"House Bill 1379 would stop game wardens and Parks and Wildlife peace officers from entering private property without warrants."
Texas Scorecard HB1379

"HB 1379 would allow game wardens to enter private property with owner permission, under probable cause, warrant execution, or while determining an emergency."

The 4th Amendment comes into play, interesting discussion.

Bill text

good

As a ranch owner for 35 years i never broke any laws or did anything wrong that would make me worry about a GW being able to access my property.
I have instances that I'm glad he could access my property to catch bad guys.
No game warden or TPWD ever abused the right to come on my land… quite to the contrary… I welcomed them.
I would have to ask…. Who would be of most benefit as a landowner to prohibit a GW from coming onto your land without a warrant and looking around?

First off, praise the Lord. I sincerely hope this passes. Why do we even have a constitution if warden can cut locks on gates and stick his nose in every cooler that rolls down the highway.

But to your point, you need not worry there is a provision for you to grant warden permission to access your property for whatever reason he thinks he has.

I'll ask you then Cactus…. Who do you think will find this change very beneficial to them? What type of landowner?

The landowner who has committed no crime. The current laws are ripe for abuse.

Really? Think about it just a bit sir.
And a cooler going down the highway has no bearing on this at all.

Any and all sorts of heinous acts have been committed by governments against their people. The constitution is what protects us. Do you feel the FBI deserves similar freedoms as currently warden has? Why not?

So what about being able to access poaching operations or deer breeder violations that landowners are aware of?

CactusThomas said:

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Any and all sorts of heinous acts have been committed by governments against their people. The constitution is what protects us. Do you feel the FBI deserves similar freedoms as currently warden has? Why not?

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No. The FBI is not charged with protection of a state owned resource that resides on your land. Deer and other game animals on your land belong to the people of the state and the reason game wardens have the right to access your land is to make sure you are not violating laws governing how they can be hunted. How exactly are they supposed to develop probable cause for people hunting without a license or overharvesting game in the middle of a 1000+ acre property if they are not allowed to access the property?

Gunny456 said:

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So what about being able to access poaching operations or deer breeder violations that landowners are aware of?

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Rep Curry has filed a bill that will fix that too. He wants to take away TPWD's deer breeder permit and allow anybody with an 8' or taller fence to be a deer breeder, regulated as an "agricultural activity". Meaning deer behind high fences will officially be livestock, not game animals.

Under the original Texas wildlife code they were given that forbearance because the wildlife belonged to the state and 95% of that wildlife is on private lands. So, because of that fact they were given that right to ingress.
Totally different than the FBI and people.
Many a wildlife crime has been prosecuted due to that access right.

Thank you.

Gunny456 said:

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As a ranch owner for 35 years i never broke any laws or did anything wrong that would make me worry about a GW being able to access my property.
I have instances that I'm glad he could access my property to catch bad guys.
No game warden or TPWD ever abused the right to come on my land… quite to the contrary… I welcomed them.
I would have to ask…. Who would be of most benefit as a landowner to prohibit a GW from coming onto your land without a warrant and looking around?

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I would agree completly, we always invite our game warden on the property when we are hunting. I would want him to be able to access the property when not there because we have had issues with people hunting illegally on the property.

That's why I asked the question of who stands to benefit from this law the most….law abiding person or criminal?

Yes sir.

Spot on. I used to do ride-alongs with wardens in our area. They let lots of folks off with just verbal warnings and had lots more patience than I would ever have.
I can give many examples of leasee's or landowners locking their gates so wardens could not get in and knowingly breaking game laws and thinking they were safe cause their gates were locked….. but unless the warden had a tip or had a complaint they would not arbitrarily cut locks to just drive into places.
As my dad used to say ….. "honest folks don't need laws but criminals sure like some of them."

txags92 said:

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Gunny456 said:

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This was what point I was trying to make. This is a law to prohibit something that is not really being abused imho. I have been ranching basically all my life and landowner of one as well. I have absolutely no knowledge of any rancher I know that has rights abused by a GW.
All this will do is impact our fish and wildlife negatively.. and burden an already undermanned enforcement agency.

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I would suspect that those with the big dramatic stories of locks being cut and wardens throwing their weight around belligerently either are not being honest with us or themselves about something they did to provoke the behavior or are unaware that something they did provoked it. My experiences with game wardens is that most of them are far more patient and forgiving than I would be in the situations they find themselves dealing with. But if you abuse or try that patience, it can come to an end in a hurry and FAFO gets applied.

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There from other state's, but these cases may have inspired the bill:

https://reason.com/2022/07/28/pennsylvania-poaching-police-warrantlessly-installed-camera-on-private-land-to-surveil-hunting-club/

https://ij.org/ll/trained-to-trespass-louisiana-game-wardens-snoop-around-private-land/