Passport to Texas

Bringing nature to the classroom. Image: texaschildreninnature.org

Back to School Week: Outreach & Education Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas Back to School Week

You might wonder why Texas Parks and Wildlife trains teachers to provide outdoor education and conservation curricula, when many groups statewide already address those areas.

So, typically, if you’re working with school groups, you’ll have a more diverse audience, and a more diverse representation of the population than you would in a self-selected or volunteer group.

Johnnie Smith is director of Outreach and Education for Texas Parks and Wildlife, which offers wide ranging programs.

Under Outreach & Education, we have angler education, boater education, hunter education—all of our outreach and recruitment efforts [like the Texas State Fair]—and then lastly we have a section that’s called conservation Education. Those are the folks that work directly with school-aged children and teachers.

Conservation programs include Project Wild, TCiN and community water curricula. Teachers receive training and resource materials so they can expose students to natural resources, wildlife and habitat.

Because, what we find is, that until somebody establishes an affinity for nature, they’re not likely to ever develop a conservation-minded approach, or stewardship approach. And so, we hope that that investment in the kids will yield us folks that are stewardship and conservation-minded in the future.

Bring the Texas outdoors to your classroom; learn how when you click the Education tab on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

Our show receives support from RAM Trucks: Built to Serve.

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

Nilgai can weigh up to 700 lbs., stand 4’5” at shoulder and be up to 6.6 ft long.

Big Time Texas Hunts South Texas Safari Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Big Time Texas Hunts raises funds for wildlife conservation by offering the public chances to win one of 10 premium hunt packages for $9 per online entry.

One of our most popular hunts is the Grand Slam. Where one hunter will go on four separate hunts over the course of a year… for whitetail, mule deer, pronghorn antelope and Desert Bighorn Sheep on one of our west Texas WMAs. So, it’s a dream hunt package that’s very popular—and one hunter gets drawn every year for it.

Justin Dreibelbis is Texas Parks and Wildlife’s program director for private lands and public hunting. The Grand Slam may be the biggest hunt package, but the newest and certainly a challenging hunt is the Nilgai Antelope Safari in South Texas.

It’s not your typical Texas deer hunt from a stand. This will be a hunt where you’re spending a lot of time in a jeep riding around trying to spot animals. And from that point, once you spot the nilgai, then it’s a spot and stalk. And, you’re actually out in the brush sneaking up on these critters. And it’s just a very fun, challenging hunt, that’s really a good test of a hunter’s abilities.

Enter online through October 15 at the TPW website; $9 per entry. You’ll pay a $5 online administrative fee, but it allows unlimited entries in a single transaction.

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

This could be you, if you enter Big Time Texas Hunts.

The Hunt of a Lifetime Awaits Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Big Time Texas Hunts is a yearly drawing offered by Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Big Time Texas Hunts is a conservation fundraiser, basically. We try to raise money that we can put directly back into wildlife conservation work on our wildlife management areas and all of our public hunting lands across the state.

Justin Dreibelbis is Texas Parks and Wildlife’s program director for private lands and public hunting. Big Time Texas Hunts provides a chance for you to win a once-in-a-lifetime hunting experience.

So, we have 10 very high quality all-inclusive hunting packages, ranging everywhere from big horn sheep and pronghorn antelope to white-tailed deer and alligators.

New this year: a nilgai antelope safari in south Texas.

They’re originally from India. They were brought in by the King Ranch in the late 1920s. And their populations have really kind of exploded in south Texas along the coast. It’s a really neat animal. A really big, hardy antelope species that is really challenging and fun to hunt. And it is delicious table fare, too.

We’ll have more on Big Time Texas Hunts tomorrow.

Enter online through October 15 at the Texas Parks and Wildlife website; $9 per entry. You’ll pay a $5 online administrative fee, but it allows unlimited entries in a single transaction.

All entries support the work of wildlife conservation in Texas.

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

Curved Bill Thrasher at Christmas Mountains Oasis

TPW TV - West Texas Wetland Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

In a region best known for its rugged terrain and dry desert ecology, avid birders, Carolyn Ohl-Johnson and her late husband Sherwood, created something magical in the Christmas Mountains of West Texas.

It’s a refuge for birds, butterflies.

Started in the 1990s, the couple developed ways to capture water that fell or flowed on their property.

And I told him how we could put in some diversion dams, and he just hopped right on that without greasing his equipment the same day! And so we started out with one tank that wasn’t nearly big enough.

So began a lifelong passion to establish an oasis in the middle of the desert to draw birds to her West Texas home. The Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS features Carolyn’s oasis on this week’s show.

I can be sitting here, just looking at the same old stuff, and bet money that nothing interesting’s gonna come along. And there, all of a sudden, oh my gosh, there’s a lifer! But it won’t happen if I’m not sitting here looking, so what do you do! You sure don’t get much work done, that’s for sure.

Tune into the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS through August fourth to see not only Carolyn’s oasis, but another lush wetland project in West Texas. Check your local listings.

The Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series.

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

Enjoying the nightly fight of bats at Kickapoo Caverns State Park.

Bat Flights at Kickapoo Caverns State Park Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

One of the least understood, but most fascinating, mammals in Texas is the Mexican free tail bat.

Most of us know of this small, brown flying animal because of the bat bridge in downtown Austin, which boasts the largest urban bat colony in North America.

The bats arrive in March, and through late summer, as the sun goes down, up to 1.5 million of them spiral into the darkening sky, heading east to farmers fields for their fill of insect pests. Their nightly emergence draws hundreds of spectators.

No less impressive—but in a more picturesque setting—is a colony of up to a million Mexican free tail bats that come to roost each spring at Stuart Bat Cave at Kickapoo Cavern State Park near Bracketville.
The bats migrate to the cave in mid-March, and usually stay through the end of October. Bat flights are stunning, and with an entrance permit, visitors can experience the majesty of their nightly emergence.

From time-to-time, visitors have remarked that a bat flew into them, bounced off and kept flying…on their way to dinner…with no harm done.

Find more information about Kickapoo Caverns State Park and Stuart Bat cave at Texasstateparks.org.

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