This article is featured in the Winter 2022 issue of Texas LAND magazine. Click here to find out more.
“Hunting is the lifeblood of conservation and of TWA,” said Larry Weishuhn, a wildlife biologist, professional hunter, author and television personality and co-founder of TWA. “From the beginning we knew if wildlife had no value, then Texas—and the rest of the world for that matter—would have no wildlife.”
And hunting’s value is multi-faceted. Some aspects such as economic impact and conservation funding are measurable, while others such as cultural importance and shared memories are not.
“Hunting impacts us in so many ways that it’s hard to assign a value to it, and it’s almost impossible to overstate its importance,” TWA CEO Justin Dreibelbis said. “As a society, it’s in our best interest to support our hunting heritage and keep it shaping the landscape now and in the future. It’s good for land, good for wildlife and good for people.”
Ecological
Hunting pays the lion’s share of the bill for conservation in the United States.
Through excise taxes on hunting, shooting and fishing equipment, collected under the Pittman-Robertson (Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration) Act passed in 1937 and the Dingell-Johnson (Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration) Act passed in 1950, the US Fish and Wildlife Service pays apportionments back to the state wildlife agencies to fund conservation.
“When the Pittman-Robertson Act was passed, the country was still in the throes of the Great Depression and wildlife species we consider common today such as white-tailed deer and elk were on the verge of disappearing,” Dreibelbis said. “At a time when money was exceptionally tight, hunters taxed themselves to conserve the wildlife they valued. It’s still working 90 years later.”
In 2021, sportsmen and sportswomen generated $1.5 billion in conservation dollars, shattering the previous record of $808 million set in 2015. Hunting contributed more than $1.1 billion while angling supplied almost $400 million. According to the Associated Press, Texas received $71 million, the largest funding amount, while Alaska was second with $66 million.
Additionally, waterfowl enthusiasts purchase “Duck Stamps” required by the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act. Since its inception in 1934, stamps sales have totaled more than $950 million, conserving more than 6 million acres of wetland habitat.
On the state level, lead wildlife agencies, such as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, also keep 100 percent of the proceeds from hunting and fishing license sales in their state to fund on-the-ground conservation efforts. In the 2022 license year, hunters in Texas purchased a total of 852,918 licenses, stamps, tags and permits which translated into $27.76 million of conservation revenue.
“Sportsmen and sportsmen women put their money where their passion is,” Dreibelbis said. “Their investment in equipment and licenses pays dividends on the landscape.”
On ranches across Texas, hunting funds help underwrite the cost of private conservation. TWA Vice President Jonathan Letz uses his family’s ranch, located near Comfort, as an example. The 7,000–acre ranch, acquired by Jonathan’s grandfather Udo Letz in the 1930s, is managed for cattle and wildlife.
“We have two primary revenue streams, livestock and hunting, that are managed hand-in-hand and contribute an almost equal share of income,” said Letz, noting his grandfather began offering hunting leases in the late 1930s.
Allowing the livestock to overgraze the range hurts the wildlife. Letting wildlife populations get out of control damages the livestock.
“To maximize the revenue off the ranch, we have to balance the needs of livestock and wildlife, which prompts us to be the best stewards possible,” Letz said. “If we don’t make money, we can’t keep the ranch and risk losing it to subdivision.”
The threat of sub-division, also known as fragmentation, is real. Texas is losing 660 acres of open, working lands each day. Profitable, well-managed private ranches are the best bulwark against sprawl. Intact ranches are not only provide homes to ranching families and high-profile game species, but to wild creatures of all types, native plants and a host of ecological processes.
Weishuhn said, “When we, as land managers, work to produce sustainable populations of game by diversifying and improving habitat for them, we make it better for birds, bugs, reptiles, amphibians and everything else.”
Economic
Hunting packs a big economic punch. According to the 2018 edition of Hunting in America: An Economic Force for Conservation, produced for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, hunter spending generates more than $185 million per day for the US economy.
In 2016, according to the report, hunters spent $7.1 billion on equipment alone. This includes expenditures on firearms, ammunition, archery gear, optics, calls, decoys and more. In addition, they spent $3.2 billion on travel to and from their hunting destinations. In total, hunters spent $27.1 billion to enjoy the sport they love.
“With hunting, there are direct costs like equipment and leases and indirect costs like lodging, fuel and food,” said Dr. Roel Lopez, Director of Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute (NRI). “If you think about it, hunting is a form of tourism where people are traveling and participating in the outdoors for the opportunity to harvest game.”
The expenditures trickle through the economy at the national, state and local levels. Along the way, the money supports a host of related industries and translates into jobs, which further multiplies the impact.
Because all of these factors come into play and affect the bottom line, it’s hard to calculate the true impact. Economic information for Texas isn’t easy to come by, the team at the Texas A&M NRI is working to change that. Currently, they are gathering information necessary to calculate the economic impact of white-tailed deer hunting on Texas as part of a hunter/landowner survey. Lopez anticipates the initial findings in December.
Why deer hunting? According to the Hunting in America report, of the 11.6 million hunters in 2016, 7.9 million of them were deer hunters. And rural Texas, known for its exceptional deer hunting, is (and has been for decades) a bucket list destination for many of them as well as the site of annual pilgrimages for state residents.
Every fall, small towns across Texas unfurl banners reading, “Welcome Hunters.”
“There is a sector of rural communities in Texas that are sustained by hunting economies,” Lopez said. “Wildlife not only attracts visitors, but in some areas it outpaces more traditional land uses.”
This is important because revenue generated by hunting doesn’t stay contained within the fence lines of individual ranches, but instead circulates through local communities. The money from hunting not only helps keep ranchers on the land, but allows them to buy feed, fence posts, groceries, insurance and fuel from local merchants, which keeps those businesses operating. Money from hunting also helps ranchers donate to local charities, make deposits in local banks and pay property taxes that support local schools. And the economic ripples continue.
“Rural Texas needs hunters,” Dreibelbis said. “Hunters need rural Texas.”
Cultural
As evidenced by ancient paintings on cave walls throughout the world, hunting has been an integral part of the human experience for millennia.
“Whether people recognize it or not, we humans are all hunters,” Weishuhn said. “It’s an integral part of our history and who we are.”
Initially, humans hunted to survive. Fields and forests provided high-quality, fresh protein. While the convenience of supermarkets has made hunting optional, a new generation of hunters is taking to the field to reconnect with their food. They discover the experience feeds more than the body.
“When I’m out hunting, I see nature wake up at dawn and go to sleep at dusk. I see eagles fly and hear bobwhites call,” Weishuhn said. “It’s where I always learn something new about nature and my ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Hunting is the place where I take in the diverse, abundance of Texas and am grateful to be part of it all.”
In hunting blinds and hunting camps, the frenetic chatter of technology is quieted. The pace slows. Relationships flourish.
“I can learn more about someone by spending a few hours with them in a hunting blind than I can by working alongside them for years,” Weishuhn said. “Because you’re in the moment, bonds strengthen.”
Soon after his graduation from the University of Texas, Letz started meeting the same group of friends for a dove hunt in Abilene. They recently completed their 37th annual hunt. Through the years, they’ve added their children and grandchildren to the mix, so the tradition now involves three generations.
Another annual Letz tradition revolves around the opening week of white-tailed deer season. The extended family returns to the ranch each year to reconnect and celebrate the time-honored legacy, the outdoors and each other.
“Anyone who hunts will develop strong relationships over time,” Letz said. “Hunting connects people not only to nature but one another.”
The Next Generation of Hunters
TWA’s Texas Youth Hunting Program (TYHP) has successfully run more than 3,300 hunts giving more almost 80,000 young hunters and their significant adults the chance to experience safe, legal, ethical and educational hunting. With this history as a basis, TWA has expanded its programming to meet a vital need in our adult population as well. With its Adult Learn to Hunt Program, TWA focuses on novice hunters who have an interest in the connection between conservation hunting and sustainable eating. As land stewards, TWA members know the many challenges to participating in traditional outdoor activities and aim to break down those barriers for their fellow Texans.
Adult Learn to Hunt Program
Each participant is accompanied by a personal guide mentor throughout the educational hunt, which typically take place on a private ranch over three days and two nights. Novice hunters will learn safe firearm use and handling along with harvest shot placement techniques as well as wild game processing techniques, including skinning, butchering and cooking.
Provided:
- All meals with an emphasis on wild game
- Firearms, if necessary, and instruction
- Hunting guide/mentor
- Lodging
The Texas Youth Hunting Program
In 1996, TWA and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department organized TYHP. Landowners across Texas have opened their gates, allowing a team of staff and dedicated volunteers to deliver safe, ethical, educational hunts that instill an appreciation for the vital role that private landowners and hunters play in conservation. The hunts generally begin on Friday at noon and end Sunday at noon.
Provided:
- All meals with an emphasis on wild game
- Firearms, if necessary, and instruction
- Hunting guide/mentor
- Lodging
Texas Big Game Awards
TBGA, created by TWA and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, increases awareness of wildlife management and the role that hunting plays in habitat conservation. The program, established in 1991, also fosters cooperation among stakeholders who ensure that our state’s wildlife habitat is conserved forever.
TBGA is a free, certificate-based awards program which celebrates those individuals who harvest quality big game animals in Texas, the land managers who produce these animals, the importance of our hunting heritage, as well as the achievement of young and first-time hunters. Eligible species include: typical and non-typical white-tailed deer, typical and non-typical mule deer, pronghorn antelope, javelina and desert bighorn sheep.