Passport to Texas

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

The month of May brings fish stories and park stories to the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series. Writer/producer, Alan Fisher, gives us a rundown.

The first week of May, we’re featuring a recent inductee to the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame – Richard Hart.

About every other Monday I get a call from Dick, and I hear this voice say, ‘Wait until you hear what we caught this weekend.’ And it’s usually not so much what he caught, as it is what the other person caught.

Dick Hart, not only holds a couple of world fishing records for fly fishing, he’s done great things for the sport in terms of education and mentoring. And, he’s been a benefactor for the Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens. And the week of May sixth, we have another inductee into the Fishing Hall of Fame – Buddy Bradley – who’s an excellent bass fisherman. And he’s actually done a lot in the science of bass fishing.

But I found out also, that you could work on the condition response of the fish and make the fish – trigger the fish – to strike when in reality he’s not hungry at all.

The week of May thirteenth, we take a visit to the Pineywoods, both at Tyler State Park and at a Lone Star Land Steward winner. The week of May twentieth, we visit Palmetto State Park in Central Texas, and the last week of may, we’ll pay a visit to Mother Neff State Park, which is often considered the first official state park in Texas.

Check your local listings.

That’s our show…the Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series, and provides funding for the Texas Freshwater Fisheries center…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Humanities Texas is the state affiliate for of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Executive Director Michael L. Gillette.

We’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit, but every year we receive a grant from the NEH – The National Endowment for the Humanities – and we use that grant to promote the humanities in public programs throughout the state.

The organization recently awarded TPWD a $10-thousand dollar grant to support development of an online education center exploring the history of Texas in the 1930s and 1940s. Gillette says the lack of high quality, primary source material related to Texas in the 20th Century was one reason the project received funding.

So, I think that was very appealing, and the fact that it was truly a statewide project and relates to so many sites throughout the state.

The grant for this project was made possible by the Linden Heck Howell Memorial Fund.

Titled “A New Deal for Texas,” the web pages will feature lesson plans and historical essays that will help students investigate digitized historical images, artifacts and documents relating to New Deal programs in Texas.

One thing that it will achieve is enabling student to recognize the history around them.

Web pages for “A New Deal for Texas” are currently in development.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

A 10-thousand dollar grant from the Linden Heck Howell Trust… awarded by Humanities Texas… will make it possible for Parks and Wildlife to develop a project called A New Deal for Texas that highlights the contributions of the Civilian Conservation Corps – or CCC – in our state.

Actually, this is a new kind of project for my division, because it is a curriculum, and it is aimed at seventh grade students and their teachers.

Angela Davis heads interpretive planning for Texas Parks and Wildlife. The project will exist in virtual reality and recount the era when unemployed young men working for the CCC, toiled on conservation and construction projects in State Parks.

Traditionally, my division has done exhibits that would be at a site…but we really wanted to reach out there and touch people who maybe didn’t know about some of the wonderful parks in their very own backyards.

The World Wide Web seemed a good fit.

There’s so much that we can do with the web format. We can stream video. We can stream audio. We’re going to be able to share oral histories; we’re going to be able to share period photographs of depression era workers building the parks. We’re going to be able to share Depression era architectural drawings. So, there are things that we can layer on a website that I could never present in a park – so it’s a great media for interpretation.

The web project A New Deal for Texas will be online later this year. Until then, find information about the CCC on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Even though you’ve heard us talk many times about park interpretation, you may still wonder what it really means.

That’s such a good question, and it’s one of the hardest ones to answer.

Angela Davis is head of interpretive planning for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

The word interpretation means a lot of things to a lot of people. But what it means to us – in the most romantic way – is that the parks are one of our most precious recourses… all the things that are in the parks: beautiful scenery, the mountains, the rivers, and of course, our historic structures. But what interpretation does is helps people relate personally to why those resources are significant. Why we – the people of Texas – have chosen to protect them.

Sometimes interpretation involves translating science and history into formats visitors can easily understand.

What we want to do is make the resources – and why they are significant – accessible. To make it fun…to make it enjoyable…to make it relevant…to every person who walks into one of our parks.

Or to everyone who logs onto the Internet…

It’s [the Internet] actually a perfect technology for interpretation.

Tomorrow: details about an online project under development that will breathe fresh life into the New Deal.

That’s our show for today…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

During spring break you got a taste of what it’s going to be like when the kids are out of school this summer. How will you and the kiddos fill the days on end of “free time” to come?

We at Texas Parks and Wildlife suggest a relaxing, entertaining, and low cost activity you and your family can take to the bank. It’s a little something we like to call fishing.

And all month long you’ll find free fishing clinics at state parks where you can hone your skills.

Even though we gear these clinics primarily for children…we’re, of course, encouraging parents to be there with their children. And what I think is really fun is to watch the parents become just as engaged at these clinics as the children are.

Ann Miller oversees angler education.

Once of the activities people will be able to participate in is learning about fishing regulations. A lot of people, we realize, don’t know when it is that you need to have a fishing license. So, they’ll be able to find that out. They’ll be able to find out about size and bag limits for different species of fish in the state, and at different locations. So, we’ll also be teaching about fishing safety. We want everyone to get out there and enjoy our resources… fish… have fun…and be safe on the water.

Visit passporttotexas.org for a list of fishing clinics taking place statewide.

That’s our show…sponsored by the Sport Fish Restoration Program… funded by your purchase of fishing equipment and motor boat fuels.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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