Twin Buttes Reservoir Lands Join Texas Parks & Wildlife Public Hunting Program

Written by: Thomas Michalewicz, OTAO

Dove Hunting, South Texas. Photo Credit: Chase Fountain, TPWD

The San Angelo Project was authorized and constructed to provide water for municipal and agricultural uses, flood control, fish and wildlife, and recreational benefits. The City of San Angelo is the operating entity for the Project.

Reclamation's Oklahoma-Texas Area Office entered into a Memorandum of Understanding May 5, 2016, with the City of San Angelo, and Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) to incorporate approximately 13,000 acres of Federal land surrounding Twin Buttes reservoir into TPWD Annual Public Hunting Program (APH) to provide additional recreational benefits for the people of Texas.

Mark Treviño Oklahoma-Texas Area Manager, Clayton Wolf, Director, Wildlife Division and Justin Dreibelbis, Program Director, Private Lands & Public Hunting, signed the MOU after more than a year of detailed discussions and coordination between the three organizations.

“The boost in recreation opportunities for locals is well worth the effort,” said Treviño. TPWD is able to help manage the recreation side along with us, so that is a great benefit to us.”

The Wildlife Division's mission is 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. To accomplish this mission, Division personnel annually conduct about 4,000 wildlife population surveys, provide recommendations concerning the management of about 1,200 vertebrate wildlife species, conduct about a dozen wildlife research studies, manage 50 wildlife management areas totaling 744,000 acres, hold public hunts on more than 230 tracts of land totaling more than 1.4 million acres, provide landowner incentives to manage for rare species, inform the public about wildlife, provide technical guidance to private landowners, and develop more than 8,200 active wildlife management plans for about 30 million acres of private lands.

TPWD has operated a Public Hunting Program since 1954. The APH Program, started in 1987, provides nearly 1 million acres of walk-in public hunting access. The benefits of the Annual Public Hunting Program are; TPWD Law Enforcement presence, Habitat management and harvest recommendations from TPWD biologists, and more than 60 years of experience administering hunts on public lands.

Hunters enjoy going after game that include white-tailed deer, feral hogs, dove, quail, turkey, waterfowl, rabbit, squirrel and more. The group also provides for youth only and youth & adult hunts.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department State Park at Twin Buttes.

(L to R) Mark Treviño, Oklahoma-Texas Area Manager, Clayton Wolf, Director, Wildlife Division and Justin Dreibelbis, Program Director, Private Lands & Public Hunting.

Published on January 11, 2017