Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Help Texas celebrate its birthday February 27 & 28, where it all started: Washington-on-the-Brazos SHS.

It’s a totally free weekend for visitors that come to the park.

Janice Campbell is an interpreter at Independence Hall, where the general convention convened March 1 through 17, 174 years ago, and set the groundwork for the Republic of Texas. You can get a sense of what life was like then when you visit the site during the anniversary celebration.

We will have demonstrators demonstrating period crafts and skills here in the park; we will have political speeches, music…just a big birthday celebration for Texas.

Texas Independence Day is March, 2—but we’re celebrating early. Campbell says it’s worth the drive.

You will be driving into and visiting an area where some of the fist settlers came into Texas and settled. This event will highlight, of course, the formation of a nation.

Washington-on-the-Brazos SHS is located in a beautiful part of the state, and easy to find.

We are located off highway 105, about eight miles west of Navasota, and that would put us about 18 miles east of Brenham.

The Washington-on-the-Brazos SHS Texas Independence Day Celebration IS February 27 & 28. There’s more information on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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February 27–28, 2010 — Washington-on-the-Brazos SHS — Texas Independence Day Celebration — Free, two-day historic event celebrating the 174th anniversary of Texas Independence. Visit Independence Hall and hear the story of the 1836 Convention. Also visit Barrington Living History Farm, the recreated 1850s farm of Dr. Anson Jones, last President of the Republic of Texas where costumed interpreters tell the story of life on a mid 19th century cotton farm. The Star of the Republic Museum, which focuses on the times of the Republic of Texas, will also be open during this important weekend. Enjoy the work of various artisans demonstrating their crafts, and on Sunday, enjoy a slice of our Texas-sized birthday cake. Accessible for the mobility and visually impaired. 10 AM-5 PM (936) 878-2214.

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This is Passport to Texas

This month on the TPW TV series you’ll get to the bottom of Palo Duro Canyon. Producer, Ron Kabele.

It’s the second largest canyon in the country. And, it has a big advantage over the Grand Canyon, and that is you can drive down to it.

The Grand Canyon is nice to stand on the edge and go. ‘That’s a great canyon.’ Here, you can get into the canyon and you can become part of it.

I heard about this 24-hour bike race that they were doing, and it was to raise money for cancer research. And so, what better way to show off the park than to show people actually uses it.

When you’ve got a huge park like this, these are the only places where you can do these kinds of events. That’s what the parks are for.

And one of the kids, his name was Joe. I got some video of him during the race, and then afterwards I interviewed him, and that’s when I realized that he only had one arm.

They’re like you can’t bike a hundred miles. You know, I was able to do the fifty with ease; I’m sure I can bike a hundred. Yeah, they did kind of think I was crazy.

You don’t have to be crazy to visit Palo Duro State Park—just adventurous. Learn what awaits you at Texas’ Grand Canyon, when you log onto the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

When 19th century Texans wanted bacon or sausage, they had to make it–starting with raising the pig. See how it’s done when you visit the Sauer Beckman Living History Farm February 6 for their German Smokehouse Secrets demonstration.

This event, we actually go into not only the curing of bacon and sausage, but they also do some other German food that may not be familiar to everyone.

Iris Neffendorf is manager of the LBJ SP and Historic Site and the Sauer Beckmann Living History Farm in Johnson City in the Hill Country.

We decided this year that because of the interest in the past, that we would go ahead and offer this one-day activity, focused heavily on outdoor processing and nineteen hundred food preparations that relate to German traditions on a German farm.

People concerned about where food comes from and how animals are raised will appreciate this demonstration, says Neffendorf.

People are turning a lot more to organic gardening and organic animals and farmyard eggs. So this is what you have here at the living history farm is homegrown, or what we call now, organic types of food.

It’s free to attend the February 6 German Smokehouse Secrets demonstration at the Sauer Beckman Living History farm. Find details on the TPW website.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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February 6, 2010 — Lyndon B. Johnson SP&HS — Old Time German Smokehouse Secrets — Experience some of the 1900s meat processing methods used on an old German farm. Watch the curing of bacon and the art of stuffing of sausage. Visit with interpreters at the farm on methods and ways of handling foods and compare them to today’s techniques. Then tour the buildings and houses where you’ll find a wood stove used daily by park interpreters. Accessible for the mobility, visually and hearing impaired. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. (830) 644-2252.

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This is Passport to Texas

Since 2002, twenty-six thousand derelict crab traps have been hauled from Texas bays.

Through our program we have documented over forty species of organisms that are caught in these traps that include game fish, and commercially important fish, and even Diamond back terrapins which are a species of special concern.

That’s Art Morris is a biologist with Coastal Fisheries. He says Parks and Wildlife is gearing up for the annual Crab Trap clean up, February 19-28. Volunteers are needed.

Anybody can volunteer, however, we primarily need people with boats, and particularly air boats. But there are jobs for people that don’t have a boat. We need people to unload boats; we need people to maybe sometimes to go out with people that will have crew members to go out with them. We’ll provide gloves; we’ll have tarps for boats. You don’t need to sign up for anything. We would like you to call ahead of time so we can get an estimate of how many people are going to come to that site. Most of our work’s going to be done in San Antonio bay, north, because that’s where most of the crabbing effort goes on. But anybody can volunteer, and they can do it on their own—anytime from February 19 through 28th.

The main cleanup event is February 20 from 8:00 to noon; check the TPW website for details. Morris warns to remove traps only during Feb. 19-28 as it is illegal all other times as traps are private property.

That’s our show…with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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This is Passport to Texas

There are ghosts in the gulf that silently trap and kill thousands of marine species annually.

They are a perpetual trapping machine. When something gets caught in there, it has nothing to eat and it dies, and it becomes bait and it attracts other fish and other organisms.

That’s Art Morris…ghost buster. Actually, he’s a biologist with Coastal Fisheries. The entities he’s after are abandoned crab traps…adrift in the gulf…ghost fishing.

And one of the key things about this, because they’re targeting for crabs, that’s the number one species that we see—the targeted organisms is what we’re losing to these derelict traps.

Weather and vandalism are the primary reasons why traps end up adrift, indiscriminately ensnaring crustaceans and other sea life. Morris says since 2002, twenty-six thousand of these A.W.O.L. traps have been hauled from Texas bays.

A single trap can kill 26 blue crabs per trap per year. And we can extrapolate those numbers out and we estimate somewhere in the area of half million blue crabs are saved through this program alone—or have to date.

Morris hasn’t removed these traps alone—he’s had a lot of help from volunteers during annual crab trap clean ups. Your chance to help rid the gulf of ghost fishing happens later this month…and we’ll tell you about it tomorrow.

That’s our show…with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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