Passport to Texas

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

The best time to get to know your land is when you first buy it.

Walk it; look at it carefully. Study it over the seasons. Really find out what makes it tick. And, that’s the first step – to really understand the land – and then understand the management that it takes to achieve the kind of goals you want for your recreation.

Linda Campbell directs the private lands program at Texas Parks and Wildlife that assists landowners to achieve their land management goals. She recommends getting started by visiting the workshop calendar – in the private lands section – on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

These are workshops and field days and things of that nature that occur all over the state. And so I would suggest landowners take a look at that.

Attending these events allows landowners to get to know other like-minded people in their region. The agency also offers free on site technical assistance in wildlife management planning.

And so, we look at the entire picture – all the habitats that are there, what can be done, what are the landowners goals, and then we help them develop a plan that will help them achieve that.

Tomorrow, forming wildlife management associations. [To view this link you must have Adobe Reader.]

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

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

While it’s true that water is life, Carter Smith—Parks and Wildlife Executive Director—says for many Texans, water also means enjoyment.

It is the source of recreation in our rivers and lakes and streams and reservoirs—where Texans go to fish and kayak and swim and enjoy all of nature’s bounty.

Yet, containing flowing water for recreational use upstream can have a negative affect on the people, habitat and wildlife living downstream.

The overriding conflict is between rural and urban.

Lee Smith produces water documentaries for Texas Parks and Wildlife. The latest in the series, Texas: The State of Flowing Water, addresses environmental flow, which is the water needed to maintain healthy ecosystems along a waterway. He admits this important subject matter is complex.

This one was pretty difficult because the focus was so broad, and encompassed these various entities that are at work to try and figure out what [water] levels need to be in the rivers and the bays and how to get that written into law. That, in itself, was a huge challenge.

Witness how Smith evenhandedly weaves together the diverse aspects and points of view of this complex topic when you tune into Texas: The State of Flowing Water Thursday February 12 at 8 PM, on most PBS stations… made possible by the Sport Fish Restoration Program.

Find additional information at texasthestteorwater.org.

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

Texas Parks and Wildlife TV producer Lee Smith says he learned an important lesson from nature when shooting the documentary Texas–The State of Flowing Water.

It has given me a new sense of patience. I went down to the bay—it was basically a travel day the real shoot was the next day—so I was going around getting shots on this back bay of a sunset. And it was a horrible day; it was overcast; no birds were down yet, so there was nothing like that I could shoot. And the sun was going down, and I wanted to eat…and so I blew it off.

And I was driving up to the restaurant and as I was getting out of the car, the sun popped in my eye. And I looked over and the sun had come out of the clouds for just about five minutes. And if I would have stayed there, and been patient, and waited for the day to unfold, I would have gotten probably the title shot of the show. But I didn’t. So, now whenever I’m out there and things aren’t looking great, I say, you’ve got to wait it out. You’ve got to wait for nature to reveal herself.

Catch the documentary Texas the State of Flowing Water Thursday, February 12 at 8 pm on PBS stations. Visit texasthestateofwater.org for complete listings.

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

Lee's Life Lessons from Nature Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

The Federal Sport Fish Restoration program—funded by your purchase of fishing equipment and motor boat fuel—funds a variety of conservation projects in Texas. Last year Texas Parks and Wildlife received $20-million from the program.

That funding went to support sport fisheries management, sport fish stocking in Texas waters, fish habitat conservation, enhancement and restoration efforts, and aquatic education.

Timothy Birdsong coordinates the Sport Fish program for Parks and Wildlife.

Fifteen percent of that program is used to perform improvement to boat ramps and other boating access facilities around the state.

Birdsong says this is a successful conservation model—a user pay user benefit program.

The taxes that you contribute as anglers, and as boaters, to this pot of money, is used to improve the resource for you…to provide additional opportunities…provide additional access to these waters. So, it is vital that we continue to have the support of the anglers and the boating community to be able to maintain the program at the level that it is currently.

See how Parks and Wildlife spends these funds when you visit passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…funded by your purchase of fishing equipment and motor boat fuel.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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CLICK HERE to see how Texas spends the money collected through the Sport Fish Restoration Program.

Sport Fish Restoration Program: Conservation Dollars Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

We regularly mention the Sport Fish Restoration Program as a Passport sponsor, but you may not know what it is.

The Sport Fish Restoration Program is a partnership between anglers, boaters, the fishing and boating industry, Texas Parks and Wildlife, other state fish and game agencies across the country and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Timothy Birdsong coordinates the program for Parks and Wildlife. This federal program collects taxes on fishing equipment and motor boat fuel.

This funding is distributed across the country to states based on a formula that includes land and water area and number of resident licensed anglers in that state. We had over one million recreational anglers fish Texas waters in 2007. You take that number along with our total land and water area and we position Texas to receive the maximum available apportionment under this program, which is five percent of the total amount of money that is available which is about four hundred million nationwide.

In 2008, Texas Parks and Wildlife received approximately twenty million dollars from this fund, and tomorrow we learn how the money was spent.

It went to support sport fisheries management and sport fish stocking in Texas waters.

That’s our show… with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…funded by your purchase of fishing equipment and motor boat fuel.

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

Intro to the Sport Fish Restoration Program Play Now | Play in Popup | Download