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New Conservation Delivery Specialist - Welcome Derek Wiley!
 Derek Wiley, Conservation Delivery Specialist, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
As one of the first steps taken in the new year, the Small Game Program welcomed Derek Wiley into the fold. Derek will serve as the new Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture (OPJV) Conservation Delivery Specialist, a partnership position with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD). Amongst a diverse set of candidates, Derek came well-versed in areas critical to the position including the delivery of habitat conservation programs. For the past 3 years he has used his strong grassland conservation credentials to develop and guide habitat restoration practices across North Central Texas. In that role, as an employee of Quail Forever (QF), Derek saw firsthand the impact that targeted, coordinated conservation dollars (e.g., federal, state, private) can have on the ground. In his new position, Mr. Wiley will continue to forge strong relationships with TPWD field staff and other grassland focused organizations. He will be tasked with providing leadership to the growing partnership and advising Conservation Delivery staff within the OPJV geography.
Derek hails from North Central Texas and grew up in an agricultural community where his interests in land and wildlife management began at a young age. He attended Texas Tech University (TTU), earning a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources Management with a wildlife biology emphasis. Furthering his education, he stayed on at TTU to pursue a master’s degree where he focused on northern bobwhite reproduction in the Rolling Plains. He previously worked for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation as their Upland Game Biologist before returning to Texas as a Coordinating Wildlife Biologist for QF and OPJV. Derek enjoys spending time outside hunting, fishing, working with his bird dogs, playing golf, and spending time with family and friends.
In the short term, Mr. Wiley will be working from his home in Throckmorton. After he settles in, his position will move to a central location within the OPJV geography. If you have any questions for Derek, or inquiries about grassland restoration, he can be reached at derek.wiley@tpwd.texas.gov. Please join us in welcoming Derek to the team!
A Texas Tradition - White-Winged Doves
 A white-winged dove takes flight. Credit: Charlotte Byers; Courtesy: e-bird.org.
It wasn’t long ago that white-winged doves were considered a novel rarity for most hunters. To get a shot at them, you had to head to the lower Rio Grande Valley or even further south into Mexico. The species is now widely distributed throughout Texas and is expanding across the U.S., even as far north as Colorado and Nebraska, but hunters nationwide continue to head south each year for the Special White-winged Dove Season, a Texas tradition dating back over 100 years.
White-wing populations in Texas have experienced some dramatic swings over the past century. Historically distributed in just a few counties in the lower Rio Grande Valley, they numbered in the millions until land-clearing for agriculture and overharvest resulted in a population decline that bottomed out at just 200,000 birds by 1940. Thirty subsequent years of recovery efforts struggled to turn the tide, but, after a series of freezes killed the mature citrus orchards the birds had been using as nesting habitat, something extraordinary happened. Starting in the late 1970s, white-wings began to shift into new areas, moving north into towns and cities. They flourished in these urban areas, and, by 1990, more white-wings could be found outside of their traditional range than remained. Today, these birds can be found in almost every major city and township in the state, and they continue to expand far beyond Texas borders. These urban white-wings no longer nest in colonies, as they did historically, and many are likely non-migratory. This incredible shift in behavior in just a few decades is a testament to how adaptable and resilient the species can be.
The regulatory history of white-wing hunting in Texas is no less remarkable. Up until the late 1930s, opening season dates ranged anywhere from early July to mid-September, and season lengths fluctuated from 2-3 weeks to as long as 5 months. Around 1941, the Special Season began to look more like the one we are familiar with today, where a few days in early September are specifically allocated to white-winged hunting. Those early days of the Special Season saw the beginning of afternoon-only hunting and lower daily bag limits, both designed to better control harvest of the struggling population. White-wing recovery efforts resulted in closed seasons from 1954-1956, and again in 1963 and 1985, along with the advent of Texas’ first conservation stamp in 1971.
 TPWD's first conservation stamp (1971). Conservation stamps (now called “endorsements” since they no longer come in stamp form) are a proven and successful model for raising funds for the conservation of select species or habitats.
As white-wing populations grew and expanded into major metroplexes like San Antonio, Austin, Houston, and Dallas-Fort Worth, regulations shifted to allow bag and possession limits that matched those for mourning doves, and white-wings quickly became a target for hunters all over Texas.
