Passport to Texas

TPW Video: Video News Reports Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Armed with a video camera and curiosity, Karen Loke travels the state in search of stories about Texas’ natural world and the people enjoy it and care for it.

05—I love going out in the field and meeting people, and seeing what it is they love doing, and being able to tell their story.

You may have seen her work and not even realized it. Karen produces Video News Reports—VNRs—for broadcast on local television stations.

08—They also are on Texas Parks and Wildlife YouTube. So, everything we shoot, we put on YouTube. So you can just Google in a topic and find a story.

The stories are brief, but packed with meaningful information about the agency, outdoor recreation, conservation, and the people who watch over Texas’ natural resources—sometimes in unique ways.

20—You will see about a two minute video that has something, hopefully, that’s topical, that’s of news value. A lot of feature-type stories, character-driven stories. Interesting topics. You might hear about a park feature. You might hear about an eccentric person who’s a great conservationist who does some odd things—like building a bat cave.

Not near a TV or computer? You can watch Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Video New Reports on your smart phone via YouTube.

We record our series at The Block House, and Joel Block engineers our program.

We receive support from the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program…which funds conservation projects throughout Texas.

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

TPW TV: Sea Grass and Flats Boats Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you’re headed to the coast this summer with your flats boat, watch the Texas Parks and Wildlife PBS Television series in June for a segment to help keep you from damaging sea grass with your motor’s propeller. Series producer, Don Cash:

62—A flats boat is a very shallow boat that you use in very shallow water. But there are some things that you need to know before you take your flats boat out there.

The title of the story is A Scar on the Flats. It airs on the PBS stations here in Texas the week of June 10th through the 16th, and you can also see it on our YouTube Channel.

Thanks Don.

The Wild.ife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series and funds conservation projects in Texas.

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

Shooting: Girls on the Range, 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Conceived of as a day for fathers and daughters to bond over a shared experience at the shooting range, the National Take Your Daughter to the Range Day quickly evolved to include the whole family.

11—We’re still calling it take Your Daughter to the Range Day, but we’re promoting the whole family bonding, family values opportunity, as something the entire family can do together.

Lynne Finch is president and co-founder of the event, scheduled June 9th. She helped form a non-profit around the day, and reached out to shooting ranges via Facebook, and received good response.

24— Especially Texas. We have five ranges registered in Texas, and the ladies out there have been wonderful—sending us ideas that we then send on to other ranges—things that they’re doing. And everyone’s doing it a little bit differently: the format, the structure. But the core is the same. The goals are the same…the safety, the education, and the opportunity.

Some ranges want participants to register in advance of the event. Find a nearby range and their requirements at national take your daughter to the range day dot com.

18— We want this to be an annual event, but we don’t want it to stop there. Going to shoot one time a year isn’t really what this is about. This is about dipping your toes in the water. Trying something new, and then maybe the family finds out this is fun; this is something we can do together.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series and works to increase shooting sports in Texas.

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

Shooting: Girls on the Range, 1 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Lynne Finch is a certified NRA pistol instructor and one of the founders and organizers of National Take Your Daughter to the Range Day; the inaugural event is June 9.

06—The idea came in January of this year, reading Julie Golob’s book “Shoot.”

In the book Golob recounts a childhood that included spending time at the shooting range with her father. Lynne says most women who come to her want to learn personal defense.

23— So I hadn’t heard a lot of stories about growing up and the bonding opportunities with dads. I have a Facebook Page called Women Firearms Instructors, so I put the question out: How did you come to shooting? And I got so many wonderful responses from women who had grown up going to the rock quarry or going to the range, and shooting with their dads and the wonderful memories that they had.

Lynne conferred with a fellow instructor and queried others about creating an event where fathers could take their daughters to the range for a day of learning and bonding. The idea gained momentum, and became National Take your Daughter to the Range Day, set for June 9.

13— [When] girls learn to master a skill that’s not traditional, it helps with self-esteem, it opens up opportunities for them. Plus, shooting is fun. It’s something the whole family can do together.

Find a link to participating ranges in Texas at passporttotexas.org.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series and works to increase shooting sports in Texas. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Conservation: Coastal Expo Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you can’t get to the coast, then look for a Coastal Expo.

08—Coastal Expo’s an educational outreach event, where we’re teaching the public about the Texas Coast and why it’s important and why we need to protect it.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department brings the coast to communities (even communities on the coast) with Coastal Expo. Kris Shipman coordinates the events.

12— We have all sorts of great hands-on activities where they can go to a touch tank and touch sea stars and crabs and different things like that. We have areas where we talk about water quality; we talk about sea grass and wetlands and what functions they serve.

Kris Shipman says she takes the coastal expo exhibits statewide to help people understand their connection to the gulf and the oceans of the world.

22—The entire state of Texas forms the watershed for the Gulf of Mexico. And so if somebody in Abilene were to drop a piece of trash on the ground, that trash would eventually end up in some sort of watershed. Eventually that water is going to drain to the Gulf of Mexico. So, all of that trash, if it doesn’t get picked up, that’s where it ends up—is out in the Gulf of Mexico and out into the rest of the ocean.

The Next Coastal Expo is June 9th at the KEE-muh Boardwalk in Galveston Bay. Find information on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

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

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