Passport to Texas

Tim Birdsong receiving an Employee Recognition Award for his work, from TPWD Executive Director Carter Smith.

Conservation Leader: Tim Birdsong Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Tim Birdsong is Chief of Habitat Conservation for Inland Fisheries at Parks and Wildlife.

I feel like it’s my job as a rivers biologist here at Texas Parks and Wildlife to help people understand what would be lost if we didn’t take care of these resources.

He works closely with landowners to develop projects to preserve healthy, flowing waters in Texas.

Since 2010, We’ve entered into agreements with over 100 landowners to do stream corridor conservation projects to conserve these lands along these flowing waters like you see here. In my personal life, I love to get out and recreate on rivers and streams, and so I don’t really feel like my job is work. So conserving those natural resources is about conserving that relationship that I want to pass down to my own children.

Conservation is hard work for all involved, and can at times seem like one step forward and two steps back. But people like Tim Birdsong never lose focus or faith.

I feel like I’ve made a difference. I feel like the team that I work with has made a difference. I associate my work with not just conserving fish and wildlife, but preserving a way of life. If I can have a role in helping more people get out and experience the outdoors, or promote a way of life that’s going to lead to a healthier, happier society then I’m all for it.

Meet Tim next week in a segment on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV show on PBS, Check your local listings.

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

TEXAS CITY Y OIL SPILL RESPONSE TEAM GROUP PHOTO

TPW TV: Oil Spill Team Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On March 22nd, 2014 two vessels collided in the Houston ship channel. And that’s when the TPW Oil Spill Response team sprang to action.

[Winston Denton] There was a timing issue with an incoming inbound ship and a barge and tug crossing the channel.

[Steven Mitchell] The crew members started reporting that they had oil leaking from the barge.

[Rebbecca Hensley] We had about 170,000 gallons of fuel that was spilled into the ship channel.

[Don Pitts] Any large spill like this, we get notified by the Coast Guard or the General Land Office to come and assist in the role of Natural Resource Advisors.

[Heather Biggs] Since it was a large event, we did pull people from Austin, from Corpus, even down from Brownsville we had folks coming in to help us.

[Angela Schrift] We coordinated, figured out what we’d need. Got the materials together and got down to the coast as soon as we could.

Meet the team, and find out what happened next, when you view their story next week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV Series on PBS.

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

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TPW TV: Good Guzzlers Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

For most of us, the word “guzzler” has a negative connotation, but not for the groups working to restore bighorn sheep.

04— A guzzler is essentially a rainwater collection system for wildlife.

Mark Garrett is Texas Parks and Wildlife Project Leader for Trans-Pecos Wildlife Management Areas.

09— We’ve got two large panels of sheet metal that collect the rainwater, funnel that down into storage tanks that feed to wildlife friendly watering stations.

Adequate fresh water is essential for the restoration of big horn sheep. During a segment on next week’s Texas Parks and Wildlife PBS Television Series, see how volunteers from the Big Horn Society, Like Kathy Boone, install new guzzlers on the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area.

13— Work projects normally last a couple of days, and they are always in extremely remote areas. For this work project, we’ve had over a hundred people here to help us build two water catchment devices we call guzzlers.

Workers must travel by helicopter to the mountain tops to construct the guzzlers, but volunteer Charlie Barnes says the challenges that come with the work are worth it.

11— This land is suitable for all the game that live here. It was missing one thing. Water. And now it’ll have water. That’s conservation right there.

View the segment on Good Guzzlers next week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife PBS TV series. Check your local listings.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series. Through your purchases of hunting and fishing equipment, and motorboat fuels, over 40 million dollars in conservation efforts are funded in Texas each year.

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

Bill Balboa (and friend), Texas Sea Grant

Teaching Inland Kids about Their Coastal Connection Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’ve always thought of Texas as a state with a coast. But Bill Balboa says it’s really a coastal state. And he’s making sure the next generation knows this.

13- I’m trying to bring coastal education inland so kids that don’t get a chance to get down there a lot learn some things about the Texas coast and maybe become better stewards of the environment here.

Balboa is the Matagorda County Marine Extension Agent. He says when we view Texas as a coastal state we recognize that our actions affect the Gulf no matter how
far inland we live. We spoke when he was in Austin to speak to a group of young people at the main library. He said his talks involve show and tell.

27- I talk to them about freshwater gradient, the different kinds of fish, invasive species. I bring sharks. And so, I just talk to them about the diversity that’s there on the Texas coast, and why it is important to be good stewards and for freshwater to make it down to the coast as well. I want to back up. You bring sharks? You know, I work with some of my parks and Wildlife folks–that I used to work with–and I bring some sharks that were caught in sampling, and I bring a lot of other fish. And it makes a lasting impression.

Bill Balboa did say the sharks and other gulf creatures he brings to his talks are not alive; they’re frozen. Sort of like fish sticks–but really–nothing like fish sticks.

Find links to information about the Gulf and the creatures that live in it at passporttotexas.org.

The Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series.

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

Cedar Hill State Park after the flood.

After the Floods Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A year ago this time, the majority of the state was in the throes of exceptional drought. That changed Memorial Day weekend 2015 when the skies opened up over Texas.

10- The official status from the US Drought Monitor is that Texas is about 92 percent drought-free right now, which we haven’t seen in many, many years.

And this is good news, says Cindy Loeffler, water resources branch chief at Texas Parks and Wildlife.

11- That’s not to say that every part of the state is completely drought free. If you go up into the Texas Panhandle, there are still some regions up there that would dearly love to have a bit of this rainfall.

For areas that received extreme rainfall, changes are evident, and biologists are optimistic about the short and long term affects.

20- Many of our reservoirs have been so low that you couldn’t even access via boat ramps to go fishing. And so now that situation has been improved. And then a lot of the terrestrial and wildlife biologists are very excited about–not only the conditions now–but going into the fall, for deer, white-tailed deer, mule
deer, migrating waterfowl–that kind of thing in the fall.

You won’t have to wait long to see those outcomes, as fall is right around the corner.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series.

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