Non-typical Stuff | Deer Hunting & Management

State of Texas to Pay for Deer-Auto Collisions?

Imagine if the Texas Legislature mandated Texas Parks and Wildlife Department write a $250 check to every person whose motor vehicle collides with a deer on a Texas public road.

We’d be talking about a lot of money. And because that money would almost certainly come from the fund holding revenue from sale of hunting and fishing license fees, the inevitable result would be crippling to TPWD’s ability to do fisheries and wildlife management and research. Those programs are almost exclusively funded from license revenue — no general tax revenue goes to Texas’ wildlife and fisheries programs.

Deer plus cars equals too many accidents

Neither state nor local governments compile figures on how many deer/vehicle collisions occur in Texas. But the insurance industry estimates, based on claims, about 40,000 such accidents in Texas each year.

Between uninsured drivers and insured drivers without comprehensive coverage or opting to not report the accident, the actual number of deer/vehicle collisions in Texas is much higher. Some estimates are that Texas annually sees 100,000 deer/vehicle collisions.

Have to Blame Someone

So let’s be real conservative and say 50,000 deer collisions a year. At $250 per collision, TPWD would be out $12.5 million a year. That’s almost as much as the annual salaries and operating budget for TPWD’s inland fisheries division.

Why should TPWD have to pay money to people who hit a deer? Well, they’re the state’s deer. The state is responsible for them. And TPWD is the state agency charged with managing the deer herd. If one of the state’s deer walks onto a highway, causes an accident and damages a private vehicle, the state should be liable, and, logically, the money should come out of TPWD’s budget.

This is madness, of course. Making the state pay for damages caused by colliding with a deer is like demanding the National Weather Service pay for damage to a car from a freak hailstorm.

Deer are wild animals, and short of exterminating them, the state has no way of preventing a deer or any other wild animal from wandering onto a roadway.

Well, maybe if the state bracketed every road in the state with deer-proof fences. But with cost of building a deer-proof fence running $15,000 or more a mile (that’s $30,000 or more to fence both sides of one mile stretch of highway), no government this side of Qatar can afford, much less justify the expense, to deer-proof even a few miles of road in the most deer-rich areas.

OK, you’re saying, this whole exercise is absurd. What’s the point? Texas has no such law and never will.

Say it Ain’t So

Turns out, some people believe it’s far from absurd. Apparently, a move is afoot to get state legislatures to pass laws making states (and state wildlife and fisheries agencies in particular) financially liable for damages in deer/vehicle collisions.

A couple of weeks ago, a bill was filed in the Missouri General Assembly that, if passed, would force that state’s Department of Conservation (Missouri’s equivalent of TPWD’s wildlife and fisheries divisions) to pay the owner of a vehicle involved in a collision with a deer the first $250 of the cost of repairing the vehicle.

Missouri annually sees at least 9,000 deer/vehicle collisions. So the state’s wildlife agency would be on the hook for about $2.25 million a year, with that money almost certainly coming straight from hunting and fishing license fees.

At first glance, the Missouri proposal might easily be brushed aside as just one of those outrageous pieces of legislation that gets filed because a legislator or an influential constituent has a personal grudge or agenda. Bills like that are filed to make a point, and even their sponsors don’t expect them to pass.

None Yet to Pass

But dig a little deeper, and you find the Missouri bill is not an aberration. A cursory search on the Web turned up four other states — South Dakota, Virginia, Iowa and Indiana — where similar legislation has been filed over the past few years.

The South Dakota bill, which contains language very much like the Missouri proposal, was filed earlier this year, and its fate has yet to be decided. The other bills died a deserved death.

The Indiana bill concerning state liability for deer/vehicle collisions was the most sobering of the lot. That bill, filed in 2002,. would have made the state of Indiana “strictly liable for actual damage to a vehicle and medical expenses caused by the collision of a deer and a vehicle on the highway.”

Conservative estimates put Indiana’s annual deer/vehicle collision at about 11,000. Insurance industry figures say the number is more like 36,000. The average cost of repairs to a vehicle involved in a deer collision, according to the insurance industry, runs about $2,900.

At the low-end estimate of 11,000 deer/vehicle collisions, Indiana would have faced having to pay an estimated $32 million a year just in vehicle repair claims. Indiana officials didn’t even try estimating likely medical costs. The bill didn’t pass.

The moves to try making states pay for damage resulting from drivers plowing into a deer are, if you apply a bit of twisted logic, somewhat understandable in light of today’s someone-has-to-pay mindset.

Accidents are Big Problem

Deer/vehicle collisions are a very real problem. Estimates are that about 1.5 million such collisions happen on U.S. roads each year, resulting in approximately 150 human fatalities. Texas almost annually leads the nation in those fatalities, averaging 15-20 a year.

White-tailed deer populations continue booming. Texas has about 4 million deer, or approximately one deer for every six Texans. And it’s a good bet a very high percentage of the more than 17 million motor vehicles registered in Texas have had close calls with deer and other wildlife.

But blaming the state for those collisions, making the hunting and fishing licence-buying public shoulder the cost while gutting funding for managing natural resources for all residents, is as impractical as it is unfair.

Could Texas ever see an attempt to stick the state with the financial liability of deer/vehicle collisions? Can’t count anything out when the Texas Legislature’s involved.

But considering this is a state where privately owned trucks hauling gravel over public roads are not held liable for the tens of thousands of vehicle windshields they destroy, you’d think Texas legislators wouldn’t even consider trying to stick the state’s hunters and anglers with costs of repairing every car that hits a deer.

