Passport to Texas

Bison at Caprock Canyons State Park

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This is Passport to Texas

For the past 30 years, PBS viewers have experienced the Texas outdoors through Texas Parks and Wildlife’s television series. To celebrate, show producers, including Karen Loke who’s been with the series 24 years, share their favorite stories from the past.

And my favorite story is called Rescuing History. It’s about the capture and relocation of the last of the Southern Plains bison herd.

[Narrator Jim Swift] Doug is helping capture and relocate the last few descendants of the Southern Plains Bison. A pure, genetic strain of buffalo found nowhere else in the world.

[Doug Humphreys] But what makes this one different is that another buffalo has never been brought into this herd. There’s been no outside gene source introduced into this particular bison herd. So we’ve got a distinct genetic strain of buffalo that doesn’t exist anywhere else.

Producer Karen Loke said this touched her due to something rather unexpected that happened during filming. You can see for yourself when you tune into the Texas Parks and Wildlife television series on PBS the week of July 17.

[Roy Welch] To those of us involved in this project, it’s turned into be something quite more than just a simple matter of capturing a bison herd and relocating them over here to Caprock Canyons, in essence, we’re literally capturing a living piece of Texas history.

The award-winning Texas Parks and Wildlife Television series celebrates 30 years on PBS all season long. Check your local listings.

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

The Mallard is the most common of the dabbling ducks.

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This is Passport to Texas

What do gadwalls…pintails…teal…wigeons… redheads and shovelers have in common?

That’s right. They’re ducks…waterfowl. They’re also game birds. But the similarities don’t end there. These fowl are further grouped by another characteristic.

There’re two different types of ducks, there’re dabblers and there’re divers.

Dave Morrison is the waterfowl program leader at Parks and Wildlife. Neither of the descriptions—diver nor dabbler—fully conveys what to expect from these birds.

And the difference is the way they feed. How they’re bodies are made up. Dabblers tend to have their feet more centered, whereas, divers are in the back of the body. Dabblers jump, spring into the air, whereas diving ducks pitter patter along the water.

Still not sure whether you would be able to distinguish a dabbling duck from a diving duck? Then, consider the following next time you see a flock of fowl feeding at a lake, stock pond or reservoir:

Dabblers feed at or near the water’s surface by filtering food… and they often tip upside down in the water to reach food at the bottom of a pond.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

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

Southern plains bumble bee. Courtesy of Jessica Womack.

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This is Passport to Texas

European honeybees and native bees, both important pollinators, are in decline.

With interest in declining pollinators, there’s been a call from a number of landowners for plans to help these species.

Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Michael Warriner says the agency developed new pollinator protocols for landowner use that begin with food and nesting sites for bees and other pollinators.

Let’s say you only have a few species of [flowers] that bloom in the spring. Not many in the summer. Not many in the fall. You could do a reseeding, or seed the area with native plant seed. Now, that can oftentimes be expensive if you have a lot of acres. In the protocols, we also describe another method of putting in native pollinator plots. You can consider this analogous to a deer food plot where you put in, let’s say, a half an acre. You seed it with good quality native plant seed. A number of species. And that’s your native pollinator plot, which makes it a little more cost effective than reseeding a really big area.

Find complete protocols on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website. Some landowners who implement protocols may qualify for a wildlife exemption.

If they’re actively wanting to develop a wildlife management plan for their property, they don’t have to do all the protocols; they can pick and choose what they want to do. If they need help, they can contact their local Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist in their region for help with this.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

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

Friendly neighborhood pollinator.

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This is Passport to Texas

Pollinators are a trending topic these days.

We’re mainly talking about insects and sometimes mammals—like bats—who visit flowers.

Michael Warriner is non-game and rare species program leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife. Pollinators visit flowers for nectar or pollen, which they use as food.

But in the process, they’re transferring pollen from plant-to-plant, which the plant needs to become pollinated, and set viable seed.

Yet, over the years we’ve noticed a decline in the number of non-native and native pollinator species.

There’s a whole level of concern that’s manifested out of the concern for honeybees. Folks then started thinking about what’s going on with native bees, butterflies… And research shows that with things like bumblebees, there are a number of species that have experienced declines—that have disappeared from big parts of their range. And so there’s this whole overarching concern about native and non-native pollinators since their so closely tied to-–especially—human food production.

Tomorrow: how landowners can help revive slumping pollinator populations with Texas Parks and Wildlife’s new protocol.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

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

Fun in the water at state parks.

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This is Passport to Texas

Don’t hunker down indoors with the air conditioning running this summer. Get outside to a state park and cool off. Many parks offer a refreshing alternative to air-conditioned cabin fever with a number of swimming opportunities…

Public swimming pools can be fun, but if you prefer a more natural setting, float your cares away at Blanco State Park, 40 miles north of San Antonio. Although it got hit hard by floods in 2015, the water’s fine. Here you’ll find cool, clear, spring-fed swimming for anyone seeking refuge from the long Texas summer.

Just 10 miles north of Beaumont is Village Creek State Park, and a free-flowing stream, popular with tubers and paddlers. [Due to recent flooding, swimming is not allowed]

About one hour from Fort Worth, Dinosaur Valley State Park allows visitors to swim in the same Paluxy River where dinosaurs roamed 113-million years ago.

Garner State Park near Uvalde is home to 10 acres of Frio riverfront, giving visitors plenty of space to swim the clear water, scoot the rapids in inner tubes, or even rent pedal boats.

Find listings of river and creek swimming sites at state parks when you log onto texassrtateparks.org. You’ll also find a list of sites with lake swimming, and even some with ocean swimming. When taking a dip in natural setting, always use caution. Find safety tips on the Parks and Wildlife website. And don’t forget your sunscreen!

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.