By Emmy Powell
Communications Specialist<\/p>\n
Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) Vice President and District 6 State Director Warren Cude testified in Austin on Texas Parks and Wildlife Department\u2019s (TPWD) role and efforts in the fight against New World screwworm (NWS).<\/p>\n
Cude, a Pecos County rancher, testified to the House Committee on Culture, Recreation and Tourism in Austin.<\/p>\n
The select committee is charged with overseeing Texas state parks, wildlife and fisheries regulation, hunting and fishing laws, recreational activities, cultural and historical resources, tourism promotion, and the preservation of Texas heritage, monuments, and memorials.<\/p>\n
No screwworm cases have been detected in Texas, but the pest has been found 62 miles from the Texas border.<\/p>\n
Over the last 18 months, Texas agencies and organizations have worked together to ensure early detection and prepared for when NWS is detected in the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stakeholder community has come a long way over the last 18 months,\u201d Cude said.
\u201cIndustry groups have worked together to get as prepared as possible for NWS infestation. TPWD holds responsibility for some of the most difficult parts of this challenge. Therefore, this agency must be fully prepared to respond to all manners of need.\u201d<\/p>\n
TFB expects TPWD to utilize their resources to conserve and protect wildlife populations, especially game species and those with proven population challenges, in the face of NWS infestations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll TPWD resources must be leveraged to proactively prepare and be aligned with state and federal partners, and landowners in response to this threat,\u201d Cude said. \u201cThis is a large agency with many resources. We encourage the agency to present a plan to efficiently use them to respond when the time comes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cude encouraged TPWD to prioritize NWS regulatory planning, strategy, and tactic development.<\/p>\n
\u201cTPWD can do this, but it needs to focus on the priority at hand before it\u2019s too late,\u201d Cude said.<\/p>\n
A list of specific foundational items that have not been completed by TPWD, as identified by landowners and TFB members, was included.<\/p>\n
Items include:<\/p>\n
Game warden training in high-risk counties south of Interstate 10,
\napproved disposal methods of infested animals,
\nagency staff training, including game wardens, to collect and submit wildlife sourced samples, and
\ninter-agency coordination plans to support stop-movement orders around infestation zones.<\/p>\n
Texas Wildlife Association, Texas Deer Association and TPWD also provided comments during the hearing.<\/p>\n
For more information on New World screwworm, visit\u00a0screwwormtx.org<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0screwworm.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Emmy PowellCommunications Specialist Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) Vice President and District 6 State Director Warren Cude testified…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[16698,27,29,28,11881,3746],"class_list":["post-293005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-nws","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-parks-and-wildlife-department","tag-tpwd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}