Passport to Texas

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

When a coyote visits your neighborhood, don’t put out the welcome mat.

If the coyotes are coming into a residential area, and you see one, first off – try to scare it.

Brett Johnson is an urban wildlife biologist in Dallas County.

They’re not these frightening animals that are out to hurt you. So, if you see one, yell at it and either hit it with water from a water hose, or the other option is to throw something in its general direction. Be it a small stick, in some cases if you have to, even a small rock. Not something that’s going to hurt the animal…but just something where that animal feels a physical contact in addition to your yelling.

After creating this negative association with humans, try and figure out why they’re attracted to the neighborhood.

If they’re coming through a neighborhood and they’ve decided to stay there, usually that means they’ve found an abundant food source of some variety. And in an urban area, that usually means they’re going after pet food. So, there, the simple thing is, we have to change some of our human behavior and not leave a constant source of pet food outside all the time.

That’s our show…we receive support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program…funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motor boat fuels…

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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

You know the story: rural land inhabited by wildlife, developed for suburban life, receives unwelcome visitation by the previous tenants.

We can coexist with the wildlife in the urban areas, but to do so – in many cases – we need a change of attitude.

Brett Johnson is an urban wildlife biologist in Dallas County; he educates communities about wildlife — especially coyotes – that occasionally visit the hood.

People tend to have one of two reactions when they see a coyote. And those two reactions are, either they are afraid and back away from it, and basically allow the coyote to continue doing whatever it’s doing at that time. Or, they get all excited and want to see how close they can get to it.

Neither reaction is suitable when developing an appropriate human / coyote relationship, says Johnson.

Either one of those two reactions are going to cause the coyote to become more and more comfortable around humans.

Once these animals lose their fear of humans, they can become a nuisance. Tomorrow: dealing with coyotes.

If the coyotes are coming into a residential area, and you see one, first off – try to scare it.

That’s our show… with support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program…funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motor boat fuels.

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

Archery is a sport where physical size and agility is not required to excel.

If you were a petite little fourth grader, you could shoot at the same time as the high school jock and you may win. So, it’s said that it is the only sport where boys and girls can compete at the same time on the same team.

Burnie Kessner is archery coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife. He says archery levels the playing field for kids of all abilities.

Physical ability doesn’t even matter. A young man at our state tournament last year had Down’s Syndrome; he was on the shooting line with everybody else. At the national tournament, there was a young man who was visually impaired on the shooting line with everyone else who was not visually impaired. And, the only difference was, he had a sighted person standing a little behind him, giving him the cues, “a little higher, a little lower, left, right, shoot.” So, it’s an even playing field, and that’s one of the fundamentals of this program, is that the equipment is standardized. Everybody has the same equipment.

The Texas National Archery in Schools program certifies teachers in a one-day intensive class to teach the sport to students of all ages and abilities. Learn how to get involved when you log onto passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… our series receives support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration programProgram…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

The Texas National Archery in the Schools Program certifies teachers as instructors. Teachers learn the program, as they will teach it to their students.

It’s an all day workshop to become a certified instructor. They learn with the same equipment and the same method.

Burnie Kessner is archery coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

We use international style archery. It’s bulls-eye target faces, Olympic size. We use Olympic whistle commands, and they learn the same way worldwide.

Kessner says while certified instructors prepare students for tournaments, the successes a child
experiences extend beyond the bulls-eye.

So, when a kid is shooting archery, and they’re on the shooting line—they’re all the same. So, it doesn’t matter what kind of home they go home to after the tournament, when they’re at the tournament, they’re the same as everyone else. So, that’s the self-esteem building piece; it’s standardized.

Archery is a sport where anyone of nearly any ability can participate…and we have more about that tomorrow.

That’s our show… 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

Archery, the original shooting sport, is making a comeback in schools nationwide. Burnie Kessner is archery coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Ninety-five percent of my job is, I’d say, is coordinating the archery in the schools program—The Texas National Archery in the Schools Program.

Forty-five states currently participate in The National Archery in the Schools program. Texas joined in 2004 to become the seventeenth state.

We got some schools on board in oh-five, and we really kicked off officially in February of oh-six with our first state tournament where we had a hundred and twenty kids. Our second state tournament was last February oh-seven, where we had almost four hundred kids.

And this spring the third tournament is expected to draw more than five hundred participants…which begs the question: what is it about archery that sees tournament involvement continually climb?

Schools are finding out all of the benefits and the great assets of having this program. It’s very inclusive. It doesn’t matter your gender, your physical ability doesn’t matter, your size doesn’t matter. As long as you can learn the process, as long as you can learn the process you can do archery and you can excel.

We’ll have more on the Archery in the Schools Program tomorrow.

That’s our show… 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.

Archery in Schools, Part 1 of 3 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download