Passport to Texas

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

Let’s say you want to learn how to hunt, but you don’t have family or friends to teach you. What do you do? You attend the first-of-its-kind skill-building workshop for novice hunters.

Called Hunt Texas—The Basics. And it’s designed to provide new hunters with the basic skills needed to successfully pursue a variety of game species.

Linda Campbell is Program Director of the Private Lands and Public Hunting Program. In May, Parks and Wildlife Commissioners approved a Mentored Hunting Permit, thus clearing the way for these multi-day workshops.

Workshops will be developed locally by our field staff. They will be held on a WMA. Our first one is planned for the Justin Hurst WMA, down on the coast; it’s going to occur in September.

Firearm selection, game processing, dove hunting techniques and hunting license requirements are among the workshop topics. A hunting license will be required to participate, as will a $25 Mentored Hunting Permit.

This is on a first come, first served reservation basis. Of course, they’ve got to limit the number of people that can participate so that they can provide real hands on training. And so, to do that right, we’ll limit the number of folks participating.

Find information about the first workshop, scheduled for September 19 & 20 at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program…providing funding for the Private Lands and Public Hunting Program.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

When Matthew Butler’s youngest daughter returned home from school asking why her Daddy—a lifelong hunter—killed animals he was perplexed.

I thought that’s a rather strange question considering I’ve always hunted and you’ve been exposed to it.

He learned classmates at the suburban Washington DC School she attended had ridiculed the grade-schooler when they discovered she came from a hunting family.

And I thought, well, I know what I’ll do. I’ll go buy a book that would explain it to her in her terms—the environmental reasons and the ecological reasons behind hunting, and why it makes good sense for us as a society. Well, I couldn’t find such a book—it doesn’t exist. So, I decided that I would write it because the story needed to be told.

The book he wrote, Billy Goes Hunting, is a tale of a young boy who, with the help of his grandfather, learns about the tradition and value of hunting. Butler says the book has two audiences.

It’s directed at the children so that they hear the message, and they understand that hunting really has an environmental, economic, and social impact on our society. And the second group is obviously parents. I guess I look at this as a tool for parents to open up dialog, open up discussion, and to communicate with their children.

Learn more about Billy Goes Hunting at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Billy Goes Hunting Website: http://www.billygoeshunting.com/

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

Squirrel hunting was considered a right of passage for young people, but that’s changing. TPW TV writer/producer Ron Kabele tells us about a story airing this month called Last of the Squirrel Hunters.

We followed a father and his daughter, who were hunting on Engeling WMA. Her name was Macy; and she was very enthusiastic—she was about 12 years old.

I have four daughters. Macy is my outdoors person, so she likes to go and tromp out in the woods as long as the bugs don’t bother her too much.

And, his fear is that at some point, Macy’s generation is going to be the last generation of squirrel hunters. Squirrel hunting is actually a very good way to get people into hunting, because you’re moving around the forest, you’re not sitting in one place, you have lots of targets to aim at if you’re in good habitat. In other words, there’s lots of action.

(ambience walking) That other squirrel’s gotta be right here. Dad, put it in your pocket. Whoa. That’s cool.

A lot of time with hunting, it’s that first experience that determines whether someone’s going to be a hunter or someone’s not.

That’s our show for today…thank you for joining us…we receive funding from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program… providing funding for the operations and management of the Gus Engeling WMA.

We record out program at the Production Block in Austin, Texas. Joel Block engineers our show.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Find out on which PBS stations the Texas Parks and Wildlife Television series airs when you click here.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The Light Goose Conservation order goes into effect after the regular goose season ends.

In 1999 the light goose conservation order was put in place. And it’s an effort to try and reduce the total population of light geese; to address the overpopulation in the arctic. Trying to bring that population back in line with what the habitat can support.

Dave Morrison is waterfowl program leader, at Texas Parks and Wildlife.

During the conservation order basically all bets are off. Unplugged guns, electronic calls, no bag limit, shooting hours extended to half hour past sunset. Basically the gloves come off and you just try to do what you can do.

He reminds hunters, the conservation order is a management action and not hunting season.

We’re doing this as a management practice. And if you’re going to take large numbers of geese, make sure that they’re put to use. Don’t just leave them, don’t just sit there and pile up dead goose after dead goose, make sure that you never put yourself in a position to look bad to the public.

The conservation order goes into effect January 28th in the east, and February 6th in the west, and runs through March 30th in both regions.

That’s our show… made possible by the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas.

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

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

Every longtime hunter with whom I’ve spoken says virtually the same thing.

Hunting has become a very, very personal thing. I don’t do a whole lot of harvesting, but I enjoy being outdoors.

Bob Cook is a lifelong hunter and outgoing Executive Director of Texas Parks and Wildlife.

When I hunt, I hunt alone. Now, I may go hunting with a whole bunch of guys, but that’s mainly for around the camp type stuff. When I actually go out into the field, typically, I enjoy hunting alone. I enjoy the quiet and the peace of it all.

Hunters and non-hunters agree that being in nature is its own reward. For people who do hunt, years of careful habitat management in Texas have paid off.

One of the things that I’ll say to you about hunting is Texas, I think, having had the experiences that I have had in other areas is that we’re spoiled. The wildlife populations and such in Texas are so good… we have so much game… so much wildlife… that we kind of tend to take that for granted. Hardly anybody else, anywhere in the world, I think, has the abundance of wildlife that we have.

Find a link to wildlife and hunting information at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…The Wildlife Restoration supports our series and funds Texas’ Private Lands and Public Hunting Programs.

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

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