Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The fifty-third Game Warden Cadet Class will be the last to graduate from the training Academy in Austin.

And, we’ll archive that class, and sometime in June and July we’ll unplug, and take the pictures off the wall, and load up the boxes and we’re going up to Hamilton County and open up that new facility.

Randy Odom is Chief of training. He says the Police Activities League of Houston donated land for the new center.

It’s large enough to house a new admin building, state of the art classroom, gymnasium, an indoor swimming pool — we hope to have constructed — a firing range, and also an emergency vehicle operating course. To have all of these facilities on site, keeps us from being at the mercy of other agencies and having to beg, borrow and schedule times for events. Not all folks are great at everything, and having on site capability allows us easy and quick remediation.

The sale of the Austin site, plus contributions from benefactors will fund building costs.

Our goal is twelve and a half million to build, and if we get fifteen million it will offer us an endowment to help offset the operating costs once its all constructed. :09

Learn how you can help make the new Game Warden Training Center a reality when you go to passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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To learn about the New Game Warden Training Center, click here.

 

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The facilities at the current Texas Game Warden Academy are limited.

We’re on about six point two five acres in downtown Austin. We have a dormitory; we have a classroom; and we have an administrative office. Other than that, we do a little physical training.

Randy Odom is Chief of Training. The center is next to an Austin neighborhood, so most training is off site – and that presents challenges to instructors and cadets alike.

Currently if we have someone that say, for instance, has a problem with firearms training, we have to schedule the range, go after hours, go on the weekends.

Odom says accessing off site training locations involves hours on the road that could be spent honing skills.

We are in the process now of calculating all of our travel time. We have to travel to a range, from a range. It costs us per diem to pay cadets to be out of county for firing range access. Travel time is built into there, so it cuts into our training time.

The firing range is only one aspect of cadet training that occurs away from the Academy. But that’s about to change.

This facility in Hamilton County, which was donated to us by the Police Activities League out of Houston, is about two-hundred and twenty four acres.

We’ll tell you all about the new Game Warden Training Center tomorrow.

Until then, that’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

 

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

For twenty-two years the Texas Parks and Wildlife television series has aired on PBS stations statewide. This month, series producer, Don Cash helps us kick off the new season.

First week of October we start off with actually a show about becoming a game warden. We followed a game warden class the entire six months; and it’s a really interesting and entertaining look at what goes into becoming a game warden.

Coming in with thirty-four other strangers…it’s just, I mean, overwhelming. C’mon Caroline! Push it…push it…push it…push it. Whoever just groaned is going to love this. One…two… three. Good Job!

The second week of October, Abe Moore has got a really fantastic story on the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, which is extinct – maybe. The third week in October, we have story called fishing the late shift. And, it’s about night fishing, and people who fish at night.

It’s just easier for me to catch fish at night. It’s just fun. I catch some catfish and bass, mainly.

We end the month of October with a story on the Spring Trackers. It follows a couple of biologists with the department as they travel the state and study and monitor and count the springs that are in Texas and try and learn a little more about these wonderful resources that we have.

Thanks, Don. Visit passporttotexas.org for a complete listing of stations airing the series.

That’s our show for today…for Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Texas Parks and Wildlife on PBS and Cable
Stations and Air Times
Times and dates are subject to change, especially during PBS membership drives.

• Amarillo, KACV-TV, Channel 2: October–March, Saturday 6 p.m.
• Austin, KLRU-TV, Channel 18: Monday, 12:30 p.m.; Friday 5:30 a.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m. KLRU2, Cable 20: Tuesday, 11 p.m.
• Bryan-College Station, KAMU-TV, Channel 15: Sunday, 5 p.m.; Thursday, 7 p.m.
• Corpus Christi, KEDT-TV, Channel 16: Sunday, 12 p.m.; Friday, 2 p.m.
• Dallas-Fort Worth, KERA-TV, Channel 13: October–March, Saturday, 6 p.m. Also serving Abilene, Denton, Longview, Marshall, San Angelo, Texarkana, Tyler, Wichita Falls and Sherman.
• El Paso, KCOS-TV, Channel 13: Saturday, 3 p.m.
• Harlingen, KMBH-TV, Channel 60: Sunday, 5 p.m. Also serving McAllen, Mission and Brownsville.
• Houston, KUHT-TV, Channel 8: Saturday, 3:30 p.m.; Friday 1:30 p.m. Also serving Beaumont, Port Arthur, Galveston, Texas City and Victoria.
• Killeen, KNCT-TV, Channel 46: Sunday, 5 p.m. Also serving Temple.
• Lubbock, KTXT-TV, Channel 5: Saturday, 10 a.m.
• Odessa-Midland, KPBT-TV, Channel 36: Saturday, 4:30 p.m.
• San Antonio and Laredo, KLRN-TV, Channel 9: Sunday, 1 p.m.
• Waco, KWBU-TV, Channel 34: Saturday, 3 p.m.
• Portales, New Mexico, KENW-TV, Channel 3: Sunday, 2:30 p.m.
• The New York Network, NYN, Thursday 8:30 p.m.; Saturday 2:30 p.m. Serving the Albany area.

Cable

Texas Parks & Wildlife can also be seen on a variety of government, educational and access cable channels in the following communities: Abilene, Allen, Atlanta, Boerne, Collin County Community College, Coppell, Del Mar College, Denton, Flower Mound, Frisco, Garland, Irving, McKinney, North Richland Hills, Plano, Rogers State University, Texarkana College, The Colony, Tyler, Waco and Wichita Falls. Check your local listings for days and times.

 

 TPWD TV -- October Highlights: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

It’s illegal for hunters to track deer with dogs. And Game Warden, Major Robert Carlson, says violators can be relentless.

For decades we have had the running deer with dog issue and some 20 years ago when they made it illegal, we just had a significant number of folks that just wouldn’t quit it. We have been actively working on reducing the number of calls, the number of violations that occur with hunting deer with dogs.

Wardens developed strategies to deal with the crime.

Some of the things we’ve done is for 3 years during deer season we had special operations where we brought in about a dozen wardens from across the state. Every time one of the violators loaded a dog, we made sure they seen a Game Warden truck. And so that reduced their opportunity to actually hunt.

A change in the law helped Wardens with enforcement.

Basically what those law changes, and proclamation changes did, was it helped us because it made the offense of hunting deer with dogs easier to prove and it also made it a higher class misdemeanor with the opportunity for it to become a felony with subsequent charges.

That’s our show for today…we had research and writing help from Loren Seeger…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

 

 Tracking Deer With Dogs: Solutions: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

East Texas is known for more than its pine trees. It’s also known for being the only place in the state where running deer with dogs is commonplace.

Running deer with dogs is an illegal “sport” whereby a dog owner sends Fido into the woods to flush deer into the open. If the dog’s master correctly calculates the outcome of the chase, his prize is a clear shot at a whitetail. Game Warden Major Robert Carlson.

The dog trails the deer and the sport of it is for me [as the dog’s owner] to determine where that deer is going to cross the road and that’s where I need to be standing for me to shoot the deer. When they’re doing this, they’re running across people’s personal property. You know, it just boils down to that was a legal activity years ago, but you were supposed to shoot them on your property. You don’t have a right to turn a dog loose for it to wreak havoc on everybody’s personal property.

Running deer with dogs was made illegal twenty years ago. Major Carlson says this unlawful sport persists, and interferes with those who hunt deer legally.

What happens is with the deer running through there on a semi-regular basis, well that keeps the deer heard stirred up and run off so that the legal hunters can’t hunt either.

Beefing up efforts to eliminate the activity is tomorrow.

That’s our show for today…with research and writing help from Loren Seeger…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

 

 Tracking Deer With Dogs: The Problem: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download