Passport to Texas

Famous Texas Trees in Texas State parks.

Magazine: Legacy Trees Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

American poet Joyce Kilmer could have been thinking about Texas’ legacy trees when he wrote: I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.

Read about these natural marvels in an article by Russell Roe, called Silent Sentinels: The legendary trees of our state parks tell the story of Texas. Find it in the August/September issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

In it, Roe writes: “Our Texas state parks contain many remarkable trees. Four of them have risen to such a level of historical importance that they have been included on the Texas A & M Forest Service’s Famous Trees of Texas Registry.”

These include: The La Bahía Pecan, at what is now Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site. It bore witness to the birth of Texas.

The Goliad Anacua tree has kept watch over Goliad’s Mission Espíritu Santo, and stands near the entrance to the chapel.

The Goose Island Big Tree in Rockport is a long-lived live oak that’s survived for more than a thousand years. Found at Goose Island State Park.

And rising 103 feet into the air, a cypress named Old Baldy stands as a stately beauty along Austin’s Onion Creek in McKinney Falls State Park.

Read about these and other legacy trees in Texas in the August/September issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine. On Newsstands now.

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

Herd of feral hogs.

Challenges of Controlling Feral Swine Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Trapping and hunting are not effective controls against feral pigs.

These methods have not been able to reduce the geographic spread and the increase and abundance of feral pigs in our state, nationwide, and – I’m sorry to say – globally.

Justin Foster, research coordinator at TPWD for region two, says we need new tools to combat the pigs. The agency is evaluating sodium nitrite based pig toxicants.

What we don’t have is a tremendous amount of information that tells us that we can deliver any pesticide safely, reliably and humanely.

They’re collecting that data now. During one field test the pigs dropped baits, perhaps detecting a difference between the placebo and poison versions. This lead to unintended costs for passerine birds.

And so, as this bait was being dropped, and those feral pigs were going back to the feeder to try some more—it wasn’t so bad that they weren’t trying more—they were trampling the bait that had been dropped. And that bait had some grain in it. We assume those passerine birds were targeting that grain.

Researchers do not take such losses lightly, and continue to work on a reliable and humane protocol.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series and funds the development of toxicants and delivery strategies for controlling feral hogs in Texas.

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

Feral Hogs at the Kerr Wildlife Management Area

Controlling Feral Swine in Texas Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Feral hogs account for more than $52 million dollars in damage to Texas agriculture annually. The cost to habitat and wildlife is incalculable. While Texas has more feral swine than any other state, we don’t know their numbers.

Estimates at the statewide scale are pretty loose. And I’d kind of like to leave it at that.

Justin Foster is research coordinator at TPWD for region two. He said some estimates suggest upwards of 3.5-million feral pigs roam Texas.

Their impacts are certainly well documented and widespread. And, I think all of them [impacts] are not identified yet.

They may, in fact, be doing more harm than we know. These animals are adaptable, robust, and are reproductive stars. Populations vary due to wide-ranging resource conditions. Hunting is not effective when it comes to reducing their numbers. So, Texas Parks and Wildlife is studying the use of a toxicant to control them.

We’re talking about, literally, a pesticide. It is an active ingredient that is targeted to produce a lethal outcome for the purposes of control. In this case, that active ingredient that our work centers around is sodium nitrite.

Tomorrow: the trial and error process of finding an effective control.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series and funds the development of toxicants and delivery strategies for controlling feral hogs in Texas.

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

Mule Deer Buck

Restoring the Past Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Found in the Trans Pecos and Panhandle ecoregions, mule deer is an iconic Texas species. Biologist, Shawn Gray, says populations cycle up and down over the years.

A long, long, long time ago, we used to have a lot of mule deer up in the panhandle before European settlement. But, through different range practices, and different land use practices and unregulated hunting, we depleted the mule deer population up there. But through years of better management and restoration efforts, it seems like the population up there is doing pretty well now.

Gray is the state’s mule deer program leader. Texas has an estimated population of 285,000 mule deer…that’s despite a decline in the Trans Pecos population at the Black Gap WMA during the last drought.

In 2011, we reached almost an all-time low in our mule deer herd from the 70s. So, when you look at that 2011 number to today, we’re looking a lot better, for sure.

Through focused population management, including translocation of animals to these areas, as well as habitat improvements, the state’s mule deer population is stable to increasing.

There’s not very many places that really need a lot more mule deer. And hopefully we’re beyond that [translocation] with our last translocation to the Black Gap, if everything’s working in our favor.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series and funds Mule Deer restoration in Texas.

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

Hunters in the field

2018-2019 Drawn Hunts Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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If you’re a hunter who enjoys a game of chance—apply for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Drawn Hunts. This year about 9,500 permits in 49 hunt categories are up for grabs… for drawn hunts on public and private lands. Apply online.

New this season: hunters may draw special permit hunts for exotic Sambar deer, as well as for white-tailed deer on the new Powderhorn Wildlife Management Area. Also new this year: a youth archery deer hunt through an e-Postcard drawing at Palmetto State Park.

You can also apply for hunts managed by other entities, including almost 2,200 deer and exotic hunt positions on four U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuges in Texas and 2,500 antlerless deer permits for U.S. Forest Service properties in East Texas.

Then there’s the program’s highly-popular private lands dove hunt permit category, which features almost 150 hunt slots at seven prime locations around the state. These permits are for dedicated hunt positions with quality dove hunting outfitters. Application fee is $10 with no additional hunt permit fees for this category.

Application deadlines are the first and fifteenth of each month. Entries cost $10; Youth Only category entries are always free. All applications, fee payments and permit issuance is handled electronically.

Find more information and view interactive maps on the Texas Parks and Wildlife drawn hunts webpage.

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