Passport to Texas

Mike Quinn on Central Texas Gardener with Tom Spencer. Photo credit: KLRU-TV, Austin

Outdoor Story: From Birds to Bugs Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas Outdoor Stories

Mike Quinn is an entomologist whose interest in bugs developed through his family’s interest in birds.

My parents were birdwatchers, and I had an interest in outdoors as a child. But it wasn’t until I was in my twenties… I was helping ornithologists at UT study painted buntings at McKinney Falls State Park, and walked around the bend, and we saw this large butterfly there sunning itself – absolutely gorgeous in the sun – and Anita Fauquier says, “I think that’s a giant swallowtail.” And it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was an epiphany for me that you could put a name on an insect. Why that was a revelation to me I still don’t quite don’t know, because I could identify birds by sight and sound, and plants and herps and etcetera. But putting a name on an insect was somehow a foreign concept. And I went home and I borrowed my mother’s butterfly field guide (which I haven’t quite returned yet), and just from that point on I started paying much closer attention to insects, and that led me to my degree now that I have in entomology.

Do you have an Outdoor Story? Go to passporttotexas.org, and share it with us…and we might share it with Texas.

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

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A YouTube video of Mike Quinn on the KLRU-TV Austin (PBS affiliate) show Central Texas Gardener with Tom Spencer

Land Stewardship at Lavaca Rio Ranch Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

A group of coastal landowners in Jackson County turned their 5,000-acre ranch into what Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist Doug Jobes calls “the pinnacle of what natural resource management should be.”

04—The practices that are taking place on that ranch, I’d put ‘em up against any ranch in the state.

Lavaca Rio Ranch is a 2015 Lone Star Land Steward Regional Award winner for their land management, which Brent Friedrichs oversees.

11—What’s cool about this ranch is you’ve got these big, deep sand hills, and the vegetation is awesome. We’ve got little bluestem, switch grass, gulf coast muhly—which is all good nesting sites for quail.

About 300 acres at Lavaca Rio Ranch is coastal prairie, and support rare plant communities, says Texas Parks and Wildlife botanist Jason Singhurst.

13—They’re high-quality prairies. They have a lot of plant diversity in them. And they have some plants that are very special within the state. Now we’re down to about 150 thousand acres of coastal prairie, and the fact that this ranch has about 300 plus acres of intact prairie is unique.

Know a landowner who’s doing great work preserving their property? Nominate them for a Lone Star Land Steward Award. YOu can find information on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series.

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

TPW TV: The State of Quail Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

Grassland birds throughout North America, including the bobwhite quail, have been in decline.

06—Over the past 20, 30 years—we’ve seen serious declines across its entire range, including Texas.

Robert Perez is upland game bird program manager for Parks and Wildlife. He and others concerned about this enigmatic species’ survival appear in a segment called The State of Quail on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS.

07— Fundamentally, conservationists agree that the root cause is the changes in the quality and quantity of habitat.

During the segment, airing next week, watch conservation groups and private landowners, like Jim Willis, collaborate to improve habitat for quail, by planting native grasses, which provide shelter, seeds and insects for the birds.

19— This is a sample of a native grass. This plant contributes to the health of the land. This is the way you conserve moisture. Man has come in and ripped out a lot of this native grass and planted what we call improved grasses, which is really not improved, they’re invasive species, like Bermuda grass, and Bahia grass, and they don’t give back to the soil. They take from the soil.

The State of Quail airs the week of November 15 on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS. Check your local listings.

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

Common Eastern Bubmle Bee (Bombus impatiens) worker in flight
TEXAS: Lamar Co. Camp Maxey National Guard Facility in Paris
27.August.2009 J.C. Abbott

Making Pollinators a Priority Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

Honeybees, native bees, bats, butterflies and other insects are pollinators, and are vital to our economy, food security, and environmental health. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Landowner Incentive Program, or LIP, can help interested landowners manage their property for pollinators.

09-The LIP program at the moment is prioritizing projects that are directed at pollinators. Pollinators are definitely hot.

Arlene Kalmbach coordinates the program.

33-Pollinators got on the Landowner Incentive priority list based on the funding source. The landowner Incentive Program is funded by the Fish and Wildlife Service–partners for fish and wildlife program. And pollinator projects are a high priority for them, so they are a high priority for us. They would have been a
high priority for us regardless of our funding source. But, it helps that everybody’s on the same page. So, with this next round of projects, we hope to see a lot of pollinator targeted projects.

Something to know about the LIP program is it does not have acreage restrictions.

13-It really just depends on the resources you’re trying to restore or protect. In the history of the program, I’ve seen us work on an urban lot to thousands of acres of West Texas.

Have a project in mind? Find details on the Landowner Incentive Program on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

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

Land well tended.

Helping Landowners do the Right Thing Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

The Texas Landowner Incentive Program (LIP) offers funding opportunities for private landowners wishing to implement natural resource conservation practices on
their lands.

05-I usually send them to their local field biologist to start the relationship.

Arlene Kalmbach [CALM-bock] coordinates the program. After the initial phone call, there’s a site visit to…

11-…get the goals that the landowner has for the property, and maybe get the biologist’s perspective on what’s there and what potential there is for some conservation work. And then they go from there.

LIP efforts focus on projects aimed at creating, restoring, protecting and enhancing habitat for rare or at-risk species throughout the state, as well as activities that positively impact riparian areas and watersheds.

10-Sometimes they may bring in other specialists. Riparian specialists–an invertebrate biologist. It really starts with the landowner’s goals and what that property has to offer.

Through funding partnerships, the program offers cost-sharing with private landowners on LIP projects. Texas Parks and Wildlife covers a percentage of the proposed project costs; landowners, meantime, must contribute a minimum percentage through in-kind labor, materials, or finances, for example.

Find Landowner Incentive Program application details on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

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