Archive for February 25th, 2011

Water Access in Texas, 2

Friday, February 25th, 2011

This is Passport to Texas

02—if they can’t get out there, they won’t get out there.

Ron Smith is talking about water. He’s the River Information Specialist for Texas. Helping you access water for recreation purposes is among Parks and Wildlife’s top priorities.

12—Our main initiatives include healthy outdoor activities, conservation initiatives, and getting folks out there so we can outreach to them, and so they can relax and enjoy the great outdoors.

Smith has traveled statewide for the better part of a decade identifying and characterizing public access points on rivers and lakes, putting them into a database. But he hasn’t done it alone.

23—We would not have been able to achieve a project of this level without our friends in the Law Enforcement Division. They became one of our stakeholders, and we actually held trainings to train them how to take the data. They went out to their specific counties where they were the boots on the ground and they helped us characterize and gather all these information pieces for the database.

The database contains nearly 24-hundred public water access sites; 18-hundred of those are boat ramps…

12—And about 500 of them are on rivers, and may not be boat ramps. They’re just places to slide your canoe in or get in your inner tubes.

Find out how to access the database information at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… with support from the Sport fish and Wildlife Restoration program…providing funding for boat ramps in Texas. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Call Ron Smith with your questions about water access in Texas at 512-389-8302.