via How Hurricane Harvey affected dove hunting season

AUSTIN (KXAN) — It’s a somewhat unexpected effect from Hurricane Harvey on Central Texas, and something many families see as a time-honored tradition: dove hunting.

The dove hunting season began Sept. 1, but participation in its first week, typically the busiest time of the dove season, is nowhere close to normal.

“Dove hunting is just a family activity where you go with friends and family, and so a lot of folks didn’t get that opportunity this year,” said Shaun Oldenburger with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. “Unfortunately they’re dealing with family and friends in another way.”

Oldenburger says while Harvey may have pushed coastal and southeast Texas doves towards Central Texas, south and west, it’s also kept hunters away.

“This birds definitely moved west and south,” Oldenburger said. “Some of those birds could have moved north up here, but it looks like a lot of birds moved out of this area as well.”

Scott Calvin is the firearms manager at Sportsman’s Finest at 12434 Bee Cave Rd. Dove hunting gear has sold well leading up to the season, but hunters aren’t out.

“I had all my friends coming from Houston and from Beaumont that come up and hunt with me … so none of them can go,” Calvin said.

Calvin says many dove hunters he knows are either displaced from their homes, or helping others in the areas affected by Harvey.

“Some of those folks will start taking a break, ‘hey, let’s go out and do a little dove hunting — let’s take some time off,’” Calvin said.

Oldenburger is also hopeful, but not sure the season will get better. He says between 10 and 20 percent of the normal number of dove hunters took part in the opening weekend. That could be devastating to a sport Oldenburger says brings an annual economic impact of around $400 million to the state.

“Especially some of these smaller towns in rural Texas where they depend on the great outdoors for a lot of the small businesses, for restaurants, hotels, things like that,” he said.

“All that purchasing power that the hunting community brings to rural America and rural Texas has been depleted somewhat because of all the energy that’s been focused on rescue, repair and recovery from Hurricane Harvey,” Calvin said.

Texas Parks and Wildlife has information on the duration of the dove hunting season, where to get licenses, and the rules and regulations of the hunt.