Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

What is a watershed? Dr. Gary Garrett, state director of the watershed conservation program at Parks and Wildlife, says watersheds are interactive ecosystems.

10—Everything within that watershed interacts and affects everything else in that watershed – including us. So, there’s no one part of it that is more important or exclusive to the other parts.

That’s one reason why Garrett, a fisheries research biologist, takes a holistic approach to understanding and improving our state’s watersheds.

18—I work with wildlife biologists; I work with riparian ecologists, herpetologists…. Anything and everything that we can understand that brings it all together; then together we can synergistically apply the best guidance, the best restoration and conservation that’s possible.

How we care for the land affects the quality and quantity of our water – a concept that may seem abstract.

23 – We’re spending a lot of time with folks explaining that, because it is a large ecosystem approach to this. Grasslands, if they’re cedar thickets, and we take them back to grasslands, you reduce erosion; you reduce overland flow, you increase the ability for the water to soak in rather than run off, which then improves spring flows over time. It gives you a more dependable water source. That’s just restoring grasslands.

Restoring watersheds and an iconic Texas species. That’s tomorrow.

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

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