Archive for September 18th, 2008

Wildlife Action Plan, 2

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program

We get about 20-dollars per plate. And, on average, we sell about ten thousand plates, and that generates around 200-thousand dollars a year.

Matt Wagner, program director for wildlife diversity, is talking about the horned lizard conservation license plate. The money it generates supports the projects of the wildlife action plan.

The wildlife action plan is a strategy for conserving non-game wildlife and fish.

Most wildlife in Texas is non-game and the wildlife action plan will help us to understand them better.

We’ve discovered that there’s quite a demand for our freshwater turtles in terms of their value as meat, being sold to other countries. And so we have a statewide study to look at our freshwater turtle populations. We also are putting money into the conservation of the horned lizard. We’re about the decline of the horned lizard in parts of our state. And, we have some genetic work going on, and some other population analysis going on in the state that will hopefully reveal some answers to some of those questions.

Funds also support work with landowners to restore native habitat. Learn more at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with support from the Wildlife restoration program… providing funding for the Private Lands and Habitat Enhancement Program … For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.