Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

If your family’s outdoor skills are rusty, you’re in luck. Texas Outdoor Family workshops are as close as a state park. Chris Holmes coordinates this new program.

It’s going to be basic outdoor camping skills. We’ll teach them about using a GPS unit (global positioning system) and exploring the trails. We’ll teach them how to fish. If there’s kayaking available, we’ll teach them how to paddle and kayak. And then the main program in the afternoon will be how to set up a camp properly.

The first workshop is August 4 at Galveston Island SP. Family size is limited to eight, and the cost for the weekend is $55. Leave No Trace developed the program’s camping component.

And so, it’s a national certification, environmentally friendly program. And the families together will have fun, and learn how to pitch a tent, place the tent properly on tent pads, use a stove correctly and cook food. And we’ll teach them how to build a fire.

Holmes says his favorite part of the workshop comes the following morning.

They’ll have an opportunity to have a coffee with a park ranger and learn about having a conservation career. And then they’ll do a service and stewardship program which is something that they can help the state park. It may be removing some invasive vegetation, it may be building bluebird boxes. It may just be simply picking up litter at the state park.

We have details about Texas Outdoor Family Workshops in State Parks at passporttotexas.org.

That our show for today…remember: life’s better outside. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The Texas Outdoor Families Program is expanding. In addition to offering workshops at city parks, now families can learn outdoor skills at nearby state parks.

Every Texas Outdoor Family Program that we offer in state parks is going to be less than an hour’s drive for most people.

Chris Holmes is a regional interpretive specialist charged with coordinating the state park program, which, he says, is in response to a decline in families tent camping.

Through our research, we know that people want to go back to state parks. We really know that they want to learn how to camp, but simply just don’t know how to, or have a little bit of fear about going out to a state park. So, this is in a family friendly environment where no experience is necessary.

And neither is equipment.

We’ll be providing the basic equipment; we’ll provide tents, sleeping mats, lanterns, and stoves and cookware and plates and so, there’ll just be a list of real basic things that we think a family should need to bring like flashlights. And, we’ll provide a menu so that the families can go to the store and buy some groceries for the actual weekend, and then we’ll teach them how to make some good camp food.

The first workshop is August fourth in Galveston. We have details at passporttotexas.org.

That our show for today…remember: life’s better outside. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Hi. What’s your name? Ionie. What are you doing here today, Ionie? Um… I’m…um…camping.

Five-year-old Ionie Dalton is the reason her parents, Bill and Jenny, took part in a Texas Outdoor Family workshop.

We really wanted to get some experience going camping because I’ve wanted to take Ionie. She’s actually wanted to go fishing and camping since before she was two.

The Daltons, and other families, spent an entire weekend learning outdoor skills.

We’ve gotten to go and do fishing, and camping 101, and orienteering. And it’s been great.

While it’s important to get kids outdoors, Jenny reminds us of another reason to get outside.

Because it’s fun. Because, it’s like playing. It’s adult and kid playtime.

Bill Dalton said his family will definitely go camping, but won’t stop there.

I like the idea of going to the Expo. That sounded like a lot of fun, so just a lot of things there to try out—and with all of the experts you’d ever need on hand to help you with them.

That’s our show for today, with support from Toyota. To learn about upcoming Texas Outdoor Family workshops at local parks and state parks, visit lifesbetteroutside.org.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Amphibians are a remarkably unique life form.

Texas State University Biologist Dr. Mike Forstner says if you’ve ever wondered about the love lives of amphibians, he can help.

Amphibian or amphibios is a two-stage life. Those dual lives reflect water and land. When we think about the mating process or the management of the toad we have to take both in account the water and the land. All frogs and toads call. They make a unique advertisement call.

You’ve probably heard male leopard frogs and bullfrogs [bullfrogs sfx] advertising their intentions and didn’t realize it. On the eastern edge of Central Texas, Forstner says there is an endangered species that really knows how to pitch woo. [Houston toad sfx]

… further into the forest in Bastrop, we begin to hear a high-pitched trills that lasts a long time, up to 15 seconds for the Houston toad.

All calls allow the females to hone in on potential mates.

And the females will hop toward the male call that they think is the most attractive. So there is female choice- not very different from what happened in the human world.

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Alanna Jones… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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CLICK HERE to go to a page where you can see images, and hear the songs, of Texas frogs and toads.
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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

[chorus of frogs] Have you ever been frogging?

It’s what we call when you just get out at night and you start listening for frogs and see what’s living out there around you.

Lee Ann Linam coordinates the Texas Amphibian Watch program in which volunteers go frogging at night to collect information on amphibian species they hear. These citizen scientists follow rules while “on duty.”

When we suggest that folks do something kind of unusual like that, we like to give them some guidelines to keep them safe, and to keep the frogs safe, and to respect the rules around them. So, that’s what the rules of frogging are for.

Some rules include bringing a buddy along, and knowing the terrain and wildlife species in your monitoring area. Volunteers must also obtain permission before accessing privately owned land. Finally, consider the safety of the amphibians.

Amphibians are sensitive to things like insect repellents that contain Deet, which many of them do. Things like sunscreen and other chemicals that might be on your hands. And so we always say to people, before handling frogs, make sure that you wash your hands, keep your hands moist. And then the other thing we say is to go ahead and wash up afterwards because some frogs have compounds on their skin that protect them from being eaten.

And those compounds can be irritants. We have a link to the complete rules of frogging at passporttotexas.org.

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

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