Passport to Texas

The Texas Landscape Project

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This is Passport

The story of Texas conservation is a rich, evolving, and interconnected tale.

John Muir said back in 1911 or so: ‘When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.’

David Todd “connects the dots” through Texas’ land, water, energy, wildlife, and people in the atlas The Texas Landscape Project. To do so, he dipped into a vast reservoir of existing research.

There’s a lot of what we call ‘Big Data’ out there. And that means digital information that’s on the web that state agencies, federal bureaucracies, academic institutions, individual researchers, citizen scientists put out there. And a lot of it hasn’t been mapped yet. And some of those connections haven’t been explored as much as they might be, or shared with the public. And so we’re trying to do that with this book.

With graphics from co-author Jonathan Ogren, readers can visualize Texas’ conservation past, present and future.

We try to touch on environmental issues across the state. So, if you’re an East Texas resident, you may be interested in the stories about the Big Thicket. If you live down on the coast, you might be interested in the stories of the recovery of the brown pelican or Kemps Ridley Sea Turtle. Or, if you live out in the Big Bend, you might be curious about the recovery of the Bighorn Mountain Sheep. So, we try to give examples of important conservation efforts that have happened in your corner of the state. And I’m hoping that’ll be a nice place for folks to enter the book and maybe start to explore what’s in there.

The Texas Landscape Project at texaslandscape.org.

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

Don Cash at the JD Murphee WMA

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This is Passport

This month, when you tune into the new season of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Television series on PBS, you’ll see some changes.

It’s going to have a little different look: new open, new music, new graphics—and as always—lots of new segments.

Series Producer, Don Cash, says new, shorter segments within episodes will offer viewers more variety.

We’re going to do a few less of the longer segments, and concentrate a little more on doing segments that are a little bit shorter—maybe three, four, five minutes. There’s just a lot of stuff that we want to put on the show. So, we’re going to concentrate a little bit more on doing some shorter things, and hopefully have more new segments than we’ve had in season’s past.

Viewers can still expect to see everything they love about the Texas outdoors on the show—and more. Improved, smaller cameras and micro-copters, help producers to tell stories on a more intimate scale.

These cameras allow you to get closer to things. Especially the Go-Pro cameras. You put a small camera on a kayak that you couldn’t do before. So, it does show a unique angle. And it allows us to really tell a story in a little different way.

The new season of the award-winning Texas Parks and Wildlife television series on PBS premiers the week of October 16. Check your local listings.

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

Solana Ranch near Salado, TX. Photos for TPW Magazine story “Hunting with Chef Marcus”

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This is Passport to Texas

To coax the best flavor from deer hunters will harvest this fall, proper care from field to plate, is a must. Just ask Marcus Paslay [paz-LAY]. He’s chef and owner of Clay Pigeon Food & Drink in Fort Worth.

Every step of the way—the way it’s handled—drastically affects flavor. You know, in the field, it’s something you want to get cleaned out as soon as you can, and get it cold as soon as you can. It keeps that flavor a little bit more clean.

Clean and less gamey, but not without some gaminess.

It is an acquired taste. So, I think whoever’s eating it is going to have to have a sense of adventure to a certain extent. But there are ways to overcome it a little bit. I always like using brines. Soaking the meat in a sugar, citrus, salt bath overnight—or whatever it takes. That really helps out well with big game such as venison, or hog.

Brining is just one method Chef Paslay uses to impart flavor into game.

Another way I really love on venison is rubbing it down with coffee grounds. And the tannins in the coffee help break down the proteins and they also impart a pretty strong flavor themselves, which masks the gaminess of the meat.

Find Chef Marcus Paslay’s recipe for coffee rubbed venison loin is in the October issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

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

Solana Ranch near Salado, TX. Photos for TPW Magazine story “Hunting with Chef Marcus”

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Marcus Paslay, chef and owner of Clay Pigeon Food and Drink in Fort Worth, says he started hunting in Texas when he was around eight years old.

You know, I’d go with my Dad and my Granddad. We’d go hunt and fish. And then, you know, as I got older, and a little more responsible, I was allowed to hunt on my own. [laughs]

The restaurant offers a changing seasonal menu of made from scratch dishes that often include game.

Being a hunter, and using game, it just gives you a deeper appreciation for the ingredients in its raw state. You become a little bit more sensitive to throwing stuff away when you’ve seen it alive. And that’s what we do at Clay Pigeon. You know we’re a from scratch kitchen, so we’re buying everything in its whole, raw state. So, it’s just one of those deals that allows us, you know, a little bit more responsibility with our food.

Reid Wittliff wrote an article for the October issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine where he invited Chef Paslay to bow hunt on the Solana Ranch in Central Texas.

Any time that I can go out and hunt, and we can make a deal of it, where it’s eating what we hunted the next day, I mean, that’s pretty cool. And to be able to put that in an article for people to hear about it pretty awesome.

The October issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine is on newsstands now, and includes Chef Marcus Paslay’s recipes from the hunt.

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

Hunters patiently waiting.

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There is a registration fee of $50 for the New Hunter Workshop to cover costs, which includes lunch.
For more information or to register for the workshop, contact Bill Balboa at bill.balboa@ag.tamu.edu or call 979-245-4100.

This is Passport to Texas

A growing interest in the origin of the food they eat led some people, who’ve never hunted before, to seek out hunting opportunities.

And so what we’re trying to do is get them started from the very basics.

Bill Balboa, of Agrilife Extension, says a New Hunter Workshop, October 15, in collaboration with Texas Parks and Wildlife, will introduce interested foodies to hunting basics.

There’s not going to be any hunting, but there will be some firearm safety and some target practice with some .22s that Texas Parks and Wildlife Hunter Ed is going to loan us. And, they’re going to have some of their Hunter Ed safety instructors out there to help us. But there won’t be any hunting at this point. But, people will be provided all the information they need to sign up for public hunts in Texas.

Minimum age to participate is nine, accompanied by an adult.

What I’m hoping is, all folks who have the desire to do the field to table experience—we’re looking for those new hunters that don’t have much experience—particularly with the processing with the animal. The seminar is going to be heavily slanted in that direction. So, we would like to get those folks out—anyone who would like to come out and do that. New hunters in general.

The New Hunter Workshop, October 15, is at the Nannie M. Stringfellow Wildlife Management Area in Brazoria County. It’s limited to 30 people. Find a link to registration information at passporttotexas.org.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

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