Passport to Texas

Black Bear image by Alan Vernon

Conservation/Wildlife: Black Bears in Texas, 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Louisiana Black bear is long gone from East Texas, although, small populations exist in its home state. Black bears we might see in NE Texas likely come from Oklahoma and Arkansas.

10- And they are not Louisiana bears. Bears in Oklahoma and Arkansas are probably the sub species Americana or just the plain American Black Bear.

But they’re welcome in Texas just the same, says Dave Holdermann, a wildlife diversity biologist in Tyler. TPW’s management goal is to manage natural re-colonization of the species in NE Texas.

15— And one of the things that we’re doing to support that approach is we monitor black bear sightings – mostly coming in from the public. And we monitor those very closely, and scour them very well, to be sure they are legitimate sightings.

Holdermann encourages the public to contact the wildlife division with black bear sightings at any of its regional offices.

27 — We look for and ask early in the interview [with the person], whether or not they have physical or photographic evidence. Beyond that, we look at details of the observation; how close was the person? What exactly did they see? How many bears were there? Give us the locality as close as you can. By the way, it wouldn’t necessarily have to be a photo of the bear. We might use hair as evidence, or a track.

Find more information about reporting your black bear sighting at passporttotexas.org: Call Dave Holderman with your black bear sighting at 903-566-1626 (ext. 209)

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

Louisiana black bear cub, image courtesy www.edf.org

Conservation/Wildlife: Black Bears in Texas, 1 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By 1900, Louisiana black bear were as good as gone from East Texas.

15- About that time, or in the late 1800s, as East Texas became more and more settled, black bears were essentially killed out by unregulated hunting and the expansion of farms, towns, cities, roads, etc.

Dave Holdermann is a wildlife diversity biologist working out of Tyler, who keeps track of this federally threatened species.

11— Today we see a few bears venturing out of neighboring states back into Texas, but we have no indication that there’s a breeding population of black bears in East Texas.

The bears entering Texas from neighboring states are likely the sub species Americana or American Black Bear. Parks and Wildlife will carefully monitor and manage natural colonization of the species in East Texas.

22— If bears come into this region – most likely from Arkansas or Oklahoma – we’re going to monitor that process and attempt to deal with any problems that might arise between bears and people. But, we would not intercede, necessarily, to eliminate those bears. So, we would allow that natural colonization process.

How you can help biologists keep track of black bears in Texas – that’s tomorrow.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration project supports our series.

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

Image courtesy of http://blue.utb.edu/jasonproject/photos.html

Wetlands: Bahia Grande, 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Cut off from gulf waters, Bahia Grande, a unit of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, changed from productive tidal wetland to nuisance dust bowl. The tide started to turn for this basin with the new millennium.

13 – It was not until 2000 when the Fish and Wildlife Service acquired the land surrounding the Bahia Grande Basin that you could start doing something—because the Fish and Wildlife Service was very supportive of restoring the area.

John Wallace Deputy Project Leader South Texas Refuge Complex says the process of re-hydrating Bahia Grande continues.

13 – Restoring ten thousand acres takes quite awhile. We have had to go through an environmental assessment—public hearings—to just make sure what we were planning to do in restoring it was not going to cause some kind of impact.

Wallace says when fully restored, humans and wildlife will benefit.

21 – Besides just reducing the blowing dust, it’s going to increase the number of marine organisms in the area: anything from larval fin fish, to shrimp, to blue crabs that are already in the area. And when we have it fully restored it’s going to do nothing more than become a nice estuarine area to benefit wildlife.

The Wildlife and Sport fish Restoration Program supports our series and provides funding for wetland conservation through the Private Lands Enhancement Program.

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

Bahia grande Map, Texas A&M Corpus Christi

Wetlands: Bahia Grande, 1 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Bahia Grande, the largest tidal wetland restoration project in the state of Texas, is getting closer to completion.

10 – A tidal wetland is normally a coastal wetland that is influenced by the daily tide cycle that would basically push or pull water into that system on a daily basis.

John Wallace, Deputy Project Leader South Texas Refuge Complex, says construction of the Brownsville Ship Channel in the 1930s effectively cut off Bahia Grande from the gulf.

09 – The spoil from that ship channel was piled on the north side, and it blocked off those natural channels that allowed water to flow into the Bahia Grande.

Without water, the basin dried up, and eventually became a nuisance to local residents and businesses whenever prevailing winds came from the southeast.

26 – Normally on a coastal area with prevailing winds, you would get winds ten to twenty miles an hour every day. And these winds would pick up that real fine clay dust, and blow it to the north and northwest. And the local communities north of there were suffering from this blowing dust. It was impacting people that had breathing problems. The local schools, their air-conditioning systems, it was getting into the classrooms. So, it was a major concern for the local communities.

Solving the problem…that’s tomorrow.

The Wildlife & Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series and provides funding for wetland conservation through the Private Lands Enhancement Program.

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

Outdoor family fun

State Parks: Summer Vacation Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

How will kids occupy themselves now that school’s out? Our state park guide, Bryan Frazier has a few ideas.

57 –Kids have had the calendar for a long time; school is out for summer vacation. And to your point: what do you do? Where do you take them? Where are safe places that are family oriented? Where are places that are reasonably priced? Where can they go frequently? What can we do so that they’re just not watching TV and playing video games? Think about a state park. I would recommend getting a state park pass, and you’ve got the summer covered, whether that’s swimming, hiking, biking, or fishing. It’s an unlimited amount of outdoor recreation, education, something just as simple as a leisurely hike near a creek in a state park, or something that’s planned as a family get together or a weekend. We have the spectrum of outdoor recreation experiences. This summer can be action packed with lots of different things in a state park.

Thanks, Bryan.

Find outdoor adventures at texasstateparks.org.

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.