Archive for the 'Shows' Category

Parks and Wildlife TV: Lone Oak Ranch

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

This is Passport to Texas

Dave Wilcox and his brother-in-law Oliver Smart own and operate Lone Oak Ranch; for their thoughtful caretaking of this nearly two thousand acres of coastal habitat, they won a 2010 LSLS Award for the Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes eco-region.

10—Ranching and land owning is not for the weak. Our objective is to make every section of the property the most it can be. To me, it’s just a duty that you have when you buy a piece of property. [:01 bird call at end.]

This month the Texas parks and Wildlife PBS TV series spotlights Dave Wilcox —a third generation Anahuac pharmacist—and new generation steward. Ron Kabele produced the show.

22—[bell] You walk into his pharmacy [cash register] and it’s like a throwback… What you doing Floyd? What’s going on? It’s an interesting parallel when you think about what it is as a pharmacist, taking care of the community and taking care of his land. The two really are very similar. His responsibility that he feels toward the townspeople is the same thing he feels toward his land.

Proper grazing, prescribed burning, Chinese tallow control, and moist soil management practices are used to enhance both upland and wetland habitats on the Lone Oak Ranch.

17—You know, told me that over the ten years that its taken to do this, that all these biologists and wildlife folks who have helped him—they’ve basically educated him to the point where he’s teaching other people, other landowners, how to do this. What a great thing to do to pay it forward for the greater good.

Check the Texas Parks and Wildlife website for your local listings.

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.

State Parks: Lake Whitney State Park

Monday, December 13th, 2010

This is Passport to Texas

Did someone say camping? Camping just got better at Lake Whitney State park…but it isn’t the only thing that’s great there… as our State park Guide Bryan Frazier explains.

54—Lake Whitney SP made the news recently because of some improved camping that we have there. We have more than 40 full hookup campsites, with water, electricity and sewage. It’s great for RVers who want to come through there, and it’s the only park on the lake with full hookup capacity. And the lake is 23-thousand surface acres. So, it’s well-known for its bass fishing; it’s a great smallmouth bass lake, and white bass, and striped bass, and so it’s a fisherman’s destination. But, a lot of other things going on there with the hiking trails that we have, and the camping. The scenery that we have in that North Texas area is just beautiful. And the lake is incredibly deep, which makes for biodiversity in fish populations there. Birding is fantastic at Lake Whitney Sp. And those improvements have Really been in the works for several years on our camping oops, and I think people will really be delighted to see what’s going on at Lake Whitney.

Thanks Bryan.

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

We record our series at the Production Block Studios in Austin, Texas, and Joel Block engineers our program.

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

Hummingbird Roundup

Friday, December 10th, 2010

This is Passport to Texas

Hear the word “roundup” and you might just think of herding cattle. But Mark Klym, who coordinates the Hummingbird Roundup, thinks of counting tiny birds.

Well, the Hummingbird Roundup is a backyard survey of hummingbirds that we do every year. You can participate at any time. You can download the forms directly off of our website, or you can send us a letter. We appreciate a donation to help with the cost, but we can send you them forms and get you started. And, so what does it mean to you as a scientist to get this kind of data back? Well it’s very important. It helps us to understand where the hummingbirds are being see, when they’re being seen. What resources they’re using. It helps us to get an idea how people are responding to them, whether they’re feeding them appropriately, and it gives us an opportunity also to learn a little bit about these hummingbirds. When the survey started, we thought we had 14 species in the state and that some of them were extremely rare. Now we’re finding that these birds are not as rare as we thought, some of them are actually nesting in Texas, and we’ve got 18 species of hummingbird in Texas. These are native non-migrating species? Well, these are all migrating species, but they’re all naturally occurring in the state of Texas.

If you’re interested in surveying these fast fliers, as Mark mentioned, you can download the Hummingbird Roundup forms from the Parks and Wildlife website.

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

Cool Weather Wildscaping

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

This is Passport to Texas

One of the things we tout about Wildscapes—which are landscapes comprised of native wildflowers and other native plants that provide food and shelter for wildlife—is how little maintenance they require once established.

That doesn’t make them entirely carefree, though.

Dr. Damon Waitt, senior botanist at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, says fall and winter can keep a body busy working on Wildscapes.

Fall and winter are both great times to start working on the wildflowers that we don’t think of as wildflowers: our trees and shrubs. And so, you can be planting trees and shrubs, you can be doing tree and shrub maintenance, pruning, and trimming your plants back—your small perennial, herbaceous plants—your lantanas, and things like that. You know, getting rid of that brush so the plants have room to grow the following spring. You can be collecting leaves and vegetative material from your plants to start your mulch pile, so you have mulch. There’s lots of things you can do in the garden in fall and winter.

So, if you thought you were free of yard work until spring…sorry.

That’s our show….we receive support from the Wildlife Restoration program…working to protect and preserve wildlife habitat in Texas….For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Texas Conservation Action Plan

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

This is Passport to Texas

The Texas Conservation Action Plan is a natural resource conservation strategy that directs and guides parks and Wildlife research, restoration, management and recovery of non-game species. It all starts with habitat.

08—And in Texas, of course, over 95% of the land is in private ownership, and it sets up a perfect public-private partnership.

Matt Wagner, deputy Director for the Wildlife Division, says landowner participation is critical when it comes to conservation of our state’s natural resources.

19—And they come to us most of the time for hunting and improving habitat for deer and other game species. At the same time our biologists are educating them about the non-game that occur on their property—whether it’s plants or animals. So that their actions can benefit non-game as well.

In addition to landowners, Texas Parks and Wildlife also partners with various public and private organizations and universities, and points to improvements in Texas to threatened and endangered species, as proof these partnerships work.

18—The bald eagle, of course, has been delisted. Peregrine falcons on the Texas coast now for the first time in more than 30 years, folks are able to go down and actually trap peregrines for hawking purposes on a limited basis because those animals have recovered to sustainable levels.

There’s more work to do, and you can help when you buy the horned lizard conservation license plate. It costs $30, with $22 going to non-game conservation in Texas.

We receive support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…funding the private lands and public hunting programs.

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