OUTDOORS
Page 5B
Local deer leases
in seller s market
LANCE LESCHPER, 18, looks over his first
whitetail buck, killed in Austin County about 70
miles south of College Station. The five-point
Photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr.
buck is typical of Post Oak Belt bucks this sea
son — deer in excellent physical condition, but
with very small antlers.
Early season conditions good
1 By Suzanne Black
If Brazos County hunting
grounds were like the floors of the
New York Stock Exchange, they
would be covered with orders to
sell. But when it comes to signing
up deer leases, it’s a seller’s mar
ket all the way.
The deer range in this area is
over-grazed. The whitetail deer
population is falling and the
buck-to-doe ratio is the lowest in
the state. Yet landowners lease
their land to hunters as if it were
the choicest deer country in
Texas.
And at one time it was. The
Post Oak Belt, which stretches
across East-Central Texas and
includes Brazos County, was the
primary target of a deer relocation
program in the early 1950s. The
Texas Game and Fish Commis
sion transferred more than
10,000 whitetail deer from a
surplus herd in the Edwards
Plateau region to the Post Oak
Belt. It wasn’t long after that har
vest regulations were needed to
control the growth and overpopu
lation of the unmanaged herd.
Even through the ’60’s, large
groups of whitetail deer were
commonly spotted in open fields
in both upland and bottomland
areas of the post oak region. To
day, however, 75 percent or more
of the Brazos County deer herd is
contained within a five mile dis
tance along the west side of the
Navasota River, Brazos County
Game Warden Sammy De-
Stefano said.
According to the Texas Parks
and Wildlife Department’s annual
deer census, the whitetail deer
population in the Post Oak Belt
has been declining for several
years, particularly in Brazos,
Grimes and Robertson counties.
The census also reports these
counties have the poorest buck-
to-doe ratio in the state. Habitat
destruction is blamed as the pri
mary cause.
“There’s less than 200,000
acres left — that’s anything with a
few trees on it — that might be
considered deer range, and it’s all
grazed out,” DeStefano said.
There are 373,120 acres in
Brazos County. What’s left for the
deer is subjected to heavy hunt
ing pressure from Bryan-College
Station and other metropolitan
areas. One factor is the develop
ment of land. As large tracts are
broken up for development, De
Stefano said, the hunting of deer
becomes more hectic.
“There are more hunters in the
woods and more rural residents
taking the attitude ‘I might as well
shoot it because if I don’t, my
neighbor will,’ so there’s not as
much conservation going on,” he
said.
Many landowners set their own
rules to keep deer lessors under
rein.
““We could let in as many hun
ters as we wanted to,” said one
r rancher, “but then they’d just
tromp over everything and kill all
the deer off. We’re pretty careful
about the number of hunters we
let in.”
Eight Brazos County landow
ners, who lease out 25,000 acres
between them for hunting, all said
they don’t want any more in
quiries about hunting leases than
they already receive.
One owner said he only leases
hunting rights to personal friends
or to people recommended to him
by friends. Another said the only
hunters he leases to are out-of-
town ones. Hunters who can
leave work and drive to their
lease in 15 minutes would be
hunting every day, he said.
““We’re in the cattle business,”
said one landowner. “Any deer
hunters we let out here have to
get along with the cattle, so we’re
pretty discriminating about who
we lease to. We prefer somebody
who’s just going to be out there
two or three weekends during the
season.”
All of the landowners agreed
the number of calls they receive
about deer leases is not going
down. And for hunters without
connections, the outlook is
sketchy. Most of the landowners
said they lease to the same group
of people every year.
DeStefano said any turnover of
leases usually occurs during the
January or February before deer
season, so the hunters have to
make their plans a long time in
advance.
And of course, if you want to
lease, you have to pay the price.
In this survey, prices ranged from
$100 to $200 per hunter, or from
$1.50 to $4 per acre. Per acre
charges vary according to the lo
cation of the land and the size of
the tract. In general, hunting
leases in the Navasota River bot
tom are more expensive than
leases in the upland hill country.
Little of the Brazos River bottom
lands are available for hunting
since they are mostly used for
farming.
What good hunting grounds
are left in Brazos County are in
big demand. And even though the
hunting is not as good as it used
to be, it’s still good enough.
Early indications are that the
deer season in Texas is off to a
good start. Reports from the
opening weekend indicated there
are lots of deer, the animals are in
very good body condition, and an
early rut is getting underway in
many areas.
The only minus factor, as pre
dicted by Texas Parks and
Wildlife Department biologists, is
that antler development is a bit
sub-par. This was a result of dry
conditions during the spring, ac
cording to Charles Winkler, big
game program chief. There ap
parently was a heavy turnout of
hunters on opening day, Winkler
said, and a fair number of deer
were taken.
Winkler said the deer check
stations in Webb County, where
the department is conducting an
experimental buck permit system,
are a good indicator of South
Texzas hunting. Several nice
bucks were brought in the first
day, but they were consistently
better in body condition than in
antler development.
He said because of the range
conditions and the rutting season
getting underway hunters should
get into the field early this year
and utilize antlerless deer permits
as well as trying for a buck.
“In spite of good range condi
tions in many areas right now,
there still is an urgent need to
harvest more antlerless deer be
cause of overpopulation,” Wink
ler said. He said landowners are
becoming more aware of this
need in many areas, and some
even are requiring hunters to take
a doe before allowing them to
shoot a buck.
The good range and forage
conditions extend almost
throughout the traditional
whitetail hunting areas of South
Texas and the Edwards Plateau,
and even northward through the
major deer areas in West and
North-Central Texas.
East Texas, on the other hand,
has fairly stable populations, but
not as good forage conditions
due to a lack of precipitation,
Winkler said.