Passport to Texas

Shooting: Girls on the Range, 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Conceived of as a day for fathers and daughters to bond over a shared experience at the shooting range, the National Take Your Daughter to the Range Day quickly evolved to include the whole family.

11—We’re still calling it take Your Daughter to the Range Day, but we’re promoting the whole family bonding, family values opportunity, as something the entire family can do together.

Lynne Finch is president and co-founder of the event, scheduled June 9th. She helped form a non-profit around the day, and reached out to shooting ranges via Facebook, and received good response.

24— Especially Texas. We have five ranges registered in Texas, and the ladies out there have been wonderful—sending us ideas that we then send on to other ranges—things that they’re doing. And everyone’s doing it a little bit differently: the format, the structure. But the core is the same. The goals are the same…the safety, the education, and the opportunity.

Some ranges want participants to register in advance of the event. Find a nearby range and their requirements at national take your daughter to the range day dot com.

18— We want this to be an annual event, but we don’t want it to stop there. Going to shoot one time a year isn’t really what this is about. This is about dipping your toes in the water. Trying something new, and then maybe the family finds out this is fun; this is something we can do together.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series and works to increase shooting sports in Texas.

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

Shooting: Girls on the Range, 1 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Lynne Finch is a certified NRA pistol instructor and one of the founders and organizers of National Take Your Daughter to the Range Day; the inaugural event is June 9.

06—The idea came in January of this year, reading Julie Golob’s book “Shoot.”

In the book Golob recounts a childhood that included spending time at the shooting range with her father. Lynne says most women who come to her want to learn personal defense.

23— So I hadn’t heard a lot of stories about growing up and the bonding opportunities with dads. I have a Facebook Page called Women Firearms Instructors, so I put the question out: How did you come to shooting? And I got so many wonderful responses from women who had grown up going to the rock quarry or going to the range, and shooting with their dads and the wonderful memories that they had.

Lynne conferred with a fellow instructor and queried others about creating an event where fathers could take their daughters to the range for a day of learning and bonding. The idea gained momentum, and became National Take your Daughter to the Range Day, set for June 9.

13— [When] girls learn to master a skill that’s not traditional, it helps with self-esteem, it opens up opportunities for them. Plus, shooting is fun. It’s something the whole family can do together.

Find a link to participating ranges in Texas at passporttotexas.org.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series and works to increase shooting sports in Texas. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Conservation: Coastal Expo Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you can’t get to the coast, then look for a Coastal Expo.

08—Coastal Expo’s an educational outreach event, where we’re teaching the public about the Texas Coast and why it’s important and why we need to protect it.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department brings the coast to communities (even communities on the coast) with Coastal Expo. Kris Shipman coordinates the events.

12— We have all sorts of great hands-on activities where they can go to a touch tank and touch sea stars and crabs and different things like that. We have areas where we talk about water quality; we talk about sea grass and wetlands and what functions they serve.

Kris Shipman says she takes the coastal expo exhibits statewide to help people understand their connection to the gulf and the oceans of the world.

22—The entire state of Texas forms the watershed for the Gulf of Mexico. And so if somebody in Abilene were to drop a piece of trash on the ground, that trash would eventually end up in some sort of watershed. Eventually that water is going to drain to the Gulf of Mexico. So, all of that trash, if it doesn’t get picked up, that’s where it ends up—is out in the Gulf of Mexico and out into the rest of the ocean.

The Next Coastal Expo is June 9th at the KEE-muh Boardwalk in Galveston Bay. Find information on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series and funds conservation projects in Texas.

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

TPW TV: Owl Be Seeing You Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

[Great horned owl call]

A great horned owl nesting in a residential window box became an instant sensation with neighborhood kids. See what all the excitement was about when you tune in this month to the The Texas Parks and Wildlife PBS TV series. Producer, Abe Moore.

56—We got a strange call from somebody that said we have a great horned owl nest in our windowsill here in Katy Prairie. They’d always go like ‘who who, who who’ in my chimney. It’s just awesome. It was becoming the talk of the town, so we had to go out there and check it out. Owls get a bad rap often, and these owls are a great example of living in harmony with the homeowner and the neighborhood. This nest was right on a planter box, up on a window—right next to this cute little park. So, the kids would just come out and enjoy nature’s wonder right in front of them, and it was pretty neat. Two babies have hatched@ I see them! I see them! It’s white and fluffy and fluffy and white! They’re rising…they’re rising…they’re rising! Oh my word! So, it was a very cool outdoor classroom type of situation. And if you want to see the story and check out the owls, that’s going to be on Texas Parks and Wildlife Television June third through the seventh.

Thanks Abe.

Check your local listings for the show.

The WSFR program supports our series and funds conservation projects in Texas.

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

Boat/Fish: National Fishing and Boating Week Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Time on the water is time well spent. It’s not only an ideal way to connect with friends and family, it’s also a way to protect Texas waters.

First lines of defense for America’s waterways are the anglers and boaters that are out there. And it’s important that we maintain that strong commitment to taking care of the resource by being sure there are a lot of folks out there that enjoy using it.

Texas is one of the top states in terms of angler participation and the number of licenses sold. There are some tremendous fishing resources in Texas in both saltwater and freshwater.

Our state provides a great example for many other states as the right way to manage resources as well as how to be in touch with the anglers and boaters that are out there using it.

National Fishing and Boating Week, June 2nd through 10th.

It’s a time to celebrate being on the water …a time to unplug from the workaday world…where there’s nothing that gets in the way of communicating with your family and friends. It’s simply a great way to reconnect with those who matter to you, while engaging a resource that’s precious to everyone.

That’s our show, made possible by the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program…working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas.

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