Ice Chest has different backwoods use...

Age is Just a Number A Williamson County game warden saw eight teenagers walking down the road toward Lake Georgetown.  They parked in a grocery store’s parking lot a mile from the lake and were "borrowing" a shopping cart to carry their ice chest and belongings.  While discussing the shopping cart issue, the warden noticed another individual carrying an ice chest.  When asked what was in it, the owner said there was nothing in it.  The warden told him that it didn’t make sense to carry a brand new ice chest to the lake empty.  When asked to open it, the teenager hesitated.  But when asked a second time, it was discovered the ice chest was just a big container for his marijuana, pipe and a bottle of eye drops.  After the teen was placed under arrest and told he was heading to jail, his response was, "But I’m seventeen."

From http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/newsmedia/releases/?req=20130618b&utm_campaign=jun272013&utm_medium=email&utm_source=hunttexas

It Was My Dog's Fault...

Two game wardens and a cadet filed multiple citations on an individual for violating the daily bag limit for white bass.  The violator had 21 fish over his daily bag limit.  He claimed it was his dog’s fault and that he needed to get a fish counter.


From http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/newsmedia/releases/?req=20130618b&utm_campaign=jun272013&utm_medium=email&utm_source=hunttexas

Protect the Texas Natural Environment

The Invaders of Texas Program supports the creation and perpetuation of a network of local citizen scientist teams who seek out and report outbreaks of selected environmentally and economically harmful invasive species. These teams, coordinated by the Wildflower Center contribute important data to local and national resource managers who will, in turn, coordinate appropriate responses to control the spread of unwanted invaders. The Invaders Program is designed to move the target audience beyond awareness to action on invasive species.

Learn more...http://texasinvasives.org/invaders/

They still have their own rules...

Fishing for Trouble A Hemphill County game warden and an Ochiltree County game warden observed a group of nine people in a remote section of Palo Duro Lake, upstream from the main lake in an area that is rarely used recreationally.  Undetected, the two wardens approached the group on foot and saw various actions associated with possible illegal fishing activity.  After watching the group for a while, the wardens split up and approached the group from opposite directions.  When the wardens announced their presence, the group scattered and the wardens saw that one of the men was carrying a scoped black rifle.  After several tense moments, the wardens were able to talk to the man and got him to put down the rifle.  When the group was rounded back up, nine individuals from Oklahoma were found to be in possession of various types of fish, including 24 undersize crappie and 5 undersize channel cats.  These were removed, measured, photographed and released.

Field Notes: June 18, 2013

Wild Hogs Protect Their Own

Feral hogs run across Southeast Texas.

Still Happening in Southeast Texas...

More than 50 arrested at Southeast Texas cockfight

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

 

Hardin County Sheriff Ed Cain said Tuesday that deputies responding to a call about dogs possibly fighting located the cockfighting ring 10 miles north of Silsbee.
Cain says 51 people were charged with a misdemeanor attending a cockfight following Saturday's incident. A man living on the property was charged with organizing a cockfight. Cain says deputies found 15 dead roosters and about 60 others still alive.
The sheriff says it's not illegal to have roosters -- it's just against the law to fight them. Cain says the roosters can be reclaimed by the owner.
Investigators believe the cockfighting ring had been operating for at least a year.

 http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/state&id=9134435 

People Left Behind...

Images such as these from the Appalachian Mountains are not that different from those found in isolated populations in the Big Thicket.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Capturing-Appalachias-Mountain-People.html#