The Texas Wildlife Association (TWA) is a non profit interest group that centers their interest on private landowners and their moral bond with its land. The TWA focuses on issues regarding to the hunters’ rights and hunting heritage, preservation of natural resources, and private landowners’ property rights. This interest group is dedicated to the conservation and improvement of Texas’ wildlife and its habitat located on privately-owned property.
Furthermore, the foundation of this interest group dates back to 1985. The Texas Wildlife Association was created by a group of ranchers, hunters, and wildlife managers who fought to protect the wildlife of Texas, primarily focusing on private ownership. The association was created in San Antonio, Texas, where the main quarters are located. The TWA provides three main programs that each specialize in three different areas; Conservation Legacy, Hunting Heritage, and Issues and Advocacy. Moreover, Texas is in need of more consveration leader and this is the Conservation Legacy program’s main purpose. It provides an educational source about wildlife and outdoors to generate a sense of appreciation for natural processes and their relationship with the outdoors from people of all ages. This program works to better inform Texans about the relationship between environmental, social, and economic condition changes and the natural resource leadership that is indispensable for the future of Texas. The flourishing of new conservation representatives amid landowners and outdoor lovers is essential to the preservation efforts of Texas’ natural resources, wildlife and habitat. The Conservation Legacy encourages volunteering within their communities and education programs for the youth to continue with preservation efforts in future generations and make a change while protecting Texas and its outdoors wildlife environment.
In addition, hunting forms a big part of Texas culture. The Texas Wildlife Association’s Hunting Heritage program educates about the important role that hunting plays on the administration of wildlife and habitat conservation. This also helps the public to engage in outdoor activities and build an appreciative bond with wildlife. The TWA, along with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department work together to provide the Texas Youth Hunting Program. This program works with the youth by offering hunting programs that are secure and free of harm, instructive, affordable, and educational. The hunting ranges from deer, to small game, to exotics, and many other species and provides a mentor to guide throughout the program.
Additionally, the Texas Wildlife Association also provides the public with the Issues and Advocacy program area. The efforts of this program are directed towards landowner protections, property rights, and the management of Texas wildlife. The Issues and Advocacy programs also support Hunting Heritage and influences the decisions in state and federal legislature. The Texas Wildlife Association Political Action Committee (TWAPAC) works under the Texas Wildlife Association and contributes to the campaign of candidates running for office, who support the ideas of the TWA, by providing financial support. The Texas Wildlife Association Political Action Committee has supported a wide range of candidates such as, Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Texas Senators Donna Campbell and Kelly Hancock, and Texas House Representatives Dan Flynn and Byron Cook. Some candidates that the Texas Wildlife Association Political Action Committee has supported financially has been Texas House Representatives John Cyrier with $3,500 dollars, and Keith Bell with $1000 dollars. The TWAPAC is partisan and supports mostly Republican candidates.
The TWAPAC is dedicated to informing and supporting politicians who are willing to take action on issues concerning to Texans and Texan private owners. Some issues that the TWAPAC supports are hunting heritage, property rights, and the conservation of natural resources. Contrarily, some issues that are opposed by the TWAPAC are eminent domain, the border wall, private ownership of Texas’ wild deer, and the commercial sale of Venison deer in Texas. As mentioned previously, the TWAPAC supports hunting heritage because it is significant to the administering of wildlife and habitat, and helps the public create bonds and appreciate the outdoors. This interest group supported Senate bill 1415, or the Hunting Heritage and Environmental Legacy Preservational for Wildlife Act (HELP for Wildlife Act), which called for improvements on the management of wildlife and its habitat, and outdoor recreation and was passed. Property rights can be defined as the legal ownership of resources by individuals, associations, or the government and how it can be used. Some proposed bills in the state of Texas that gained support from the TWAPAC were the House Bill 991 and Senate Bill 421, as they called for a fairer eminent domain for Texas private landowners, but unfortunately were not passed.
On the other hand, Eminent domain can be defined as the power of a government, state or federal, to take private property for public use with payment or compensation. The Texas Wildlife Association Political Action Committee opposes eminent domain because it is a violation to the landowner’s property rights. This committee was also against the border wall because if it crossed through any private property it would cause a decrease of the property value.Another issue that was not supported by the committee was the private ownership of Texas’ wild deer, for it would make it difficult for hunting deer, as opposed to the public ownership of deer. The proposed bill 2092 was unsupported by the TWAPAC, it proposed change of regulating industry from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to the Texas Animal Health Commission, but was not passed. The president of Texas Deer Association stated that the Texas Animal Health Commission are better suited because of their knowledge in animal health and disease prevention, but TWAPAC argued that the Texas Animal Health Commission did not have the resources needed for the regulation industry because deer were not like livestock. By the same token, the commercial sale of deer as Venison was not supported by the TWAPAC. Proposed bill House Bill 3723 would allow deer breeders to transfer and put on sell deer for preparation as venison, but was not passed. The TWAPAC argued that this action was contradictory to the conservation of Texas wildlife.
The Texas Wildlife Association uses various strategies to influence public policy. This association does lobbying, or the act of trying to influence decisions of political officials. They’ve hired any lobbyists, one of them being Joey Park. The TWA also goes public, as mentioned previously, this group provides information and educate the public through their program areas. They also have social media through where they communicate with the public and provide information. The TWA also hosts public events and conventions to make their ideas and policies be known and taken into consideration. Another of the TWA’s strategies is funding and endorsing political candidates, as mentioned previously, to influence public policy. This association does work with litigation, or taking issues to court to influence on public policy. The TWA also works with other interest groups, such as the Stewards of the Wild and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, to provide services to the public and make their ideas public. Furthermore the Texas Wildlife Association is always welcoming new members into their group to receive a greater support. This association has over ten thousand members and provides services to those who are part of the membership regardless of the level of membership. Some of these benefits include a one year subscription to the Texas Wildlife Association magazine, TWA e-newsletters, a TWA membership card, exclusive TWA membership decal, discounts on TWA events and workshops, and networking and volunteering opportunities. You can become a member of the Texas Wildlife Association by registering and paying the amount of money for the level of membership wished, or by making donations to the TWA through their website.