Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

The Louisiana pine snake is so rare, it’s even hard for wildlife professionals to find.

Craig Rudolph is a research ecologist for the US Forest Service Southern Research Station. He says the US Forest Service and the zoo in Lufkin, TX, have established a new captive breeding program for the Louisiana pine snake.

There’s just one problem…

07—Over the last four years, we’ve only come up with one female, so that is obviously limiting our ability to establish this population.

The non-venomous snakes are native to East Texas and Louisiana, where they depend almost entirely on the pocket gopher. The snakes burrow into the gopher’s tunnel, then…

06—They wait in one of the feeding tunnels for the gopher to come along, and they function as ambush predators.

But, in East Texas, much of the gopher’s habitat has been destroyed. That means fewer gophers and fewer pine snakes. Rudolph says this problem isn’t new and they’ve been working to restore native habitat for decades.

12—Habitat on public land especially has been considerably improved over the last 10 to 20 years, primarily through more prescribed fire.

By the time the snakes are ready to be released in several years, researchers hope the habitat and, consequently, the gopher population will be ready for them.

That’s our show… the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program supports our series… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

When you sign up for free e-newsletters from Texas Parks and Wildlife, you’re signing up for multimedia outdoor adventures delivered to your inbox.

03—It’s a really fun way to find out about what’s going on.

Darcy Bontempo, Marketing Director at Texas Parks and Wildlife, says the e-newsletters give subscribers more than a list of outdoor activities.

11—Also learning about conservation, about wildlife. People love stories about animals and all the critters in Texas. So, this is a really easy way to get the information to them, but it’s also fun to read.

The free e-newsletters from Texas Parks and Wildlife can help to streamline your interactions with the agency.

21—[If you] Read a story on a state park and you’re interested in going there, you just can click right there and go right to our online reservation system [and] make a reservation. Or, if you read a fishing story, and you want to buy a fishing license, or you might see a promotion about the horned lizard license plate, or one of our other license plates; you go directly online and buy. So, it’s real convenient, and you know you even can do it from your smart phone. So, it’s pretty cool.

Look for the envelope icon on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website to sign up your e-newsletters. You decide what you want depending on what your interests.

24—Also, they can opt out at any time; they can change their profile at any time, so if they find they’re getting too much or too little information, they can just go right online to their subscription profile and change it.

That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

09—This is like the inside scoop that you can get. And it’s really great for us because it’s incredibly cost effective; we don’t have to spend a lot of dollars, and yet we’re able to reach thousands of people.

That’s Darcy Bontempo, Marketing Director at Texas Parks and Wildlife. She’s referring to the agency’s free email newsletters that highlight a diverse array of outdoor activities throughout the state.

17—These are wonderful multimedia e-newsletters. If you’re someone who loves state parks, you can sign up for our State Parks Getaways. We’ve also got a Fish Texas newsletter, we’ve got a Hunt Texas, and we also have something that appeals to someone who loves all kinds of outdoor activities as well as conservation, and that’s called our Life’s better Outside e-newsletter.

It’s easy to sign up to receive the free e-newsletters just go to the Texas Parks and Wildlife homepage, and click the icon that says “sign up for email updates.” When you do, the great Texas outdoors comes to you.

23—For example in March we’ll be having a newsletter that will cover everything from Bighorn Sheep release in Big Bend; you’ll get to see the video of that, which is just really exciting. You’ll also see a story about the wildlife trails that were just completed. Perfect time of the year, spring migration, go out with your family or your friends and see wildlife. And also, you’ll get to see a teaser on The State of the Gulf, which is a wonderful TV documentary we just completed airing on PBS.

Texas delivered to your inbox—it doesn’t get much better than that.

That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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This is Passport to Texas

The Wildlife and State Parks Divisions teamed up to make history in December 2010 with the reintroduction of desert bighorn sheep at Big Bend Ranch State Park.

13—Today is a historic day for the wildlife division and state parks, because this is one of our more significant wildlife conservation efforts, where we’re collaborating with state parks to reintroduce a species that hasn’t been here in decades.

Clayton Wolf is Wildlife Division Director. Using a helicopter and nets, biologists removed animals from Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area, and transported them by trailer to Big Bend Ranch, about an hour and a half away.

20—[helicopter] We’re capturing bighorn sheep, of course, and we’re transplanting them to Big Bend Ranch State Park. They’re part of our natural history out here in West Texas. They were here long before any of us showed up. They’re part of the natural ecosystem out there, and of course, that’s part of our mission to restore those species that have been out here. And, of course, bighorn sheep they’re a flagship species for these mountains.

The animals underwent testing, and most were fitted with radio transmitters, to track them over time.

11—Our bighorn sheep restoration program has been very successful. So, this is just one of those steps in the process. There’s a lot of other private land tracts and public land tracts we hope to restore sheep to one day.

Watch the bighorn sheep relocation effort when you log onto the Texas Parks and Wildlife YouTube channel.

That’s our show… with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program… funding bighorn sheep restoration work in Texas.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

02—if they can’t get out there, they won’t get out there.

Ron Smith is talking about water. He’s the River Information Specialist for Texas. Helping you access water for recreation purposes is among Parks and Wildlife’s top priorities.

12—Our main initiatives include healthy outdoor activities, conservation initiatives, and getting folks out there so we can outreach to them, and so they can relax and enjoy the great outdoors.

Smith has traveled statewide for the better part of a decade identifying and characterizing public access points on rivers and lakes, putting them into a database. But he hasn’t done it alone.

23—We would not have been able to achieve a project of this level without our friends in the Law Enforcement Division. They became one of our stakeholders, and we actually held trainings to train them how to take the data. They went out to their specific counties where they were the boots on the ground and they helped us characterize and gather all these information pieces for the database.

The database contains nearly 24-hundred public water access sites; 18-hundred of those are boat ramps…

12—And about 500 of them are on rivers, and may not be boat ramps. They’re just places to slide your canoe in or get in your inner tubes.

Find out how to access the database information at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… with support from the Sport fish and Wildlife Restoration program…providing funding for boat ramps in Texas. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Call Ron Smith with your questions about water access in Texas at 512-389-8302.

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