Passport to Texas

State Parks: Two Businesses Join Forces to Help Parks Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Not only have Texans made donations to help state parks during their financial crisis—so have businesses. Bryan Frazier, tells us about two of them.

62—Geico underwrote a 12-month lease on a motor home for state parks through Crestview RV [in Buda]. And then Crestview in turn bought liability insurance [from Geico] to cover this RV. It’s draped in colorful SP graphics with the Geico lizard on the side saying “follow me to a state park”. And you can’t miss it going down the road, because the scenes are lots of iconic images of state parks. And it promotes the RV lifestyle. Texas is now the number one RV market in the United States. But how does it help state parks? With our budget cutbacks I’m able to drive this up and down the highway—it’s a moving billboard. I’m able to take it to RV and travel shows and park events that are very important to us—that we have a big presence at—that connects with these RV campers that are a big part of who helps pay our bills, really, in state parks, because they’re our customers. It saves travel money; so I stay in this RV when I go to these events. And this is essentially no cost to the taxpayer of Texas. We’re able to use the money that we might use [on travel and lodging] for things inside the parks.

Look for Bryan behind the wheel of the RV on a highway near you.

Funding for our show comes from Chevrolet: supporting outdoor recreation in Texas because there’s life to be done.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Managing Problem Porkers Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Feral hogs pose a serious problem at the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge where they’ve destroyed acres of fragile habitat. The center’s Rob Denkhaus says working with various groups the center developed a management strategy that met the needs of the community and the hogs.

34—And the key to it was determining how we could do it in the most humane way possible that would allow the animal welfare community to accept it. And, we needed to do it in a certain safe fashion, because we are inside the city limits, where discharge of firearms is generally not allowed. So, we went through a whole process, a whole matrix of different ideas that we worked on in order to come up with the one that actually fit best – that met all of our criteria.

In the end, trapping and shooting the animals was the simplest, most effective, and most humane solution.

14—We go to great, great lengths to make sure no animal suffers in our traps, which any responsible hunter or trapper of any kind is supposed to do as well.

Learn more about hunting and trapping feral hogs on the Texas parks and Wildlife website.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series… funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motor boat fuels…

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

A Plague of Pigs Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You may not know this, but wild hogs aren’t from around here.

05—Hogs are an invasive, exotic species; they’re not native to anywhere in North America.

Rob Denkhaus (DANK-howz) is Natural Resource Manager for the city of Fort Worth.

Descendents of escaped domestic hogs introduced by Spanish Explorers 300 years ago, bred with runaway Eurasian wild boars that brought to Texas in the 1930s by ranchers for sport hunting. The by-product of this porcine parentage has resulted in a large, destructive, modern day wild pig population.

16—The activities that they get involved in like rooting – where they can root several feet into the soft soils – and they’re eating invertebrates, they’re consuming the bulbs and rhizomes of plants and everything. So, they’re having a negative affect on the plant community as well as the wildlife community.

These hogs, says Denkhaus, also prey on native wildlife species.

07—Ground nesting birds, reptiles and amphibians, and the like. So, their impact is far-reaching…and all negative.

More about this plague of pigs tomorrow.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series…funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motor boat fuels…

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Drought and the Dundee Fish Hatchery Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The freshwater hatchery business is a risky one because it relies on the cooperation of nature—and it can be fickle.

Last year’s heat and drought took a devastating toll on the state’s water supplies, leaving reservoirs dangerously low.

06—This year it looks the Dundee Fish Hatchery may get to that point where we really don’t have enough water to operate.

I spoke with Todd Engeling, Chief of Inland hatcheries for Texas parks and Wildlife, in late February, and by mid-March, operations at the Dundee hatchery near Wichita Falls were suspended due to lack of sufficient water. Although many areas of the state received spring rains, Engeling said the area west of Wichita Falls around Lakes Kemp and Diversion did not.

As the hatchery is one of the state’s primary producers of striped bass and hybrid striped bass fingerlings for stocking into Texas public waters, what now?

20—We will be able to operate on a very limited basis, our spawning operations. So, we will be able to spawn our striped bass and hybrid striped bass as we have traditionally done there, because the systems we use are re-circulating systems. They don’t use a lot of water at all. So, basically the four remaining hatcheries in Texas would receive those fry and put them in their production ponds for grow out.

Find more information on the TPW website.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series and is funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motorboat fuel. For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Why We Stock Fish Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Millions sport fish found in Texas waters begin their lives at one of our state’s five freshwater hatcheries.

16—We may stock fish to start fish populations in a new or renovated reservoir or water body; we may do it to supplement populations where natural reproduction isn’t enough to sustain a population; we may do it to restore populations after some catastrophe where fish populations are diminished.

Todd Engeling, Chief of Inland hatcheries for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

05—We also do it to enhance genetic makeup of the fish, and really provide that trophy potential.

Striped bass, hybrid striped bass, crappie and largemouth bass are some of the species bred in hatcheries. Although these facilities are “enclosed” environments, it doesn’t mean they’re immune from the vagaries of nature, such as drought.

20—All industry is tied to water. So during droughts our water supplies become diminished. And in some cases we’re limited on what we can use based on some permit or contract, or an agreement with the permitting authority. In some cases, when water levels recede in reservoirs, then the amount of water we can draw for operations is reduced.

And sometimes drastic action is necessary; details tomorrow.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series and is funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motorboat fuel. For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.