Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Some non-game animal species are rare, and require monitoring—which Parks and Wildlife accomplishes via the Texas Nature Trackers program.

08—Texas Nature Trackers is a citizen science monitoring program getting Texans involved in monitoring rare species throughout the state.

Biologist, Marsha May, oversees the program. She says for some species, volunteers just download forms and information from the Texas Parks and Wildlife website and get started.

22—But the others….we hold workshops. And so, with amphibian watch, we’ll hold a workshop and teach citizens how to identify frogs and toads by their calls. It’s a lot of fun. And then we also hold workshops for mussel watch, to get out there and learn about all the various mussel species that we have throughout the state, and how to monitor them and identify them.

Without the data collected by Nature Trackers volunteers, parks and Wildlife would know only a fraction of what it does about some of these creatures.

17—These are species that aren’t normally monitored by our biologists throughout the state. So, we don’t have a lot of information on these species. And so, citizens can help us so we’ll know whether or not their populations are decreasing or declining, or what’s going on with them.

Find information on Nature Trackers, and upcoming workshops on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series and helps to fund the operations and management of more than 50 wildlife management areas. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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