Passport to Texas

TPW TV--Blanco River Recovery Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

When a forty-foot wall of water thundered down the Blanco River on Memorial Day weekend of 2015, it claimed 13 lives, destroyed hundreds of homes, and ravaged the land along the banks. The recovery process for humans and nature continues.

The flood of 2015 caused massive devastation to the Blanco River landscape, there was a loss of a lot of vegetation, a lot of trees, a lot of soil scour, and what we see here is an eco-system in recovery.

Ryan McGillicuddy is a Texas Parks and Wildlife conservation ecologist with Inland Fisheries.

Healthy native stream-side vegetation provides a number of ecological functions including bank stability, because its roots are deep and strong.  It also provides a water quality function by filtering run-off and pollutants, but also, importantly, this healthy stream-side vegetation is also an extreme benefit to our fish and wildlife populations.

Healthy stream-side vegetation benefits our fish and wildlife populations, including the Guadalupe Bass. At one time this fish had been pushed completely out of the Blanco River system by non-native small mouth bass. But through management and restocking, it’s rebounding.

We’ve been able to document that the fish that we’ve stocked are now reproducing in the wild, so it’s been a pretty remarkable success story.

Experience the story of the recovery of a community, a river and wildlife on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series the week of March 10 on PBS.

The Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series.

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

Enjoying time on the Goliad Paddling Trail

TPW TV- Goliad Paddling Trail Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Goliad State Park and Historic Site was the first park to host an inland paddling trail. The trail meanders along the San Antonio River.

It’s about 6.1 miles of beautiful pristine river. The site here in our park is the take out site. The other developed areas to get on the paddling trail is north of our park. So once you get to the park people have to get off the river unless they want to continue to float with no easy access to get off.

Brenda Justice is park superintendent. Next week the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS features the trail and the folks who love it, including Charles Clapsaddle.

The six and a half miles current trail I can make in about an hour and a half, most people take a little over two hours. We will go pretty close to downtown Goliad, a couple of blocks from the courthouse and you wouldn’t know you were near a town. You hear crickets and cicadas and birds, nothing that sounds like humans. It’s a nice friendly river.

Even people new to paddling will enjoy the Goliad Trail.

It’s a coastal stream so it has muddy banks. Grass and trees grow right down to the bank. You usually see a lot of wildlife because of that. It’s good for families. You don’t have to be a skilled canoeist or a kayaker to enjoy the river. Right now we’re just drifting, we’re floating on the current.
Get a sense of the Goliad paddling trail’s serene beauty next week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS. Check your local listings.

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

Learning about Texas water.

Become a Texas Waters Specialist Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Water is a precious resource, and a new Texas Parks and Wildlife program helps citizens to become certified Texas Waters Specialists.

It comes down to appreciation for the natural world – to realize that everything’s connected. From humans to wildlife; we all need water to survive.

Colin Findley, an AmeriCorps Vista Volunteer, oversees the program, which covers ecosystems to water law.

There’s a curriculum, and also there’s webinars. It’s really just a matter of going to the Texas Parks [and Wildlife] website: tpwd.texas.gov. Search for Texas Water Specialist, and it will take you to that page.

Anyone may register for the course.

There are specific requirements for Texas Master Naturalist, so if you are a Master Naturalist, you go through the representative for Texas Waters for your program to log those hours. But if you’re from the general public, it’s completely free. It takes eight hours of different program requirements to get your certification. To renew it – it’s all about community service. You have to do ten hours of water related community service each year.

Many volunteer opportunities exist for certified waters specialists.

Texas Stream Team. Texas Parks and Wildlife has different volunteer opportunities in terms of water quality, habitat conservation, restoration and management, freshwater inflows. And then, you know, there’s a lot of different coastal restoration projects as well.

Find information on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series.

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

Devil’s River State Natural Area.
TPW Photo by Earl Nottingham

Preserving Riparian Zones Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Recent statewide flooding events beat up native vegetation in riparian zones, leaving behind tangles of uprooted trees and shrubs. Landowners’ first instinct is to clean up the mess, but is that the best action to take?

One of the most important and critical components of a riparian area is fallen vegetation.

Ryan McGillicuddy is a Texas Parks and Wildlife conservation ecologist.

As fallen wood—woody debris—start to decompose, they add nutrients to the soil. They act as fish and wildlife habitat. They act as cages that protect new plants. The next generation of trees. The next generation of grasses. It provides a little refuge for those plants to get started before they’re browsed on by wildlife or they’re trampled by foot traffic.

Despite the unsightly nature of this vagrant vegetation, McGillicuddy says it is a critical component of a healthy functioning riparian area. Provided it’s not creating a safety risk, he says to consider leaving it where it is.

Another thing it does is as flood waters do rise up and spill out of their banks, that wood can help slow some of that water down, and help capture sediment. And, when the sediment falls out of the water, it’s actually building the structure of the banks. Adding sediment and new layers of soil, as opposed to it being washed away when there’s not a diversity of species for something like a mowed lawn. Or an area that’s been over-grazed.

Texas Parks and Wildlife has worked with landowners along the flood ravaged Blanco River to revegetate with native plants.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series.

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

A healthy river and riparian zone.

The Reality of Weak Riparian Zones Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

We call the land that flanks rivers and streams a riparian zone. When these areas are intact with native vegetation, they slow the forces of floodwaters, help capture sediment, filter nutrients, and slow runoff from upland sources. Yet, land use practices over the past 150 years have altered their natural state.

Things like mowing, excessive foot or vehicle traffic, or excessive browsing from either livestock or unmanaged wildlife…

Ryan McGillicuddy is a Texas Parks and Wildlife conservation ecologist.

So, water sheds off quicker, it can contribute to higher peak flows for flooding. And really, those areas become less resilient; they recover less quickly from disturbance events like floods.

Floodwater, can demolish stream and river banks that lack healthy stands of native vegetation.

What happens when you reduce the vegetation diversity and number of species is you lose some of the root stock that these native trees and grasses provide. These native species have very, very deep root systems that act like rebar holding the soil together. So they’re less resistant to erosional forces. So, we end up seeing less stable stream systems.

Helping the land recover after a devastating flood event. That’s tomorrow.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series.

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