Passport to Texas

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

Each October, Texas Parks and Wildlife HQ in Austin gets an extreme makeover when it’s transformed into EXPO, a 35-acre playground in the Great Outdoors.

Expo is a great opportunity for Texans to learn all about the things that they can do in the great Texas outdoors, and it’s free.

Ernie Gammage is Expo’s Director.

Texas is really blessed with opportunities for recreation in the outdoors. Things like camping, hunting, fishing, rock climbing, kayaking, mountain biking, hiking, all of these things you can do in this great state—in a lot of different kinds of habitat. And, if you come to the Wildlife Expo and don’t know how to do these things, you can learn and actually do them.

Parks and Wildlife Expo is October 4th and 5th in Austin. You can go to the agency’s website and click on the Expo link to start planning your visit.

Come early stay late, because if you came all weekend you still wouldn’t get to do everything. You can paddle a kayak, you can rock climb, you can learn all about conservation, you can see wild animal shows…it is so much fun.

You’ll find additional information about Expo at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… we receive support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program… working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

[Music: Give That Man a Job…establish, and then fade under script]

A new interactive educational website designed for seventh grade students…examines depression era Texas in the 1930s… and contributions made to state parks by the Civilian Conservation Corps…the first New Deal recovery program instituted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Since this is geared toward seventh grade students, it had to fit within the curricular requirements that Texas teachers need to teach to. So, we basically wanted to lay out a foundation with the depression relief theme, and give students context to the New Deal programs.

Sarah Lisle is an interpretive planner with State Parks; she oversaw the project.

We talked about the Nature Lover’s movement in the United States and the whole idea of conservation. And then from there, we talk about how the CCC actually built parks in Texas, and how they helped communities at the same time.

The Linden Heck Howell Texas History Grant from Humanities Texas made this site possible.

This whole narrative is complimented by a great deal of primary sources that we were able to put together in this format, where you can view newspaper articles, and photographs, and listen to music, and watch videos. It’s just a really rich resource for teachers and students.

We have a link to the site at passporttotexas.org.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

I pledge myself for a new deal for the American people.

[Music: Happy Days are Here Again… play :03 then fade under script]

During his presidency, Franklin D. Roosevelt ushered in The New Deal, a series of recovery programs to help combat the effects of The Great Depression. One such initiative, the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, was a work relief program for unemployed young men.

The CCC built many of our parks.

Sarah Lisle is an interpretive planner with State Parks. This month a new educational website, conceived of by Angela Davis in the Interpretation and Exhibits Division, goes online for seventh grade students. Funded by a grant from Humanities Texas, it focuses on the contributions of the CCC in Texas.

Humanities Texas saw that there was a real need for this era of history; students were not getting this information. So, Angela decided to come up with an interactive website that could engage seventh grade students in a fun and interactive way so that they can learn about the New Deal era, and also to go out and look at these parks that the CCC built and experience them themselves.

The first of FDR’s recovery programs established up to 70 work camps throughout the state where unemployed young men labored on conservation projects like flood control and improvements to state parks.

Learn more when you visit passporttotexas.org.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Texas Outdoor Family Workshops, whether they take place in community parks or state parks, offer families an unparalleled opportunity to learn new skills or hone existing skills that will make any overnight camping experience one to remember.

During workshops, families work together to set up and break down camp [:03 hammering tent stakes]. Be sure to give everyone a job so the tent and campsite go up quickly.

Fishing is another weekend workshop favorite.

Oh, you’ve got a bass. Whoa, that’s huge; that’s bigger than mine, I think. Whoa, my dad’s gonna be happy.

Other activities include guided nature hikes, navigation work, trail exploration, kayaking and one of my favorites, outdoor cooking. During the workshop, coordinator, Ashley Matthews, shows families how to cook in foil packs.

We call ’em “tin turtles” in my business. One of the first tricks is to make sure you buy heavy-duty aluminum foil. The other key to this is you don’t overload your foil meal. If you put too many things in this envelope, you won’t get it cooked at the right temperature.

That’s just a taste of what to expect during a Texas Outdoor Family Workshop.

That’s our show for today, with support from Toyota. To learn about upcoming Texas Outdoor Family workshops at local parks and state parks, visit lifesbetteroutside.org. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

I think this had been a long-term goal at Texas Parks and Wildlife department to have more outreach to younger people.

Louie Bond, Managing Editor of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine, says sending free subscriptions of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine to fourth grade classrooms statewide, is the latest in the agency’s outreach efforts. The magazine, which includes a new educational section called Keep Texas Wild, isn’t just for kids.

Everyone is going to have this in their issues. And we think that’s a good thing; this way families at home can study this together, and we have a lot of interesting topics. Some are as simple as predators and prey—that’s the topic of our first issue. But then, we expand into how Native Americans gave oral histories, water conservation issues, habitat…there’s a whole variety of topics, and I think a lot of these will be of interest to everyone.

In the end, the goal of Keep Texas Wild is to inspire students to develop a close bond with the natural world.

And also, to perhaps, begin those pathways to careers in the natural sciences, and art and photography, so that some day they may be the very people that they read about on these pages.

The special Keep Texas Wild section is made possible by a grant from ExxonMobil through the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.

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

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