Passport to Texas

Big Time Texas Hunts

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Big Time Texas Hunts offers hunters a chance to win any of eight premium hunt packages on some of the finest private ranches and prime wildlife management areas in the state.

09 —We bill it as once in a lifetime type of hunts. [We have] Really great hunting packages for deer, and birds, and waterfowl, alligator…

Money from the sale of entries supports wildlife conservation in Texas. Linda Campbell is program director for Private Lands and Public Hunting at Parks and Wildlife.

13 — These are fully guided hunts, and so everything is provided: lodging and food; all the guiding is also provided. You just have to get yourself to the location. But other than that – everything is taken care of, including the taxes on the hunt, itself.

You can buy as many entries for each hunt package as you like. Entries cost $9 online or $10 by phone, mail or retail. Deadline to enter is October 15. Most Big Time Texas Hunt packages permit winners to bring along a friend to share the experience.

16— The Whitetail Bonanza, for example. The Exotic Safari – you can bring hunting companions with you. The Grand Slam, which is the hunt for the premier big game animals in Texas – pronghorn, big horn sheep, mule deer and whitetail – you can bring a non-hunting companion on that one.

And new this year to Big Time Texas Hunts is the opportunity to hunt…

02 — Big, mean-looking hogs in East Texas…

More tomorrow. We receive funding from Chevrolet, supporting outdoor recreation in Texas; because there’s life to be done.

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

Cameron Dodd, Northeast Texas Hiking Trail

Hiking: The Northeast Texas Trail Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

When Railroad companies retire sections of track, some extend their rights-of-way to public or private entities, which convert the corridor into recreational trails; considered by some to be long, narrow parks.

Journalism student, Cameron Dodd, hiked much of the 130 mile Northeast Texas Trail earlier this year. Once owned by Santa Fe Railroad, the trail – still in development – stretches from Farmersville, north of Dallas, to New Boston, just west of Texarkana.

07— There are parts of it that are overgrown, and parts of it that some landowners have blocked off; they were just kind of impassable.

Dodd traveled solo carrying a backpacked filled with camping gear and provisions…but company was never far.

10— I met a lot of nice people along the way. I took help when I needed it; wound up spending the night in a cabin of someone I met in Ladonia, and accepting some rides when the trail was impassable.

The trail took him through small towns and open vistas. And along the way, he picked up a traveling companion.

17 — Yeah, this dog showed up one night when I was heating up some beans in Ladonia; he didn’t have any tags on him, and nobody seemed to know whose dog it was, and he kept following me, so…next morning I was walking off to Wolf City, the next town. The dog just followed me, so I just kept him around; he was good company.

Cameron checked the dog for a microchip, and finding none, gave this dog a home. Cameron Dodd’s article on the Northeast Texas Trail appears in the October issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine.

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

Galveston Bay Estuary Teaming with Life, Image © Gary Seloff

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If you’re looking for a way to cap off your summer or kick off your fall, a fishing trip to the coast may satisfy that craving.

04— Fishing is phenomenal on the Texas coast in the late summer and early fall.

Bill Balboa is a fisheries biologist for the Galveston Bay system – a great place, he says, to cast a line.

18— It’s the largest estuary on the Texas coast, and we have a real diversity of fish species; they run anywhere from blue catfish, which are freshwater species – because there’s a lot of river flows into the bay – all the way to spotted sea trout, tarpon, red drum, black drum, and the other saltwater species you see farther down the coast. So, it’s a very diverse environment.

Here’s the best part: you’re not going to need a boat to get the most out of a fishing trip to the Texas coast.

17— Absolutely not. And that’s a really good point, because in the summertime and the early fall, there’s a lot of really good fishing all up and down the Texas coast – specifically on the beach. Prevailing winds that blow all spring and summer calm down a bit, and so the water along the beachfront improves, and the fishing is phenomenal.

Bill Balboa says fishing in the bays is like opening packages at Christmas – you never know what you’ll find. Everything you need to know to fish in Texas is at the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

Support provided by Ram Trucks. Doing what’s right and good regardless of the degree of difficulty — takes guts. Those are the people who build Ram trucks. RAM. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Texas River School; image courtesy https://www.facebook.com/TexasRiverSchool

Outdoor Education: Wisdom from the River and its Source Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Texas River School in Austin takes kids in fourth through sixth grade, who come from under-served populations, on daylong river outings. Joe Kendall is program founder.

10 – We teach them how to canoe, and we go down river to the mouth of Barton Creek, and float up the creek, and then take the kids to the Splash Exhibit so they learn how an aquifer works and why it’s so important to take care of it.

The Splash Exhibit is part of Austin’s Barton Spring’s Pool, named for the spring that feeds it. The school also teaches kids to snorkel to enrich the experience.

11 – So, they hopefully can dive to the bottom of the pool and feel the source of the aquifer and understand that creates the pool, the creek, the river… So, they can get an appreciation of where the water comes form.

The program is open to kids of all abilities. Kendall says it’s not just important to get kids outside, he says it’s vital to help kids develop a life-long love affair with rivers.

05 – There’s only one word that’s in more song titles than the word River, and that’s the word love.

Start your love affair with rivers at the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

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

Texas River School; image courtesy of www.texasriverschool.org

Outdoor Education: Texas River School Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

About twenty years ago, Joe Kendall and some of his friends decided to help protect Texas Rivers by getting people involved in their care.

05 –We started doing cleanups, and started the foundation with the idea of having an adoption program.

Kendall is the founder and executive director of the Austin Chautauqua Foundation.

13 – We did festivals and Chautauquas—which is to combine entertainment and education and races. We ended up doing a program with some fifth graders, and we discovered that was probably the most rewarding thing for us; and we thought, also, for the rivers.

Rewarding for the rivers because the more people who know and love rivers, the more people there will be to protect them in the future. The Texas River School, borne of Kendall and company’s original idea, gets a diverse group of kids on the water.

23 – Fortunately, we have Texas Parks and Wildlife to thank for that. They have provided us with a grant every other year to take kids to the river that wouldn’t normally get a chance to go. They identify them as their non-traditional constituents…people that don’t use the parks. And they see that’s the minorities, economically disadvantaged, females and at-risk kids. So, we target all those areas and have taken over four thousand through our discover the source program.

The source, in this case, is the spring that feeds Barton Creek in Austin. We’ll tell you more about River School activities tomorrow.

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