Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Up to a million Attwater’s Prairie Chickens once occupied more than six million acres of coastal prairie in Texas. By 2005, only 40 birds were estimated in the wild.

That happened primarily because of a loss of habitat. You’ve got places like Houston, Corpus Christi, and as these cities developed, they took a lot of the coastal prairie away. And we also have the problem of Chinese tallow escaping and changing the coastal prairie into a tallow forest.

Mark Klym coordinates the Adopt-a-Prairie Chicken Program.

The Adopt-a-Prairie Chicken program is a fundraising program; seven zoos around the state put a lot of energy into raising birds that are going to be released on the prairie. And this is one way that the people of Texas can get involved and help us to support these zoos.

Thanks in part to this program, recovery efforts for the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken reached a new milestone this year when 6 hens raised 21 chicks to 6-weeks of age in the wild.

And this hasn’t happened before. One hen did do it a couple years ago, but she had a lot of help from the staff at the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken Preserve. This year, some of these hens did it with no assistance at all. And it happened not only at Attwater’s Prairie Chicken Preserve, but also on private land in Goliad county.

Today, there are an estimated 90 Attwater’s Prairie Chickens in the wild at three locations. We’ll tell you more about this bird tomorrow.

The Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

[Call of the Houston toad]

That sound is the Houston toad. And it’s become a very rare sound over the past two decades. Years of drought and habitat destruction have diminished the Houston toad population to only a few hundred.

Michael Forstner is a professor at Texas State University. And through the Texas Parks and Wildlife Landowner Incentive Program (L.I.P.), he’s working with private landowners in Bastrop County to restore habitat for the Houston toad.

Most of the people in Bastrop want to live in Bastrop County because it looks a certain way. And if it keeps looking like the lost pines, we keep the toad.

So what do these “lost pines” look like?

Imagine a cathedral forest. Most of the habitat that we find Houston toads doing the best in, whatever that means for its current levels, are gallery forests. Those are the forests that you see in the images for computer desktop wallpapers. Those are large-trunked trees with open space beneath them.

By planting the fast-growing loblolly pine trees, a habitat can be restored in about twenty years.

So if current efforts are successful, Forstner says the Houston toad population could make a comeback.

The best thing about the Houston toad is they make 6,000 eggs at a time. Those babies just need a place to grow up.

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Gretchen Mahan. You can find more information on passporttotexas.org. For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

For the past 17 years, the first weekend in October has been reserved for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Expo—but not this year.

Well, like many, many other events around the country, we have been a victim of the economy. It’s just been very difficult to raise the money that it takes to put the Expo on.

Ernie Gammage, Director of Urban Outdoor Programs says because of the economy, Expo is on hiatus for two years. The event cost a half million dollars to produce and most of that came from sponsor underwriting.

With every challenge comes and opportunity. And our opportunity now is to find places to take an Expo-like event—and we’re calling this the Life’s Better Outside Experience. And we’ll actually be taking these regional events on the road starting next year, and we’ll be holding them in San Antonio, Houston, Corpus Christi and Longview.

The Life’s Better Outside Experience will become part of existing events around the state, such as festivals and rodeos, and will be like regional mini-Expos.

They’ll be very much like a mini-Expo. There’ll be rock climbing, and archery, and fishing activities…and information about state parks, and a chance for people really to find out what’s in their own backyard.

We’ll have more on the Life Better Outside Experience tomorrow.

That’s our show… remember…Life’s better outside…for Texas parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Saving water and lush landscapes aren’t mutually exclusive. Gretchen Mahan tells us more…

At the San Antonio Botanical Gardens, six miniature houses on WaterSavers Lane showcase diverse landscapes and their water saving potential. Sir Oliver Smith, a master gardener, describes the typical landscape, complete with a water thirsty lawn.

This is what most people have. They have the traditional hedges at the door and all that manicuring you have to do every week. So this is probably what we don’t want if you want to save on money and save on grass and save on water.

For comparison, he points out an attractive landscape that replaces turf with groundcover.

People like this look; it’s a little less maintenance. And you’re replacing some of the lawn with Asiatic jasmine, which takes no water.

While the jasmine isn’t native, most of the other plants are. This helps save water because native plants generally require less of it survive.

Everyone thinks native plants are just a sticky agarita and the yuccas and the sotals. But all the other things in this garden are native. Vitex and desert willow and redbud and there are a lot of other things that do very well with almost no water.

And they’re beautiful. Contact your local Extension Service to find out which native plants thrive in your area.

Thanks, Gretchen. That’s our show…Find pictures and more information at passporttotexas.org. For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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

Ann Miller developed and hosts a new series of videos from Texas Parks and Wildlife called Take Me Fishing 101.

Well, the primary thing I want to convey is that fishing is great fun. It’s a great way to enjoy the outdoors with your family, with friends; it’s inexpensive, and it’s really pretty easy.

Miller says the eleven videos in the series cover basic skills that will help anyone get started fishing in a very short time.

I think that that’s the beauty of these. They were created to be about three minute segments. So, you can choose which segments you want to view. You can view two or three at a time, or one at a time, and practice a little bit, and then come back for more.

There are three ways to view the videos: on YouTube and the Texas Parks and Wildlife website…

Then, the third day you can do this is purchase the DVD set through the Parks and Wildlife website. Who do you expect with buy the DVDs? I really feel like there are a lot of folks out there that really just have this desire to get in the out of doors and that they’re going to look at these videos as a stepping stone to help them get out, and enjoy the outdoors, and enjoy fishing in particular.

Find links to the videos at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…we produce our show with a grant form the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…working to increase fishing and boating opportunities in Texas.

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

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