Passport to Texas

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

In a state where more than ninety percent of the land is privately owned or managed, it’s essential to recognize and honor the work of private landowners for their achievements in habitat management and wildlife conservation. In Texas we present them with Lone Star Land Steward Awards.

We recognize up to ten winners in each of the eco-regions.

Linda Campbell is program director for private lands and public hunting.

We also recognize a corporate winner, one from our wildlife management associations, and this year we’re recognizing a special category for conservation development.

In partnership with the Sand County Foundation, http://www.sandcounty.net/, Texas Parks and Wildlife bestows the Leopold Conservation Award to an especially deserving land steward.

And, so we have partnered with them to provide the Leopold Conservation Award in Texas to our overall statewide winner. The Leopold Conservation Award is really our highest recognition in Lone Star Land Steward.

Eco-region award recipients and the wildlife management association recipient receive $1,000 from the Foundation; while the Leopold Conservation Award recipient receives $10,000 and the Leopold crystal award.

That’s our show for today… with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program… providing funding for the Private Lands and Public Hunting Program.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The July issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine is on newsstands now. And we get a preview with Associate Publisher, Charles Lohrmann.

July is our water issue. In recent years we’ve done bays, rivers, springs, and wetlands. This year’s water issue is about lakes. And in Texas that means man made reservoirs, except for Caddo Lake, which most people agree is the only natural lake in the state of Texas. And we’re lucky to have a funny and engaging article about Caddo and its history by Barbara Rodriguez.

So, we cover a little bit about lake culture and lake issues. And it’s another aspect about the water issue, which is essential to us here in Texas.

Thank you, Charles.

That’s our show…visit us online at 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 and the Wildlife Restoration Program

Texas Parks and Wildlife recognizes and honors private landowners for habitat management and wildlife conservation with the Lone Star Land Steward Awards Program.

A land steward is just somebody who just manages and takes care of their land. These folks are very committed to conservation, and maintaining healthy lands under their management.

Linda Campbell is program director for private lands and public hunting.

Each year we open the nominations in June, and anybody can nominate a landowner for recognition in Lone Star Land Steward. So we receive nominations through November. Our biologists in each of the eco-regions visit each of the nominees, and then make a recommendation to those that should be awarded the Lone Star Land Steward award for that eco-region.

Biologists visit nominated landowners who have managed their property for a minimum of 5 years, to evaluate their practices.

They talk with the landowner or the manager. They try to evaluate what types of management actions that they are undertaking. They look at their motivations and really what makes them special in terms of taking care of the resources under their control.

Passporttotexas.org has links to nomination forms.

That’s our show for today… with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program… providing funding for the Private Lands and Public Hunting Program.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

From conservation to cooking, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Television series has you covered in June; writer/producer, Ron Kabele.

In the program that airs the week of June third, there’s one story –it’s about snow geese. One of the frightening things that most people don’t even know about snow geese — there’s six million of them, and that’s about four million too many. They’re literally eating themselves out of house and home. And they’re stripping bare the vegetation that’s around them. And the biologists are worried right now that it’s just going to cause a vicious cycle that’s going to continue for years.

The following week there’s a story at Dinosaur Valley State Park. You hear about dinosaurs all the time, but you don’t make that connection until you see the actual tracks, and that’s what they have there. This isn’t Hollywood. This is the real thing.

Then following week, we went to Big Bend Ranch State Park. And this is the biggest State Park in Texas by Far. It covers three hundred thousand acres, four hundred and fifty square miles – it’s huge. This park was originally a working sheep and cattle ranch…and they even have a lot of outreach programs where people can come in and behave like cowboys.

[Whistling] Anybody that wants to get in here and help…yes sir…good caught there….it’s a hands on experience…they’re out there, you know, working the cattle [moo]…

One of the segments in the show is about learning new skills when you’re outdoors. And, we did a three-part series on cooking with Dutch ovens. They’re one pot meals – it’s a skillet that you cook over the fire.

Thank you, Ron. Check your local listings.

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

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

In the mid-1970s, non-native Smallmouth Bass were introduced into the Guadalupe River as an additional sport fish, and an alternative to our native Guadalupe Bass. Then something unintended happened.

Even though they look very different, the problem is, they can’t tell each other apart. Evidentially, they act similar enough, behaviorally, that they’ll reproduce, and they have hybrids.

Dr. Gary Garrett is a biologist at Heart of the Hills Fisheries Science Center in Kerrville. The hybrid offspring of these two species started to outnumber pure Guadalupe bass. For the past thirteen years — and with support from the Upper Guadalupe River Authority, http://www.ugra.org/, and the Hill Country Fly Fishers, http://www.hillcountryflyfishers.com/, researchers at Heart of the Hills have worked to reverse this trend.

We’re raising thousands of pure Guadalupe Bass here at the research station. And every year we stock them back into nature. Basically what we’re doing is replacing the hybrids that are out there with the pure Guadalupe Bass. And we’ll let nature takes its course from there. Here in Johnson Creek, where we began the study, about thirty percent of the fish were hybrids. And that wasn’t stable. It was still increasing when we started. It’s now down to around three percent, which is excellent. Now we want to go from three to zero.

Dr. Garrett says fish will be released in May and June.

That’s our show…we had help from Tom Harvey… our series receives support from the Sport Fish Restoration program, which funds research at the Heart of the Hills Fisheries Science Center…

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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