Passport to Texas

Getting experience shooting.

Hunter Education for Safety in the Field Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you’re a hunter, or considering becoming one, completion of a hunter education course is a must.

13-Overall, what a person learns in Hunter Education is the safe, knowledgeable, responsible habits that hunters and shooting sports participants would need to responsibly handle a firearm from the home to the field and back again.

Steve Hall oversees hunter education at Texas Parks and Wildlife.

39-The centerpiece for hunter education is the ten commandments of firearm safety. And those apply whether you’re handling them around the gun safe at home, how to store them properly, transport them properly. And then when you’re in the field, it’s called hunter safety. For a reason. There’s other kinds of things that come into play when you’re in the field like where the other hunters are at, what kind of shooting you’re doing; do you know beyond the line of fire of a
shot? Is it on a hillside that you’re shooting and you don’t know what’s ion the other side? So there are lots of things that come into play. And then they all kind of center around knowing your firearm, knowing how to handle it safely, but also knowing the capability of those firearms as well.

Hunter education classes take place year round across the state. Find hunter education classes near you, or take it online, when you log onto the TPW website.

The Wildlife and sport fish restoration program supports our series.

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

Bill Balboa (and friend), Texas Sea Grant

Teaching Inland Kids about Their Coastal Connection Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’ve always thought of Texas as a state with a coast. But Bill Balboa says it’s really a coastal state. And he’s making sure the next generation knows this.

13- I’m trying to bring coastal education inland so kids that don’t get a chance to get down there a lot learn some things about the Texas coast and maybe become better stewards of the environment here.

Balboa is the Matagorda County Marine Extension Agent. He says when we view Texas as a coastal state we recognize that our actions affect the Gulf no matter how
far inland we live. We spoke when he was in Austin to speak to a group of young people at the main library. He said his talks involve show and tell.

27- I talk to them about freshwater gradient, the different kinds of fish, invasive species. I bring sharks. And so, I just talk to them about the diversity that’s there on the Texas coast, and why it is important to be good stewards and for freshwater to make it down to the coast as well. I want to back up. You bring sharks? You know, I work with some of my parks and Wildlife folks–that I used to work with–and I bring some sharks that were caught in sampling, and I bring a lot of other fish. And it makes a lasting impression.

Bill Balboa did say the sharks and other gulf creatures he brings to his talks are not alive; they’re frozen. Sort of like fish sticks–but really–nothing like fish sticks.

Find links to information about the Gulf and the creatures that live in it at passporttotexas.org.

The Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series.

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

Urban Wildlife Biologists Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Wildlife biologists, like Kelly Simon (SEA-mah) specialize in–city critters–and their habitat in Central Texas.

09-I’m a wildlife biologist who happens to work in an urban area; just like all of our biologists, I deal with the issues that are important to their counties and their areas.

Like her rural counterparts, Simon meets with landowners to provide technical guidance regarding land use.

12- I also deal with municipal ordinances, and councils of government, and all the different landowners that have a stake in the wildlife and wildlife habitat for their urbanized area.

Outreach and public meetings round out her work.

05- [I] just try to help folks understand, and enhance the wildlife habitat that they have all around them.

This doesn’t mean developing downtown habitat suitable for mountain lions, but it does mean creating a balanced wildlife habitat for appropriate species.

18-So, what I do is I try to help people make decisions that will increase the diversity and balance of wildlife habitat, so that we have things like chickadees and titmice and owls and frogs and toads and lizards–and things that are important for ecological balance and biodiversity–and also appropriate for an urbanized area.

Find your county’s wildlife biologist when you log onto the Texas Parks and Wildlife website. The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

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

Zebra mussels

Beating Down Zebra Mussels in Lake Waco Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

In September 2014, when City of Waco employees found zebra mussels near a boat ramp in Lake Waco, Texas Parks and Wildlife, the City of Waco, and Texas Army Corps of Engineers moved quickly to stop this non-native aquatic invasive in its tracks.

06-The City of Waco ordered up tarps, they hired commercial divers, set the plan, and last fall we put ’em all in place.

Brian Van Zee, Inland Fisheries Regional Director, says there wasn’t time to obtain permits for chemical treatments, so divers and staff positioned the eight thick, rubber tarps on the lake bottom over the infested area to block sunlight and oxygen below.

15- We just recently pulled those tarps from lake Waco, and it was really looking very good; we could tell by the condition of the tarps– underneath them–that we had reached anoxic conditions. You could smell the hydrogen sulfide smell and these black conditions you typically see when you have anoxic conditions.

Although divers found two live zebra mussels on rocks they brought up, Van Zee is optimistic.

14-Maybe we knocked back the number of zebra mussels that were in that area, far enough to where they cannot create a viable, reproducing population. We don’t know if that’s the case or not. We really won’t know probably until this spring or summer, actually; maybe even next fall.

Until then, all partners will continue to monitor the lake and enforce the clean, drain and dry law for all boaters. Learn more on the TPW website.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series. Learn about combating zebra mussels and other aquatic invasives at texasinvasives.org.

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

Zebra Mussels

Zebra Mussels Come to Lake Waco Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Non-native zebra mussels pose potential ecological and economic damage wherever there’s an infestation. In September 2014, they showed up in Lake Waco.

06-Unfortunately there was a vessel that was launched on Lake Waco last summer; it had come from Lake Belton.

Brian Van Zee, Texas Parks and Wildlife Inland Fisheries Regional Director, says Lake Belton has an established population of zebra mussels; they hitched a ride to Lake Waco on the vessel in question.

15- It was heavily infested with those individuals when they left Lake Belton. They did not inspect it; they did not clean it. So, they launched on Lake Waco and introduced these mussels to the lake.

The zebra mussel larvae are microscopic, which is why it is imperative boaters clean, drain and dry their vessels when going from one water body to the next.

24-Texas Parks and Wildlife department enacted the law last year requiring boaters–anytime they leave or approach a freshwater lake or river system in the state–their boats have to be dry. And that’s all aimed at preventing the spread of these microscopic organisms. So, take those three simple steps of clean, drain, dry; it doesn’t take long. It’s very simple to do. It’s better for your boat in terms of maintenance, anyway; so go ahead and do it.

What Texas Parks and Wildlife, the City of Waco and Army Corps of Engineers is doing to combat zebra mussels in Lake Waco–that’s tomorrow. Learn more about zebra mussels at www.texasinvasives.org.

The Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series.

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