Passport to Texas

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

Finding a place to hunt can be a barrier for many people, which is why Texas Parks and Wildlife has created the Hunt Texas Online Connection.

Hunt Texas Online Connection is a new online service that we’re providing to all our constituents, to try to get landowners with hunting vacancies, opportunities, in touch with hunters who are seeking opportunities.

Linda Campbell oversees the state’s Private Lands and Public Hunting program.

We know that there are folks out there, for example, with overpopulation problems, needing hunters to fill vacancies—particularly for deer management. So, we just wanted to make it easier for people to find hunting opportunities.

The program has drawn significant participation from landowners with hunting opportunities.

Well, we’ve got quite a few landowners signed up trying to advertise their leases. There are some businesses out there, of course, and we also list those businesses, and encourage our constituents to check out those businesses as well.

Tomorrow—using the site to find hunting opportunities.

Find a link to the Hunt Texas Online Connection at passporttotexas.org.

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

 

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

Hunt Texas—The Basics is a first-of-its-kind skill-building workshop being offered to new hunters this fall by Texas Parks and Wildlife.

The purpose of the workshop is to develop responsible and successful hunters who recognize the importance of wildlife and habitat conservation.

Linda Campbell is Program Director of the Private Lands and Public Hunting Program. The workshop is an effort to support the hunting tradition in Texas, and to recruit new outdoorsmen, as these conservationist help sustain our natural resources.

In Texas, we’re doing pretty well holding our own with the number of hunters. But, we’re also concerned with changes in the population of Texas, more urbanization and people moving away from the land, and the effect of that on the ability to continue the hunting heritage of our state.

Workshop participants learn about firearm selection game processing, safety, ethics and much more.

We’re in the early stages of planning, but right now we are going to try to provide some firearms and ammunition for those that do not have firearms available to them.

The first workshop is September 19 & 20 at the Justin Hurst WMA. Participants will end the workshop with a mentored dove hunt. Find more information, including fees, at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program…providing funding for the Private Lands and Public Hunting Program. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

 

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

Let’s say you want to learn how to hunt, but you don’t have family or friends to teach you. What do you do? You attend the first-of-its-kind skill-building workshop for novice hunters.

Called Hunt Texas—The Basics. And it’s designed to provide new hunters with the basic skills needed to successfully pursue a variety of game species.

Linda Campbell is Program Director of the Private Lands and Public Hunting Program. In May, Parks and Wildlife Commissioners approved a Mentored Hunting Permit, thus clearing the way for these multi-day workshops.

Workshops will be developed locally by our field staff. They will be held on a WMA. Our first one is planned for the Justin Hurst WMA, down on the coast; it’s going to occur in September.

Firearm selection, game processing, dove hunting techniques and hunting license requirements are among the workshop topics. A hunting license will be required to participate, as will a $25 Mentored Hunting Permit.

This is on a first come, first served reservation basis. Of course, they’ve got to limit the number of people that can participate so that they can provide real hands on training. And so, to do that right, we’ll limit the number of folks participating.

Find information about the first workshop, scheduled for September 19 & 20 at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program…providing funding for the Private Lands and Public Hunting Program.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

 

 Mentored Hunting, 1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

When Matthew Butler’s youngest daughter returned home from school asking why her Daddy—a lifelong hunter—killed animals he was perplexed.

I thought that’s a rather strange question considering I’ve always hunted and you’ve been exposed to it.

He learned classmates at the suburban Washington DC School she attended had ridiculed the grade-schooler when they discovered she came from a hunting family.

And I thought, well, I know what I’ll do. I’ll go buy a book that would explain it to her in her terms—the environmental reasons and the ecological reasons behind hunting, and why it makes good sense for us as a society. Well, I couldn’t find such a book—it doesn’t exist. So, I decided that I would write it because the story needed to be told.

The book he wrote, Billy Goes Hunting, is a tale of a young boy who, with the help of his grandfather, learns about the tradition and value of hunting. Butler says the book has two audiences.

It’s directed at the children so that they hear the message, and they understand that hunting really has an environmental, economic, and social impact on our society. And the second group is obviously parents. I guess I look at this as a tool for parents to open up dialog, open up discussion, and to communicate with their children.

Learn more about Billy Goes Hunting at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Billy Goes Hunting Website: http://www.billygoeshunting.com/

 

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

Squirrel hunting was considered a right of passage for young people, but that’s changing. TPW TV writer/producer Ron Kabele tells us about a story airing this month called Last of the Squirrel Hunters.

We followed a father and his daughter, who were hunting on Engeling WMA. Her name was Macy; and she was very enthusiastic—she was about 12 years old.

I have four daughters. Macy is my outdoors person, so she likes to go and tromp out in the woods as long as the bugs don’t bother her too much.

And, his fear is that at some point, Macy’s generation is going to be the last generation of squirrel hunters. Squirrel hunting is actually a very good way to get people into hunting, because you’re moving around the forest, you’re not sitting in one place, you have lots of targets to aim at if you’re in good habitat. In other words, there’s lots of action.

(ambience walking) That other squirrel’s gotta be right here. Dad, put it in your pocket. Whoa. That’s cool.

A lot of time with hunting, it’s that first experience that determines whether someone’s going to be a hunter or someone’s not.

That’s our show for today…thank you for joining us…we receive funding from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program… providing funding for the operations and management of the Gus Engeling WMA.

We record out program at the Production Block in Austin, Texas. Joel Block engineers our show.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Find out on which PBS stations the Texas Parks and Wildlife Television series airs when you click here.

 

 TPW TV Feature: Last of the Squirrel Hunters: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download