Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

If cats, dogs and grackles are the only wildlife visiting your backyard—you need a wildscape. Creating one is not as tough as you might think.

You know, the hardest part is just getting started.

Kelly Bender is an urban wildlife biologist and co-author of the book Texas Wildscapes. She was instrumental in creating the new Texas Wildscapes interactive DVD, which guides users through planning an urban oasis.

The Wildscape DVD is designed to help people to get started in planning their habitat, understanding what wildlife need to succeed, or to survive, and to give them the tools that they need to start implementing wildlife habitat management principles in their own gardens and landscapes.

Just pop the DVD into your computer, and a wealth of information, including which plants will grow in your area and what wildlife they attract, is at your fingertips.

We made this product that allows us to enter in different variables. So, you can say, well, I want something that is native to Central Texas, that needs a lot of sunshine or a little bit of sunshine, or attracts hummingbirds, or attracts songbirds, or whatever it is that you really want to have in a plant. And it will give you a list of plants that are appropriate for your goals.

Texas Wildscaping DVDs are free and available now. But quantities are limited. Go to passporttotexas.org to find out how to obtain your copy.

That’s our show…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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To obtain your copy of the free Wildscaping DVD, send an email to:nature@tpwd.state.tx.us

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

As more people move from the country to the city, large tracts of farm and ranch land are being divided into smaller parcels to accommodate urban dwellers’ desire for rural retreats.

More and more of our land is being fragmented and broken up. And so, small acreage land holdings are more common, especially in the eastern half of the state. You know, we’re talking fifty acres to two hundred acres.

Linda Campbell directs the private lands program at Texas Parks and Wildlife. Because habitat fragmentation negatively impacts wildlife, neighboring landowners are encouraged to work together to lessen the problem.

We encourage landowners to join with their neighbors in what are called landowner cooperatives, or wildlife management associations. They’re becoming much more common, and landowners working together can get a lot more done for wildlife; they impact more habitat when they work together. And they can accomplish common goals. And, so, we very much encourage and work with groups of landowners to develop these landowner driven cooperatives.

Visit the Texas Parks and Wildlife web site for complete details on how landowner cooperatives can receive free, confidential technical assistance.

Our show’s supported by the Wildlife Restoration Program… providing funding for the Private Lands and Public Hunting Programs.

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

Recreational Landowners: Wildlife Associations Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

The best time to get to know your land is when you first buy it.

Walk it; look at it carefully. Study it over the seasons. Really find out what makes it tick. And, that’s the first step – to really understand the land – and then understand the management that it takes to achieve the kind of goals you want for your recreation.

Linda Campbell directs the private lands program at Texas Parks and Wildlife that assists landowners to achieve their land management goals. She recommends getting started by visiting the workshop calendar – in the private lands section – on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

These are workshops and field days and things of that nature that occur all over the state. And so I would suggest landowners take a look at that.

Attending these events allows landowners to get to know other like-minded people in their region. The agency also offers free on site technical assistance in wildlife management planning.

And so, we look at the entire picture – all the habitats that are there, what can be done, what are the landowners goals, and then we help them develop a plan that will help them achieve that.

Tomorrow, forming wildlife management associations. [To view this link you must have Adobe Reader.]

That’s out show…with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program… providing funding for the Private Lands and Public Hunting Programs.

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

Recreational Landowners: Know the Land Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas and the Wildlife Restoration Program

As our population becomes urban, we see people buying rural property as weekend retreats.

Recreational buying is the greatest motivation for exchanges in land in Texas.

Linda Campbell, program director for the private lands program at Texas Parks and Wildlife, says the reasons for buying rural property are as different as the people buying it.

Game species are still a big driver – very important economically for landowners in Texas. But, we have a greater diversity of landowners, and so with a diversity of people , you have a diversity of interests. So, there are a lot of landowners, particularly those with smaller tracts, that are primarily interested in managing for birds and other non-game wildlife. Or, they just want to get away from the city to have a retreat. And that’s an absolutely valid goal as well. And, so, we work with all landowners in whatever their goal is.

Parks and Wildlife’s private lands program offers landowners free technical assistance managing their property.

Texas is over ninety percent privately owned, and so we recognized that if we’re going to have any impact at all on conservation of wildlife and habitats, we have to do it through the cooperation of private landowners.

Understanding your land…that’s tomorrow.

That’s our show with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program… providing funding for the Private Lands and Public Hunting Programs.

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

Recreational Landowners: Rural Life Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

While it’s true that water is life, Carter Smith—Parks and Wildlife Executive Director—says for many Texans, water also means enjoyment.

It is the source of recreation in our rivers and lakes and streams and reservoirs—where Texans go to fish and kayak and swim and enjoy all of nature’s bounty.

Yet, containing flowing water for recreational use upstream can have a negative affect on the people, habitat and wildlife living downstream.

The overriding conflict is between rural and urban.

Lee Smith produces water documentaries for Texas Parks and Wildlife. The latest in the series, Texas: The State of Flowing Water, addresses environmental flow, which is the water needed to maintain healthy ecosystems along a waterway. He admits this important subject matter is complex.

This one was pretty difficult because the focus was so broad, and encompassed these various entities that are at work to try and figure out what [water] levels need to be in the rivers and the bays and how to get that written into law. That, in itself, was a huge challenge.

Witness how Smith evenhandedly weaves together the diverse aspects and points of view of this complex topic when you tune into Texas: The State of Flowing Water Thursday February 12 at 8 PM, on most PBS stations… made possible by the Sport Fish Restoration Program.

Find additional information at texasthestteorwater.org.

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

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