Episode 763: Large Carnivores & The Fragile Relationship Between Land Owners and State Wildlife Agencies

What this episode covers

Do you trust your state wildlife agency? That is a huge question mark for many landowners when it comes to working with state wildlife agencies when it comes to large carnivore management. Some agencies have proven to have been infiltrated by anti hunting ideologies, others seem to often care more about the almighty dollar than they do about science based wildlife management. However, Louisiana recently proved that land owners and wildlife officials can still get things done for the benefit of hunting, conservation and landowners alike. Safari Club International Foundation Large Carnivore Program Leader Maria Davidson and I sat down at the recent Safari Club International Convention in Nashville to discuss Louisiana’s massive conservation success story that culminated in the state’s first sanctioned black bear hunt in over 40 years. Maria has worked on this project on the ground level for decades. There’s there’s been no shortage of blood, sweat and tears invested on her part. She talks about the process of working towards the goal of having a hunt and how she and SCIF worked with landowners to achieve the ultimate conservation success story in Louisiana. Maria was actually on the hunt where the only youth hunter who drew a tag connected with a giant Louisiana boar. We then shift gears to Texas where SCIF has been tasked with heading up a research project to better understand mountain lion populations in Texas. This is where the rubber meets the road for me as TPWD has already started the process of caving to anti hunting factions like Texans for Mountain Lions. You might recall I went to Austin to speak out against the demands of these animal rights yahoos back in August of 2022. Sadly, and without science to support it, TPWD seems intent on playing ball with these activists regardless of the fact that it appears Texas has a robust and expanding mountain lion population as is. Thankfully, SCIF entered into the discussion and will be conducting the research TPWD will rely on to base their decision on whether we need tighter lion regulations. I say “thankfully”, because I am one many Texans who no longer fully trusts the leadership at TPWD. Once again, however, SCIF will have to rely on working with land owners to conduct their research. There’s no doubt that most landowners would be skeptical of working directly with TPWD on this issue, but a 3rd party like SCIF (that is only in it from a scientific data collection standpoint) might be able to ease landowner concerns more easily. As Maria stated “the bus is coming when it comes to Texas mountain lion management, so do you want to be a part of it, or not?” I remain highly skeptical of TPWD but at lease we have a non biased group in SCIF conducting the multi-year research.