{"id":11101,"date":"2019-12-13T20:49:15","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T20:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=11101"},"modified":"2019-12-13T20:49:15","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T20:49:15","slug":"port-mansfield-holds-first-ever-public-deer-hunts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=11101","title":{"rendered":"Port Mansfield Holds First Ever Public Deer Hunts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

These 10 youngsters participated in the second public hunt in Port Mansfield. Photo: Tony Vindell\/LFN<\/p><\/div>\n

by Tony Vindell\/LFN<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Hundreds of white-tailed make Port Mansfield their home.<\/p>\n

Some can be seen roaming the streets of this fishing community about 18 miles east of Raymondville. A good number of people love to feed them while others wish they stop doing so as could pose a safety hazard.<\/p>\n

Estimates are that close to a 1,000 deer are in and around this quiet town of a couple hundred permanent residents.<\/p>\n

So in an effort to reduce the growing herd, resident Jim Beale started addressing the Willacy County Navigation District more than a year ago with the aim to hold public youth hunts.<\/p>\n

His wish was granted as the board a motion to hold the hunts for the first time since the navigation district was created in 1948 by the Texas Legislature.<\/p>\n

After that, Beale started working on a project to conduct five hunts, each with 10 youngster ages nine to 17 years of age.<\/p>\n

He then contacted a number of wildlife organizations, including the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department and the Texas Wildlife Association\u2019s Youth Hunting Program, to put a plan together.<\/p>\n

Beale said each of the 10 youths are allowed to kill a goes first and cull buck as the aim is to harvest 100 deer \u2013 which is barely a dent on the growing deer population.<\/p>\n

The first hunt was held Nov. 16-17 and will are doing on every two weeks, with the last scheduled for Jan. 11 and 12.<\/p>\n

To apply for the hunts, a youngster need to apply online with the Texas Youth Hunting Program at\u00a0www.tyhp.org<\/a>, create a youth hunting account, attend an orientation, pay a $100 fee and take a hunter\u2019s education class. Any Texas youth is eligible to apply.<\/p>\n

If selected, a hunt includes three meals, a sleeping quarter at the Port Mansfield Chamber of Commerce and an orange vest and hat.<\/p>\n

Each hunter is taken to a deer blind by one of several volunteers and call a number once a deer is taken down.<\/p>\n

Beale said they would like to have more youngsters from the Valley applying to hunt in Port Mansfield.<\/p>\n

On the second hunt, only one youth, Isabella Luna of Edinburg, was from the Rio Grande Valley.
\n\u201cIf this goes well,\u201d he said, \u201cwe will do it next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

To apply for the hunts, a youngster need to apply online with the Texas Youth Hunting Program at\u00a0www.tyhp.org<\/a>, create a youth hunting account, attend an orientation, pay a $100 fee and take a hunter\u2019s education class. Any Texas youth is eligible to apply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Tony Vindell\/LFN Hundreds of white-tailed make Port Mansfield their home. Some can be seen roaming the streets of this fishing community about 18 miles east of Raymondville. A good number of people love to feed them while others wish they stop doing so as could pose a safety hazard. Estimates are that close to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11105,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11101\/revisions\/11105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}