Travis County Commssioners Court
December 17, 2002
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Item 3
Number 3 is to discuss draft guidelines for wildlife, including reduction of deer population, and vegetation management in Travis County parks and preserves.
>> move that the public hearing be opened.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. John?
>> good morning, judge, commissioners. John kuhl environmental officer with the county, t.n.r. I just wanted to remind you all on a couple of points. We did address this last week in the voting session. This is a passage of a couple of things, really. Primarily what we want to focus is is that this is a set of fairly broad guidelines that empowers the -- the executive manager in cooperation with my -- the scientists on my staff to make decisions regarding basic nuisance for exotic species throughout our system. That includes the parks and the preserves where applicable. These actions will only be undertaken on a case-by-case basis. And would require a fairly regimented set of scientific background and data to support each of these actions. One of the reasons why this is even -- has even garnered a little bit of media attention and so forth is because one of the first action that's we feel is pressing us the hardest that needs to happen is to go ahead and take some white-tailed deer, lethal removal by rifle, off of the b.c.p. Preserve lands. One unit that is approximately 1600 acres, near far points, which we refer to as the jollyville unit. With that, if you have any questions, I'm here. If you want to take comment terri, whatever -- commentary, whatever you wawnlt to do.
>> thank you, john. You mentioned deer reduction on the preserves.
>> yes, sir.
>> so that does not apply to the parks, too?
>> not at this time. The -- the general idelines do apply to that. We are asking for the ability to be able to do that, but we have not brought before you anything of that nature right now. Pace bend is another park that needs to have this happen within that area. We would like to -- if possible, we would like to do that this season as well. We have a -- we have a memo pending on that, it's ready to go. Right now the only action we are actually asking from you is approval on the guidelines themselves. That would actually empower the executive manager to make those decisions.
>> john, last time this came before the commissioners court, I asked to see what other entities are doing in this regard, such as the city of Austin, lcra, and stuff like that. Did we get any positive feedback from them?
>> yes, sir, we -- of course I can tell you it. Now, we do have representation here today from Texas parks and wildlife department, the u.s. Fish and wildlife service.
>> okay.
>> I know of at least one resident that is here supporting this action.
>> okay.
>> john, can you remind everybody what u.s. Fish and wildlife's stance is related to the preserves and what the lack of a policy and lack of removal of these species can do in terms of our permit?
>> sure. Well, it's a -- frankly a directive to undertake these activities. It's a friendly directive, of course. But it's one that's -- that's based in habitat management for the endangered species that we manage for. You know, we have got regional 10:00 a permit to manage these lands for the golden cheeked wash burglary, black -- warbler, blacked capped viero and ... We are behind the 8 ball. The city of Austin has been doing for second season, lcra for probably about three years. U.s. Fish and wildlife service does it on their refuge tracts. We are just following suit.
>> some of our preserve lands bump up against some of those lcra lands and city of Austin lands and so by us not doing it, is that impacting what's happening on --
>> certainly, certainly. It's just a -- I suppose a labor drain on them if we don't cooperate. The other consideration is they -- in some cases we would probably be helping out some of the subdivisions that are nearby. And of course all of these actions will be undertaken with the utmost safety. And that's a part of that memo for action at jollyville.
>> in talking with t.n.r. Staff prior to coming and being placed on the agenda, I want to make sure that if we could recycle some things, such as the processing of the -- of the meat and things like that to go to -- to the needy of Travis County, of course, there's a lot of folks in the county that are desperately hungry. Of course I think there could be something that -- that we could do as far as extending the recycling phase of this particular process by ensuring that those persons have some of the meat after it's process and things like that to feed them. So the hunger in Travis County will always be with us. Of course I think that we can do some things to help facilitate and accommodate those needs. Ied in the -- caritas will be one of the recipients of the meat after it's been processed, things of that nature. Everything is still -- all systems still go on that?
>> yes, commissioner Davis, it's all embedded in the plan.
>> okay.
>> any objections to call for your attention?
>> I have not received any. I have gotten one call, none of my staff has gotten any calls. The only call that I got was from kxan, you probably saw that last night, so --
>> would anyone like to give testimony during this public hearing? If so please come forward. If you give us your name, we would be happy to get your comments. We have five seats. If -- if -- so up to five, to give testimony during this public hearing, please come forward.
>> if you give us your name, we would be happy to get your comments.
