Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

When you sign up for free e-newsletters from Texas Parks and Wildlife, you’re signing up for multimedia outdoor adventures delivered to your inbox.

03—It’s a really fun way to find out about what’s going on.

Darcy Bontempo, Marketing Director at Texas Parks and Wildlife, says the e-newsletters give subscribers more than a list of outdoor activities.

11—Also learning about conservation, about wildlife. People love stories about animals and all the critters in Texas. So, this is a really easy way to get the information to them, but it’s also fun to read.

The free e-newsletters from Texas Parks and Wildlife can help to streamline your interactions with the agency.

21—[If you] Read a story on a state park and you’re interested in going there, you just can click right there and go right to our online reservation system [and] make a reservation. Or, if you read a fishing story, and you want to buy a fishing license, or you might see a promotion about the horned lizard license plate, or one of our other license plates; you go directly online and buy. So, it’s real convenient, and you know you even can do it from your smart phone. So, it’s pretty cool.

Look for the envelope icon on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website to sign up your e-newsletters. You decide what you want depending on what your interests.

24—Also, they can opt out at any time; they can change their profile at any time, so if they find they’re getting too much or too little information, they can just go right online to their subscription profile and change it.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

09—This is like the inside scoop that you can get. And it’s really great for us because it’s incredibly cost effective; we don’t have to spend a lot of dollars, and yet we’re able to reach thousands of people.

That’s Darcy Bontempo, Marketing Director at Texas Parks and Wildlife. She’s referring to the agency’s free email newsletters that highlight a diverse array of outdoor activities throughout the state.

17—These are wonderful multimedia e-newsletters. If you’re someone who loves state parks, you can sign up for our State Parks Getaways. We’ve also got a Fish Texas newsletter, we’ve got a Hunt Texas, and we also have something that appeals to someone who loves all kinds of outdoor activities as well as conservation, and that’s called our Life’s better Outside e-newsletter.

It’s easy to sign up to receive the free e-newsletters just go to the Texas Parks and Wildlife homepage, and click the icon that says “sign up for email updates.” When you do, the great Texas outdoors comes to you.

23—For example in March we’ll be having a newsletter that will cover everything from Bighorn Sheep release in Big Bend; you’ll get to see the video of that, which is just really exciting. You’ll also see a story about the wildlife trails that were just completed. Perfect time of the year, spring migration, go out with your family or your friends and see wildlife. And also, you’ll get to see a teaser on The State of the Gulf, which is a wonderful TV documentary we just completed airing on PBS.

Texas delivered to your inbox—it doesn’t get much better than that.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

You don’t have to go to Florida for sunshine, sandy beaches and ocean waves this spring break. Our State Park guide, Bryan Frazier says just head to the Texas coast for a classic getaway.

48—I’ve got to plug Galveston Island, which is a traditional spring break favorite—it has been for decades. It’s just outside the largest city in Texas, and that’s Houston. A lot of people still think the hurricane has prevented people from using the park, or that it’s not open. Well, hurricane Ike did do some damage a couple of years ago, but the park has been open for quite some time.

There’s beach side camping a restrooms and shows, there’s bay side camping and restrooms. It’s just fantastic what the friends group and the public has done to support that park and get it back on its feet; it doesn’t look exactly like it did before the hurricane, but there’s great fishing, great birding, great hike and bike trails; there’s canoe and kayak paddling trails around Galveston Island State Park. And it’s just fun in the sun in an old-fashioned Spring Break destination that can’t be beat.

Thanks, Bryan.

That’s our show for today…with funding provided by Chevrolet…building dependable, reliable trucks for more than 90 years.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

Once the weather warms, you’ll want to get on the water and the Texas Parks and Wildlife’s PBS series can help. Producer, Abe Moore.

55—One of the stories I’m working on for the television show is the Texas Parks and Wildlife Paddling Trails Program. One of the places I went that’s really popular is the Lighthouse Lakes Paddling Trail down along the coast at Aransas Pass.

The paddling trails are all publicly accessible. There are put ins and take outs. The best part is, you get folks out on the water, and you’re not worried about trespassing, or having any property issues.

Thanks, Abe.

The story airs the week of March 27. Go to lifesbetteroutside.org/paddling for more information.

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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This is passport to Texas Outdoor Stories

Bill Harwell’s paternal grandmother and his great aunt loved to fish… and often invited Bill and his cousin to share the adventure.

59—One night I got the exciting news that my great aunt had come into possession of what we called a pontoon boat. But the even better part of it was we were going to go night fishing, which we had never done before. Her living in Atlanta, the best place to put in was a big lake, just southwest of Texarkana called Wright Patman Lake. And so my cousin and I – we were probably about eight…nine…ten years old at the time…this is around 1960 -61 something like that — get all of our gear aboard the two of us and these two ladies… They tell us they’d been told that the best thing to attract fish, above and beyond the worms and the minnows, is to hang a couple of lanterns off the side of the pontoon boat…. maybe that is the best way to do it… but my main recollection of this was just this incredible plague-like swarm of June bugs, mosquitoes…getting bugs of all sorts and shapes in our soft drinks….up our noses….we did do some good fishing, but the overwhelming remaining impression of night fishing for me is lots and lots of bugs.

Share your Texas outdoor memory… by logging onto passporttotexas.org.

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

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