Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The mid-1990s saw the first wildlife trail completed along the Gulf Coast; today, with the help of detailed maps everyone can explore that first trail, as well as seven others that have followed it.

This summer we launched our final two Great Texas Wildlife Trail Birding maps. This brings the total of wildlife trail maps for the state of Texas to 8. We have 3 coastal birding trail maps, and then we (in 2004) launched 2 for the Heart of Texas, and one for the Panhandle. And now these final 2 are in the Pineywoods and the North Texas area of Dallas and Fort Worth. So we’re covering rural and urban areas state-wide.

Shelley Plant, Nature Tourism Coordinator.

The Great Texas Wildlife Trails are actually driving trails to sites along the road, so they’re things that you do in your car. They’re not a hiking or a walking trail. Texas was the first state that did birding and wildlife trails, and now many other states have followed that lead and there are wildlife trails throughout the entire nation now.

The trails provide economic incentive to landowners and communities to conserve habitat while providing ecotourism opportunities.

On the wildlife trail maps, there’s information about each site that tells you what time of year to go, what kind of habitat you’ll see, potential animals that you might run into while you’re at that site, and how to get there. Really this is the best way to discover everything that Texas has to offer in the outdoors.

Download or order your Texas Wildlife Trail map from the Texas Parks & Wildlife website.

That’s our show for today…with research and writing help from Loren Seeger.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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