Passport to Texas

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

Big Time Texas Hunts offers hunters the chance to win one of seven exclusive hunting trips.

Big Time Texas Hunts is a fundraising effort to generate money to provide additional public hunting opportunities and to fund wildlife research and conservation efforts throughout Texas.

Linda Campbell is Program Director of the Private Lands and Public Hunting Program. The entry fee is $10 or $9 when you purchase an entry online!

This will be our twelfth year. We’ve been very successful with this program—it has grown—and we’ve generated over two million dollars in revenue for wildlife conservation.

For your entry fee you’ll have a chance to win a hunt of a lifetime on some of the finest private ranches and prime wildlife management areas in Texas

And we offer some awesome packages here, with big game packages, upland bird hunting, waterfowl, gator. So, we’ve got a lot of different options here, and even if you don’t win your money goes to support the work of the wildlife division, both in research, management, restoration of bighorn sheep, for example, and enhancement of our public hunting opportunities throughout the state.

Find a link to Big Time Texas Hunts at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… with support from the Wildlife restoration program…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Today, Texas is chiefly urban, which is a big shift from our rural roots and connection to the natural world.

I am concerned that we are seeing a public that is becoming more detached from the natural world.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Executive Director, Carter Smith, says making nature relevant to urbanites comes down to quality of life issues.

At the end of the day, what are those thing that we need, that we want to have emotionally, economically, spiritually, and the out of doors is the answer for that. It’s our clean air; it’s our clean water; it’s our scenery; it’s our abundant fish and wildlife; it’s the opportunity to get out and recreate, and to canoe and kayak and to hike and to hunt or fish.

I think fundamentally Texans want that, and we as an agency have an obligation to provide those opportunities for them. Our state’s land and water plan calls for a couple of things. The number one goal in that plan is to provide enhanced recreational opportunities for Texans. And part of that goal is working to ensure that we have a system of parks in and around our major metropolitan areas that can provide a point of entry into the out of doors, and that is something we take very seriously and are working on.

Find a link to the Land and Water plan at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Blackland Prairie once covered more than 20-million acres in Texas. Jason Spangler of the Native Prairies Assoc. of Texas says because of cropping and livestock overgrazing, less than one percent of this native habitat exists today.

It’s the most endangered large ecosystem in North America.

You can find a thriving 500-acre example of Blackland Prairie in Bell County thanks to the restoration efforts of Bob and Mickey Burleson.

I don’t think that any of our neighbors think of it as anything but Burleson’s folly. They all think that grass is for grazing to the ground.

Over four decades the Burleson’s visited remnant prairies collecting seeds they later used to restore their land.

Eventually it started working naturally to come back to a climax of what had been here. And, it’s still doing that. We haven’t gotten to the place where the Big Bluestem is the dominant—and that’s what would have been at one time—but we’re getting there.

The Burlesons won the Lone Star Land Steward Award for their dedication to land restoration and stewardship.

It’s what belongs here. This is where I live, This is my home, And this is what I love. (birds chirping)

Learn about land management at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The Blackland Prairie, a tall grass prairie, once dominated a large area of the Texas landscape.

There were believed to be 20-million acres of tall grass prairie in Texas. Of that 20-million acres, it is believed that less than one percent of the tall grass prairie is left.

Jason Spangler is a member of Native Prairies Association of Texas. Bob and Mickey Burleson are founding members of that Association, and have spent four decades restoring 500 acres of former cropland and overgrazed pasture in Bell County back to tall grass prairie.

We bought the property in 1969, and started immediately to convert part of the cropland into original Blackland Prairie. At the time we bought this property, there was virtually no Blackland Prairie left around here.

By collecting and planting local ecotype native seed from area hay meadow prairie remnants, removal of invasive plants and use of various management tools, the Burlesons successfully restored the prairie.

We went out and spent every weekend for a year collecting seed from every tiny remnant in Bell, McLennan, Williamson and Falls Counties. And then, come fall in 1969, we planted it all at one time. That was our start. Then we’ve added to it every year since then.

It’s that kind of dedication that won the Burlesons the Lone Star Land Steward Award for the Blackland Prairie eco-region. We’ll learn more about Burleson’s Prairie tomorrow.

That’s our show… 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

Hunting and fishing licenses for the 2008-2009 seasons go on sale statewide this month.

Well, the licenses go on sale for the new year, August 15th, And I would advise folks to buy early. The new season—the dove season—will be right around the corner.

Tom Newton, who manages licensing at Texas Parks and Wildlife, says there’s good news for license buyers.

For the first time in quite a few years we haven’t changed things up much, and it’s pretty much the same as it was last year.

The most recent changes to licenses happened last year.

We had a license called the special resident hunting license that encompassed seniors and youth. We split that license into two, so that each group has its own separate license. The other is that we have consolidated all of our temporary fishing licenses into just a one-day license that you can buy multiples of. So, we simplified that, and we’ve had a very good response form our constituents.

Buy licenses online at 17-hundred retailers statewide, at state parks, game warden offices and TPWD HQ.

That’s our show…with support from the Wildlife restoration program…working to increase shooting and hunting opportunities in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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