Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

It’s December, and that puts us in the middle of various hunting seasons in Texas. If you’re a bird hunter, you won’t want to miss the TPW PBS TV series this month. Series Producer, Don Cash.

One of the stories we’re going to do in the month of December is about hunting dogs. They’re going to talk about how important a dog is to a hunter.

One of the things you’ll learn in this story is not to use the term “fetch” when you want to send your dog out. We use the dog’s name to send the dog on the birds. If you’re hunting with many of your buddies, and they all have dogs, and if you share a common command, say, fetch, all three dogs could go. And that’s not good. So, take a look at this story and watch the dogs work. They’re just absolutely beautiful.

Thanks, Don. Log onto the Texas Parks and Wildlife website for a schedule of shows and where they air.

That’s our show…with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program… providing funding for the Private Lands and Habitat Enhancement Program … For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

TPW TV: Hunting Dogs Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

When you visit Lake Mineral Wells SP, recreational opportunities from hiking to horseback riding await you—because as our SP Guide Bryan Frazier says: it is a complete park.

63—By complete park we mean, it has a lot of different recreational opportunities. No matter what people are interested in doing outdoors…there’s great camping, you’ve got more than 70 developed campsites, you’ve got lots of primitive campsites, you’ve got screened shelters, but you’ve also got a 650 acre lake that’s great for fishing from everything from sunfish to catfish to bass. You’ve got beautiful scenery with big limestone hills. You’ve got rappelling and rock climbing; it’s one of the few places you can do—certainly in North Texas—with legitimate rock-climbing opportunities, and it’s very, very popular for that. And it’s just one of those picturesque parks—it even has a group dining hall. So, people can go there and spend a day trip. It’s very accessible from the Fort Worth area—it’s actually right on the edge of the city of Mineral Wells. Or, you can spend several days. Camp. Hike. It’s 38-hundred acres, so it’s a nice big park. More than sixteen miles of hiking and biking trails…it really is one of those park experiences that someone can spend as much time as they wanted to and not do the same thing twice.

Thanks Bryan.

That’s our show for today…with funding provided by Chevrolet…building dependable, reliable trucks for more than 90 years.

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

State Parks: Lake Mineral Wells Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Imagine spring in Texas without roadsides awash in colorful wildflowers. Dr. Damon Waitt, senior botanist at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, says these native plants don’t just make us smile, they serve us in other important ways as well.

Native plants have natural benefits in the natural benefits in the natural landscape. They provide really important ecosystem services for local wildlife, pollinators. They filter storm water and rainwater, so they provide all these services to the ecosystem, and they can provide similar services in the built landscape, and reduce things like water use, pesticide use and fertilizer use. In addition, they have the aesthetic qualities that we want people to appreciate, so they’re not looking for that next exotic ornamental—that they ‘re more interested in finding that next native plant that looks great and functions perfectly in their environment. There are a lot of people who might look at wildflowers and native plants and say, gosh, how do those fit into my idea of a formal landscape. At the wildflower center, we model different design styles using native plants. That’s something we’re really trying to fight—that concept that if you’re a native plant enthusiast, then your yard must look wild and unkempt. When, in fact, you can use native plants in very high designs and very formal designs if that’s the look you’re going for.

Find plants that are right for you at wildflower.org.

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

Nature: Wildflowers & Other Natives Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

It may seem counter-intuitive that a wetland—something that’s filled with water—can actually help to reduce the amount of floodwater that reaches the built environment during extreme weather events.

06—Because it holds the water in and then releases it at a much more controlled rate over a longer period of time.

Nathan Kuhn, a wetlands biologist with parks and Wildlife, says flooding may still occur, but…

07—Flooding isn’t as severe, and so there’s less damage essentially being caused by these storm events.

We’re slowing gaining an appreciation for the benefits of wetlands, and we mostly understand that they are not worthless, stinking, mosquito infested swamps, to fill in for future development.

Nevertheless, we’ve lost acres of coastal wetlands due to that thinking and action, and so flooding in parts of Texas can be absolutely devastating during extreme weather events.

15—We’re not normally dealing with extreme events. But, when we do have those extreme events, then we’re getting the flooding that we’ve never really seen before in many cases due to the lack of wetlands. That’s because there’s so much hard surface now, where there used to be exposed soil to soak up that water.

Learn about wetlands on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

Our show receives support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Habitat: Wetland Mitigate Flooding Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Nathan Kuhn is a wetlands biologist who spends his time studying marshes.

13—There are a lot of different categories, but the ones that I usually operate with are the four categories of freshwater, intermediate, brackish and saltwater marshes. And, basically, that’s a gradient from lowest salinity to highest salinity.

He explains that wetland is another term to describe marshland as well as other soggy bottoms.

16—Essentially they’re the same. A marsh is just a kind of wetland. A marsh is typically made up of grasses and other herb type plants. Whereas a swamp is another type of wetland, and that’s mainly composed of trees, like your bald cypress and tupelo gum trees.

We’re more inclined to visit a mall than we are a marsh. And as hard as it is to believe, our overall quality of life would not decline if malls disappeared. The same is not true were we to lose our marshes.

14—Without them, in many cases we would not have the shrimp or the speckled trout that a lot of people go to the Texas coast to enjoy. So, there are a lot of invisible values of these wetlands that these people don’t necessarily realize unless they were gone.

Tomorrow we see how a decline in marshland means an increase in flooding.

Our show is made possible by the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Habitat: What is a Marsh? Play Now | Play in Popup | Download