Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Nathan Kuhn is a wetlands biologist who spends his time studying marshes.

13—There are a lot of different categories, but the ones that I usually operate with are the four categories of freshwater, intermediate, brackish and saltwater marshes. And, basically, that’s a gradient from lowest salinity to highest salinity.

He explains that wetland is another term to describe marshland as well as other soggy bottoms.

16—Essentially they’re the same. A marsh is just a kind of wetland. A marsh is typically made up of grasses and other herb type plants. Whereas a swamp is another type of wetland, and that’s mainly composed of trees, like your bald cypress and tupelo gum trees.

We’re more inclined to visit a mall than we are a marsh. And as hard as it is to believe, our overall quality of life would not decline if malls disappeared. The same is not true were we to lose our marshes.

14—Without them, in many cases we would not have the shrimp or the speckled trout that a lot of people go to the Texas coast to enjoy. So, there are a lot of invisible values of these wetlands that these people don’t necessarily realize unless they were gone.

Tomorrow we see how a decline in marshland means an increase in flooding.

Our show is made possible by the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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This is Passport to Texas

The Texas Conservation Action Plan is a natural resource conservation strategy that directs and guides parks and Wildlife research, restoration, management and recovery of non-game species. It all starts with habitat.

08—And in Texas, of course, over 95% of the land is in private ownership, and it sets up a perfect public-private partnership.

Matt Wagner, deputy Director for the Wildlife Division, says landowner participation is critical when it comes to conservation of our state’s natural resources.

19—And they come to us most of the time for hunting and improving habitat for deer and other game species. At the same time our biologists are educating them about the non-game that occur on their property—whether it’s plants or animals. So that their actions can benefit non-game as well.

In addition to landowners, Texas Parks and Wildlife also partners with various public and private organizations and universities, and points to improvements in Texas to threatened and endangered species, as proof these partnerships work.

18—The bald eagle, of course, has been delisted. Peregrine falcons on the Texas coast now for the first time in more than 30 years, folks are able to go down and actually trap peregrines for hawking purposes on a limited basis because those animals have recovered to sustainable levels.

There’s more work to do, and you can help when you buy the horned lizard conservation license plate. It costs $30, with $22 going to non-game conservation in Texas.

We receive support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…funding the private lands and public hunting programs.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

Ninety percent of the 12-hundred vertebrate species in Texas—that’s including fish—are non-game.

04—It doesn’t even include all the invertebrates that we have.

Invertebrates are estimated at 50-thousand. Matt Wagner, deputy Director for the Wildlife Division at Parks and Wildlife, says hunting and fishing license sales support conservation of game species and their habitats.

13—When you talk about non-game, and the species that aren’t hunted, there’s a lack of funding there. Although hunters have been paying for habitat work, we need to expand the number of folks that are contributing to conservation through their pocketbooks.

There are several ways for Texans to do that, and one way Wagner suggests celebrates a spiky Texas icon.

08—If you buy a horned lizard license plate for $30, $22 comes back to the agency to do non-game programs.

Sales of the horned lizard license plate generate between a quarter million to 300-thousand dollars annually.

12—We take that money, and then we leverage it with grants that come from the US Fish and Wildlife Service into the agency so that we can implement our Texas Conservation Action Plan.

Tomorrow: species that have benefited from Texans’ purchase of the conservation plate.

Our show receives support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…funding the private lands and public hunting program.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

Coffee is an agricultural crop that thrives in the tropics.

14—These areas oftentimes are coincident with biodiversity hot spots; that is, areas of really high biodiversity, whether in birds, or insects, amphibians—what have you.

Dr. Robert Rice works with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, which certifies coffees “Bird Friendly” when growers meet certain stringent criteria. Studies suggest shade grown coffee offers the greatest benefit as habitat.

15—Where coffee still is managed with a shade cover of the kind that we like to see and have defined with “bird friendly” criteria, then coffee oftentimes is some of the last remaining canopy cover—even though it’s not forest—it’s acting very much like a forest.

With habitat loss from deforestation, shade grown coffee estates serve as refuge for neo-tropical migratory bird species that travel through Texas, including the Black and White Warbler, the Baltimore Oriole, the Cerulean Warbler and others.

15—So, they just hang out there. They might be running around with mixed species flocks, and trying to stay alive and ultimately fatten up before they make the trip back north again. So this quality habitat becomes quite important for them in terms of making the trip back.

So next time you order a cup of coffee, you might ask your barrista if it’s for the birds.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

One story in the November issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine definitely computes. Editor, Louie Bond.

69—I call it the nerdiest story we’ve ever run. You know, this is just a real different story. It’s about the evolution of computer use in our agency. In the years between 1974 and 1884, a group of pretty radical biologists here got together and decided they were going to map the vegetation of Texas. Well, Texas is a mighty large state. And, I don’t know if you r listeners are quite as old as I am, Cecilia, but back in the seventies, when you ran a computer program, you had to bring in boxes of punch cards, and that’s what these guys did. But they were working win NASA; this is top level, top science, it took them ten years to complete. And now here we are in 2010, and they’re redoing it using technology that looks like the Jetsons compared to the Flintstones when you compare what they’re doing now to what they did then. And Rae Nadler-Olenick does a masterful job in telling the story of these pioneers. And now the new young guns, who are taking their place with new technology, at the end of it will have this comprehensive map of vegetation and geological wonders across Texas they’ll be able to use for a base for science for years to come.

Thanks Louie.

That’s our show… with support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…working to preserve native habitat in Texas

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

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