Passport to Texas

Outdoor Story: Sharing Nature with Loved Ones Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ask Eveline Evans about the value of spending time outdoors and she’s not shy about sharing her views.

14—It’s just a great stress reliever. It’s wonderful to get out and get away from the urban areas, and enjoy the trees and the streams. I mean, it’s just wonderful to get away.

Eveline gets away with family whenever she can. She says sharing time outdoors with loved ones—even if it’s just taking a walk in nature—is critical to healthy, balanced relationships. It brings families closer…it encourages dialogues.

32—Well, I think it’s very important. My husband and I, we go walking all the time together in different locations. We love the Texas state parks. We’ve done Big bend and the Davis Mountains, Caprock Canyon, Palo Duro Canyon…all of those are just wonderful places to go out and walk. You can talk about anything it seems like. Every little thing that comes up—you can explain to younger ones your value systems, or whatever. Why when you pass a snake you’re not supposed to kill it—you just leave it alone, that type stuff.

What do you love about spending time in the outdoors? Tell us about it; just go to passporttotexas.org and share your outdoor story with us.

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

State Parks: Two Businesses Join Forces to Help Parks Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Not only have Texans made donations to help state parks during their financial crisis—so have businesses. Bryan Frazier, tells us about two of them.

62—Geico underwrote a 12-month lease on a motor home for state parks through Crestview RV [in Buda]. And then Crestview in turn bought liability insurance [from Geico] to cover this RV. It’s draped in colorful SP graphics with the Geico lizard on the side saying “follow me to a state park”. And you can’t miss it going down the road, because the scenes are lots of iconic images of state parks. And it promotes the RV lifestyle. Texas is now the number one RV market in the United States. But how does it help state parks? With our budget cutbacks I’m able to drive this up and down the highway—it’s a moving billboard. I’m able to take it to RV and travel shows and park events that are very important to us—that we have a big presence at—that connects with these RV campers that are a big part of who helps pay our bills, really, in state parks, because they’re our customers. It saves travel money; so I stay in this RV when I go to these events. And this is essentially no cost to the taxpayer of Texas. We’re able to use the money that we might use [on travel and lodging] for things inside the parks.

Look for Bryan behind the wheel of the RV on a highway near you.

Funding for our show comes from Chevrolet: supporting outdoor recreation in Texas because there’s life to be done.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

State Parks: We Appreciate Our Volunteers Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Volunteering at a state park is as good as donating money to support them. Our state park guide, Bryan Frazier, has details.

62—We really cannot talk enough about how important our volunteers are in state parks. And that’s everything from park hosts to people who simply come in for the day and want to help on trail maintenance, or whatever. There’s lots of different ways that people can make a difference and get involved as a volunteer in state parks. In fact, last year we had the equivalent of more than 280 full time employees; that was the workforce of our volunteers. That’s equivalent to more than ¼ of our workforce, and it saved us more than $10 million dollars in value of what that labor for volunteers was able to accomplish. So, if someone’s interested in becoming a park volunteer, chances are there’s a state park near you that could really use them. We’ve got a new website that’s very user friendly that they can go and list where they may want to work and what their interests are, and the work they do, and they’ll match that up for a park that’s maybe looking for that. And you can find that at texasstateparks.org. Or, people can call Lori Reilly who coordinates all of our volunteers in state parks. And that’s 512-389-4746.

Thanks, Bryan.

That’s our show for today…with funding provided by Chevrolet: supporting outdoor recreation in Texas because there’s life to be done.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

State Parks: Volunteers Save Parks Money Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

April is Volunteer month. And as it happens, Texas State Parks rely heavily on the work of many dedicated volunteers throughout the year.

07—Over the last several years it’s been pretty consistent; we clock about six hundred and fifty thousand hours of volunteer time.

And that’s just manual labor, says Lori Reiley, state park volunteer coordinator. Those 650-thousand volunteer hours translate into millions of dollars of savings for state parks annually.

07—Our volunteers make up about a third of our workforce. So, we really couldn’t function as well without them.

Volunteers do everything from mowing lawns and scrubbing toilets to taking entrance fees and leading interpretive programs…and so much more. Reiley says state parks encourage and welcome new volunteers.

16—We could always use their help. And while we get the occasional civic organization or nonprofit that wants to volunteer for service projects, we really could always use more individuals just on a regular basis to come out and volunteer in the parks.

Find out how you can volunteer at Texas State Parks when you visit texasstateparks.org.

That’s our show for today…we record our series at the Block House in Austin…Joel Block engineers our program.

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

State Parks: Volunteering Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Maximize your time outdoors when you volunteer at a Texas State Park.

03—We basically have three different categories of volunteers.

These categories include locals who sign up for special projects, friends groups that fund raise for specific sites and—says Lori Reiley—the third category is park hosts.

13—And that is a program designed for—traditionally—retirees who travel around the state and in exchange for a campsite, they labor in the park every week.

Reiley coordinates the state park volunteer program, and says people accepted as hosts, are required to make a time commitment.

12—The time frame is a minimum thirty-day commitment. And, the maximum is typically three months, but it can be extended depending on the park needs. The superintendent has the authority to extend that.

Most Texas State Parks offer host programs with plenty of work to help fill the 30 or so hour labor obligation.

17—We have everything from general grounds maintenance, or it could be cleaning the restrooms. What we really like is when we find people with special skills: carpentry, or graphic artists, or educators doing interpretive tours or education programs. So, it’s a variety.

Find more information on the Texas parks and Wildlife website.

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