FAIRFIELD -- Mature white-tailed buck deer have a propensity for disappearing during hunting season. It's a character trait that enables them to reach maturity in the first place.
Big bucks vanish by traveling mostly under the cover of darkness and they seldom leave the safe confines that dense vegetation offers. So it came as no surprise to Texas Parks and Wildlife biologists on the Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area to catch glimpses of a particularly large-antlered buck only during their nighttime deer census surveys or through spotting scopes from great distances.
"We see a lot of our big deer at night during our spotlight surveys," said Jeff Gunnels, area manager on TPW's 13,700-acre Richland Creek WMA in Navarro and Freestone counties. "But this one deer in particular was tremendous."
He guessed the buck to be about five years old; heavy beamed antlers on a typical eight-point frame, but with tree root-like clusters of points jutting out in all directions.
Gunnels was hoping that one of the bow hunters accessing the WMA during archery season with a TPW Annual Public Hunting Permit would get a shot at this deer of a lifetime. He knew the odds of that happening were pretty slim, considering archers account for only 10 percent of the annual deer harvest in Texas, and less than one-sixth of those hunters who take a deer with a bow do so during the October archery-only hunting season.
By the end of the 1999 archery season no hunters had claimed the prize and in fact, no one reported seeing the big buck. Period.
Then, in late January 2000, Joseph Randall Haydon brought a set of deer antlers to a sporting goods shop in Fairfield to be mounted by their taxidermist. The people at the shop became suspicious when Haydon claimed to have killed the deer on Richland Creek WMA during bow season three months earlier, yet this was the first anyone had heard of such a magnificent deer being taken -- especially off of public land.
Haydon hadn't preserved the deer's head or cape with the antlers, as one would typically expect with a specimen of this magnitude brought for mounting. The antlers were untagged when taken to the taxidermist. When questioned by the taxidermist, Haydon claimed he had lost his hunting license. Haydon obtained a duplicate license to tag his antlers, which sparked a call to the local game warden.
Word of the Richland Creek monster buck got back to Gunnels and the WMA staff began checking their registration slips from the 1999 archery season and found Haydon had only checked in once -- on the opening day of the season. With an Annual Public Hunting Permit, hunters had open access to the WMA during archery season, but were required to fill out a registration card each time they entered the property. Haydon had informed the game warden he killed the buck around the third week of bow season, which led authorities to believe he may have taken the deer illegally.
"This wasn't his first rodeo," said TPW Game Warden Captain Robert Carlson, who oversaw the ensuing investigation into how Haydon obtained the deer. "The local wardens are very familiar with him."
Following an investigation by Freestone County Game Warden Gary Robinson, Haydon was charged with failing to fill out a registration card prior to hunting, which is a Class C misdemeanor. Although a minor infraction -- the legal equivalent of a traffic ticket -- a criminal conviction would return the antlers, which appeared to have been illegally taken, to the State of Texas.
In December 2001, a jury in Freestone County returned a guilty verdict against Haydon and assessed a $250 fine. A person convicted of illegally taking a wildlife resource in Texas is also subject to civil restitution for the value of the lost resource and in this case, the penalty was severe.
The civil restitution for a white-tailed buck is based on the size of the animal's antlers and measured under the Boone & Crockett Club scoring system. This buck grossed 208 points and netted 195 points after deductions -- a score that could potentially qualify for the Boone & Crockett Club record book. Civil restitution amounted to $12,189.50.
Haydon was also ordered to forfeit the antlers, which will go on permanent display at Richland Creek WMA.
While the loss of the buck in this manner was a blow to wildlife biologists on Richland Creek WMA and the bow hunters who legally hunt the area, Gunnels believes the big deer may have left something by which to remember him. "I've seen two different young bucks with a non-typical configuration similar to this deer, obviously not as big yet, but there's some potential."

AUSTIN -- Thirteen chapters of the Texas Master Naturalist program are accepting applications for spring training classes for volunteers who want to help conserve natural resources.
The Texas Master Naturalist program -- with a total of 18 chapters and eight more in the works -- aims to develop a corps of well-informed citizen volunteers who educate their communities about the management of natural resources.
The main qualification needed to become a Certified Texas Master Naturalist is an interest in playing an active part in conservation. Volunteers will receive about 40 hours of training from educators and specialists from places like universities, agencies, nature centers, and museums.
Training topics include interpretation and management of natural resources, ecological concepts, eco-regions of Texas, and natural systems management. Volunteers are expected to give 40 hours of service a year in community education, demonstration, and habitat enhancement projects. They are also expected to pursue a minimum of eight hours of advanced training in areas they are interested in.
The following areas have chapters offering spring training:
o Río Grande Valley -- Río Grande Valley Chapter. Application deadline is Feb. 1. Training begins Feb. 19. For more information, call (956) 571-5359 or e-mail jesus.franco@tpwd.state.tx.us.
o San Antonio -- Alamo Area Chapter. Application deadline is Feb. 1. Training begins March 14. For more information, call (210) 698-2397.
o Austin -- Capital Area Chapter. Application deadline is Feb. 25. Training begins March 2. For more information call (512) 389-8555 or check the web (http://www.camn.org/).
o New Braunfels -- Lindheimer Chapter. Application deadline is Feb. 5. Training begins March 5. For more information, call (830) 620-3440.
o San Marcos -- Hays County Chapter. Application deadline is Jan. 7. Training begins Feb. 12. For more information call (512) 393-2120 or check the Web (http://home.earthlink.net/~bellecampos/masternaturalist.html).
o Bastrop -- Lost Pines Chapter. Application deadline is March 1. Training begins March 25. For more information, call (512) 332-7286 or e-mail r-bauer@tamu.edu.
o El Paso -- Trans Pecos Chapter. Application deadline is Feb. 1. Training begins Feb. 6. For more information, call (915) 859-7725 or (915) 834-7070 or e-mail rbader@tamu.edu or elpasowild@aol.com.
o Aransas and Calhoun Counties -- Mid Coast Chapter. Application deadline is Jan. 25. Training begins Feb. 2. For more information, call (361) 552-9747 or e-mail j-oconnell@tamu.edu.
o Galveston -- Galveston County Chapter. Application deadline is Feb. 12. Training begins Feb. 26. For more information, call (281)-534-3413, Ext. 3.
o Brownwood -- Brownwood Regional Chapter. Application deadline is Feb. 22. Training starts the same day. For more information, call (915) 784-5482.
o Dallas -- North Texas Chapter. Application deadline is Feb. 1. Training begins Feb. 19. For more information, call (214) 904-3050.
o Houston -- Gulf Coast Chapter. Application deadline is Feb. 11. Training begins March 4. For more information, call (281) 855-5600.
o Wichita Falls -- Rolling Plains Chapter. Application deadline is Jan. 20. Training begins mid-February. For more information, call (940) 716-5580 or e-mail s-chaney@tamu.edu.
Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Texas Cooperative Extension Service co-sponsor the Texas Master Naturalist Program statewide, with funding support from the Exxon Mobil Corp.
For more information on training and other developing chapters contact Michelle Haggerty, Texas Master Naturalist Program Coordinator, at (979) 458-2034 or e-mail mhaggerty@wfsc.tamu.edu. Information is also available on the web at www.tpwd.state.tx.us/nature/volunteer/.