Passport to Texas

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

What could be more relaxing than kayaking along an inland or coastal paddling trail, taking in the beauty of nature?

Water trails are one of the last public resources in the state.

Shelly Plante is nature tourism coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

In a state that’s about ninety-six percent privately owned, waterways are public passage. So the public has access to these waterways, and we just want to let people where they can go, and easily access the sites with community help, and paddle and see nature from a different perspective – down low on the water.

A community must nominate a stretch of river, or coastline, and then a thorough evaluation must take place before acceptance into the paddling trail program.

Currently most of our trails are from Central Texas down to the coast. And so, we are lacking paddling trails that have been nominated for east Texas, the Dallas/Fort Worth area, the panhandle, west Texas…if we get too many for us to be able to do in a year, geographic diversity is going to play a role in which ones get accepted annually.

Tomorrow, we tell you how to nominate your stretch of river or coastline for the paddling trails program.

That’s our show for today…supported by the Sport Fish Restoration program… providing funding for wetland conservation through the Private Lands Enhancement Program.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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