Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Austin, known for its music scene, is known for its bats! The downtown Congress Avenue Bridge is a hot-spot for bats and bat-watchers.

It’s mainly Mexican Free-tail bats under the bridge because this is a maternity colony. In other words, these are females that are going to have their babies under there.

Barbara French is a Biologist and Science Officer for Bat Conservation International. Bat-watchers congregate near the bridge to watch bat’s nightly emergence. French says
some months are better than other for bat-watching.

Most of the young are going to be born in June. August is tremendous. August is a great time because then all of the young are flying. You know, most of them are independent. You can see wonderful flights out of the bridge in August, even September. Then after that it becomes a little more unpredictable as the weather changes and we move into the fall. There’s an estimated one and a half million bats flying out of the bridge. So it’s an amazing site. It really is an amazing thing to watch.

Austinites take pride in these unique residents.

Today, it’s neat to see that teachers are teaching about bats. People are becoming a lot more bat savvy, particularly in Austin because of the Congress Avenue Bridge bats.

Details about the Congress Bats can be found on the Cat Conservation International website at www.batcon.org.

Tomorrow, the history of Austin’s bats.

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 Restoration Program

In the mid-1970s, non-native Smallmouth Bass were introduced into the Guadalupe River as an additional sport fish, and an alternative to our native Guadalupe Bass. Then something unintended happened.

Even though they look very different, the problem is, they can’t tell each other apart. Evidentially, they act similar enough, behaviorally, that they’ll reproduce, and they have hybrids.

Dr. Gary Garrett is a biologist at Heart of the Hills Fisheries Science Center in Kerrville. The hybrid offspring of these two species started to outnumber pure Guadalupe bass. For the past thirteen years — and with support from the Upper Guadalupe River Authority, http://www.ugra.org/, and the Hill Country Fly Fishers, http://www.hillcountryflyfishers.com/, researchers at Heart of the Hills have worked to reverse this trend.

We’re raising thousands of pure Guadalupe Bass here at the research station. And every year we stock them back into nature. Basically what we’re doing is replacing the hybrids that are out there with the pure Guadalupe Bass. And we’ll let nature takes its course from there. Here in Johnson Creek, where we began the study, about thirty percent of the fish were hybrids. And that wasn’t stable. It was still increasing when we started. It’s now down to around three percent, which is excellent. Now we want to go from three to zero.

Dr. Garrett says fish will be released in May and June.

That’s our show…we had help from Tom Harvey… our series receives support from the Sport Fish Restoration program, which funds research at the Heart of the Hills Fisheries Science Center…

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 Restoration Program

Kayaking and canoeing allows us to see nature from a new perspective. And some of these waterways are official state paddling trails.

The reason a Parks and Wildlife paddling trail is so special is because, we’re very interested in conservation issues, water issues, the importance of water for the state of Texas, and educating the public on all of these issues.

Shelly Plante is nature tourism coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife. If your community has a stretch of river or coastline you think is trail-worthy, submit a nomination.

On our website, we have application forms that any community partner can fill out if they think they have a trail that has potential to be in our paddling trails program. The main requirement is that it’s a four to twelve mile river segment. We really want this to be a morning or afternoon river run that people can do with their family and friends, and not multi-day. If they have any questions, they can call the number on the website, or email, and we’ll review their application.

Applicants will receive a response in about a month – and if accepted — that’s when the work really starts.

The process for us to be able to get a river survey done, work with the community to develop text for the website and the kiosks, get kiosks installed, create panels for the kiosks….the entire process to become a paddling trail could take between six to twelve months.

Visit passporttotexas.org for a link to the application.

That’s our show for today…supported by the Sport Fish Restoration program… providing funding for wetland conservation through the Private Lands Enhancement Program.

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 Restoration Program

What could be more relaxing than kayaking along an inland or coastal paddling trail, taking in the beauty of nature?

Water trails are one of the last public resources in the state.

Shelly Plante is nature tourism coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

In a state that’s about ninety-six percent privately owned, waterways are public passage. So the public has access to these waterways, and we just want to let people where they can go, and easily access the sites with community help, and paddle and see nature from a different perspective – down low on the water.

A community must nominate a stretch of river, or coastline, and then a thorough evaluation must take place before acceptance into the paddling trail program.

Currently most of our trails are from Central Texas down to the coast. And so, we are lacking paddling trails that have been nominated for east Texas, the Dallas/Fort Worth area, the panhandle, west Texas…if we get too many for us to be able to do in a year, geographic diversity is going to play a role in which ones get accepted annually.

Tomorrow, we tell you how to nominate your stretch of river or coastline for the paddling trails program.

That’s our show for today…supported by the Sport Fish Restoration program… providing funding for wetland conservation through the Private Lands Enhancement Program.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The Texas Archaeological Society — dedicated to the study and preservation of the historic and prehistoric aspects of our past — offers its annual Field School next month in West Texas, just as its done since the 1960s.

It was a way to get people out and get hands-on experience doing archeology. Because you can read about archeology, but until you get out and get in the dirt and dig and find the artifacts in the proper context, that’s when you start understanding what archeology is all about.

Doug Boyd, is Co-Director of the school’s Youth Group.

Families can come to field school and their kids can participate with us while they participate with the adult group. And we’ll have anywhere from 35 to 45 kids in our youth group. We’re doing the same thing adults are. We’re learning hands-on excavation and survey techniques, and we also have a number of other activities set up for the kids.

Kids connect with history in a very personal way.

One of the things that we try and do with the kids is we make them aware of the importance of some of the things that they’re finding. When they learn how to do a certain archaeological technique right and they get complimented on that, and their faces light up, and you know that you’re connecting with them, that’s what it’s all about. That’s what makes it worth wild.

The Texas Archaeological Society Field Camp is June 9th through 16th in Menard, Texas. Online registration is available at www.txarch.org. Register by May 31st.

That’s our show for today…with research and writing help from Loren Seeger…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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