Passport to Texas

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

Some hunters are required to take a hunter education course before heading into the field.

That’s if they’re born on or after September two, nineteen seventy one.

Terry Erwin, hunter education coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife, says there’s an easy way to find out if you’re required to take it.

If they’ll just take a quick look at their license, right under their city where they have HIP [harvest information program] certification, it should say HE [hunter education] required, or Hunter Ed required. If it’s on there, then that means they need to take the course. And we have plenty of courses scheduled throughout the state, especially right coming up before Thanksgiving, and again right before the Christmas holidays.

Those taking the course learn more than just how to aim and fire.

Oh, they learn firearm safety, they learn wildlife management, recreation safety, they learn about conservation, they learn about ethics, responsibility and game laws. All those things they need to be a safe, responsible hunter out in the field.

Find a link to Hunter Education classes at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…made possible in part by the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…working to increase hunting, fishing, shooting and boating 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

You own land and want maintain healthy habitat and wildlife, but you’re not sure what to do. Lucky for you, Parks and Wildlife biologists are at your service.

We have biologists that are responsible for every county, and those folks are the ones that work one-on-one with landowners to help them understand their resources, help them understand what kinds of management will enhance their properties for the various types of wildlife they’re most interested in.

Linda Campbell is program director for private lands and public hunting. She says the agency helps landowners take an ecosystem approach to land management, and never insists and owners follow a certain path.

It’s always their decision, it’s their plan, but we offer the free consultation, the free advice to them in helping them achieve their management goals.

Landowners learn to read and understand their land with the help of biologists. From this understanding, they discern the possibilities.

Many landowners today are interested in wildlife diversity; they just want diverse habitats that support a lot of different types of wildlife. So, that’s a goal that we help landowners achieve as well as species specific type management.

Find links to landowner assistance information at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show for today… 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 and the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program

White-tailed deer season is underway, and harvesting deer is vital to proper ecosystem management.

If we didn’t hunt deer in Texas, deer would eat themselves out of house and home. And not just themselves, but all species that thrive on that ecosystem.

Songbirds, for example, suffer when deer numbers are not controlled. Mitch Lockwood, statewide white-tailed deer program leader, says Texas has more than three–million white-tailed deer. And yet, surprisingly few hunters take full advantage of available bag limits.

One example is that in the Texas Hill Country, where we have the highest concentration of deer — where one can harvest as many as five deer a piece, the average hunter in the Hill Country harvests only one point one deer.

Most Hill Country hunters stop at maybe two deer.

So, with a harvest of 1 deer per hunter, we’re not ever going to meet our population management goals.

Lockwood stresses the importance of adequate doe harvest in most areas of Texas, and encourages hunters to take advantage of the bag limits by putting more antlerless deer in the freezer. However, if your freezer is full, there are programs to help you distribute the meat.

Hunters for the hungry program in Texas is growing. And there are other programs that help hunters defer some of those processing costs so that hunters can donate venison to the needy with minimal expense.

That’s our show…made possible today by a grant 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.

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

You have until the end of the month to nominate candidates for the Lone Star Land Steward Awards.

Lone Star Land Stewards award program is a program that recognizes private landowners for the good work they do on their private lands in Texas.

Linda Campbell is program director for private lands and public hunting. The awards program honors people for exemplary habitat management of private lands.

We feel like we have a great diversity of landowners that have participated and been nominated for recognition. And it just really highlights the diversity of the types of innovative management for wildlife that’s going on in Texas.

Next year marks the 13th year for the awards program.

Anybody can nominate for Lone Star Land Stewards. Landowners can nominate themselves. They come in from other agencies, as well as from our biologists.

Whether you nominate yourself or someone else, time is running out.

November thirtieth is the date that we’d like to have the nominations in for the various eco-regions. We take those, and we have a team of biologists that visit each of the nominated places, and they decide which ones are most worthy of recognition. And then we present the awards in May.

Nominate a landowner. Learn how at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show for today… 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 and the Sport Fish Restoration Program

The population of southern flounder in the gulf is…well… floundering.

The populations are down in the bay systems across the board for the southern flounder.

Robert Adami coordinates Coastal Bay Team fishing events, where two-person teams of experienced anglers, catch specific species for the hatchery program. In spring, teams reel in spotted sea trout, and in fall, southern flounder.

Sometimes the more experienced anglers can go out to the spots they know are good gathering spots for southern flounder. Usually those guys can get the fish and bring them to us rather quickly. They also know how to handle the fish in terms of care, transportation and trying to get them to us in the best possible health.

Participation is free. Adami says almost as soon as anglers catch them – the flounder start their new lives.

Immediately we’re going to be putting them right into spawning tanks in Sea Center Texas and in Corpus Christi to be used, hopefully, for next year’s spawning program.

Saturday morning Froggy’s Bait Doc in Port O’Conner is the staging area for the event, and next Saturday, Boyd’s One-Stop in Texas City closes this year’s Coastal Bay Team opportunities.

Find full details – including the prizes for participating anglers — at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…which provides funding for Sea Center Texas… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Coastal Fisheries Bay Team Fishing Tournament — Experienced anglers are invited to help us collect southern flounder for our hatcheries. Tournament is open to 30 two-person teams, on a first-come, first-serve basis.

All entrants must be 21 or older.

Participants may turn in up to three fish. Anglers turning in fish will be entered in three different drawings for fishing gear. Participants not turning in fish will be entered in a separate drawing for fishing prizes.

All participants will receive a shirt and cap.

The prizes, equipment and program are made possible through support from Anheuser-Busch, Inc. Held at Froggies Bait Doc in Port O’Conner on November 3rd, and at Boyd’s One- Stop in Texas City on November 10th; register at the tournament.

For more information, or if you want to become a member of the Coastal Fisheries Bay Team, send an e-mail to Robert Adami at robert.adami at tpwd.state.tx.us with your name, address and daytime phone number and which tournament you can fish or call him at (361) 939-8745.

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