Passport to Texas

Conservation: Kerr Wildlife Management Area Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Located at the headwaters of the North Fork of the Guadalupe River, the nearly 65-hundred acre Kerr Wildlife Management Area offers more than striking Hill Country scenery.

13—We are a research and demonstration site in the Edwards Plateau ecological region. Our goals out here are to mainly develop and manage wildlife habitats and wildlife populations of indigenous species.

Ryan Reitz is a wildlife biologist at The Kerr.

12—Out here you’ll find white tailed deer, Rio Grande turkey, bobwhite quail… We also boast very successful populations of the endangered black capped vireo, golden cheeked warbler, and toe bush fishhook cactus.

The Kerr opens its gates to land managers and others interested in wildlife and habitat management in the Edwards Plateau Ecoregion…but other ecoregions also offer programs.

13—Yes. There are Wildlife Management areas throughout our great state of Texas, and they’re established by ecoregion. And you certainly can contact your local wildlife management areas and see what programs and opportunities are provided within that ecoregion.

But if you do happen to own or manage land in the Edwards Plateau, the Kerr hosts a First Friday Tour…this Friday.

06—Our First Friday Tours are a series of seminars that we offer annually as part of our outreach program.

Details tomorrow. The Wildlife and sport fish restoration program supports our series and celebrates 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Legacies: Garaldine Watson Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Beginning in the 1960’s Geraldine Watson, a self-trained botanist from Silsbee, Texas, worked tirelessly with the Big Thicket Association to persuade government officials to pass a bill that would create a national park from land in southeast Texas known as The Big Thicket. Her path was fraught with twists, turns and roadblocks – some of which came from preservation proponents.

56—Well, like every other organization, everybody involved had their own ideas about what needed to be done. There was a faction that wanted ten thousand acres in what we call the traditional thicket – which is dense thickety wetland. And then there was another faction that was interested in the ecological Big Thicket. And it was sort of a war that went on between the proponents of the preserve at the time. And we all really wanted to see the bill passed. And we realized that it would never get passed as long as we were fighting one another. We did manage to get together and come to a compromise with something to present to the park service and to congress to where we could all stand together on it. So it came down to a plan of a number of different scattered units amounting to – oh, I forget – seventy-something-thousand acres. But we managed to work together in the end.

The Wildlife and sport fish restoration program supports our series and is celebrating 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…

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

Also Leopold's Five Tools for Land Management Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Aldo Leopold, widely accepted as the father of wildlife and habitat management in America, outlined five types of habitat management practices used to restore and maintain habitat.

05—And those involve the ax, cow, plow, fire and gun.

Wildlife Management Area (WMA) facilities coordinator, Dennis Gissell, says these tools have served Texas well, on WMA sites…and explains what they are and how they work together to support healthy ecosystems.

37—The axe actually conveys to the use of mechanized equipment as well as chain saws and loppers that we use to remove invasive species of vegetation, which are not beneficial to wildlife. Cows are used for grazing, and grazing helps to stimulate production of forbs and browse. The plow is used to plant food plots when it’s necessary to help wildlife to survive winters and long summers. Fire is used to restore habitat and to stimulate the growth, once again, of forbs and browse. And, of course hunting is good to control and manage wildlife populations so they don’t become out of synch or too large for the carrying capacity for the habitat.

A $48 dollar annual public hunting permit or a $12 dollar Limited Public Use Permit can provide access to WMAs all year. Learn the difference between the permits at the Texas parks and Wildlife website.

The WSFR program supports our series and is celebrating 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Findings from research conducted at Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) provide biologists with information to guide them when developing habitat management strategies.

11—And we are continually doing research and learning more and more and adjusting our habitat management strategies so that we can accomplish the best possible strategies for managing wildlife in Texas.

Well managed, healthy habitat and wildlife is good for Texas’ environment and economy. WMA facilities coordinator, Dennis Gissell, says the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program (WSFR) program has been integral in the acquisition and management of many of these sites.

14—[The] Wildlife and sport fisheries act is absolutely essential to our ability to manage and conserve wildlife habitats and wildlife populations in Texas. Not only on the wildlife management areas, but in support of our biologists who work with private landowners statewide.

A set of management tools described by Aldo Leopold in 1933, are still used today on WMAs.

16—Aldo Leopold, who was widely accepted as the father of conservation in America, outlined five different general types of habitat management practices that can be used to restore and maintain habitat. And those involve the axe, cow, plow, fire and gun.

We tell you more about those tomorrow.

The WSFR program supports our series and is celebrating 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

What are Wildlife Management Areas? Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It’s safe to say most Texans can name at least three state parks. But ask those same Texans to name three Wildlife Management Areas (WMA), and they’ll be stumped. So I asked WMA facilities coordinator, Dennis Gissell to tell us.

19—Wildlife management areas were established in Texas as far back at 1946 for the purpose of conducting research in to wildlife and habitat management, demonstrations to private landowners, education for students and other wildlife professionals, and then public recreation when that’s compatible with the other three.

The Sierra Diablo WMA in far west Texas was the first in the state, established by the state legislature to manage and preserve Bighorn Sheep. We’ve added dozens more WMAs since then.

06—We have 49 Wildlife Management Areas that cover about seven hundred and seventy thousand acres in Texas now.

The WMAs are acquired to represent the habitat in each of the 10 major ecological regions of the state.

16—And so far we have all of those regions covered except one. And that would be the cross timbers and prairies in north central Texas. We’ve been working for years to find an appropriate piece of property and a willing seller in north central Texas…we’ve come close several times. Hopefully it won’t be far off.

On tomorrow’s show…learn about a program responsible in large part for making Wildlife Management areas in Texas possible.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series and is celebrating 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti