Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas Outdoor stories from Texas parks and Wildlife

When Scooter Cheatham convinced his anthropology professor to let him and a friend conduct an experiment—instead of writing a research paper—he had no idea it would lead to his lifelong passion.

What we proposed was that we go down to my grandmother’s ranch on the Guadalupe river near Concrete, Texas, and take with us replicas of some of these early cultures we’d been studying. We had mostly stone tools, deerskin clothing—we did the whole thing.

And you start looking around and the great diversity, the thing that supplies us all of our organic needs is rooted in the plant kingdom. It just became very obvious to me that this was very important. And I was sure that some group of scientists had already done studies all over the world and that there was a body of information about this. So, I came back to Austin expecting to find that and to tap into it—it didn’t exist.

So, he created it—a 12 volume encyclopedia of Useful Wild Plants of Texas and beyond. Volume three is at the printers now.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Visit the website Useful Wild Plants, http://usefulwildplants.org/encyclopedia.htm, and see what Scooter’s been up to all these years. [Just copy and paste the URL into your browser]

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, spoke to a group of educators in San Antonio this summer. He told them, as a child, he felt ownership of the woods near his home. But today’s kids may lack connection to the land.

I owned those woods to the extent that as an 8 year old—I’m sorry to tell you—I pulled out, I think, hundreds of survey stakes that I knew had something to do with the bulldozers that were taking out other woods. A developer told me a couple years ago I would have been a lot more effective if I’d simply moved the stakes around.

And then he began to cry in front of five hundred people. And despite his deep sense of embarrassment, he continued to speak about his sense of grief that his might be one of the last generations to have that kind of sense of ownership of land that has nothing to do with money—it goes deeper than that.

Help children connect with the land. Learn more at passportotexas.org.

For Texas parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Visit the Life’s Better Outside website.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Saving water and lush landscapes aren’t mutually exclusive. Gretchen Mahan tells us more…

At the San Antonio Botanical Gardens, six miniature houses on WaterSavers Lane showcase diverse landscapes and their water saving potential. Sir Oliver Smith, a master gardener, describes the typical landscape, complete with a water thirsty lawn.

This is what most people have. They have the traditional hedges at the door and all that manicuring you have to do every week. So this is probably what we don’t want if you want to save on money and save on grass and save on water.

For comparison, he points out an attractive landscape that replaces turf with groundcover.

People like this look; it’s a little less maintenance. And you’re replacing some of the lawn with Asiatic jasmine, which takes no water.

While the jasmine isn’t native, most of the other plants are. This helps save water because native plants generally require less of it survive.

Everyone thinks native plants are just a sticky agarita and the yuccas and the sotals. But all the other things in this garden are native. Vitex and desert willow and redbud and there are a lot of other things that do very well with almost no water.

And they’re beautiful. Contact your local Extension Service to find out which native plants thrive in your area.

Thanks, Gretchen. That’s our show…Find pictures and more information at passporttotexas.org. For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife…

Texas Christian University’s mascot is the horned frog. And with a grant from Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas Christian University researchers are studying their mascot. Gretchen Mahan tells us more…

The Texas horned lizard, commonly called the horny toad, is a threatened species. Amanda Hale and Dean Williams are assistant professors of biology at TCU. And they’re currently collecting and analyzing horned lizard DNA samples. Williams says when he heard about the need for research on the horned lizard, he thought it would be a good opportunity for his department.

The stuff that we do here is basically conservation genetics. We work with a wide range of organisms, and the project just seemed like a good fit.

Texas horned lizards used to be so populous that people would see them in their neighborhoods…but, not anymore. Because of threats like the imported fire ant, horned lizard populations have significantly declined.

That’s why Hale says they hope to use the DNA for future conservation programs. She says the DNA will help them determine which horned lizard populations are doing best. Then, conservationists might be able to take those lizards and breed them to create a more stable population throughout Texas.

We have about 300 DNA samples from horned lizard, so we have volunteers right now who are trying to fill in gaps in collection throughout the state.

And you can help by contacting TCU’s biology department if you spot a horned lizard.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The summer drought inspires one family to conserve water. Gretchen Mahan tells us more.

My family agreed to try and reduce their personal water use by implementing simple conservation techniques. The day before our experiment began, I printed out the San Antonio Water System conservation tips and posted them in bathrooms and the kitchen. My dad, Jim, reads one of the tips.

When brushing teeth, turn the water off until it is time to rinse. When shaving fill the lavatory basin with hot water instead of letting the water run continuously. I think that’s a good, conservative use of water.

We also changed the shower head in my brothers’ bathroom to a more water efficient one from San Antonio Water System. My brother Peter tells us about it.

There are two kinds of sprays…the normal spray, the massage.

But my older brother, Trey, says taking shorter showers, wasn’t the most enjoyable experience.

My shower today was approximately seven and a half minutes compared to what it used to be was over fifteen minutes. It was a very painful process, but it was well worth it to save the environment.

Okay, so there may have been a little sarcasm in that last line. My brothers aren’t exactly the environmentalists of the family. But with a little prodding, we managed to do fairly well, saving 3,000 gallons or 13 percent of our total water use.

Thanks Gretchen. That’s our show…Find more information at passporttotexas.org. For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Water Conservation Family Style, 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download