>> good morning judge Biscoe, commissioners. I'm david steed. I reside at 4008 tehome circle in the hudson bend area of Lake Travis. I have provided written copies of my -- of my comments for each of -- each of you and for your -- for your file record. I've been a resident of Travis County this time for 22 years. And I'm also an avid park user, I rely on the parks for my outdoor recreation. Hiking, biking, walking and swimming in the warmer months. I'm also [inaudible] colleges with over 35 years experience. I reviewed these proposed guidelines, for wildlife and vegetation management, for parks and preserves, and I urge you to authorize staff to immediately and fully implement these measures at all the name -- the main Travis County parks and preserves. While the subject policy statement is succinct, it reflects the detailed methodologies prepared by staff for the balcones preserves, sites from several years ago. Those multi volume documents provide scientific rationale, the criteria and the details for implementing these same management practices on the b.c.p. Preserve lands. Furthermore, those documents were reviewed extensively by the scientific community, and were recommended by both the b.c.p. Science advisory panel and the citizen advisory panel and were adopted by the b.c.p. Management coordination committee, of which Travis County has a representative. Furthermore, my firm conducted biological inventories at nearly a dozen of the -- of the Lake Travis area county parks, almost 10 years ago. Noteworthy among our findings or recommendations were the need for control of nuisance and invasion of species, especially out the out of control population of white tailed deer. Historically our deer population was controlled by large predators, which have been essentially eliminated and subsequently by the screw worm, which is -- has also been successfully controlled in the southern u.s. And northern mexico by the u.s. Departments of agriculture. Currently the only control on the deer population in rural areas is through hunting regulated by Texas parks & wildlife commission. In urban areas, the only control mechanism is the automobile. That's -- that's an inhumane, ineffective and expensive approach. In fact, deer collisions with automobiles in Travis County is over $10 million a year cost, a recent study in the city of Lakeway, which is less than three square miles, annual cost at $1.6 million. The deer -- the deer and automobile collisions. Travis County is fortunate to have a competent and professional natural resources staff and you should rely on their expertise and judgment related to natural resource issues. I urge you to formally adopt this proposed policy for immediate implementation. Thank you for hearing me.
>> thank you for your comments.
>> yes, sir?
>> I would like to address the court on -- I'm trey carpenter, a conservation scientist with the Texas parks and wildlife department. I also manager the granger wildlife management area in Williamson county. I have regulatory authority for the parks and wildlife in Travis County. I worked with the city of Austin, i've worked with the federal refuge, which also partly lays in Travis County. I have also worked with the county. I actually helped set up some of the original surveys on these tracts and was out there to -- to actually see what's going on on the grounds. There's a lot of browsing going on on necessary plants. One of the things that I have noticed mostly is the lack of rejuvenation of red oaks, which is one of the primary vegetative species that needs to be out there for the golden cheeked warbler. With oak wilt, with the high amount of oak wilt that we have in the area, we are going to need these trees in about 200 years if we are going to have any habitat for these animals, right now the white-tailed deer are eating them up. I wanted to offer my expertise from that standpoint that this deer problem is not only happening in Travis County, it's happening all over the nation. Especially in the northeast. We are not the first ones to discover this problem and -- and also have been extensively involved in trapping and relocationing animals through the years, have found that to be a really ineffective control measure. I think the city and county have even looked into that in the past, there's simply no place to go with these extra animals. Looking athlete that will means as probably -- at lethal means as probably being the only answer at this time. You probably have some questions for me, but I wanted to make that be known.
>> we have relocated --
>> excuse me.
>> the village of Lakeway recently tried relocate the deer and found that to be unsuccessful?
>> yes. Really, as I mentioned, there's no place to go with them. When they do remove them, really usually what happens is they create sort of a vacuum where the deer that are adjacent to it, polar in and fill the void that was created there. What we have seen in that situation is they usually respond with better reproduction, they actually sometimes even have more deer the next year. Without actually going in and fencing those areas with deer -- deer impermeable fences, we don't see any result. Usually you are taking problem deer to another area as well. They will not have the wild instincts that we see in a normal situation where animals are hunted and where there are large predators. You just -- a lot of times you take animals that have been begging for a handout in somebody's back yard to a ranch where they end up in the ranchers back yard begging for a handout.
>> thank you. Yes?
>> my name is sib bell vossler, a biologist with the u.s. Fish and wildlife service and liaison with the balcones canyonlands conservation plan. The -- you know, as david and trey have mentioned, the deer are a normal part of the ecosystem here and we of course don't want to lose them entirely. Without the predators they have gotten out of control. As the current population rates, they threatened the -- the habitat values of the -- of the preserve system. As you are aware, those preserves are set up to manage for the listed endangered golden cheeked warbler and black capped vireo. We strongly support these measures, including deer control and other invasive controls. It's very necessary for the management of a preserve system that's in an urban area where you cannot have the normal controls on that. Everything else I believe has been said, unless you have any particular questions.
>> thank you.
>> I have a -- john, I have a question. If the court decides to act on this on -- on the action item on this is number 11, if the court decides to approve this today, when could the process -- well, when could you start implementing this and then, again, when could the folks that -- that are hungry in this community actually look forward to -- to receiving the need from -- from this operation?
>> commissioner, we would just need sufficient time to make sure that -- that we have notification to -- to the surrounding residents and I'm looking at hopefully within a week.
>> within a week?
>> of starting that. And then as far as deer getting to -- to caritas, I believe that to be honest with you, what we need to do is, you know, be fairly efficient about this. We will have a -- a system where we amass a certain amount, then take them to processing and then to caritas. I would -- I would venture to say within three weeks, hopefully from today that that could start happening. We just need to make sure that we are not just running across the county one by one by one.
>> I understand. Thank you.
>> would anyone else like to give testimony during this public hearing.
>> move that the public hearing be closed.
>> second.
>> this is posted as action item no. 11 today, all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM