Passport to Texas

Texas Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame 2017 Honoree: Gulf States Toyota.

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This is Passport to Texas

The Texas Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame honors individuals and organizations for their contributions to the sport. Gulf States Toyota is one such inductee.

Gulf States Toyota joined with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in a private-public partnership to create the Toyota Texas Bass Classic, and also with the Toyota ShareLunker program.

Dave Terre, Texas Parks and Wildlife chief of fish management and research, says Gulf States Toyota, has been a boon to bass fishing…and not just in Texas.

The Toyota Texas bass Classic has been huge for Texas Parks and Wildlife. It’s provided us an opportunity to engage millions of people into fishing—all across Texas, and really across the United States of America.

The Guld State’s support helped double the neighborhood fishin’ lakes in Texas, thus making fishing accessible to more families in the urban core. And its long-term involvement in the ShareLunker program, is legend.

Gulf States Toyota supported the Sharelunker program since 2009. It’s really putting us on a path to create cutting edge science. It’s allowed us to be able to track these fish through DNA.

Gulf States Toyota is in the spotlight next week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS. Check your local listings.

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

The calm before the storm?

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This Saturday, June 9th, the 56th Annual Texas Water Safari gets underway. Known as the World’s Toughest Canoe Race, individuals and teams of paddlers endure the grueling non-stop, 262 mile trip from San Marcos to Seadrift.

Read a nail-biting account of the trek written by adventurer, Russell Roe, for the June issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine. It’s another installment of the magazine’s year of Epic Texas Adventures.

Roe captures the spirit of the event as he follows novices and seasoned veterans alike, as they wipe out at rapids and lose all their gear, negotiate log jams, suffer blazing heat, oppressive humidity, the indignity of biting insects.

These intrepid souls paddle on, despite the dark of night, losing their way, and the weight of exhaustion that descends on them all. Paddlers have a 100 hour time frame to reach their destination.

What’s even more remarkable is there’s no big cash prize at the end of the race. Just memories and bragging rights. Talk about an epic adventure.

Read this thrilling story called Epic Texas Challenge — Texas Water Safari by Russell Roe in the June issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine. On Newsstands now.

That’s our show…. brought to you in part by Ram trucks: built to serve.

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

There’s plenty of wildlife and plant life in cities and the City Nature Challenge proved it.

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More than two thousand Texans uploaded tens of thousands of observations of plants and animals to iNaturalist.org during the annual worldwide City Nature

Challenge in April. Texas made a good showing in two of the three categories.

Number two in number of observations was Dallas Fort Worth they came in just behind San Francisco. And then for number of species Houston came in second, also behind San Francisco.

San Francisco also came out on top for number of participants. Marsha May, a Texas Nature Tracker biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife, coordinated the Austin region.

There was one woman from Austin who amazed me. She pretty much covered the whole area: from far west Blanco County to far east Bastrop Country. She went to all these state parks. She was just constantly out there. She had a microscope that she had out in the field so she could get these entire little organisms. Unbelievable!

Overall, 17,000 people worldwide competed; they recorded more than 441-thousand observations—nearly three and a half times the observations recorded last year.

The data can be brought to the city councils in cities to say: Look at the diversity of species in our area, and the people involved. A lot of people say that there‘s no nature in cities.

But the City Nature Challenge tosses that assumption on its ear. Find more results from this year’s challenge at citynaturechallenge.org.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti

The kind of bird species seen in the Lower Rio Grande Valley during the City Nature Challenge.

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This is Passport to Texas

During the last four days of April, nearly 70 cities on six continents participated in a friendly competition called the City Nature Challenge.

[It’s about] who has the most wildlife diversity—including plants—within
their community.

Marsha May, a Texas Nature Tracker biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife, says seven cities in Texas took part. Using the iNaturalist app, participants uploaded photos and audio of species they saw, competing in three categories: observations, species found and participants.

San Francisco came in first [in all three categories], and last was  Antarctica.

In Antarctica, three observers documented 27 species for 36 total observations.

I think it was amazing that they were involved, because the species diversity in Antarctica is not really large. But it is wonderful that they were involved.

Meanwhile, San Francisco documented 42-thousand total observations, followed by second-place DFW with 34-thousand. In species found, about a hundred species stood between second-place Houston and first-place San Francisco. Regarding participants, SF had more than 1500, whereas no city in Texas cracked the top five.

Tomorrow: more about Texas and the City Nature Challenge results

Our show receives support in part from Ram Trucks: Built to Serve.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti

Family Fishing Fun on Free Fishing Day, June 2, 2018

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Karen Marks says Free Fishing Day on June 2nd lets you try fishing before spending money on a license and gear.

So, this is a great day, because you don’t have to invest in a fishing license. And, if you go to one of our site that has a tackle loaner program—we have over 90 sites across the state. So you can go fishing without making the big investment of a license or gear. Try it out. See if you like it. And, hopefully you do. And then you’ll come back and buy a fishing license and go out and buy some gear.

Marks, aquatic education manager for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, says manufacturers collect a 10 percent excise tax on fishing gear that’s earmarked for conservation programs, including fish stocking. On June 1st, neighborhood fishin’ ponds will be stocked with catfish for you to reel in and take home on June 2.

The neighborhood fishing parks do have different bag limits, so you’ll have to look at the signs in the park and see what those are. And then check your outdoor annual—you can look at the book or look at the online app—and check out what the regulations are for where you’re fishing. Because there are length limits and bag limits that apply. Well, fingers crossed we get some new anglers out of this. Yes, I hope so; that would be great.

All the fun without all the expense. Free Fishing Day is June 2. Learn more on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, Cecilia Nasti.