Passport to Texas

TPW TV: Birding in the Brushland Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

The Texas Parks and Wildlife PBS Television series broadcasts a segment the week of April 17 on birdwatching in the brushlands of South Texas.

I can go to the outdoors and have something to do, and it’s something you know it’s kind of relaxing and peaceful. You just need your binoculars and you can just do it anywhere! So that’s what I like about it and the birds are neat ya know! To see different birds!

Ruayda Bouls is one of the birdwatchers you’ll meet on the show. Texas Parks and Wildlife Ornithologist Cliff Shackelford makes an appearance to help guide the birding enthusiasts.

[Cliff Shackelford] Look at all those Chachalaca’s sitting there!
[Ruayda Bouls] It’s not very bright but I like the noise it makes!
[Cliff Shackelford] It would make a good ring-tone wouldn’t it!
[Ruayda Bouls] Yeah! Ha!
[Cliff Shackelford] Chachalaca, Chachalaca, Chachalaca!

There are 500 bird species in the south Texas ecoregion where they shot the segment, and birder, Josh Anderson, isn’t shy about picking a favorite.

13— My favorite probably is the Green Jay, I know that’s kinda like the hallmark of South Texas down here, everybody will come from miles around just to see that bird! It’s just cool, a lot of them are like camouflaged or blending in, but that one really pops out!

Birding in the Brushlands airs the week of April 17 on PBS stations statewide. Check your local listings.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Love Mother Earth by being a good steward.

How to Commemorate Earth Day Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

I remember the first Earth Day Celebration. It was April 22, 1970, and I was a young, impressionable kid.

Leading up to it were weeks of news reports about how we were killing the planet… with litter, toxic chemicals, wasting resources, destruction of wild places, and air pollution.

It scared me. So, I decided to do what I could to help. Not big things, of course. I was just a kid. I started turning off lights in empty rooms, and not letting water run while I brushed my teeth. I also started to pick up other people’s litter I found on the ground.

Plus, I finally understood why my mother recycled newspapers, composted our kitchen scraps, grew some of our food in a backyard garden, and always kept the thermostat at a low setting in winter.

It’s the little things we do every day that make a difference when it comes to the long-term health of our planet. Nobody expects perfection—just a bit of effort.

Perhaps this Earth Day, April 22, we can rededicate ourselves to putting forth that extra effort when it comes to keeping our big, beautiful planet, and every living thing she supports, healthy and strong for generations to come.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Extracting venom at the John C. Perez Serpentarium at Texas A&M- Kingsville, TX

How Venomous Snakes Help Humans Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

The National Natural Toxins Research Center in Kingsville, part of the Texas A & M system, houses 450 venomous snakes from around the world in its Serpentarium, from which they collect venom for research.

This center really is sort of a hidden gem in the A & M System, and in the state. It’s doing great work; it’s something that Texans should be proud of.

Reeve Hamilton works for the A & M System. Researchers at the lab do their own research, such as work on a universal anti-venom; they also share venom with fellow researchers worldwide.

Other researchers elsewhere will get in touch with them and say we really need this for our research, can you get it to us? And they’ll freeze it and ship it off. They’re doing their own research, but they’re also enabling the research of others.

Pharmaceuticals to treat heart attacks, strokes, and to prevent the metastasizing of tumors have come from venom research. Reeve Hamilton hopes that by understanding how venomous snakes help humans…

You know, you come across a snake, maybe you might change your appreciation of the animals a little bit.

Read about the Natural Toxins Research Center in the April issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Extracting venom at the John C. Perez Serpentarium at Texas A&M- Kingsville, TX

TPW Magazine: Venom Lab Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Venomous snakes demand our respect — not because they can hurt us — but because they can help us.

Venom from snakes is used to treat heart attacks, treat strokes. It has paralyzing properties, so it’s used to prevent the metastasizing of tumors….

Reeve Hamilton, wrote about the National Natural Toxins Research Center in Kingsville, part of the Texas A & M system –which studies uses for venom – for the April issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine.

There’s really a variety of health issues that the venom in snakes is actually used for once researchers at the Natural Toxins Research Center and other places can isolate the properties and put them to use in medicine.

The center is the only federally funded facility of its kind, and Hamilton says its Serpentarium is home to 450 venomous snakes from around the world. Researchers are attempting to develop a universal anti-venom.

Right now, anti-venom is snake specific. So, for people who are in far flung areas, where snake bites are a bigger concern than they are here; if you can’t access the right anti-venom, then you’re going to be in serious trouble. So, they’re trying to come up with an anti-venom that can be administered by anyone, and used in response to any snake, which would really – I think – be a really big discovery.

Read more in Reeve Hamilton’s article in the April issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Battle of San Jacinto reenactors.

The Battle of San Jacinto Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

The Battle of San Jacinto was only 18 minutes long, but it ended the nearly seven month long Texas Revolution.

Because of Sam Houston’s victory here at San Jacinto, Texas would be its own nation – an independent republic – for almost 10 years.

Park interpreter, Boyd Harris, says we commemorate the battle of the Texians against Mexican General Santa Anna’s Army with a ceremony and reenactment at the San Jacinto Battlegrounds and State Historic Site in La Porte.

The best thing about the reenactment is you actually get to see our reenactors out there dressed as they would have been in 1836—both Texian Army reenactors and Mexican reenactors. You get a better sense of—in our opinion—the primitive nature of their weapons. Short range. The Mexican Army weaponry was only effect up to about 50, 100 yards. Which, in modern day battles is inconceivable to us. You get the idea that idea that this battle was more on a personal level. You could actually see the man across the field. I think that’s the best kind of thing to spark the imagination. To spark the curiosity in the visitor. To learn more about who these men were, how they lived and how they fought, and also how they died.

The commemorative ceremony is April 21—the 180 year anniversary of the battle; the reenactment and festival is on April 23.

Find details in the calendar section of the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show for today… Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti