Passport to Texas

Texas Madrone, image from Aggi-Horticulture

Habitat: Planting Native Trees Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Now is an ideal time to plant trees throughout most of Texas…and you might wonder why.

08—Two reasons: the two most important constituents in tree planting—the people planting the trees and the trees. It’s just much easier on them.

Scott Harris is a certified arborist in Austin. Tree planting season in Texas started in October and continues through March.

11—Getting the trees in the ground in the fall [and winter], they have the entire cool season, dormant season, to spread roots out before the big demands on roots and water start in the spring.

Just because a tree will grow in Texas, doesn’t mean it should grow here. Harris advises that we all exercise caution about what we plant in our yards.

:20—The biggest thing to avoid is non-natives. Our natives have all of the features you would want, but they’ve spent thousands and thousands of years getting used to being here, and with all of the wildlife used to having them, too. It’s all a web, and you can’t tell which string you can pull out without upsetting things.

Tomorrow we’ll have a few tree planting tips to help you and your newly planted tree enjoy a long and happy life together

That’s our show…Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Caprock Canyons State Park

Conservation: Land Restoration Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Returning land to near its original state –it’s condition prior to farming, grazing or development –takes years of planning and preparation.

07—Practically speaking it might take you a couple years to do some habitat assessment…to do some botanical assessment…

David Riskind… director of the natural resources program for state parks… says in most cases we can only approximate what the land looked like.

06—Most of the lands were previously forested…they were timbered…they were ranched…they’ve been modified.

One reason it takes two or more years to conduct assessments has to do with the state’s climate extremes.

14—We might acquire a piece of property, for example, during a drought year. We’d like to see what it looks like when it’s wet. So, before we do anything, we want to see what’s there. And quite often, we’re surprised at what recovers on a site after it has a chance to rest for a while.

After the land has had a chance to rest, then assessments take place.

13—We will do our baseline assessments. We may do some quantitative work… And then, for example, if it’s a grassland restoration project, it might take us another couple of years to gather the kinds of seed that we need to do restoration.

Find landowner information on the TPW website.

The Wildlife Restoration Program…supports our series and funds diverse conservations projects in Texas. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Lone Star Land Steward statewide winner 2007. Gary and Sue Price

Conservation: Land Management Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The concept of land management and restoration varies depending on landowner objectives.

09—It depends of whether you’re trying to restore forest, whether you’re trying to restore woodland, whether you’re trying to restore marsh or whether you’re trying grassland.

David Riskind is director of the natural resources program for state parks. Landowners managing for conservation purposes use similar strategies as other landowners, with one important difference.

38—They use a lot of the same strategies as other landowners do. Whether you’re in the forest business, the timber industry, the grass industry. But your objectives are different. In other words, you might weight it towards endangered species; you might weight it toward watershed protection, it might be toward songbird protection. But increasingly today, more and more people are getting involved in what’s called eco-system management. That is, you have an integrated approach. You include soil, you include wildlife, you include watersheds, you include hydrology and you include man as well.

Ecosystem management means addressing the long-term consequences of today’s decisions, and thinking of resources as interrelating parts of systems rather than as individual components to be managed separately.

The Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program supports our series and supports diverse conservation projects in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Sea turtle receiving GPS, Image courtesy Corpus Christi Caller Times

TPW TV: Eye in the Sky Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Understanding where wildlife goes provides valuable information to help manage species. Dr. Donna Shaver uses the newest GPS technology in tandem with satellites orbiting12-thousand miles above earth, [fade in ocean ambiance] to track endangered Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles on the Texas coast.

07— We’re conducting this tracking because we want to get an idea about the habitat usage by these adult females.

Dr. Shaver is with the National Park Service.

13— We want to see where they’re going in the marine environment, which is where they spend the vast majority of their life; where they’re going for migration as well as for foraging when they’re done nesting.

[lab ambiance] It takes Dr. Shaver and her team about three hours to prepare a turtle for tracking.

18 – We have to sand the shell; we put down the first layer of epoxy, then we’ll affix the transmitter. Then when it’s on there solid, we will paint the surface to help prevent barnacles from adhering onto that area where it [the transmitter] has been applied.

See how Dr. Donna Shaver uses GPS and satellite technology to track endangered Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles on the TPW PBS TV series during the week of January 26. Check local listings.

08— We’re one step closer towards recovering the species someday so that it can be enjoyed by future generations.

That’s our show…Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Ocelot image, courtesy Texas Coop Power

Endangered Wildlife: The Ocelot Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ocelots once roamed throughout Texas, Mexico, and into Arkansas and Louisiana. Jody Mays says today, only a few survive in the thick brush and shelters of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

:14—As far as we know, there less than 100 ocelots left in the United States. The ocelot’s range has disappeared, and now they only occur in the southern most tip of Texas, and that’s the only place in the whole United States that they occur.

Mays is a Wildlife Biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service at Laguna Atascosa Natural Wildlife Refuge. She explains reasons for the population decline.

:41—Usually with an endangered species, you have multiple impacts that they get hit with. For the ocelot, the biggest one was the habitat loss. Some estimates say that over 95% of the native habitat in Texas has been altered. A lot of the thick habitats have been cleared for agriculture, and for development, and for other purposes. Another associated impact with that is habitat fragmentation, and that’s where, you say, have one large piece of thick habitat that gets cut up into smaller pieces that are farther and farther apart. Loss of genetic diversity is another big issue, and that’s as a result of this habitat loss and fragmentation.

That’s our show for today…with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program… helping to fund the operations and management of more than 50 wildlife management areas in Texas.

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