Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program

It’s August: time to renew hunting and fishing licenses.

The licenses are effective beginning September first, but they actually go on sale August 15th.

Tom Newton manages licensing at Texas Parks and Wildlife.

The fishing is broken down into saltwater or freshwater, or what we call an all-water, which covers both. There’s a couple of different hunting licenses, which is your standard deer hunters, or turkey hunters, or alligator hunters. With the hunting license you have to purchase a couple of stamps. If you’re a bird hunter you’ll need the upland game bird stamp and the federal duck stamp.

The best license to buy — if you plan on hunting and fishing — is the Super Combo.

Which encompasses everything: All the stamps, all of your hunting options, all of your fishing options. The only thing you need in addition to that is your federal duck stamp. So, the Super Combo – at sixty-four dollars – is the best priced license. And, like I say, you buy that, you need nothing else for the whole year.

Buy your licenses early and avoid the rush. They’re available online and at 17-hundred agents statewide.

All of our parks sell licenses. All of our law enforcement sells licenses as we do here at Headquarters.

That’s our show…with support from the Wildlife restoration program…working to increase shooting and hunting opportunities in Texas

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program

Squirrel hunting is often a child’s first introduction to the sport. As Texas Parks and Wildlife television producer Ron Kabele tells us, the tradition is beginning to fade.

One of the reasons is the habitat is going away. A lot of the good squirrel habitat is hardwood bottomland. And, it’s pretty well accepted that we’ve lost just a tremendous amount of the hardwood bottomlands in East Texas.

In a segment this month, the television series follows a father as he takes his daughter squirrel hunting where the healthy habitat still sustains a squirrel population.

This is a beautiful place. And the squirrel habitat—I haven’t seen like this since I was a kid hunting in south Alabama. (gunshot) Macy, be sure he’s dead before you pick him up. I know that. This one? Whoa. That’s cool.

Kabele says biologists he’s talked to fear squirrel hunting may not survive the future, but they keep hope alive.

And so, we’re wanting to continue that tradition in hopes of instilling conservation ethics, and just a love of being in the out of doors.

You can view this story on the Texas Parks and Wildlife television show in August. Find a link to stations that air the series at passporttotexas.org.

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

TP&W TV--Squirrel Hunting: A Fading Tradition Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program

Squirrel hunting is often a child’s first introduction to the sport. As Texas Parks and Wildlife television producer Ron Kabele tells us, the tradition is beginning to fade.

One of the reasons is the habitat is going away. A lot of the good squirrel habitat is hardwood bottomland. And, it’s pretty well accepted that we’ve lost just a tremendous amount of the hardwood bottomlands in East Texas.

In a segment this month, the television series follows a father as he takes his daughter squirrel hunting where the healthy habitat still sustains a squirrel population.

This is a beautiful place. And the squirrel habitat—I haven’t seen like this since I was a kid hunting in south Alabama. (gunshot) Macy, be sure he’s dead before you pick him up. I know that. This one? Whoa. That’s cool.

Kabele says biologists he’s talked to fear squirrel hunting may not survive the future, but they keep hope alive.

And so, we’re wanting to continue that tradition in hopes of instilling conservation ethics, and just a love of being in the out of doors.

You can view this story on the Texas Parks and Wildlife television show in August. Find a link to stations that air the series at passporttotexas.org.

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

TP&W TV--Squirrel Hunting: A Fading Tradition Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program

Let’s say you want to learn how to hunt, but you don’t have family or friends to teach you. What do you do? You attend the first-of-its-kind skill-building workshop for novice hunters.

Called Hunt Texas—The Basics. And it’s designed to provide new hunters with the basic skills needed to successfully pursue a variety of game species.

Linda Campbell is Program Director of the Private Lands and Public Hunting Program. In May, Parks and Wildlife Commissioners approved a Mentored Hunting Permit, thus clearing the way for these multi-day workshops.

Workshops will be developed locally by our field staff. They will be held on a WMA. Our first one is planned for the Justin Hurst WMA, down on the coast; it’s going to occur in September.

Firearm selection, game processing, dove hunting techniques and hunting license requirements are among the workshop topics. A hunting license will be required to participate, as will a $25 Mentored Hunting Permit.

This is on a first come, first served reservation basis. Of course, they’ve got to limit the number of people that can participate so that they can provide real hands on training. And so, to do that right, we’ll limit the number of folks participating.

Find information about the first workshop, scheduled for September 19 & 20 at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program…providing funding for the Private Lands and Public Hunting Program.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Increasing environmental literacy is the goal of Project Wild, a nationally recognized and internationally distributed environmental and conservation education program.

When you think about literacy, you think well, people know how to read words and how to write words and then they know what to do with it. And the same thing with environmental literacy. They know the basic concepts, but they also understand what to do with that knowledge when they’ve got it.

Kiki Corry coordinates Project Wild for Texas Parks and Wildlife, and explains the value of growing the public’s environmental literacy.

It’s important to Texas Parks and Wildlife because we have these wildlife and land resources that are available to the public. And a public that understands them, knows how to use them, is going to make better decisions individually and as a society, and they’re also going to appreciate them more.

Corry trains the people who train the teachers. The teachers take what they’ve learned back to the classroom, where environmental literacy is interdisciplinary.

Lots of math and lots of language arts. Lots of social studies. There’s an argument that environmental education is almost more social studies than it is science because there’s so much of the geography, the history that’s all embedded in it.

Learn more about Project Wild at passporttotexas.org.

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

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