Still, it’s obvious someone out there wants to.

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By Shannon Tompkins
Reprinted from the Houston Chronicle

White-tailed Deer Research Continues in Louisiana

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) and Louisiana State University (LSU) Agriculture Center have spearheaded the study with help from various contributors. The study is has entered its second and final year. The primary objectives of the study are to assess range and movements of male and female white-tailed deer, evaluate age and sex-specific harvest rates of white-tailed deer and evaluate survival and causes of death among male and female white-tailed deer in a Louisiana bottomland hardwood forest.

The study is being conducted on approximately 40,000 acres of bottomland hardwood forest located west of Baton Rouge and east of the Atchafalaya Basin. The study area is currently leased to more than 30 private hunting clubs, and each club belongs to a cooperative that promotes quality deer management on the property. Continue reading “White-tailed Deer Research Continues in Louisiana”

Kerr Wildlife Management Area Deer Pen Research

In 1974, a high-fenced research facility was constructed on the Kerr Wildlife Management Area located near Hunt, Texas. The purpose of the research facility was allow the Wildlife Division of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) to study antler growth in native white-tailed deer. The 16-acre facility consists of six 2/3-acre breeding pens, three 4-acre pens, and a series of alleys and chutes to facilitate the handling of research animals.

The orginal breeding pens consisted of seven brood bucks, of which six were spikes, and 5 to 7 does. All deer were native Texas whitetails obtained from various locations throughout the State. No additional deer were added after the fall of 1974 and the herd has been maintained as a closed, pedigreed herd.

The orginal purpose of the pens was to address the following objectives:

1. To determine factors which contribute to antler formation in white-tailed deer.
2. To determine the effect of nutrition level on antler formation and body weight.
3. To determine if deeer that were spike-antlered at 1 1/2-years of age (yearlings) have the same potential for antler development and body weight in later years as bucks which were fork-antlered at 1 1/2 years of age.
4. To determine the influence of genetics on antler characteristics.

Continue reading “Kerr Wildlife Management Area Deer Pen Research”

Time to Hunt for Shed Deer Antlers

Hunting for shed antlers means getting out in the woods at a different time of the year. If you’re like most white-tailed deer hunters, then you spend the majority of your time in the woods during the fall and winter of each year. However, the habitat that white-tailed deer live in — just like the animals themselves — are found there year-round. Shed hunting is a good opportunity to get out and explore the area you hunt, learn more about it, and possibly even find some nice shed antlers.

With spring just around the corner and whitetail bucks beginning to shed last year’s antler growth, there is a good opportunity to learn more about your deer hunting area as well as the deer that live there. Hunters get excited when bucks start growing their antlers each year because it’s a chance to witness the affect of past management activities and offers a look ahead to, hopefully, future harvests. It really is something to get pumped up about.

Shed Hunting Season

Then, on the other hand, there are some hunters that also get pumped up after the hunting seasons have already ended. Those guys and gals are the shed hunters. Once winter sets in, it marks the fact that soon whitetail bucks will be dropping, casting their coveted antlers. As it turns out, there are ways to get a huge set of antlers on your wall other than shooting the big boy. He may have eluded you during the season, but you can still find his shed antlers!

Finding shed deer antlers not only ends with great rewards you get to take home, but also with some valuable information you can tuck away in your back pocket for next season. Information such as the quality of bucks that made it through the last hunting season, the number of different bucks that were in the area, and specific areas that these bucks used while in your area.

Shed antlers also allow you to physically track bucks that you may have been keeping a close eye on. Measurements that can be taken from year to year include common measurements such as beam length, tine length, and mass measurements.

Shed Hunting Tips

Look in and around late-season food plots and other food sources.
Examine deer travel corridors, water sources and anywhere deer commonly travel.
Use a game camera to monitor the deer herd and ensure most of the bucks in the area have already shed their antlers before your start. More antlers on the ground ups your chances at finding them.
Don’t wait too long to hunt for sheds. Rodents will eat and destroy cast antlers due to the coveted minerals they contain. In addition, warming weather will spur forb and grass growth and make finding antlers much more difficult.
Keep an eye out for new hunting locations. This may inspire you to cover more ground, increasing your chances of finding deer sheds.

Interesting Facts About White-tailed Deer

For those that work close-hand to better manage deer and deer habitat, we are always learning how we can improve the conditions of both. To better understand how we can enhance available deer habitat, deer nutrition, and the health of a deer herd, any information we can gather about deer help the cause. Here are some additonal facts you may not know:

1. White-tailed deer establish a home-range territory and will not leave it! It has been documented that deer will starve rather than leave their territory. Moral of the story — maintain adequate nutrition!

2. Wild white-tailed have been known to live at least to 11-years in the wild, but I suspect a very small percentage live even longer. Now those are mature deer!

3. With optimal habitat conditions, deer populations can double in size annually! Without regulated hunting and proper harvest management, deer will destroy wildlife habitat and suffer tremendous population die-offs.

4. If you took 2 white-tailed deer in the absence of predators, in just 7-years those two animals alone can produce a herd of up to 35 animals! I wish my savings increased at that rate.

5. In areas of overpopulation, deer cause an over-browsing affect we call a “browse line.” You do not want a browse line on your ranch! After a browse line is created, it takes years under a low deer density for browse plants to re-establish and recover.