Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

During extended periods of drought, when the risk of wildfires is highest, your plant choices and their placement in the landscape could make your home vulnerable to fire damage.

While we do want to encourage the use of shrubs and brush around the home, we don’t want to encourage it right up against the home. Especially things that are extremely flammable…

Flammable plants include yaupon holly and cedar, among others. Marks Klym coordinates the Texas Wildscapes Program. With the Texas Forest Service’s FireWise program, Klym says the Wildscapes program helps people choose less fire friendly plants.

Something that’s got a higher water content. Things that don’t tend to take fire from the ground towards the roof, because the roof is a sensitive area in most homes. Things that don’t take fire from the ground up into your window frames, which is another very sensitive area. You want to avoid our tall native grasses, because they have a tendency to dry out and become a firebox. Certainly, the other thing you can do is use that area for your hardscapes. Things like rock walls…walkways. These become a good barrier that the firs has difficulty jumping, unless you’ve got forty mile an hour winds.

Find a link to the Texas FireWise website, at passporttotexas.org, as well as a list a plants to avoid planting around the foundation of your home, as well as plants that are better to plant around the home.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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FireWise Information:
http://www.firewise.org/usa/files/fwlistsz.pdf
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/natres/06302.html
http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/wichitamountains/downloads.html
Firewise Plant-List_East Texas_Draft for Review_working.pdf

Recommended large hardwood trees:
• Black cherry
• Black gum
• Hackberry
• Honey locust
• Post Oak
• Shumard Oak
• Other Common Oaks
• Pecan
• Sweetgum
• Sycamore

Medium-sized trees could include:
• Western soapberry
• Common persimmon
• Dogwood
• Eastern redbud
• Fringe tree(Old Mans Beard)
• Hophornbeam
• Magnolia
• Ornamental maples
• Red maple
• Serviceberry
• Apple and crabapples
• Wild plum

Recommended shrubs are:
• American beautyberry
• Crapemyrtle
• Viburnums
• Elderberry
• Pyracantha
• Witch hazel
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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Rock gyms are a great place to start climbing, but they provide a different experience than climbing outside in a Texas State Park.

Robert Rice runs the Hueco Rock Ranch.

When you take it outside, you’re in the wilderness and you’ve got the scenery, the wildlife, the cultural resources, and dealing with uncontrollable elements like wind and rain and dirt and snakes and whatever else might come along.

Luckily, there is a rating system on climbs in the US that can help climbers find the right climb for them in the gym or on the rock no matter where they are in the country.

Climbing on ropes is on the Yosemite Decimal System and that defines that there are five classes of terrain. First class being like a sidewalk, second class maybe a set of stairs. Third class is the kind of outdoor hiking you would do in a nature environment. Fourth class is where you’re using your hands and feet. Fifth class is when the falls become so severe that you’d be injured or killed so you have to use a rope to make it safe. And then inside of that comes the decimal. 5.0 being the easiest and 5.15 being the most difficult.

For more information on climbs and maps complete in Texas State Parks, visit passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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CLICK HERE to view a video of Heuco Tanks State Historic Site.
Hueco Rock Ranch, http://www.huecorockranch.com [cut and paste URL into browser]

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

You’re not saving the world, you’re just enjoying yourself and enjoying nature and hopefully sharing it with others.

Robert Rice runs the Hueco Rock Ranch. Rice says that the joy of rock climbing comes from the challenge.

If you enjoy the personal challenge, try to go up the hardest, most beautiful, appealing line to you and get there that way. And that’s why we climb.

There are different ways to get out on the rock.

Within rock climbing, you’ve got traditional climbing which is placing gear in the rock that’s retrievable as you go up it. A newer variation of that, you’ve got sport climbing. Sport climbing is where they use some sort of a drill and they put an anchor into the wall and it has a hanger on the outside and you can clip your carabineers to it and then you clip your rope to it. And then an even newer discipline of the sport is bouldering. And that’s climbing the detached boulders or shorter faces or roofs that can be protected with what we call crash pads. That’s basically a four foot by four foot three inch thick foam pad and the other participants, the climbers, become spotters.

Texas state parks have some world class climbs. Hueco Tanks State Historic Site attracts climbers from all over the world. For maps and more information on where to climb in Texas State Parks, visit passporttotexas.org

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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CLICK HERE to watch a video of Heuco Tanks State Historic Site.

Find a clickable map to Hueco Tanks State Historic site: http://www.huecorockranch.com/. [cut and paste URL into browser]

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

The Upper Guadalupe Paddling Trail is in Comal County and the put in is Nichol’s Crossings. It’s one of our most exciting paddling trails to date.

The Upper Guadalupe Paddling Trail, the latest addition to a growing number of navigable river trails in Texas, opens April 30. Texas Parks and Wildlife Rivers Specialist Ron Smith says the new trail offers a challenging paddling experience for the family.

We have a lot of paddling trails. For the most part those trails are very family oriented and we feel like this new one is going to be the most challenging for the skill level of the paddlers.

Smith adds paddlers will test their skill on the new trail while they experience pristine views.

I was very impressed with not only the skill level that you need to have to go around some of the turns and through some of the rapids, but just the pristine nature–and the beauty of the animals you see. And you never know what’s around the next bend. The rock formations, the beautiful cypress trees and the different elements really make it a unique paddling experience.

Find more on Texas paddling trails at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Alanna Jones… we receive 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

Texas offers paddlers a growing number of trails.

The paddling trail program at Texas Parks and Wildlife is mostly about the people of the state of Texas and the communities that have these wonderful rivers running through them.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Rivers Specialist Ron Smith says communities and citizens benefit from paddling trails.

Our goal is to partner with communities and people of the state to bring more people out to these recreation areas and improve the access to these recreation areas. I think most of the people who use these accesses and waterways are wonderful folks who love the environment, who support our conservation ethic, and they can help the community by bringing economic factors and bringing more awareness to the water and what we should and shouldn’t be doing in those areas.

Find Texas paddling trail information at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Alanna Jones… 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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