From an historical perspective, private landowners have been involved in managing and protecting deer for at least 100 years, and it is vital for this trend to continue well into the 21st century.

A colleague once made an interesting assertion: "Two hundred or so years ago, Benjamin Franklin opposed the bald eagle as the national bird because it was a bully that fed off carrion, among other things." He went on to point out old Ben wanted the wild turkey to be our national symbol. Well, obviously Ben Franklin did not prevail, so, according to my colleague, "The government got the bald eagle, leaving the wild turkey to the hunters and landowners."

My friend then finished with, "Today, there are millions of wild turkeys. But up until just recently, the bald eagle was listed as an endangered species!"

This statement about government inefficiency is certainly not true in all particulars, but it does raise an interesting point. Just what is the role of the private landowner and hunter in deer management? A great deal has been written about the importance of hunters in wildlife management, but you see very little about the role of landowners. It's interesting to note that 80 percent of the wildlife lives on 60 percent of the land -- private land, that is. This fact puts some credence to my colleague's assertion. The private landowner must be very important, indeed!

A LOOK BACK
Starting in the very early portion of the 20th century, the stocking records for white-tailed deer in Texas show that, almost without exception, these animals came from private ranches and properties. Since there were enough deer on these properties to allow removal for restoration efforts, someone had to be doing a pretty good job of protecting them! I live in eastern Texas, where deer conservation and management was somewhat late in coming about.

I began my work at North Boggy Slough Hunting and Fishing Club (Houston and Trinity counties). The land belonged to the Temple Family, who, at one time, happened to be the largest landowner in our state. If you've been reading North American Whitetail for much of our 25 years, you may recall that in the mid-1980s I killed one of the biggest deer ever taken in our state at Boggy Slough. He was known as the "Boggy Slough Monster," and he sported 9-inch bases and 4 drop tines. He was descended from a small remnant population of Kansas whitetails that once inhabited the Piney Woods region of Texas.

A Captain Ray had hog-fenced off about a section of land to protect a group of deer from hog predation and dog-hunters. Captain Ray defended this handful of animals literally with his life. Eighty years later I was the beneficiary of this man's work. And so were several other hunters who also have taken monster bucks from the national forest that surrounds Boggy Slough (now totaling about 25,000 acres).

I'm often amused when landowners call me wanting to find some deer with "superior genetics" to stock in their area. A man representing a cooperative management area in central Texas called me not long ago asking this very question. "Why do you want to do that?" I queried. He replied that some bucks from South Texas (famed for its big-antlered bucks) would help increase antler size for their cooperative.

Silence ensued when I patiently told him that the deer already established in his area had come from the King Ranch, one of the most famous trophy buck areas in our state. The point is that private landowners both big and small were responsible for keeping whitetails from being wiped out.

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