Passport to Texas

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

The Pierce Ranch is great. They’re motivated and they’re, they’re looking to do things from a wildlife and habitat standpoint.

Pierce Ranch is the Lone Star Land Steward Award Winner for the gulf prairies and marshes eco-region. David Forrester, a Parks and Wildlife Biologist, says managing for wildlife and habitat is only part of the equation.

Of course they’re looking at these things from an economic standpoint, too. But they always keep in mind, trying to preserve and enhance what they have.

Through careful planning, and work with Parks and Wildlife, Laurence Armour, III—the great-great grandson of the Ranch’s founder cattleman Shanghai Pierce—maintains the health of the habitat, wildlife and even his wallet.

This is a wetland that we flooded up because it was easy to put water in, and it was a nice little duck hole. It’s not hunted—this is sort of a resting pond for ducks. And then we started seeding with crawfish; and this year is our most productive crawfish pond. And we’re pulling up between two and three hundred pounds a day of crawfish out of this one pond here.

Learn how to nominate a landowner for a Land Steward Award at passportototexas.org.

That’s out show…with support from the Wildlife restoration Program… providing funding for the Private Lands and Habitat Enhancement Program… for Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Pierce Ranch: Wildlife and Water Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program

Pierce Ranch, the Lone Star Land Steward Award winner in the gulf prairies and marshes eco-region, has a long history of stewardship. Laurence Armour, III.

I’m the fifth generation that has run the ranch; it was started by Shanghai Pierce who was a famous cattle driver back in the 1870s and 80s. He is my great-great-grandfather.

Wetlands development through rice farming—something the Pierce family has done for more than 100 years—also provides habitat for a variety of species.

What the rice field does is provide sort of a wetland ecosystem for those animals that need that kind of ecosystem to survive. As a result, we have a great deal of wildlife that we might not otherwise have.

Bill Stansky with the Texas Rice Industry Coalition for the Environment applauds the family’s native prairie restoration efforts.

Well, this part of the Pierce Ranch is part of a few hundred acres that has never been farmed. And there’s very, very little native prairie left on the Texas coast. It’s just almost gone. And so it’s very valuable, and they harvest seed from this. And sell it to restore prairies all along the gulf coast.

Learn more at passporttotexas.org.

That’s out show…with support from the Wildlife restoration Program… providing funding for the Private Lands and Habitat Enhancement Program… for Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Pierce Ranch: History of Stewardship Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

What do zoos and East Texas rivers have in common? Both are playground to the river otter!

We have a lot of water, rivers. Full of fish, full of crawdads. It’s just an ideal habitat out here. It’s just that you’re just generally not going to get to see one.

Gary Calkins is District Leader for the Pineywoods Ecological area.

It’s not like a deer that you can drive by and shine a spotlight. Otters stay primarily in the water. They will come out on land, but it’s only in little specific areas. And so unless you know their behaviors and what areas to go look for sign coming up onto the land. It just makes it really tough to find them.

Imagine, then, trying to get a head count…Every three years, Parks and Wildlife biologists conduct surveys under the 254 bridges in East Texas to track the population and distribution of river otters.

Someone will crawl under that bridge and look in the sand or mud for tracks or scat. And then we’re gonna take a subset of those 254 bridges and instead of surveying them once [during the survey period] we’ll go back repeatedly. We’ll also do transects a hundred meters upstream and downstream and look for sign. And through a big statistical formula you can tell if there are no animals there or if you are just missing finding them.

And finding them is worth the while. Calkins says they’re nature’s answer to the comedian, and in some instances, they’ll actually kind of show off for you.

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Sarah Loden… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Texas River Otters Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The Raspberry crazy ant, which is a tramp ant, doesn’t build mounds.

Tramp ants nest under any object on the ground.

Colonies with millions of members mostly nest on the ground, not under it; this makes them annoying to man. Yet, Mike Quinn, an invertebrate, says they can be deadly to flora and fauna, too.

They feed on aphids that are also pests on plants. So, they can dry out the vegetation in an area. They can drive out other ants. Any ground nesting bird is potential prey. Any small mammal on the ground is potential prey., They can asphyxiate chickens. They can get into the nostrils of cattle. It’s such that when the ant is at its peak, from June to November, pets may not want to go outside. Kids don’t want to go outside. You know, we can calculate the economic damage that it may potentially bring, but the ecological damage could be incalculable.

If we are not cautious, we could inadvertently help to expand this exotic species’ range.

They’d be in nursery stock. Round hay bales. Any container that moves could potentially further spread the crazy ant.

You’ll find additional information about Rasberry Crazy Ants on our website, passporttotexas.org; while you’re there, we invite you to leave a comment about this or other shows on our blog.

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

Crazy Ants: Affecting Flora and Fauna Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The Raspberry crazy ant has infested at least eleven counties in Texas, and it doesn’t show signs of stopping.

Crazy ants are tropical ants that need warm temperatures and high humidity. And so the conditions are favorable from Houston to Florida.

Mike Quinn is an invertebrate biologist. Colonies have multiple queens and ants number in the millions and possibly billions; they even drive out other ants. And if you want to hear something really crazy…

A&M has surveyed homeowners that had the fire ant and then had the crazy ant, and they almost all say they would rather have the fire ant back.

Having dealt with a fire an infestation inside my home, it’s hard to imagine anything worse.

Well, the fire ant can be controlled. But the difficulty with the crazy ant is that the only chemical that can control it is rather toxic. A lot of pesticides could be spread that harm the environment and not bring the crazy ant under control. Anybody who has this ant should contact a professional.

Although this rice grain sized, reddish colored ant is usually just annoying to humans, it can prove devastating to flora and fauna. We’ll discuss that tomorrow.

If you want to discuss this topic, we invite you to go to passporttotexas.org and leave a comment.

That’s our show…for Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Movie of Rasberry Crazy Ants on the Ground [need QuickTime]

Crazy Ants: Infesting Texas and Beyond Play Now | Play in Popup | Download