Passport to Texas

Barton Warnock Education Center, Terlingua, Texas

Nature: Barton Warnock Center Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Barton Warnock Environmental Educational Center in Terlingua is where the region’s 570 million year history comes alive.

11—It was first the Lajitas Museum and Desert Garden. In 1990, the state of Texas bought it and it became the eastern entrance to the Big Bend Ranch State Park system.

David Long is superintendent at Barton Warnock. While West Texas has a mystique that’s hard to define, the center takes on the challenge.

13—The exhibits focus on the geology of the area and the natural history of the Big Bend area. Geology brings together the vegetation, the biology, and all the natural resources here, and the culture in this whole area.

The cultural history of this region is just as fascinating as its geological and natural histories.

20—‘Terlingua’ – the name itself – means ‘tres linguas,’ and the three different languages, three different cultures that combine here are the Anglos, the Spanish, and the Indian cultures. These cultures have combined and created a unique border community. We call it the ‘borderlands,’ or if you’re in Mexico, you’d call it the ‘frontera.’

Whether you call it borderlands or frontera, the Barton Warnock Environmental Education Center in Terlingua is open to visitors who want to know more about this fascinating region. Find information about the center on the Texas Parks and Wildlife web site.

That’s our show…Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram …

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Women relaxing after the hunt. Image from National Shooting Sports.

Hunting: Women Learning to Hunt Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

(AMB: Gunshot…”good enough…next”) [:03]

That’s how a group of ten women started a weekend hunting trip at a Hill Country ranch – by taking practice shots at targets. Ranch manager Troy Calloway explains.

08—Sometimes we get people out here who have never shot before, so we set ‘em up and assess the situation….. But everybody here is nailing it; we’re good to go it looks like.

Hunt coordinator, Tami Moore, told me that women make up less than 10% of all licensed hunters, and she thinks she may know why.

10—I think a lot of women are afraid that they’re going to fail, because they’re just scared. And going out with another group of ladies, in a situation like we are this weekend, takes a lot of that out of it.

Kathy Keller of Austin is an experienced hunter. We spoke in her deer blind.

08—Oh, this is really great. And it’s exciting to see that women are getting into this sport and learning about hunting and wildlife.

Kathy explains what it was like the first time she harvested an animal.

09—It was something that made me think. I’ve taken this life, and I had to think about why I was doing it. And I realized that it is a big responsibility.

Find hunting information and resources on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website. The Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series and works to increase hunting and shooting opportunities in Texas.

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

Getting into the field.

Hunting: Girls with Guns Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Early in my tenure at Texas Parks and Wildlife I was an observer on a women only hunting trip in the Hill Country. Tami Moore was Hunt Coordinator.

09-We’re trying to get women involved in the outdoors, and to take some of the mystery out of the sport of hunting. Before it’s just been something that the guys go do.

The women’s skill levels varied from novice to pro. Each woman brought a guide with them; first time hunter, Millissa Salinas of Austin, brought her father Ralph.

10-I’ve always wanted to experience the outdoors, and I thought the perfect opportunity to bond with my father would be this event so he could show me the ropes and spend some special memories together.

Like all the women on the trip, Salinas was enthusiastic about the opportunity.

11-We’d been preparing for it for about a month. He had taken me target shooting, I had borrowed a rifle. So I’d been anticipating for some time now. So when the actual moment came, it was extremely exciting.

Salinas harvested two deer on that trip. Hunting with other women and her father made for an experience that she intends to recreate with other family members.

07-We definitely want to get involved more in the outdoors. And I have a younger sister that we’re going to try to encourage to join us.

Find hunting resources on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website. The Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series and works to increase hunting and shooting opportunities in Texas.

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

Caddo Lake

TPW TV: Caddo Lake Paddling Trail Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

[SFX – paddling]

Gliding along the paddling trails on Caddo Lake in East Texas is at once intimate and humbling: mist dances on the water; giant, moss-covered bald cypress rise up as silent sentinels along the banks; the chorus of bird songs serenade you as you pass by; habitat teams with diverse and abundant wildlife. It’s a special place.

04— It’s beyond words to describe how wonderful this place is.

Vanessa Adams is a natural resource specialist with parks and wildlife.

13— The paddling trails here on Caddo Lake will get you back into some habitat that is just not everywhere, it’s unique. It gets you into a place that you may have never seen before.

Marshall, Texas resident, and Caddo Lake paddling enthusiast, Sandra Phillips, says she feels close to the earth when she’s on this enigmatic lake.

09 – You can’t find this well really anywhere else. All the network of canals and the swampyness of it.

Caddo Lake is different every season, says Vanessa Adams. Paddlers should return often to experience it fully. [SFX – ambience]

05— You gotta get out on the boat, you gotta get in the swamp and you really gotta sit down and you gotta sit and listen.

Caddo Lake’s Paddling trails are featured on the Texas Parks and Wildlife PBS TV series the week of January 19. Check local listings.

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

Geese at Bonham State Park

Hunting: Impact of Snow Goose Conservation Order Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By 1999 it was clear: an overpopulation of light geese was ravaging its arctic nesting grounds. Without intervention, scientists believed this unique ecosystem would collapse.

05— So, in an effort to try to stem that tide, the light goose conservation order began.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Small Game Program Director, Dave Morrison, says Texas was prepared to do its part.

08— When we started the conservation order, Texas’ harvest during the conservation order was a little over a hundred thousand birds. So, when it started, we knew what to do.

For the past 14 years, this annual management action has occurred primarily in the country’s three eastern flyways; engaging hunters from Canada to Texas.

10—Since that time, you’ve seen a decline in total harvest in Texas from about 100-thousand to about 12-thousand in the last hunting season; there are fewer geese being seen on the coastal zone of Texas.

There are fewer light geese coming to Texas, but their overall population continues to grow. Changes in agricultural practices in the flyway’s midsection may put more food on the ground, and that may keep birds from coming this far south.

12—There are still increased numbers of white geese out there, to such an extent that we had the council vote to increase the daily bag limit during the regular season from 20 to 50.

What that will mean for Texas, tomorrow. The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series… For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.