The oyster docks are quiet. Instead of bustling activity that typifies a Texas oystering operation, the fishermen sit idly by their boats, and the talk isn’t very uplifting.  A monstrous bloom of toxic algae looming across the Texas coast has shut down oyster season.

At its next meeting on Wednesday, January 25, the Regulations Committee of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission will present proposed amendments to the 2012-2013 Statewide Hunting Proclamation. It will seek permission for them to be published in the Texas Register for public comment.

On Dec. 5, the NRA filed its opening appellate brief on behalf of several law-abiding young adults challenging the federal ban on dealer sales of handguns and handgun ammunition to persons between the ages of 18 and 20. The case is Jennings v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and will be heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. (A similar case challenging Texas' age limit of 21 for issuance of concealed handgun licenses remains pending in the trial court.)

Here are some of the top stories we brought you in the NRA-ILA Grassroots Alert in 2011.  With what will be a critically important 2012, we must increase our efforts to ensure we're prepared to meet the great opportunities and challenges we will face next year.  We will continue to provide you with information in future Alerts to ensure our mutual success.

Talk to any wildlife biologist in the southern United States about wild pigs, and you’re likely to hear something akin to at least one of the following, “They’re the four-legged equivalent of fire ants;” “If the average litter is six, typically eight survive;” “Only a fence that will hold water will hold feral hogs.”