Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Texas Parks and Wildlife takes energy conservation as seriously as it does conservation of habitat and wildlife.

Well, it’s something that we felt very strongly about in terms of how closely related to our mission energy conservation is.

Steve Shroeter oversees support services at Texas Parks and Wildlife.

About four years ago, we developed the green team, and it’s just some grassroots volunteers and myself who try to come up with some projects and ideas to reduce energy consumption and resource consumption across the state.

One project simply involved getting employees to “turn off” their offices.

We decided to take a look at the impact of this thought; so we surveyed the building one time after duty hours and it was staggering how much non-necessary equipment was left on in the building. Because it generates heat, then has to be cooled, besides the energy that it draws.

Employees took the Green Team’s energy conservation message to heart. The result: the Austin headquarters used seventy thousand fewer kilowatt-hours this past summer than it did the previous summer, thus, keeping more than 140 thousand pounds of carbon from the atmosphere.

Now that’s walking the talk.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Fall is a fantastic time to renew your landscape, but be careful what you plant.

A lot of times we’ll go into the businesses [garden center], and we see a plant that’s labeled ‘well-adapted’. Well, a lot of those well-adapted plants are actually highly invasive in our Texas
environment. There’s a movement afoot to do something about it – to cut down on their use.

Mark Klym oversees the Wildscape program at Texas Parks and Wildlife. He says well-adapted, yet invasive species create problems.

Those plants include things like privet, red-tipped photinia, ligustrum, pyrocantha.

While these species may show up in bird books as ideal plants to use in bird attracting garden…

Be careful with them. They are highly invasive; all across the US people are complaining about them in the landscape because they create a monoculture out there, and eliminate a lot of our native plants. And without our native plants, we could lose a lot of our native wildlife.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife website has a native plant database where you can find plants for your landscape that will benefit wildlife.

Just because it does look great in a landscape, and you do see a couple of birds sitting on them – I got one of my favorite pictures of a Costas Hummingbird sitting in privet down in Rockport – but, that doesn’t mean that’s a good plant for us to use in our garden.

That’s our show for today… 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

Small, relatively harmless, populations of golden algae exist in most freshwaters. Yet when conditions are right, as when temperatures cool, the population of this toxic organism may explode.

It could very well be that the cold knocks down the other competing algae so that then the golden algae has an advantage over them and blooms.

Dave Sager works with inland fisheries in the area of ecosystems and habitat assessment. He says golden tinged water with foam on the surface is a sign that a bloom is underway. Dead fish is another.

Initially, the fish that are in the shallows or at the surface of the water are impacted first. You’ll see the bait fish, the shad or minnows and shiners that will die first. And then later on as the bloom and the toxins spread through the water column you’ll see other fish like the sunfish, large mouth bass, striped bass and others starting to be affected.

Sager reminds freshwater anglers and boaters that they play an integral role as a kind of early warning system.

They can see when a fish kill event is taking place – see that the water is golden; there’s foaming on the water. And call in to let us know so that we can then go out and do an investigation.

You’ll find the number to call to report a golden alga bloom at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… made possible 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

Small, relatively harmless, populations of golden algae exist in most freshwaters. Yet when conditions are right, as when temperatures cool, the population of this toxic organism may explode.

It could very well be that the cold knocks down the other competing algae so that then the golden algae has an advantage over them and blooms.

Dave Sager works with inland fisheries in the area of ecosystems and habitat assessment. He says golden tinged water with foam on the surface is a sign that a bloom is underway. Dead fish is another.

Initially, the fish that are in the shallows or at the surface of the water are impacted first. You’ll see the bait fish, the shad or minnows and shiners that will die first. And then later on as the bloom and the toxins spread through the water column you’ll see other fish like the sunfish, large mouth bass, striped bass and others starting to be affected.

Sager reminds freshwater anglers and boaters that they play an integral role as a kind of early warning system.

They can see when a fish kill event is taking place – see that the water is golden; there’s foaming on the water. And call in to let us know so that we can then go out and do an investigation.

You’ll find the number to call to report a golden alga bloom at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… made possible 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.

Know & Report Golden Algae Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

Be it fishing, hunting, bird watching, what we need is children to be away from the TV’s and outdoors.

That’s the goal of Operation Orphans. The group–founded by Game Warden Gene Ashby in 1960–mentors children by taking them hunting. Tom Hewitt, is the organization’s director.

We bring in children from homes all over the state. All of these are disadvantaged children. And all of these children are able to spend a day with a mentor, having a day of fellowship. The harvesting of the animal is just land-yap and it is something special.

Volunteers with this unique organization have worked with over sixteen thousand children. Hewitt says the child, not the hunt, remains top priority.

The main focus of our program is number one, safety. Teaching the children the love of the outdoors, introducing them because so many of these children are city children. They have never been in the outdoors. So our day, again, is mentoring of the children, teaching them about the outdoors and having a day of fun.

Operation Orphans have harvested nearly sixteen thousand animals. They donate every animal they harvest to the home where the child came from.

It’s a win – win situation.

Find out more about Operation Orphans at passporttotexas.org.

Our series receives support from the SFWR program, working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas. We had research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Cut and paste the following link into your browser for more information on Operation Orphans: http://www.operationorphans.org/

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