Passport to Texas

Game Wardens evacuating flood victims after Hurricane Harvey. Image by Earl Nottingham.

TPW Magazine--After Hurricane Harvey Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

The November issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine includes stories from Hurricane Harvey. But that wasn’t the original plan.

By the time we write about something, send it off to press, get it back—months can go by. So, we had to really fast-track this November issue, and decided to remove a couple of stories. We don’t have our usual travel feature or our wander list.

Editor, Louie Bond, says she wanted to tell the story of Harvey from the Texas Parks and Wildlife standpoint.

We decided to forego all of the stuff that people had been seeing over and over again and just tell our own story—and that’s what we did. So, we told the story from the perspective of game wardens and rescuers, from those who were being rescued. And the impact, of course, on state parks, wildlife management areas, and wildlife, itself.

Read about Game Warden Dustin Dockery, who spent days helping others, as his own home was consumed by floodwaters. Hear from Texas Parks and Wildlife Photographer Earl Nottingham, who also covered Hurricanes Ike and Katrina.

And I asked him what was different about Harvey. And he said he believed that the Texas spirit had never been more present. People would see the logo on his truck, and they would pull up with boats in the back of their trucks and say: Where can we go? What can we do? As the crisis is happening. They didn’t waste a moment.

The November issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine is on newsstands now.

Our show receives funding from Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram

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

Park Interpreter at Barrington Living History Farm at Washington-on-the-Brazos.

A Weed Walk on the Wild Side at WOB Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Try as she might, Perry Foskey’s efforts to grow a vegetable garden in her East Texas backyard failed.

The weeds did really well. And I just got to looking around [and wondered]: why am I fighting this? And I started doing
some research on the weeds and [discovered] they were actually edible.

Foskey–who works at Washington-on-the Brazos–Barrington Living History Farm–proposed a program for the historic site on identifying edible wild plants.

I thought it would be an excellent accent for the farm, itself. And visitors have liked that program, and it’s been a great success.

Dr. Mark “Merriwether” Vorderbruggen of Foraging Texas will facilitate two wild edible plant identification walks at the site on Saturday, November fourth.

Dr. Merriwether…he’s been foraging for a very, very long time. His parents even did it back in the depression; they subsidized their food source with foraging. He is one of the premier foragers in this area, and we’re so lucky to have him come out and teach these classes.

The plant ID walks with Merriwether are nine to noon, and one to four on November 4th. Interested? Give Perry Foskey a call.

And, we’ll be glad to put them on the list. We recommend the classes should be for 12 years of age and up. And the classes are absolutely free.

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

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