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    a voice in the marsh

    May 24, 2019 5 minutes
    BY MARK PORTER

    Anahuac, Texas

    HERE IN TEXAS, IT TAKES AN effort to control the alligator population. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department manages the population by having licensed people collect alligator eggs once a year. This is not an easy job.

    I know because I did it part-time for years. I worked at a chemical plant and used my vacation time to go out in the marsh during alligator season.

    One day in July of 2004, I was planning to collect eggs at Tigner Reservoir, which once provided water to irrigate rice fields. These days it was home to hundreds of alligators. I’d flown by helicopter to locate the nests, marking them in my GPS.

    Collecting eggs is not a one-man job. I needed a right hand, so I asked my brother Paul to help me watch out for and distract mama gators while I was getting the eggs. He

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