The Special White-winged Dove Area (SWWDA) expanded over the years, too, most recently in 2013 and 2017. At first only a few counties wide, the SWWDA now shares a boundary with the entire South Zone. Naturally, the number of hunters increased with the added geographic area of the SWWDA over time, but the rising trend in hunters is still climbing. In the past decade, hunter numbers in the Special Season have roughly doubled. Currently, the average number of days per hunter each season is just under 2 (1.87) with an average harvest of 13.5 birds (11.25 white-wings and 2.25 mourning doves). The 450,000 birds harvested during the 4-day, afternoon-only season make up around 25% of the total annual white-wing harvest in Texas, illustrating just how significant the early season opportunity is for southern hunters. To put that in perspective with the rest of the U.S., around 1.5 times more white-wings are harvested during those 4 days in the SWWDA than the rest of the country harvests all season.
 Total estimated White-winged dove (WWDO) harvest, Mourning Dove (MODO) harvest, and number of hunters (multiplied by 10 for scale) during the Special White-winged Dove Area (SWWDA) season; 1997-2020.
For the 2021-22 season, TPWD requested that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service consider allowing the addition of 2 days to the 4-day Special Season, and they agreed. As I write this, we are a couple of months away from the TPW Commission decision on whether to adopt the 2 additional days into regulations. Moving from 4 days to 6 will mean that, in most years, SWWDA hunters will have 2, consecutive 3-day weekends to hunt prior to the regular season. The extra days will help take advantage of the Labor Day holiday and allow more flexible hunting and travel plans. More importantly, they will provide additional early-September hunting opportunity for a species that has defined Texas dove hunting for over a century and continues to shape the future of our wingshooting tradition.
By: Owen Fitzsimmons, Webless Migratory Game Bird Program Leader
Quail Season in Review - Wildlife Management Areas
 A successful quail hunt along the Texas-Oklahoma border.
To echo our comments from last year, the 2020-21 quail hunting season won’t be anything to write home about. Outside of South Texas, parts of the Trans-Pecos, and a handful of outlier counties, most hunters and their bird dogs have logged more miles than birds this year. Similar to last year, and as was detailed in our fall forecast, low reproductive stock (number of hens available to breed) and unfavorable summer weather put a damper most population recovery efforts.
Caroline Ellison, wildlife biologist on the Matador Wildlife Management Area (WMA), in Cottle County put it concisely, "I would say our current quail situation is poor. I rarely see more than one covey when I’m out hiking, and often don’t see any. We have plenty of cover available, but I think hot, dry conditions at the end of the summer and then our big ice storm at the end of October didn’t set us up for success." Didn't set us up for success is unfortunately becoming a common refrain for quail hunters these days. As a follow up, Nicole Alonso, wildlife biologist at the Chaparral WMA near Cotulla, relayed that, "Conditions were hot and dry following the breeding period which has affected quail chick survivorship. Our fall roadside counts estimated 0.58 quail per mile with covey size averaging 9.6 birds." The Matador is open to quail hunt through Sunday, Jan. 31. The Chaparral has two (2) more quail hunts (4 hunt days) available to the public before the end of the season (Feb. 2-3 and Feb. 9-10). Statewide, quail season remains open until Feb. 28.
One WMA where we've seen better success this year has been down in far west Texas, at Black Gap WMA. Scaled quail, known to be more tolerant of annual weather variations, are once again providing hunters with a reason to take a road trip. Black Gap is also open and available to the public for quail hunting through Feb. 11, and then again from Feb. 15-21. Alas, with a few weeks yet to go and snow and rain blanketing much of the state this month, there's once again hope for next year. Onward to 2021.
Below we detail our WMA hunt numbers as of January 5. Most WMAs are experiencing below average hunt conditions. A special thank you to all our WMA staff who provided updates and insights into their respective areas; in the trenches, they are the front line when it comes to conserving and protecting TPWDs public lands. Check out our Annual Public Hunting 2020-2021 page for more information on places to get out and chase quail before the season ends.
By: John McLaughlin, West Texas Quail Program Leader
 Quail hunters and harvest at TPWD Wildlife Management Areas (WMA), 31 October 2020 – 5 January 2021.
