While much of the work is routine,
like checking licenses and bag limits,
some aspects of the work are danger-
ous and the Texas Game Warden
Memorial at Athens, Texas lists 19
wardens dying in the line of duty since
1919.
Porter, anxious that I should
appreciate the huge economic impor-
tance of hunting, sets the scene for
me. Part of the TPWD Mission
Statement, in addition to running the
state parks and doing research, is to
“provide hunting opportunities to
present and future generations.” This
includes regulating all game hunting
activity. In 2010, the State of Texas
sold 1,245,532 deer hunting licenses.
Hunting income provides a lifeline for
many ranchers and keeps afloat many
a struggling rural community. Half a
million jobs, directly and indirectly,
depend on hunting. Texas leads the
nation in hunting-related retail sales
at $1.7 billion annually.
The game being hunted range
from doves, to antelope and deer
(white tail and mule deer), to non-
native exotics like aoudad and big
horn sheep. West of the Pecos is mule
deer country. Hunting takes place in
the fall and winter. State biologists
look to the health of the species and
determine a viable number of each
species. A seasonal game limit is
established, via the permits issued, to
maintain that goal.
Hunting activity takes place on
TPWD land such as Elephant
Mountain or Black Gap Wildlife
Management Areas, and on private
ranchland. Porter emphasizes that
“landowners do a magnificent job” of
looking after the wildlife population
on their property; their income
depends on it. Game Wardens regu-
late people’s behavior in hunting.
Much of the work is repetitive, but
sometimes remote areas such as
Terlingua Ranch have proved risky
terrain. Captain Porter’s office in the
DPS Building displays antlers and
birds seized by wardens locally from
illegal hunters.
Not surprisingly, Porter is a keen
hunter himself. He dismisses the neg-
ative perception of a hunter as a killer.
A good hunter reflects a level of inten-
sity in the appreciation of the sport;
sometimes a hunting experience can
be enjoyed thoroughly without a shot
being fired.
Porter, who comes from South
Texas, has good things to say about
the region (one of five regions of
TPWD) that he is responsible for. He
considers that the tri-county area is
safer for Game Wardens than some
other parts of Texas. He, for one,
loves the region and intends to stay.
“Most hunters are good people hav-
ing fun,” he concludes.
JUSTIN HOFFMAN
Justin Hoffman was born in Wichita
Falls, TX on April 14, 1990 but spent
all of his early life including schooling
in Bowie, TX, one hour north of Fort
Worth. Being a Texan is important to
him. His father, Bryan, worked for an
electricity provider company and his
mother, Janice, was a nurse. He has
two younger brothers, Brandon and
Colby.
Hoffman enjoyed school and was a
good student but the defining moment
of his childhood was, at age 10, going
hunting with his dad and shooting a
deer. He felt a huge sense of accom-
plishment achieving a kill in front of his
dad. He later learned not to waste
hunting opportunities and not to shoot
just for the sake of firing a gun.
With two scholarships lined up, he
chose Sul Ross since Alpine was home
to his aunt and uncle, Jackie and
Bennie Molsbee, and started an under-
graduate BSc program in August
2008. His subject was Natural
Resource Management and his first
field project was a survey of mule deer
in 2010. He had no idea until that time
of the extent of hunting research and
management.
His second project came in 2011,
relocating pronghorn antelope to the
Big Bend area from the Texas
Panhandle under the auspices of the
Borderlands Research Institute at
SRSU. That year of extreme cold,
then fire and drought was terrible for
such a relocation program, and results
were slim. But Hoffman began to
understand the wider picture of
resource management and today sees
himself as a manager and scientist,
proud to be part of the excellent SRSU
Natural Resource Management grad-
uate program. Hoffman received his
BSc in Natural Resource Management
in 2011, and is due to complete his
Masters in 2014.
Trained as a wildlife manager, and
following an individual passion as a
consumer, Hoffman can see both sides
of the picture. He knows that 90 per-
cent of funding for wildlife conserva-
tion comes from taxes. He also sees
that hunting across Texas is declining
among the younger population,
although non-consumptive activities
such as bird watching, wildlife photog-
raphy and ecotourism are on the
increase.
Hunting, he believes, is the true
incentive for managing wildlife stocks.
He gets as much satisfaction from
watching someone shoot a gun, as in
shooting a gun himself. He believes
that everyone needs to shoot a gun to
understand what it means. Being out-
doors, testing one’s skill as a marksman
and the satisfaction of bonding with
companions all come together when
hunting.
Hoffman married Jessica Watkins, a
native of Bowie, Texas in November
2009. Jessica works as a nurse, and the
couple lives on SRSU campus.
Looking ahead to the job market,
Hoffman has plenty of options. He
takes time to make sure that I under-
stand his concerns and commitment to
his chosen profession. Landowners are
the best conservationists; they are on
the spot, their livelihood depends on
herd management. He adds that
Wildlife Management is 90 percent
people management and 10 percent
wildlife management – an intriguing
thought.
Cenizo
Fourth Quarter 2013
13