Passport to Texas

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

Migrating waterfowl worldwide are under scrutiny by public health officials as potential carriers of a highly contagious form of avian influenza known as H5N1.

There has been no evidence; there has been not a single confirmed case in the North American Continent, of highly pathogenic H5N1.

Dave Morrison, waterfowl program leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife, says some waterfowl species that winter in Texas may share migratory routes with birds from known influenza hot spots.

We are doing our due diligence. We are part and parcel to the early detection and surveillance efforts that are currently ongoing in the United States this year.

US health officials and wildlife authorities have embarked on a North American waterfowl surveillance program to identify potential problems before they manifest.

Texas is one of the level one states for sampling. Level one means that we have to collect a thousand samples from migratory birds – whether it be migratory birds or whether it be shore birds – we have to get a thousand samples. And what we’ll do is we will actually take swabs of these birds, submit them to labs, the labs will then run tests on these birds to determine does it or doesn’t it have highly pathogenic H5N1.

That’s our show…supported by the Sport Fish and Wildlife restoration program… working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas.

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

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

Avian influenza, also referred to as bird flu, has emerged as a worldwide public health concern.

We’re talking about a strain of avian influenza, which is the highly pathogenic H5N1. It really came to bear when the outbreaks started occurring in Southeast Asia and started moving through into Europe.

Dave Morrison is waterfowl program leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife. Although only about than four hundred cases of the flu have been reported in humans since the late 1990s…

This is not necessarily a disease of people; it’s a disease of birds, first and foremost. And migratory birds are a reservoir.

Health officials worldwide are scrutinizing migrating waterfowl as potential carriers of highly pathogenic H5N1. While the biggest outbreaks have been clustered in Southeast Asia…

A lot of the birds that migrate from Southeast Asia potentially come into contact with birds that migrate and nest and breed in Alaska. So in that overlap of birds, there could be some transmission of the disease with birds that filter from Alaska into Canada and the United States.

Tomorrow: Monitoring efforts in Texas.

That’s our show…supported by the Sport Fish and Wildlife restoration program… working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Looking to catch some waves this winter?

The rule of thumb in Texas is, the farther South you go, the nicer the water is and the bigger the waves are.

Rick Thomsen is the chapter chair of the Central Texas Chapter of Surfrider, an environmental organization that raises awareness about ocean related issues through its members’ passion for surfing. We caught up with him in October at Texas Parks and Wildlife EXPO.

We’re always concerned about clean water, so we’re interested in our watersheds. But one of the bigger issues in Texas is access to our beaches because we have some of the highest erosion rates in the United States. So what happens, if there’s irresponsible development and houses are too close to the beach and then the beaches erode – a lot of house s end up actually on the beach and then we have an access issue.

Access is a major concern for Surfrider’s surfer and non-surfer members alike. Luckily…

Texas has one of the strongest beach access laws on the books. It’s the Texas Open Beaches Act. Everybody has access from the low tide line to the mean high tide line and then we actually have an easement up into the grass line.

For more information on beach access and on the SurfRider organization, visit passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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SurfRider, http://www.surfrider.org/default.aspx

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Environmental Corps is an AmeriCorps program,
http://www.americorps.org/, helping to preserve and restore state parks and empower people. We caught up with them at this year’s EXPO.

Actually, someone came by the booth from San Antonio. He’s in a hiking organization and he said they’ve already been on six of our trails.

Donald Jackson is a volunteer with Environmental Corps.

We do a lot of work with local non-profits that are involved with the environment. We do work with local schools on environmental education. We do work with some community gardens.

Invasive species removal and trail building are two major E-corps projects.

Invasive species removal means a lot of chain sawing. So we’ll spend about seven hours sawing down cedar trees and anything else that is sort of invasive and not supposed to be in a site and dragging it and piling it up. So a lot of hard work. When we’re doing trail building, it’s more sort of fun and interesting. We do a lot of rock hauling and we try and use a lot of found materials. We just use whatever rocks and logs we can get from the area.

E-Corps has statewide impact; Teresa Turlick is another volunteer

We go around the state doing conservation work in different parks. We had a spike trip out to Big Bend earlier this year, one out to Possum Kingdom.

More information about E-Corps is available at passporttotexas.org. That’s our show…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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American Youthworks, Environmental Corps:
http://www.americanyouthworks.org/ecorps.htm

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

With over 100 state parks and historic sites to explore, many Texans may find themselves lured into their vehicles to drive the open road. But traveling by car has its downsides. Air pollution is becoming a serious problem in Texas and vehicle emissions are a major contributor to the problem.

You don’t have to drive a hybrid to make a difference in lowering emissions.

Michelle Hoelscher (HOLE-sure) works for the Texas Transportation Institute and the Drive Clean Across Texas Campaign.

Poor air quality and other environmental exposure really aggravates asthma, lung disease, heart disease.

Drive Clean Across Texas has come up with five basic steps people can take to help improve air quality.

Maintain your vehicle, drive less, buy a cleaner vehicle if you can, drive the speed limit and reduce idling. And if people could just do two of the five things like maintain your vehicle and reduce your idling – it would go a long way to help reduce vehicle emissions.

To find out more about how you can drive cleaner across Texas, visit at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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