Passport to Texas

Wildlife: Prairie Dog Towns Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Prairie dogs live in connected underground burrows called “towns,” which have been known to cover up to 1,000 acres of land!

These colonies are divided into social groups usually consisting of one male, up to four females, and offspring less than two years of age. And San Angelo SP has a prairie dog town on premises.

04—Actually, we have 2 towns- we’ve established one on the north side and south side of the park.

Assistant superintendent, Pat Bales is a fan of the critters, which aren’t dogs at all, but a type of ground squirrel. Pat familiarizes us with their habits.

30—They’re most active during the cool hours of the day, during that time they’ll engage in the social activities- visiting, grooming, as well as feeding of grasses and herbs. And normally whenever they are out feeding like that, they’ll have a sentry and they’ll have a lookout. And their mounds are built up high. They’re kind of unique little engineers. They’ll build one mound, end of their mound higher than the other, and an out hole. The reason they do that: it creates a high pressure/low pressure situation which enables air to continuously flow through there. And down in the burrow itself, they’ll have little compartments where they can sleep, where they can feed.

Prairie dogs were native San Angelo, but various factors reduced their population. Fortunately, thanks to dedicated “dog” lovers – they live happily at the park.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish restoration program supports our series and is celebrating 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…

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

State Parks: A Grant for Caprock Canyons Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Caprock Canyons State Park secured a 65-thousand dollar grant from the Ted Turner Foundation to help habitat restoration for the state bison herd. Our State Park Guide Bryan Frazier has details.

63—The Ted Turner Foundation has a history with helping restore bison nationwide. They’ve given a grant to Caprock Canyons SP, and that can go for everything from fencing to prairie restoration—things that will help that Texas State bison herd more viable, more diverse, and just more thriving and visible just so the people of Texas can enjoy it. And the superintendent there, Donald Beard, has done some really interesting things to help restore that prairie habitat there. Everything from getting some donated money to get a big machine that carves up some of the invasive red berry juniper and mesquite trees to make the prairie habitat come back even quicker. But they’re also planning to do a prairie dog town restore, where they’re relocating some black-tailed prairie dogs from Lubbock out to the park. So you should have more of a thriving prairie ecosystem that resembles what we had here in Texas before European settlement. And that’s the long range plan. And this grant from the Turner Foundation allows us to really get a jump start on that—and they’re just really doing some great things at Caprock Canyons State park.

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.

Also Leopold's Five Tools for Land Management Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Aldo Leopold, widely accepted as the father of wildlife and habitat management in America, outlined five types of habitat management practices used to restore and maintain habitat.

05—And those involve the ax, cow, plow, fire and gun.

Wildlife Management Area (WMA) facilities coordinator, Dennis Gissell, says these tools have served Texas well, on WMA sites…and explains what they are and how they work together to support healthy ecosystems.

37—The axe actually conveys to the use of mechanized equipment as well as chain saws and loppers that we use to remove invasive species of vegetation, which are not beneficial to wildlife. Cows are used for grazing, and grazing helps to stimulate production of forbs and browse. The plow is used to plant food plots when it’s necessary to help wildlife to survive winters and long summers. Fire is used to restore habitat and to stimulate the growth, once again, of forbs and browse. And, of course hunting is good to control and manage wildlife populations so they don’t become out of synch or too large for the carrying capacity for the habitat.

A $48 dollar annual public hunting permit or a $12 dollar Limited Public Use Permit can provide access to WMAs all year. Learn the difference between the permits at the Texas parks and Wildlife website.

The WSFR program supports our series and is celebrating 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Findings from research conducted at Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) provide biologists with information to guide them when developing habitat management strategies.

11—And we are continually doing research and learning more and more and adjusting our habitat management strategies so that we can accomplish the best possible strategies for managing wildlife in Texas.

Well managed, healthy habitat and wildlife is good for Texas’ environment and economy. WMA facilities coordinator, Dennis Gissell, says the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program (WSFR) program has been integral in the acquisition and management of many of these sites.

14—[The] Wildlife and sport fisheries act is absolutely essential to our ability to manage and conserve wildlife habitats and wildlife populations in Texas. Not only on the wildlife management areas, but in support of our biologists who work with private landowners statewide.

A set of management tools described by Aldo Leopold in 1933, are still used today on WMAs.

16—Aldo Leopold, who was widely accepted as the father of conservation in America, outlined five different general types of habitat management practices that can be used to restore and maintain habitat. And those involve the axe, cow, plow, fire and gun.

We tell you more about those tomorrow.

The WSFR program supports our series and is celebrating 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

What are Wildlife Management Areas? Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It’s safe to say most Texans can name at least three state parks. But ask those same Texans to name three Wildlife Management Areas (WMA), and they’ll be stumped. So I asked WMA facilities coordinator, Dennis Gissell to tell us.

19—Wildlife management areas were established in Texas as far back at 1946 for the purpose of conducting research in to wildlife and habitat management, demonstrations to private landowners, education for students and other wildlife professionals, and then public recreation when that’s compatible with the other three.

The Sierra Diablo WMA in far west Texas was the first in the state, established by the state legislature to manage and preserve Bighorn Sheep. We’ve added dozens more WMAs since then.

06—We have 49 Wildlife Management Areas that cover about seven hundred and seventy thousand acres in Texas now.

The WMAs are acquired to represent the habitat in each of the 10 major ecological regions of the state.

16—And so far we have all of those regions covered except one. And that would be the cross timbers and prairies in north central Texas. We’ve been working for years to find an appropriate piece of property and a willing seller in north central Texas…we’ve come close several times. Hopefully it won’t be far off.

On tomorrow’s show…learn about a program responsible in large part for making Wildlife Management areas in Texas possible.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series and is celebrating 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti