Passport to Texas

Searching for shells on the beach at Mustang Island.

TPW TV: Mustang Island, Fun for the Family Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Are you thinking about a coastal getaway with the family this summer, but wondering where to go? The Texas Parks and Wildlife Television PBS series takes you to an island retreat that offers recreation and relaxation for the whole family. Producer Abe Moore.

As a producer and a dad, I’m always looking for stories or places where it’s kid friendly, or something great for the family. And Mustang Island, it’s just a great place for kids, and then as a parent, you can kind of just hang out.

People, when they come out to the island, they’re looking for relaxation. So, the minute they get here and get set up, that’s all they’re looking to do—just sit back, relax and take it at their own pace.

It’s also a great place for fishing, and beach combing and birding. When I was out there filming, there was a lot of kite surfing going on, so that was really cool. What’s really nice about it, it’s right there in the central part of the coast.

In Texas, I don’t think a lot of people realize within hours you can be here. And when you sit out in this breeze coming off the water, it’s just great. So that’s story’s going to be on Texas Parks and Wildlife television. Enjoy!

The Texas Parks and Wildlife TV segment airs the week of February 17 on PBS stations. Check your local listings.

We receive support from RAM Trucks: Built to Serve.

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

This black-capped vireo male is a passerine species.

TPW TV: Black Capped Vireo Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

In the Texas Hill Country, biologists are keeping track of a Texas treasure: the Black Capped Vireo.

I stop in my tracks every time I hear one [vireo] Up…there’s that bird. Right there!

Jeff Foreman is a Wildlife Biologist at Mason Mountain WMA. For many years the black cap was an endangered species, but over the past 30 years this little bird has made a big comeback.

Healthy nesting habitat is very much required for the vireo’s sustainability. They really like these low shrubs with spaces in between. They can fly in and around and catch insects.

Historically vireos thrived in the scattered shrubs and open grassland that stretched across Central Texas. But with European settlement came grazing by cattle, goats and sheep.

…sometimes the populations of those livestock weren’t kept in check. They just ate the homes out from under the vireo.

Fire suppression, white-tailed deer, and the brown-headed cowbird, also played parts in reducing the vireo’s population. It was listed in endangered 1987. The good news is, it was delisted in April of last year.

Find out how biologists worked this magic the week of January 27 on the TPW TV series on PBS. Check your local listings.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

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

The man. The legend: Shannon Tompkins

TPW TV -- Fishing Hall of Fame Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

You never know where a shared family experience will lead down the road. In Shannon Tompkins case, it lead him to a love of fishing, avocation as a conservationist and a career as an outdoor writer.

Ya know, I’m lucky I grew up in a family that loved to fish. The memories I have is of me and my brother fishing in farm ponds of east Texas. It’s just always been a part of my life. This is the same country my great, great, great grandfather saw. I’m looking at the same water, catching the same fish that he caught. I write about issues related to fisheries and water; the environment. Because without a healthy environment, we don’t have fish. And so people don’t care about something that they don’t feel a connection to. If they don’t know about this place, they don’t know what’s at stake, they don’t care that they’ve lost it. That’s really been my goal is to let folks know what’s going on out there.

For his dedication to conservation issues, Tompkins, who writes for the Houston Chronicle, was inducted into the Texas freshwater fishing hall of fame. Texas Parks and Wildlife Executive director, Carter Smith.

He brings a very thoughtful, objective voice, of fish and wildlife management or conservation and outdoor recreation in Texas, and Shannon Tompkins is there to tell that story.

Learn more about Tompkins from the people who know him the week of December 9th on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS.

Out show receives support from RAM Trucks: Built to serve.

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

Lake Wichita

TPW TV -- The Lake Maker Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport

When Tom Lang, the Texas Parks and Wildlife District Fisheries Supervisor in Wichita Falls, took over his position eight years ago…

Eight of the lakes in this district had completely died up. And one of those was here at lake Wichita. This is the third oldest lake in the state of Texas.

Lang manages fisheries resources for eight counties in North Texas. Lake Wichita offered a challenge.

We’re starting a lake over. So we�re going to drain the water, the little bit of water that’s in it, and we’re going to dig it out and double the storage capacity.

The plan is comprehensive, and includes amenities like bike paths. A project of this scale requires community support. Lang developed relationships that helped to raise more than 4-million dollars for the project.

A project of this magnitude is expensive. And to have the community that we have here and the resources that we�ve been able to have, to be able to get the ball rolling on those, has really been important and very special.

Local business man Steven “Reno” Gustafason is optimistic about the future of Lake Wichita. He says the plan means decades of benefit to the community.

Tom’s plan is to bring back the fish, to bring back people coming to the lakes to go boating, people that will come and ride
their bikes on the bike trail. Just enjoy the lake like we did.

See this work in progress this week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS.

We receive support from RAM Trucks: built to serve.

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

Austin Central Library rooftop garden.

TPW TV - Up on the (Green) Roof Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

The new public library in Austin is an oasis in the midst of a steel and concrete desert.

[opens w/ambience] This is the, uh, rooftop garden, which we also call the butterfly garden.

John Gillum is library facilities manager. Native plants sway in the breeze six stories above busy thoroughfares.

It is a green roof. It means a roof that’s actually landscaped. We wanted to do something to help out our little pollinators. We will do anything we can to attract them. If we can come up with different plants we think will draw more butterflies, we’ll do it.

An oasis of native plants help bees and butterflies make their way through increasingly urban landscapes. It also makes for a nice spot to sit and read.

This is really the best part of the library as far as a natural setting to sit in.

Putting a park on a building saves space and lowers energy costs when temperatures soar.

As opposed to the concrete around us, this is going to be an area that really absorbs heat rather than reflects it out, so even in the kind of summers that we get here in Austin, this is still going to be a pretty pleasant place to be.

Can’t get to the library? Then get to a television. Explore the Austin Central Library rooftop garden on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS, the week of November 25th.

In an age when news about nature is not always cheery, look for some good news on the top shelf of Austin’s new library.

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