Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Joe Kendall says he knows how to improve the world.

I think the world would be a better place if we spent more time floating and one of the best places to do that is outside on a river. I encourage as many people as possible to spend more time doing that.

Kendall is founder of the Chautauqua Foundation’s Texas River School, the purpose of which is to…

…take kids to the river that normally wouldn’t get a chance to go.

The school targets fourth through sixth graders who wouldn’t normally spend time outdoors, let alone on the water.

The reason why we work with kids who haven’t been out there before is to help them develop a lifelong love affair with the river that I and so many of my friends have. So many of these kids come to us—their parents are afraid of the water—and they pass that on to their children. We want to try to break that cycle and get the kids to be comfortable with the river.

Kendall says after the children have spent time on the water, they’re transformed.

They’re nervous, shaking and scared and when they come back, they’re jumping up and down, screaming and hollering… it’s a remarkable change.

Texas Parks and Wildlife recently awarded The Texas River School a $30,000 grant to continue its work.

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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Visit the Texas River School Website:
http://www.texasrowingcenter.com/trs.htm

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Before you head into the wilderness…

… Make sure you have an adequate supply of water with you because you don’t know if you’re going to encounter any water sources while you’re up there.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Hunter Education Coordinator Terry Erwin says you should always carry at least a half gallon of water and drink often while hiking to prevent dehydration. But if you do begin to feel thirsty and hotter than usual, you may be experiencing heat exhaustion.

This is when you have a pale and clammy skin, you feel nauseated, maybe headaches and muscle cramps. At that time you need to move to a cooler place, re-hydrate yourself, lower your body temperature and make sure not to over chill yourself.

And more severely is heat stroke.

You become dry, hot, your skin gets flushed- even dark purple. Your pulse becomes slow and weak and you start to breathe very shallow. The best thing to do is to really get down and lower the temperature of your core body. Drink plenty of water, fan and don’t over chill yourself and if it persists get to the hospital immediately because this is a life threatening situation.

Find more information about identifying and treating heat exhaustion and heat stroke by visiting passporttotexas.org.

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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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The book Rare Plants of Texas from Texas A & M press gets up close and personal with…well…rare Texas plants.

There’s a lot of different definitions of rare.

Co-author, Jackie Poole, explains how the book’s authors defined the term “rare.”

What we basically use for the book is how many populations of those plants exist out there. So, usually, our cutoff criteria is twenty populations of fewer. And that’s on a worldwide basis—that’s not just in Texas.

Species listed as threatened or endangered by the federal and state government were also included in the 225 plants found in this illustrated field guide.

And, a lot of those plants have more than twenty populations known now—they didn’t when they were listed. But, because they get listed, lot more attention gets paid to the; a lot more people go out and find populations. So, they often end up being less rare than the plants that aren’t listed as endangered or threatened.

It’s imperative for us to know which plants are the rarest of the rare so we can protect them and their habitat.

Because they’re often indicators of something that’s going wrong in a particular habitat. And, we can pick up on this early on by noticing the rarest individuals in the community suffering first.

Find out more about rare plants in Texas at passportotexas.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

Women can gain a lot from outdoors experiences.

I think women are strong and they’re smart. And I think we’re stronger and smarter than sometimes we give ourselves credit for being.

Krista Allen is a participant turned instructor of the Becoming an Outdoors Woman workshops.

And I think the outdoor experience help women realize their strengths because the skills we learn help you grow as a person and those skills have application in their everyday lives.

Allen believes that women finding passion outdoors will encourage them to share it with others. Your most effective doing things that your passionate it about and when you find an outdoor activity that you love and you’re passionate about, you’re going to pass that on to other people. Showing the outdoors to people, I think, is one of the coolest things that you can do.

Once women discover an outdoor activity they’re passionate about they’ll find new value in state parks.

If you’re a mountain biker or if you’re a cyclist you have a huge appreciation for the out of doors and the value of having those sort of spaces and preserving those sort of spaces.

To find out more information about Becoming an Outdoors Woman Workshops, visit passporttotexas.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

During extended periods of drought, when the risk of wildfires is highest, your plant choices and their placement in the landscape could make your home vulnerable to fire damage.

While we do want to encourage the use of shrubs and brush around the home, we don’t want to encourage it right up against the home. Especially things that are extremely flammable…

Flammable plants include yaupon holly and cedar, among others. Marks Klym coordinates the Texas Wildscapes Program. With the Texas Forest Service’s FireWise program, Klym says the Wildscapes program helps people choose less fire friendly plants.

Something that’s got a higher water content. Things that don’t tend to take fire from the ground towards the roof, because the roof is a sensitive area in most homes. Things that don’t take fire from the ground up into your window frames, which is another very sensitive area. You want to avoid our tall native grasses, because they have a tendency to dry out and become a firebox. Certainly, the other thing you can do is use that area for your hardscapes. Things like rock walls…walkways. These become a good barrier that the firs has difficulty jumping, unless you’ve got forty mile an hour winds.

Find a link to the Texas FireWise website, at passporttotexas.org, as well as a list a plants to avoid planting around the foundation of your home, as well as plants that are better to plant around the home.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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FireWise Information:
http://www.firewise.org/usa/files/fwlistsz.pdf
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/natres/06302.html
http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/wichitamountains/downloads.html
Firewise Plant-List_East Texas_Draft for Review_working.pdf

Recommended large hardwood trees:
• Black cherry
• Black gum
• Hackberry
• Honey locust
• Post Oak
• Shumard Oak
• Other Common Oaks
• Pecan
• Sweetgum
• Sycamore

Medium-sized trees could include:
• Western soapberry
• Common persimmon
• Dogwood
• Eastern redbud
• Fringe tree(Old Mans Beard)
• Hophornbeam
• Magnolia
• Ornamental maples
• Red maple
• Serviceberry
• Apple and crabapples
• Wild plum

Recommended shrubs are:
• American beautyberry
• Crapemyrtle
• Viburnums
• Elderberry
• Pyracantha
• Witch hazel
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