MILLICAN RESERVE HOSTS SUCCESSFUL YOUTH HUNT

By Kasey Mock, Account Manager - Texas Pines & Prairies
with Bill Bebee, Texas Youth Hunt Program, Hunt Master

Stretching out across 2,800 acres in the Texas Brazos Valley, Millican Reserve is an exciting development designed to set a new standard for stewardship and interactive planning. Set in a vast and pristine natural setting near College Station, Texas, the natural beauty and rich heritage of this place creates an authentic and healthy community to live, work, and play in while staying engaged with the land.

Early in the planning phase, the owners of Millican Reserve looked to Plateau Land & Wildlife Management as their partner in conservation. With the placement of a Wildlife Management Plan, Millican Reserve has been able to retain a favorable tax valuation without grazing pressure from livestock. By utilizing additional management activities such as habitat planning, nature trails, supplemental shelter, and census of indigenous wildlife, the property has seen a tremendous improvement in diversity of species and improvement of habitat which will set this project apart from other rural developments.

Recently, Millican Reserve hosted a successful Texas Youth Hunting Program hunt, allowing seven youth hunters to harvest four doe on the 2-day hunt. This is great opportunity to pass on our hunting heritage while helping the landowner meet their wildlife management objectives. Texas Youth Hunting Program is a partnership of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Wildlife Association in San Antonio, Texas. Over the course of the hunting program weekend, youth ages 9 to 17 are educated on safe, legal and ethical hunting practices.

For information on Millican Reserve visit millicanreserve.com.
For information on the Texas Youth Hunting Program visit texasyouthhunting.com.

Texas Youth Hunting Program is a partnership of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Wildlife Association in San Antonio, Texas.

TEXAS YOUTH HUNTING PROGRAM: A NATURAL ALTERNATIVE

At a time when studies show that today's youth spend close to 8 hours a day consumed with alternate reality, from television to computer to video games, a real-world program created by two wildlife organizations, with help from private landowners, offers a natural alternative.

With the Texas Youth Hunting Program (TYHP), the Texas Wildlife Association and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department have joined forces to create a program designed to preserve the hunting heritage in Texas, instill in youth a basic understanding of practical conservation, and encourage wildlife habitat access, enhancement, and management. TYHP sponsors introductory instructive youth hunts for deer, turkey, hogs, javelina, exotics, dove, small game, waterfowl, varmints and other species. TYHP typically provides mentors, lodging, and meals for the youth participants. Private landowners also benefit by opening their gates to the program.

"In addition to giving our youth an initial positive and educational hunting experience, the program aims to assist landowners," said Doug DuBois, Jr., TYHP Area Coordinator. "Given their approval and harvesting targets, we are able to help landowners with their Wildlife Management program."

Participating landowners provide the place to hunt, with land access defined by their comfort level, and TYHP handles the rest, regardless of ranch size or facilities. The program provides liability insurance and promises safe, mentored, youth hunts.

"With over 90 percent of Texas under private control, we rely on folks like Plateau landowners," said DuBois. "Thanks to those who open their ranch gates, we are able to groom new conservation-minded hunters with the highest ethical standards in hunting."

For those interested in learning more about the program, visit tyhp.org or contact TYHP Executive Director Jerry Warden at 800-460-5494 or via email at JWarden@texas-wildife.org.