Passport to Texas

State Parks: We Appreciate Our Volunteers Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Volunteering at a state park is as good as donating money to support them. Our state park guide, Bryan Frazier, has details.

62—We really cannot talk enough about how important our volunteers are in state parks. And that’s everything from park hosts to people who simply come in for the day and want to help on trail maintenance, or whatever. There’s lots of different ways that people can make a difference and get involved as a volunteer in state parks. In fact, last year we had the equivalent of more than 280 full time employees; that was the workforce of our volunteers. That’s equivalent to more than ¼ of our workforce, and it saved us more than $10 million dollars in value of what that labor for volunteers was able to accomplish. So, if someone’s interested in becoming a park volunteer, chances are there’s a state park near you that could really use them. We’ve got a new website that’s very user friendly that they can go and list where they may want to work and what their interests are, and the work they do, and they’ll match that up for a park that’s maybe looking for that. And you can find that at texasstateparks.org. Or, people can call Lori Reilly who coordinates all of our volunteers in state parks. And that’s 512-389-4746.

Thanks, Bryan.

That’s our show for today…with funding provided by Chevrolet: supporting outdoor recreation in Texas because there’s life to be done.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Gardening with Natives Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Everyone loves instant color when planting flowers and shrubs, but plants provide more than visual appeal.

06—Usually they are producing fruits or nectar, some kind of food source that’s desirable.

Botanist, Dana Price, says our choice of plants can affect Texas wildlife that depends on them.

16—A lot of them are host plants for our native butterflies and monarchs; some of them are good hummingbird nectar sources. Many of them have berries that are good for birds. Native trees are hosts for all kinds of insects that are in turn food for our native birds.

Native plants also serve us by providing low-maintenance upkeep, even in the harshest conditions—such as last year’s heat wave and drought.

07—Our native plants are very well adapted to the climate in Texas, which yes is very extreme a lot of times.

Planting and maintaining native vegetation for wildlife is called Wildscaping. The goal is to provide places for birds, small mammals, and other wildlife to feed and drink, and escape from predators, as well as raise their young.

Find more information on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series, and funds conservation work in Texas.

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

State Parks: Volunteers Save Parks Money Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

April is Volunteer month. And as it happens, Texas State Parks rely heavily on the work of many dedicated volunteers throughout the year.

07—Over the last several years it’s been pretty consistent; we clock about six hundred and fifty thousand hours of volunteer time.

And that’s just manual labor, says Lori Reiley, state park volunteer coordinator. Those 650-thousand volunteer hours translate into millions of dollars of savings for state parks annually.

07—Our volunteers make up about a third of our workforce. So, we really couldn’t function as well without them.

Volunteers do everything from mowing lawns and scrubbing toilets to taking entrance fees and leading interpretive programs…and so much more. Reiley says state parks encourage and welcome new volunteers.

16—We could always use their help. And while we get the occasional civic organization or nonprofit that wants to volunteer for service projects, we really could always use more individuals just on a regular basis to come out and volunteer in the parks.

Find out how you can volunteer at Texas State Parks when you visit texasstateparks.org.

That’s our show for today…we record our series at the Block House in Austin…Joel Block engineers our program.

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

State Parks: Volunteering Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Maximize your time outdoors when you volunteer at a Texas State Park.

03—We basically have three different categories of volunteers.

These categories include locals who sign up for special projects, friends groups that fund raise for specific sites and—says Lori Reiley—the third category is park hosts.

13—And that is a program designed for—traditionally—retirees who travel around the state and in exchange for a campsite, they labor in the park every week.

Reiley coordinates the state park volunteer program, and says people accepted as hosts, are required to make a time commitment.

12—The time frame is a minimum thirty-day commitment. And, the maximum is typically three months, but it can be extended depending on the park needs. The superintendent has the authority to extend that.

Most Texas State Parks offer host programs with plenty of work to help fill the 30 or so hour labor obligation.

17—We have everything from general grounds maintenance, or it could be cleaning the restrooms. What we really like is when we find people with special skills: carpentry, or graphic artists, or educators doing interpretive tours or education programs. So, it’s a variety.

Find more information on the Texas parks and Wildlife website.

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

TPW TV: Warden of the County Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Jim Daniels’ is a game warden in Region 6. His territory: nearly 2-thousand square miles across King and Knox counties, north of Abilene, an area of only 4-thousand residents.

06—You know, I didn’t know a soul up here when I moved up here. I mean, there was a whole bunch of unknown. I knew I was ready to get to work.

This month the Texas Parks and Wildlife PBS TV series airs a segment that features Daniels called Warden of the County. Ron Kabele produced the story.

14—The very first thing I shot with Jim…he went in to just do an inspection of the hunting camp. Game wardens, they have to do a lot of dangerous stuff. You know, you’re one person and you walk into a place and there are twenty some odd people and all of them have shotguns.

On this day, the hunters were a law-abiding group.

09—How’s it going guys? [How ya doin’?] How are you, sir? [Just fine; how’re you?] Where you guys from? [Michigan.] Michigan? [Yeah.] You got your license with you? [Yeah.].

Producer Ron Kabele says viewers will get to know Game Warden Daniels, and his character.

12—It’s a portrait of a guy who does something that he really believes in—in a place that’s very desolate. You really have to love your job to be able to be effective doing it in this kind of environment.

The segment of the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series airs the week of April 15 on PBS stations in Texas…or on YouTube now.

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