Perspectives on South Texas, Sponsored by Texas a&M University-Kingsville – serie

The original, 2006 edition of Timothy Edward Fulbright and J. Alfonso Ortega-S.’s White-Tailed Deer Habitat: Ecology and Management on Rangelands was hailed as “a splendid reference for the classroom and those who make their living from wildlife and the land” and as “filling a niche that is not currently approached in the literature.”In this second, full-colour edition, revised and expanded to include the entire western United States and northern Mexico, Fulbright and Ortega-S. provide a carefully reasoned synthesis of ecological and range management principles that incorporates rangeland vegetation management and the impact of crops, livestock, predation, and population density within the context of the arid and semiarid habitats of this broad region. As landowners look to hunting as a source of income and to the other benefits of managing for wildlife, the clear presentation of the up-to-date research gathered in this book will aid their efforts. Essential points covered in this new edition include: White-tailed deer habitat requirements; Nutritional needs of White-tailed deer; Carrying capacity; Habitat management; Hunting.Focused across political borders and written with an understanding of environments where periodic drought punctuates long-term weather patterns, this revised and expanded edition of White-Tailed Deer Habitat: Ecology and Management on Rangelands will aid landowners, researchers, and naturalists in their efforts to integrate land management and use with sound ecological practices.

The South Texas Sand Sheet, also known as the Coastal Sand Plains and the Llano Mesteño, is a vast region covering more than two million acres at the southern tip of the state, just north of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The landscape's distinctive feature is the dunes created from sheets of sand blown inland from the shoreline of an ancient sea. Highly diverse native plant communities help make it one of the state's most cherished ecological regions as well as the premier hunting region in the world for northern bobwhites. The Sand Sheet is a constantly shifting semi-arid landscape, shaped by wind, ranching, energy production, and, increasingly, by growing urban populations surrounding the region.Organized with the nonbotanist or beginning-level botanist in mind, A Photographic Guide to the Vegetation of the South Texas Sand Sheet includes 200 of the most common grasses, flowering plants, vines, cacti, and woody plants of the South Texas Sand Sheet, 56 of which are species endemic to Texas and 15 of which can only be found in this region. Species are grouped by physical appearance, allowing budding naturalists, landowners, and students to find a specific plant without needing to first understand how families and species are grouped scientifically. Each plant entry includes a representative sampling of photos for that species, showing how it might look from a distance, up close, and at different stages of its life cycle.This handy snapshot of plant life in the South Texas Sand Sheet will enable anyone to easily identify Sand Sheet plants, learn more about their uses, and understand their value to the region.

In 2003, a cadre of researchers set out to determine what combination of supplemental or natural nutrition and white-tailed deer population density would produce the largest antlers on bucks without harming vegetation. They would come to call this combination “the sweet spot.” Over the course of their 15-year experiment, conducted through the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University–Kingsville, Timothy E. Fulbright, Charles A. DeYoung, David G. Hewitt, Don A. Draeger, and 25 graduate students tracked the effects of deer density and enhanced versus natural nutrition on vegetation conditions. Through wet years and dry, in a semiarid environment with frequent droughts, they observed deer nutrition and food habits and analyzed population dynamics. Containing the results of this landmark, longitudinal study, in keeping with the Kleberg Institute’s mission, this volume provides science-based information for enhancing the conservation and management of Texas wildlife. Advanced White-Tailed Deer Management: The Nutrition–Population Density Sweet Spot presents this critical research for the first time as a reference for hunters, landowners, wildlife managers, and all those who work closely with white-tailed deer populations. It explains the findings of the Comanche-Faith Project and the implications of these findings for white-tailed deer ecology and management throughout the range of the species with the goal of improving management.