Wild Turkeys in the Neches River Priority Area
 A group of turkeys weather a rare east Texas snowstorm in Henderson County, TX. Credit: Coy Haynes.
TPWD, in cooperation with the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) and the Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture – Northeast Texas Conservation Delivery Network (CDN), has been funding management practices within TPWD’s Neches River Priority Area to support ongoing wild turkey restocking efforts. Since 2007, TPWD has restocked over 500 eastern wild turkeys within this focal landscape. However, rather than hoping for the best, TPWD has followed up these restocking efforts with habitat incentive funding to cost-share management strategies beneficial for wild turkey habitat.
From Sept. 1, 2019 to Aug. 31, 2020, TPWD funded $73,750 in habitat management practices within the Neches River Priority Area. In total, six projects covering 2,327 acres of private lands within this landscape were treated with prescribed fire and midstory herbicide treatments to open the forest understory. A wild turkey’s main defense against predators is their eyesight. Opening the forest understory increases useable space by reducing visual obstructions. In total, this program treated 278 acres with midstory herbicide and 2,049 acres with prescribed fire.
Cooperators completed work on 98% of the proposed treatment acres. On average, treatments cost $36.53 per acre. A third round of treatments are currently underway. We hope to keep this project active into the future.
Landowner Testimonial: "Saw a large (at least 10) flock of turkeys today on my Neches farm. I knew burns were good for turkey habitat, but sure didn’t know it would work within a week lol."
By: Jason Hardin, Wild Turkey Program Leader
 Wild turkeys foraging in the Neches River Priority Area, Texas.
 Wild turkey release to supplement and restore populations in the Neches River Priority Area, Texas.
 Wild turkeys stretching their wings on a walk in the Neches River Priority Area, Texas.
Migratory and Upland Game Bird Stamps: Funding Conservation
Endorsements. Stamps. To add Migratory Game Bird - $7.00. To add Upland Game Bird - $7.00. But what are we actually endorsing? What do we get for our $14? At least with our Federal Duck Stamp they send us, well, an actual stamp. Each year we faithfully go online, walk into our local sporting goods store, and check off the boxes to add these endorsements to our annual hunting license. So, given this somewhat perfunctory task, it’s reasonable to ask where these dollars go and how hunters, conservationists, and wildlife benefit.
Without diving into the long history, prior to 2005 there were 3 separate stamps which were required to hunt select species of migratory game birds and wild turkey. These included white-winged dove (established in 1971 – as mentioned in “A Texas Tradition: White-Winged Doves”), ducks (established in 1981), and a state turkey stamp (established in 1992). As a dedicated fund, revenues from these stamps were used for a variety of conservation projects. However, recognizing a need to expand the stamps’ impact and support an array of species, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 1192 in 2005 which consolidated the stamps into two new stamps, otherwise known as endorsements. Today, to hunt migratory game birds or upland game birds, these two stamps are required.
 Duck Stamp, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, 1991.
According to the statute, the revenue generated from these stamps can be used for: 1) management and research; 2) acquisition, lease, or development of game bird habitat; and 3) contracts, donations, and grants. Each of these priorities serve to help TPWD in fulfilling our core mission, “To manage and conserve the natural and cultural resources of Texas and to provide hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation opportunities for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.” So, to share with you where your dollars are going, below we’ve detailed just a few of the projects we've invested in over the past two years.
It is important to note that stamp funds are often leveraged with partner dollars to increase the habitat and wildlife impacts (at times up to 3x). As such, in most cases, the dollar figures below represent only a fraction of the total investment into any given project or partnership, and are the financial foundation for building out diverse initiatives and scalable programs.
Migratory Game Bird Stamp:
- Support for the Texas Prairie Wetlands Project (TPWP), which helps private landowners restore, enhance and create shallow-water wetlands through a 28-county focus area along the coast (~$500,000).
- Playa restoration in the Panhandle as part of the Texas Playa Conservation Initiative, including incentive payments to private landowners (~$200,000).
- Wildlife research investigating waterfowl stock pond use (Texas Tech University), mottled duck genetics (University of Texas-El Paso), and northern pintail wintering ecology and migration in North America (Texas A&M University-Kingsville) (~$300,000).
- Wildlife survey flights to assess abundance, distribution, and trends in waterfowl populations (~$125,000).
- Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) dove fields (e.g., Las Palomas WMA in South Texas, Fawcett WMA in North-Central Texas) (~$150,000).
- WMA wetland infrastructure projects including the development of levees and other water control structures to better aid in management of habitat (e.g., J.D. Murphree WMA, Justin Hurst WMA, Richland Creek WMA) (~$900,000).
- Acquisition, development, restoration, and maintenance of waterfowl breeding ground habitat in Canada and winter grounds in Mexico; includes development of water control structures, spillways, channels, and containment dikes (~$650,000).
- Multiple TPWD staff and partner positions to increase our capacity to deliver habitat programs (~$300,000).*
Since 2015, over 27,000 acres of wetlands, uplands, bottomlands, and other critical migratory game bird habitats across Texas have been positively impacted.
 Sunflower field at Roger R. Fawcett Wildlife Management Area, Palo Pinto County, Texas.
 Wetlands managed with water control structures at Cooper Wildlife Management Area, Hopkins County, Texas.
Upland Game Bird Stamp:
- Support for multiple landowner habitat incentive programs (e.g., Grassland Restoration Incentive Program, Pastures for Upland Birds) in the Cross Timbers, Coastal Prairies, South Texas Plains, Rolling Plains, and Trans-Pecos (~$385,000).
- Support for the Northeast Texas Conservation Delivery Network Habitat Incentive Program (HIP), focused on providing technical guidance (i.e., habitat recommendations) and cost-share on private lands throughout East Texas (~$150,000).
- Assistance for restoring wild turkeys in East Texas (~$67,000).
- Support for lesser-prairie chicken aerial surveys in coordination with multiple states (e.g., New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma) and partners (~$110,000).
- Wildlife research including investigating Montezuma quail genetics, turkey movements, and grassland bird monitoring to assess the effectiveness of habitat management practices (~$115,000).
- Equipment (e.g., native seed drill) and supplies (e.g., native seed) to be used by regional TPWD staff and partners to facilitate habitat work and reduce inputs for practices on private lands (~$40,000).
- WMA habitat restoration projects including mesquite and juniper removal (e.g., Matador WMA, Fawcett WMA), disking and prescribed burning (e.g., Chaparral WMA, Gus Engeling WMA), and river, creek enhancement projects (e.g., Gene Howe WMA) (~$35,000; with federal match, ~$140,000).
- Support for Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (~$75,000).
- Multiple TPWD staff and partner positions to increase our capacity to deliver habitat programs (~$240,000).*
 Ash and embers from a prescribed burn conducted on a TPWD Wildlife Management Area.
 An excavator works to clear mesquite on Matador Wildlife Management Area, Cottle County, Texas.
 Mesquite and juniper removal at Matador Wildlife Management Area, Cottle County, Texas. Top Photo: 2013; Bottom Photo: 2020.
Since the early days of these stamps, these funds have allowed TPWD to leverage resources across agencies, organizations, and political boundaries to have the greatest impact on wildlife in Texas. These projects and programs are but a few of the diverse areas we dedicate stamp funds, and we will continue to place the highest priority on habitat work that can restore, maintain, and grow wildlife populations. The by-products of these efforts are cleaner air and water, increased water availability for rural and urban communities, more resilient grasslands and forests, enhanced recreational opportunities, and a better Texas for the many generations to come. In the end, we hope you agree that your $7.00 goes pretty far.
By: Small Game Program Team
*Partner positions play a critical role in delivering habitat conservation practices. As stamp funds are often leveraged with other private, state, and federal dollars, these positions help take those dollars from lines on a budget to management in action. As the conservation community continues to explore the best approach to supporting wildlife populations and reaching habitat goals, these partner positions and partnership networks are seen as the foundation on which to build our efforts. There are too many partners to list here, but we appreciate each and every one of them as we strive for a better tomorrow where wild things and wild places are an integral part of everyday lives.
Is the chachalaca Texas' most elusive game bird? Robert Perez, Upland Game Bird Program Leader, and Wes Ferguson, Senior Editor at Texas Monthly, took their chances last fall and headed down to the Rio Grande Valley in search of this uniquely tropical bird. Read their story below!
 Chachalaca hunting in South Texas, an article by Wes Ferguson, Texas Monthly.
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