A partnership between the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, Playa Lakes Joint Venture and other conservation organizations has recently filled three new Farm Bill wildlife biologist positions in the Texas Panhandle.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will hold initial scoping meetings and take online comments this winter about two possible regulations changes for 2012, depending on stakeholder input—a new state scientific area to protect seagrass in the Laguna Madre near the John F. Kennedy Memorial Causeway in Nueces County, and a clarification of emergency rules to protect fish during coastal freezes.

The Toyota Texas Bass Classic (TTBC), the world championship of professional bass fishing, had to go into overtime to crown a champion. Keith Combs of Huntington, Texas, outlasted Mike Iaconelli of Pittsgrove, New Jersey, in an unprecedented sudden death fish-off.

The recent discovery of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in a captive deer in Missouri underscores the need for vigilance in monitoring whitetails and taking action when questionable deer are discovered in Texas captive breeding facilities.

Texas waterfowlers might have better luck bringing in birds with a divining rod instead of a duck call this hunting season. Wetland habitat conditions throughout waterfowl wintering grounds in Texas have suffered greatly under the drought, and what precious little groceries that remain aren’t expected to hold birds for long.

The slogan of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is “Life’s Better Outside,” and department staff will show visitors to the Toyota Texas Bass Classic in Conroe October 28—30 why that’s so.

Mired in what will undoubtedly be one of the worst droughts on record, white-tailed deer in Texas are facing tough conditions heading into the fall hunting season.

Some 172,000 fish were lost in Fairfield Lake in September in what has become an annual event at the Luminant power plant lake adjacent to Fairfield Lake State Park.

The Toyota Texas Bass Classic (TTBC), the world championship of professional bass fishing, announced its final field of competitors today. The three-day event, to be held on Lake Conroe, combines the top Professional Anglers Association members from the Walmart FLW Tour, Bassmaster Elite Series and Bass Pro Shops PAA Tournament Series.

Effective Sept. 1, qualified individuals can pay to take depredating feral hogs or coyotes from a helicopter under rules adopted by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission.