Passport to Texas

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

The deadline to submit your entry to win one of seven exclusive Big Time Texas Hunt packages is October 15.

You know, if you’re lucky enough to win one of these hunts, we can guarantee you that it will be a great hunting experience.

Linda Campbell is program director for Private Lands and Public Hunting. The cost of an entry to win a guided hunting trip is just 10-dollars, and you can enter as many times as you like.

Even if you don’t win, though, you contribute to the work of the wildlife division and what we do to enhance habitat and hunting opportunities for Texans.

Entrants can walk away with deer hunts, bird hunts, and even an alligator hunt. Plus, the winner of the Texas Grand Slam gets the rare opportunity to hunt a desert Bighorn Sheep.

You know, it’s very rare that anybody gets to hunt a desert bighorn sheep; we have so few permits. That’s a guided hunt by our people on our wildlife management areas. They work very hard to provide an excellent quality hunt. Our hunters are generally just delighted with the experience overall.

If you win, but for some reason cannot go on the hunt…

You cannot sell these wins, but you can transfer them to an immediate family members, or to a youth 8 to 16 years old.

Find complete details about Big Time Texas Hunt on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show… we receive support from the Wildlife Restoration program….For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Big Time Texas Hunts, 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

Life’s short, Hunt Big—that’s the motto of Big Time Texas Hunts.

Big Time Texas Hunts is a drawing that we offer for some high quality guided hunting packages. We do it to raise money for support of our various wildlife conservation efforts including research, also to increase our public hunting opportunities throughout the state.

Linda Campbell is the program director for Private Lands and Public Hunting. The program, in its 13th year, offers hunters the chance to win one of seven exclusive hunting trips; the first hunt offered through the program was the Texas Grand Slam.

It’s still one of our most important offerings. That’s the opportunity to hunt the four premier big game species in Texas, including: desert bighorn sheep, pronghorn, mule deer, and white tail deer.

The deadline to enter is October 15, and it only costs ten dollars per entry. And you can enter as often as you like.

We have around 80-thousand total entries for all of the hunts per year. You know that’s a gross amount that we earn—several hundred thousand dollars every year to support our research and management of our game species.

We have a link to Big Time Texas Hunts at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… we receive support from the Wildlife Restoration program….For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Big Time Texas Hunts, 1 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sportfish & Wildlife Restoration Program

If you’re a gardener, or just looking for a volunteer opportunity, then put November 14th on your calendar, and take part in the Sheldon Lake State Park Prairie Plant-a-thon.

And, we hope to get a hundred, a hundred and twenty-five people out here to spend the morning, and see if we can get three thousand or so plants planted in the ground. We got 26-hundred in, in a four hour period last November.

Robert Comstock is superintendent of Sheldon Lake State Park, which is outside of Houston. The Plant-A-Thon is part of an ongoing effort to replant 400 acres of the park with native tall grass species.

Hopefully in the next two to three years we’ll have all the prairies in the park restored to their former glory.

Many of the native grasses used during plant-a-thons, and weekly restoration projects, are rescued from construction sites around Houston by members of area Texas Master Naturalist Chapters.

They dig up clumps of native grass that they identify from projects all throughout the Houston area. And they’ll work out here and they’ll take these clumps of grasses, and break them apart and put them into one gallon pots where they’ll sit for about three months to get their roots established.

Then volunteers plant the grasses into the prairie. Find details about the Plant-A-Thon at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…made possible by a grant from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program…working to restore native habitat in Texas.

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

November 14, 2009 — Sheldon Lake SP — Prairie Plant-a-thon Day — Join a biologist and staff as we introduce native grasses and plants into historic prairie lands in the park. Come prepared to dig in the dirt, and learn about our native tall grass prairie. Coyotes, bobcats, eagles, and hawks could be spotted. 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. (281) 456-2800.

Prairie Plant-A-Thon Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The October issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine celebrates one creature’s incredible journey. Managing Editor, Louie Bond.

This month we’re going to highlight one of the most spectacular natural events anywhere, which is the monarch migration, which actually happens during October. These delicate little creatures that look like they could hardly fly into your neighbor’s yard actually fly 2000 miles every year.

So, it’s an incredible feat. But for me, I just have my mouth hanging open in awe and wonder at these tiny little creatures making this great journey.

The October issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine is on newsstands now.

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

TPW Magazine October Preview Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas parks and Wildlife

The Natural Wonder of Texas: Palo Duro Canyon is a new sixty-minute documentary by Amarillo PBS affiliate KACV-TV; it tells the story of the canyon from prehistoric times until today.

[It’s] a Jam-packed hour.

Marcie Robinson is a producer at KACV-TV. The program which airs September 12 not only digs into the canyon’s ancient past, it also highlights when Palo Duro became a state park.

There weren’t any national parks [in Texas] to speak of when Texas was annexed, and so state parks came into play. And Palo Duro Canyon was basically all privately owned and people were really interested in the community to get a state park because Palo Duro was so beautiful and so interesting. They wanted to preserve this land. The land was sold to the state of Texas after a long, drawn out process. And the state park was born. Fourth of July, 1934, was the grand opening of Palo Duro Canyon State park.

Robinson says you will always remember the first time you set eyes on the canyon.

We’re flat here in the Panhandle. We’re flatlands and you’re driving, and you’re driving, and it’s flat and it’s flat and it’s flat, and then all of a sudden the ground opens up, you know, and it’s wow, what is this? And it’s mind-boggling. And Randy Ferris, Palo Duro Canyon Superintendent, he talks about it as a mountain in reverse.

The Natural Wonder of Texas: Palo Duro Canyon airs on KACV-TV in Amarillo, September 12; and later on their website for all Texans to enjoy.

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

Calendar of events at Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

Palo Duro Canyon Documentary, 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download