Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Next month Texas Parks and Wildlife headquarters in Austin will be transformed into an outdoor enthusiast’s playground during Texas Parks and Wildlife Expo.

Expo is a festival of the great outdoors. It’s a little bit of everything that you can do from fishing and shooting to camping, kayaking, rock climbing and mountain biking…and it’s just a great, great family event.

Ernie Gammage, Expo Director.

Expo is held the first weekend in October, Saturday and Sunday – open nine to five – and it’s free.

Gammage recommends using Expo as a springboard to outdoor activities in Texas.

The idea is to come to Expo and find your passion. What are those things that really seem to be fun to you? And then go out and explore them.

And there’s plenty to explore at Expo.

Lots of new, fun activities at Expo this year, including: geocahing…a family camping demo site….there’s some information about invasive species, which is a growing problem in the state of Texas. And country star, Kevin Fowler, will be visiting with us on Sunday.

When you visit Expo you can also enjoy Sea World’s Amazing Animals, the Birds of Prey show, and activities for the entire family; remember, getting children outdoors is one of the most important things we can do for them.

Find links Expo information at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Find out more about Texas Parks and Wildlife Expo when you click here.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Thanks to recent appropriations by the Texas Legislature, the first major infusion of new staffing for state parks in many years is underway.

Chief Operating Officer, Scott Boruff says Parks and Wildlife received the funds on September first, and many new hires are already hard at work.

And visitors to state parks will see many improvements once the parks are fully staffed.

Well, they’re going to see more faces there to give them a hand with what they need, in terms of getting them checked in and getting them situated in their sites appropriately and comfortably.

They will also see improvements to the capital infrastructure there – the restrooms will be nicer, the picnic tables will be a little newer, building will have screens on them and painted, and stuff like that.

Not all jobs have been filled; find a link to current state parks job openings at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Start your State Park job search when you click here.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The Texas legislature appropriated funds this past session that will allow Chief Operating Officer, Scott Boruff, to hire new staff to fill a variety of positions. When I spoke to Boruff at the end of August, he told me he hopes to have the positions filled quickly.

Well, we’re moving pretty aggressively to get these positions posted now. Our hope is to begin interviewing immediately so that as quickly after the beginning of the fiscal year – which is September the first – we could start filling as many of those positions as possible.

There are about two hundred positions to fill — from maintenance workers to park rangers, to law enforcement and business analysts – as well as others.

The new positions that were funded by the legislature will be positions that have either eroded over the years because of decreased funding or have been unavailable to us because we just didn’t have the money to hire them. So, the majority of our positions this year are going to be new positions. We’ll also be trying to fill those positions that have come open because of turnover.

Boruff says with the money comes responsibility.

I do think that it’s going to be a lot of work because along with the money came requirements for us to look at business practices and for us to look at ways to manage our financial resources more effectively and effectively.

Interested in a career with state parks? Go to passporttotexas.org and find a link to job postings.

That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Start your State Park job search when you click here.

State Park Jobs, Part 2 of 3 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Texas’ State Park system is getting a much needed shot in the arm thanks to appropriations by the Texas Legislature this past session.

The legislature came through for us this session, and did give us some additional money which will allow us to fund roughly a couple hundred new positions. It will give us some new capital money major repairs at state parks, and will allow us to get our state parks back into shape, and have staff there to take care of folks when they come in.

Chief Operating Officer, Scott Boruff, and his teams are working tirelessly to identify and hire qualified applicants.

There’s a broad range of positions that are going to be added to the state parks. I think the bulk of the positions will be park rangers and park interpreters and folks that interface directly with the public.

Boruff says the addition of more law enforcement positions will make the parks even safer for visitors. In addition, qualified applicants are being sought to work behind the scenes, too.

There will be business type folks that are helping us take care of the financial resources of the park. So, there will be additional budget analysts and people like that. I think you will see better business practices as a result of this new money.

Find a link to state park jobs on passporttotexas.org, and begin your new career with state parks.

That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Start your State Park job search when you click here.

State Park Jobs, Part 1 of 3 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Water and wings may be a theme of Texas Parks and Wildlife TV’s September programming. And producer Ron Kabele says a segment called Billion Dollar Bats looks at the value of bats to agriculture.

What the bats are doing is they’re acting as a natural pesticide. And that’s very appealing to a lot of farmers. It’s cheaper and it’s a whole lot better for the environment.

There’s an excerpt from Texas: The State of Water, highlighting water issues in the Valley.

This concentrates on the challenge of there not being enough water in the Rio Grande Valley.

Without water nothing will grow. And the farmers can’t make any money. So, there’s nothing else for them to do. Some of this farmland they’re selling the dirt off of it. They’re just making it into a big pit. Just a big hole in the ground; and they’re just walking away from it.

Ron says he shot a story on the Butterfly Palace that airs in September.

It’s at the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. And it’s this big domed area. It’s basically its own ecosystem.

And finally, a segment called The Caribbean Connection examines the relationship between Texas and the Caribbean.

The Caribbean Connection was about three researchers who were trying to find a correlation between what happens in the coral reefs down in Mexico and here, and how that affects our waters.

Check your local listings, or visit us online at passporttotexas.org to find a station that airs the show near you. That’s our show…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 -- September Highlights Play Now | Play in Popup | Download