Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

On November 3rd, the city of Bastrop launched a new paddling trail with the help of Texas Parks and Wildlife.

I think that this trail is just a great half day trip for families and friends and people who just want to get out on the water.

Shelly Plante is the coordinator for Nature Tourism at Parks and Wildlife

This paddling trail, El Camino Real, starts off in downtown but goes through the piney woods as you head to the take out point. So you’re going to see something very different for Central Texas. This is just not the type of trees that you typically see in Central Texas.

The El Camino Real Paddling Trail is a 6 mile paddle.

This trail is actually fairly slow moving, fairly calm. There are a few minor rapids. There are a lot of great sandbars where you can take out and picnic, you can go swim and rest for a while. It’s a fairly leisurely run actually.

Although the trail starts in downtown Bastrop, paddlers will see a variety of wildlife.

There’s a lot of diversity. You’ll see a lot of different kinds of trees and there’s a lot of different birds. You’ll see everything from raptors like hawks, to king fishers, little bitty birds, to some of our large birds such as great blue herons.

More information about the El Camino Real Paddling Trail and the other 10 paddling trails in Texas is available at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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

White-tailed deer season is underway, and harvesting deer is vital to proper ecosystem management.

If we didn’t hunt deer in Texas, deer would eat themselves out of house and home. And not just themselves, but all species that thrive on that ecosystem.

Songbirds, for example, suffer when deer numbers are not controlled. Mitch Lockwood, statewide white-tailed deer program leader, says Texas has more than three–million white-tailed deer. And yet, surprisingly few hunters take full advantage of available bag limits.

One example is that in the Texas Hill Country, where we have the highest concentration of deer — where one can harvest as many as five deer a piece, the average hunter in the Hill Country harvests only one point one deer.

Most Hill Country hunters stop at maybe two deer.

So, with a harvest of 1 deer per hunter, we’re not ever going to meet our population management goals.

Lockwood stresses the importance of adequate doe harvest in most areas of Texas, and encourages hunters to take advantage of the bag limits by putting more antlerless deer in the freezer. However, if your freezer is full, there are programs to help you distribute the meat.

Hunters for the hungry program in Texas is growing. And there are other programs that help hunters defer some of those processing costs so that hunters can donate venison to the needy with minimal expense.

That’s our show…made possible today by a grant from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The Texas Panhandle suffered devastating fires in March 2006. This month, a story by Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series producer Don Cash, highlights the habitat and wildlife before and after the blaze.

One of the places that burned during the panhandle fires was an area where I had shot a story three years earlier on lesser prairie chickens. So, I decided I would go and be able to compare before the fires, and went up a couple of weeks after the fires…

Trees, shrubs, uh, all the grass is gone. All cover. All habitat for all wildlife is at this point gone. For the most part the wildlife are on their own.

And then went back a year after the fires. And so its sort of a look at how the habitat makes a very strong comeback after fires like this.

These animals have living up here on the prairie for thousands and thousands of years. And this isn’t their first fire. They’ll come back, and they will all recover.

When I went up there three weeks after the fire, there were some areas that were just sand, which – a month before – had been hip deep in grasses. They had had a little bit of rain a week after the fires, and there was already plants starting to poke through four or five inches of sand that quickly. So, the land is very resilient. Nature does a good job of bringing itself back.

Thanks, Don. Visit passporttotexas.org for a complete listing of stations airing the series.

That’s our show for today…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.

TPW TV - Panhandle Fires Then and Now Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

It’s good to have choices, and the Hunter’s Choice program offered duck hunters just that last season, and again this season. While Hunter’s Choice reduces the overall daily bag limit to five birds — down from six – it increases the species hunters may harvest by eliminating season within a season.

So now [for example] rather than having a pintail season that only runs for 39 days, you can shoot a pintail every day [of the 74 day season]. So, if you’re out there hunting, you shoot a pintail…you can’t shoot a mallard hen; you can’t shoot a canvasback; and you can’t shoot a mottle duck. It’s an aggregate bag. It’s something we’re looking at as trying to look at a different way of approaching bag limits.

Dave Morrison, waterfowl program leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife. Before you go hunting, it’s a given you should know how to identify ducks. With Hunter’s Choice, a case of mistaken identity is less likely to land you in hot water.

You don’t know what it is – you shoot a pintail. Well, with season within a season, if you did it in the first part of the season – you’re in trouble. This, at least, allows you the opportunity that if you do make a mistake – I can take that bird home. But you need to learn your ducks. Try to learn how to identify them.

That’s our show for today…our series receives support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program… working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas…

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

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

Duck hunters are bracing for what could be one of the best waterfowl hunting seasons in many years thanks to ideal habitat conditions brought on by our rainy spring and summer. High Plains Mallard Management Unit season opened October 20… the north and south zones followed suit November 3 – all zones have split seasons.

Splits in seasons are a management tool, if you will. It provides an opportunity to let the birds rest. Because, if you give them an opportunity to rest, you get more birds coming in; it’s kind of like you get two opening days.

Dave Morrison is waterfowl program leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife. The north and south zones close Nov. 25, resume December 8, and all three zones end their seasons January 27. The 2007-2008 waterfowl season will also see the second year of the Hunter’s Choice program.

A lot of people like it, some of them don’t like it. Because when you went to Hunter’s Choice, you went from six total birds per day down to five. BUT, what it did, it did away with season within a season.

We have details on Hunter’s Choice tomorrow. Find all hunting regulations and seasons in the 2007-2008 Outdoor Annual.

That’s our show for today…our series receives support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program… working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas…

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

Waterfowl Season / Hunter's Choice Play Now | Play in Popup | Download