It's been an interesting year for officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Forth Worth District.
Matthew Jones is a Park and Natural Resource Specialist in Central Texas. He says this year, he's perhaps numb to surprises.
"Nothing surprises us this year. We've had increases in visitation all across the board for all different aspects of recreation," Ranger Jones said. "Whether it's camping, there's also more people boating."
Among the places you'll find increase foot traffic this time of year is on Corp land at Whitney and Aquilla Lake in Central Texas.
At the Wildlife Management areas, hunters can hunt for free, provided they have a permit. The hunting is primarily restricted to archery.
“Yeah crossbow or bow and arrow. A lot of our hunters are out here to hunt deer," said Nicholas Mouthaan, a Natural Resrource Specialist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
According to Mouthaan and Jones, they haven't seen very many new hunters this year, but older ones picking up the activity once again.
“Some of the people that haven’t hunted in the past seem like they’re back out here doing it again this year," Mouthann said
Total hunting permits for Aquilla & Whitney Lake area on par with previous year according to Jones.
"Right now we're at a normal level of hunting permits for this time of year," Park Ranger Matthew Jones said. "We're at about 2,600, which reflects similarly with the previous year. However we haven't got a lot of our spring hunting permits in."
With turkey season coming up, Jones expects to see a significant increase in those for the area in the near future.
"We're expecting to see a probably a significant increase with those numbers, which would overall for the fiscal year put us much higher for the fiscal year than previous years," he said.
No walk-ins are allowed for hunting at the Whitney & Aquilla Lake hunting area.
All new hunting permits must follow mail-in procedures, which you can view here. You can always a detailed list of potential hunting policies at this link.
