or tags and must understand and abide by the following requirements.”
Hunters are required to have their hunting license with them while hunting, and license info can be found on the TPWD Outdoor Annual app or the My Texas Hunt Harvest app.
Digital tagging must be completed through the MTHH app.
“We’re going to have a little bit of a grace period depending on what’s going on because we’re learning it and the hunters are learning it,” Miller said of the new digital tagging system.
Bag limits are established by county. In Tarrant and Parker counties, the bag limit is four deer, no more than two of them being bucks and no more than two antlerless deer.
The reason behind bag limits is to ensure that the deer population does not become depleted.
“We don’t have a lot of areas left for deer to roam and live and all of that,” said Miller. “So, we don’t want to kill our buck population and then now all we have is does and they can’t reproduce. The whole point of these bag limits and laws that we enforce is to make sure that we have these populations for future generations and to make sure that hunting is still something that people want to get involved with.
“If we never let deer get bigger than a six point … some of our trophy hunters who do want to put that big ol’ buck on the wall, they’re not going to be interested in it,” she said. “They’re not going to put the money into buying a hunting license, which helps fund all of our outdoor activities in Texas. So, it’s kind of like that cycle of hunting not only helps with deer populations, but it encourages other outdoor activities because of the funding that hunters spend on doing it.”
For landowners, another concern during hunting season is trespassers who come onto their property without permission to hunt.
“The best thing [for property owners] would be to contact your local game warden and say, hey, I found this feeder or game camera, whatever it is, on my property; it’s not mine and I don’t want people hunting on here and I do want them to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Miller said. “Then the game wardens can come in, set up our own cameras, kind of see who is coming on the property.”
If someone is found to be trespassing on property with the intent to hunt deer, it is a felony.
For more information on hunting laws and regulations and hunter education courses in Texas, visit www.tpwd.texas.gov/.
