Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Texas Parks and Wildlife Expo is on hiatus for two years until the economy picks up. Until then, a regional mini-Expo called the Life’s Better Outside Experience will take it’s place.

The purpose of the regional expos is to reach what we refer to as the unengaged Texans—people who don’t really spend time in the outdoors. Whether it’s bird watching or camping or hunting or fishing or mountain biking or whatever. So, those are the folks that—families especially—that we hope to reach with these Life’s Better Outside Experiences.

Ernie Gammage is Director of Urban Outdoor Programs. The Life’s Better Outside Experience will piggyback onto existing events throughout the state, reaching people that would not have made the trip to Austin for Expo.

I think if there was ever a single complaint about Expo, it was that it always took place in Austin and Central Texas. And so now, we’ll be able to visit other parts of the state and introduce opportunities in the outdoors to folks that live there.

Gammage says putting Expo on hiatus for two years was a hard decision to make, but it was the right thing to do.

The Expo was an enormous event—40,000+ people every year. So, we know we’re not going to reach the number of Texans we did in that single weekend in Austin. But, there are certainly going to be other benefits that we’ll evaluate. And then in a couple of years we’ll look at it and say do we want to keep doing these regional expos, or do we want to go back to the big Expo here in Austin.

Find information about the Life’s Better Outside Experience at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… remember…Life’s better outside…for Texas parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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