Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Looking to catch some waves this winter?

The rule of thumb in Texas is, the farther South you go, the nicer the water is and the bigger the waves are.

Rick Thomsen is the chapter chair of the Central Texas Chapter of Surfrider, an environmental organization that raises awareness about ocean related issues through its members’ passion for surfing. We caught up with him in October at Texas Parks and Wildlife EXPO.

We’re always concerned about clean water, so we’re interested in our watersheds. But one of the bigger issues in Texas is access to our beaches because we have some of the highest erosion rates in the United States. So what happens, if there’s irresponsible development and houses are too close to the beach and then the beaches erode – a lot of house s end up actually on the beach and then we have an access issue.

Access is a major concern for Surfrider’s surfer and non-surfer members alike. Luckily…

Texas has one of the strongest beach access laws on the books. It’s the Texas Open Beaches Act. Everybody has access from the low tide line to the mean high tide line and then we actually have an easement up into the grass line.

For more information on beach access and on the SurfRider organization, visit passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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SurfRider, http://www.surfrider.org/default.aspx

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Environmental Corps is an AmeriCorps program,
http://www.americorps.org/, helping to preserve and restore state parks and empower people. We caught up with them at this year’s EXPO.

Actually, someone came by the booth from San Antonio. He’s in a hiking organization and he said they’ve already been on six of our trails.

Donald Jackson is a volunteer with Environmental Corps.

We do a lot of work with local non-profits that are involved with the environment. We do work with local schools on environmental education. We do work with some community gardens.

Invasive species removal and trail building are two major E-corps projects.

Invasive species removal means a lot of chain sawing. So we’ll spend about seven hours sawing down cedar trees and anything else that is sort of invasive and not supposed to be in a site and dragging it and piling it up. So a lot of hard work. When we’re doing trail building, it’s more sort of fun and interesting. We do a lot of rock hauling and we try and use a lot of found materials. We just use whatever rocks and logs we can get from the area.

E-Corps has statewide impact; Teresa Turlick is another volunteer

We go around the state doing conservation work in different parks. We had a spike trip out to Big Bend earlier this year, one out to Possum Kingdom.

More information about E-Corps is available at passporttotexas.org. That’s our show…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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American Youthworks, Environmental Corps:
http://www.americanyouthworks.org/ecorps.htm

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

It took ten years and four million dollars, but the Texas Clipper is finally at the bottom of the gulf as an artificial reef.

Sinking the ship is just the beginning to me.

Dale Shively coordinates the artificial reef program at Parks and Wildlife. The Clipper is part of the Ships to Reefs program.

I think that once we start our biological monitoring, which will start immediately, we will have an underwater environment where we’ll be studying artificial reefs for many years to come.

On November 17, after several delays, contractors towed the ship from Brownsville where it had been cleaned up, 17 nautical miles off the coast of South Padre Island, where it was sunk.

I like to look at it as the ship of four lives. We’ve always talked about the three lives: as the USS Queens, the Excambion, and the Texas Clipper. But now it has the opportunity to live on in its fourth life, as an artificial reef for the state of Texas.

Artificial reefs are oases for marine life in the gulf, and improve fisheries where they exist. Learn more about the sinking of the Texas Clipper at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife restoration program…working to increase hunting, fishing, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas Parks & Wildlife

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Texas Parks and Wildlife takes energy conservation as seriously as it does conservation of habitat and wildlife.

Well, it’s something that we felt very strongly about in terms of how closely related to our mission energy conservation is.

Steve Shroeter oversees support services at Texas Parks and Wildlife.

About four years ago, we developed the green team, and it’s just some grassroots volunteers and myself who try to come up with some projects and ideas to reduce energy consumption and resource consumption across the state.

One project simply involved getting employees to “turn off” their offices.

We decided to take a look at the impact of this thought; so we surveyed the building one time after duty hours and it was staggering how much non-necessary equipment was left on in the building. Because it generates heat, then has to be cooled, besides the energy that it draws.

Employees took the Green Team’s energy conservation message to heart. The result: the Austin headquarters used seventy thousand fewer kilowatt-hours this past summer than it did the previous summer, thus, keeping more than 140 thousand pounds of carbon from the atmosphere.

Now that’s walking the talk.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Water is among our most precious recourses, and in January, the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series highlights segments on the state of springs. Series Producer, Don Cash.

We’re going to take a look at the springs…how people are affecting them…and how we can protect them. One of the things we’re going to focus on is how people and groups are getting together to help restore springs. And, one of the people that’s working to help restore springs in Texas is J. David Bamberger who claims to have bought the worst ranch in Blanco County.

When we came here thirty-seven years ago, there wasn’t a drop of water on this ranch; we drilled seven water wells, five hundred foot deep—each of them—and we never got a drop of water.

And what he and his wife have been doing for several decades is clearing cedar, managing the land, and amazingly enough, a land that was really dry now has a lot of water on it. Also, in the month of January, we’re going to go north to the Panhandle where private water marketers—like Mesa water—are using the rule of capture to sell water to cities.

Mesa water has a great deal of surplus water in the Panhandle that they have gained access to, and want to make that water available to help solve Texas’ immediate and long-term water needs…

Learn more about this complex issue, watch the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS stations.

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

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