The "story" behind Texas is that the private land owners used to allow pretty much free access to large ranches. The possibility of making a buck where there wasn't one before killed free access. The difference between Texas and Washington is that those private land owners didn't have to answer to the state like the timber companies do. the change over happened darned near overnight.
Another twist to the Texas story is that 94% of the land is privately owned, unlike Washington where there is a lot of public land (both state and federal) for people to access. I lived in Texas for 5 years and it was a pain to hunt. The cheapest hunting lease I could find was $1,200 per year and most hunting leases had a waiting list. Even paying into a hunting lease didn't guarantee you would have a quality hunt. On some leases hunters had to schedule or put their name on a list of what days they wanted to hunt and what stands or blinds they would like to hunt. I sure hope Washington does not become like this.
