The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission on Jan. 21 authorized the department to seek public comment on a suite of proposed wildlife and hunting related regulations that would expand special buck antler restrictions and liberalize antlerless harvest opportunities in dozens of counties, part of a broader move to transition away from political boundaries and toward biologically-based communities for managing deer populations.

Game wardens in the Special Operations Unit of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Law Enforcement Division have arrested six men and executed two search warrants as part of Operation Texas Shuffle, a year-long investigation into the black market deer trade in Texas.
“Our focus here is stopping two main areas of criminal activity: deer being brought illegally across state lines, and wild deer being illegally laundered into deer breeding facilities,” said Col. Pete Flores, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department law enforcement director.

The following are excerpts from recent Texas Parks and Wildlife Department law enforcement reports.

A Texas man and a Minnesota man were both sentenced to federal prison terms yesterday for illegally transporting white-tailed deer across state lines.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has transitioned away from political boundaries for the purpose of monitoring white-tailed deer populations and toward biologically-based communities or Resource Management Units (RMUs).

Seventeen lucky sportsmen are making special plans for hunting season as winners of this year’s Big Time Texas Hunts. The hunters were selected by random computer drawing from applicants in the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department program.

"They advertise this as a hunt of a lifetime and I would agree," exclaimed Bridgers upon returning from three days of hunting desert bighorn sheep in the rugged mountains of West Texas. "This was probably the most physically demanding hunt I’ve ever been on, but it was also the most rewarding. I would never have the resources to buy a desert bighorn hunt, so I got mine the lucky way!"

"This is the first time we’ve had so many rural communities to participate in the Community Outdoor Outreach Program, said Darlene Lewis, program director. "We recognize there is as much need in the smaller communities as in our larger cities and it’s nice to see more communities taking advantage of this program."

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, at its March 26 meeting, adopted changes to hunting and fishing regulations designed to create additional recreational opportunities while effectively managing the state’s natural resources.