Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

The April issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine, on newsstands now, will inspire families to get outside, and to maybe even do volunteer work. Editor, Louie Bond.

So, our idea this month is to get families out fishing together. So, we’re going to take you on six excellent family fishing vacations in Texas, and hope that you’re inspired to take your kids out, spend a weekend or a week out there, just with you and the water and a pole and lots of beautiful silence.

And most importantly, they found partners from everywhere. And, all of these different entities came together and did their part; there’s a lot to redone there, but it looks better than ever. So, people can actually come out this year and enjoy the park—and it’s a great success story.

Thanks, Louie!

That’s our show… with support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

Farmers know how costly it can be to spray crops with insecticides to prevent pest damage. What some may not know is…bats can be partners in pest eradication.

The Mexican free tail bat, in particular, is really valuable for agricultural purposes.

Meg Goodman is a former Parks and Wildlife’s bat biologist.

Current research has shows that these bats can save farmers up to two sprays of pesticides per year because of all the insect pests that they’re eating, like the corn earworm moth and the cotton boll worm moth, among other crop pest species.

In the early 20th century, San Antonio physician Charles A. Campbell designed and tested artificial roosts to attract bats to eat mosquitoes blamed for the spread of malaria. Eventually Campbell developed a bat tower, which he installed at Mitchell Lake, south of the city, which attracted hundreds of thousands of the flying mammals. The spectacle of the bats’ nightly emergence drew spectators in the 1920s…as it does today, wherever bats roost.

Their numbers and nightly emergences bring in a lot of tourist dollars to a lot of smaller communities—and big communities like Austin… It’s one of our top tourist destinations. But they do provide a lot of tourist dollars through nature tourism through a lot of our smaller communities throughout the state.

Learn how to attract bats at passporttotexas.org. That’s our show…we receive support from the SPWR program.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Keep Texas Wild–Bat Issue
Bat House Information

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This is Passport to Texas

How do you balance the needs of wildlife and habitat, with wind energy? Find out this month and next on the TPW TV series: Producer Abe Moore.

One of the areas we go is up in the Panhandle, where wind energy is threatening tall grass prairies and the Lesser prairie Chicken, which is there; and it’s got biologists a little concerned.

They don’t do well with change on the landscape. We think that we’re displacing or moving a nesting female away from where she wants to be, and we don’t have much habitat left for her to go to.

We also do a second part on wind energy and we go down to the coast, where wind energy is being developed even faster than in the Panhandle. And, it’s a concern because it’s in the Central Flyway where millions of birds migrate through. So you have all these birds and you’re putting wind turbines in there. So there’s a balance there. We talk with Penescal Wind Farm down there. And they have a radar system set up where they can see the birds coming before they get there.

The radar itself generates a curtailment command, and in less than one minute all the turbines will be turning at less than one RPM. And in within five minutes, all of them are completely stationary.

So, both on the coast, and on the Panhandle, it comes down to habitat issues and trying to site them in the right place.

That’s our show… with support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

This week’s state park getaway takes us to Falcon Lake State Park, where fishing for bass tops a long list of recreational opportunities. Bryan Frazier is our guide.

Falcon state park—this time of year—is really one of the premier bass fishing destinations in the United States. It’s one of the first ones to be an indicator of the bass fishing season, if you will, as a lot of bass fishermen can note.

There’s a butterfly garden there that the volunteers helped build. You’ve got great camping, you’ve got some enclosed shelters there that are air conditioned. So, Falcon State Park, this time of year especially—but really all year—a great place by yourself, friends, family, check out Falcon State Park.

Find more State Park Getaway information on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show… with support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

Eighteen species of birds rely on North Deer Island, near Galveston, for nesting habitat. Yet, over time, pounding waves caused by high winds and barge traffic eroded the shoreline of this natural rookery island.

Erosion really accelerated over the last four or five years. A rough estimate is [we lose] probably three to five acres a year.

That’s Bob Galloway—Houston Audubon Society’s Island Warden. Without intervention, it’s estimated the island, located next to the gulf intercoastal waterway, would decrease in size by 30% over the next 30 years. Coastal ecologist, Jamie Schubert.

This northeastern bluff is the most visually striking area of erosion. It’s been undermined by barge wakes and northerly storms blowing in waves that have undermined the bottom of the bluff and caused collapse at the top with these shrubs and other bushes falling down.

So, Audubon teamed up with Texas Parks and Wildlife and to protect the shoreline.

What this crew is doing is they’re constructing a rock breakwater, and it’ll trip the waves, reducing the wave energies that cause erosion on the island.

We’ll have more about that tomorrow.

That’s our show… with support from the Wildlife Restoration program…funding habitat restoration in Texas.

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

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