Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish Restoration Program

There’s something special about experiencing Texas from a kayak or canoe. And lucky for us, we have coastal and inland paddling trails to accommodate all levels of watery wanderlust.

The Texas paddling trails program began informally about a decade ago when Texas Parks and Wildlife set up some coastal paddling trails.

Shelly Plante is nature tourism coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife. That first trail was just the beginning.

From that project, we now have seven coastal paddling trails in our paddling trail program. And, in March of 2006, we launched our first inland paddling trail in Luling.

Other inland paddling trails are set to open throughout the year. Active community partners, and a thorough evaluation, are required of all would be trails – inland or coastal.

There are a few steps that need to happen for a paddling trail to become one of ours. And that includes a river survey to look at the water quality. Look at the wildlife, ecology, fishing opportunities that can happen along that river or bay. And then, again, meeting with the community, having a community partner that’s actively involved and interested in having paddlers come to their site. And then, developing kiosk materials, because we will have educational kiosks at every access point.

More on paddling trails tomorrow.

That’s our show for today…supported by the Sport Fish Restoration program… providing funding for wetland conservation through the Private Lands Enhancement Program.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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Passport to Texas Outdoor Stories from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Paul Dockery, from San Antonio, emailed his outdoor story to us through our website: passporttotexas.org.

He told us he’s an avid outdoorsman and a member of the Christian Outdoor Alliance, http://www.mycoa.org/. He shares his favorite times spent in the outdoors.

You know, it’s not that any one in particular thing happens. It’s just the fact that we get to get to get away and spend some quality time together. And we’ll be out on God’s front porch enjoying the beautiful weather and just enjoying each other.

My favorite times in the outdoors are when I get to load up with my wife and the kids. And we’ll have an ice chest and some goodies in it, and some folding chairs and a portable grill, and we’ll drag our boat out to a riverbank somewhere in the Hill Country. And just spend the day getting by on what we didn’t forget to bring.

We’ll have some fishing rods, and things like that, and probably take the dog with us, and spend the day out enjoying the Hill Country.

Visit passportotexas.org and send us your outdoor story. We may invite you to tell it to Passport to Texas listeners, like Paul did. And if we use your story, we’ll send you a Life’s Better Outside t-shirt!

That’s our show for today… Remember: Life’s Better Outside…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Approximately 500 Game Wardens dedicate themselves to protecting our state’s natural resources every day. While most of the people Game Wardens come in contact with are harmless, Assistant Chief of Fisheries Enforcement, Kris Bishop, says that’s not always the case.

In general, the people that we come in contact with are good, family people. They’re taking their family, their children out hunting, and fishing, and boating. That’s how they want to spend their free time. The kind of person who goes out and communes with nature is usually a good person and they have good intentions, and so that’s the average person that we meet.

But occasionally, you are going to meet the criminal element no matter where you are. It’s going to be anywhere. You’ll always have that certain amount of danger out there because most of the people that we’re dealing with have knives, guns, things like that, on them. That’s part of what they’re doing. They’re either fishing they they’ll have a filet knife, or they’re hunting and have a rifle or a shotgun. There’s always that little bit of an element of you could possibly get into a situation with a bad person.

Wardens receive extensive training on handling dangerous situations. Find more information about game wardens, including how you can become one, at the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show for today…with research and writing help from Loren Seeger…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Whether you plan to hit the road or stay home this summer, now is the perfect time to make your plans. And to help you with a few ideas is Associate Publisher of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine, Charles Lohrmann.

June is the perfect time to plan a fishing trip to the Texas coast, because you’re still a few weeks ahead of the extreme heat of July and August, and when you get down there to the coast, kayaking is the perfect way to get to the fish. Our saltwater fishing writer, Larry Bozka has written an article about kayak fishing and some things to keep in mind as you plan a fishing trip like that.

So, whether you’re staying home or traveling to the coast, or even going out to Southwest Texas to devil’s river, we have something that will make the summer a little more interesting.

Thank you, Charles.

That’s our show…visit us online at www.passporttotexas.org… to listen to shows and to share your favorite outdoor story.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The Texas Archaeological Society — dedicated to the study and preservation of the historic and prehistoric aspects of our past — offers its annual Field School next month in West Texas, just as its done since the 1960s.

It was a way to get people out and get hands-on experience doing archeology. Because you can read about archeology, but until you get out and get in the dirt and dig and find the artifacts in the proper context, that’s when you start understanding what archeology is all about.

Doug Boyd, is Co-Director of the school’s Youth Group.

Families can come to field school and their kids can participate with us while they participate with the adult group. And we’ll have anywhere from 35 to 45 kids in our youth group. We’re doing the same thing adults are. We’re learning hands-on excavation and survey techniques, and we also have a number of other activities set up for the kids.

Kids connect with history in a very personal way.

One of the things that we try and do with the kids is we make them aware of the importance of some of the things that they’re finding. When they learn how to do a certain archaeological technique right and they get complimented on that, and their faces light up, and you know that you’re connecting with them, that’s what it’s all about. That’s what makes it worth wild.

The Texas Archaeological Society Field Camp is June 9th through 16th in Menard, Texas. Online registration is available at www.txarch.org. Register by May 31st.

That’s our show for today…with research and writing help from Loren Seeger…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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