Passport to Texas

Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine collage made from 75 years of covers.

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This is Passport to Texas

Over its 75 year history, a changing dedicated staff of writers, editors, photographers, artists and others, have lovingly crafted each page of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

[Louie Bond] It doesn’t really matter how many people you have when you have really dedicated, really talented people.
[Russell Roe] Our challenge always is to kind of tell the story of conservation in interesting ways.
[Nathan Adams] How are we going to tell this story in a way that resonates?
[Sonja Sommerfeld] Everything is a collaboration. We each bring our own little taste to the table…
[Nathan Adams] Everyone gets to come in and offer suggestions. That’s a nicer than saying argue.
[Russell Roe] That kind of creative tension helps us create a better magazine.
[Louie Bond] The most important thing about magazine planning is the term ‘long range’. A year and a half in advance is completely mapped out.
[Chase Fountain] Time constraints. You know, there’s a deadline.
[Earl Nottingham] We try to push ‘em sometimes.

We heard editor, Louie Bond, managing editor, Russell Roe, Art Director, Nathan Adams, photo editor, Sonja Sommerfeld, and photographers: Chase Fountain and Earl Nottingham.

Go behind the scenes of this award-winning publication on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS, the week of February 5th. Check your local listings.

Funding for our show provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram

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

Aerial view of Dundee Freshwater Fish Hatchery .

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This is Passport to Texas

The Dundee Fish Hatchery, Texas’ largest, suspended operations in 2011.

Yep. We had a big hiccup in production due to water supply. It was a very big drought in 2011, so we discontinued production here just because we didn’t have availability to water.

The hatchery produces striped bass, hybrid striped bass and catfish. Inland Fisheries Hatchery Program Manager, Carl Kittel, says the shutdown continued through 2015.

All of our hatcheries operate off water right that can be cut off. So we were without water and didn’t operate. Last spring there was plenty of rain—the water levels in the lakes came up—so we began operations.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Television Series on PBS features the challenges of bringing the Dundee Hatchery back online after a four year hiatus.

Starting up is a bit of a process. Personnel have to be reallocated and then hired and trained to do their job. Equipment has to be started and repaired and all those things take a little bit of gearing up to get going full speed.

Getting it back online benefits freshwater fishing in Texas.

The Dundee hatchery is a big part of the inland fish hatchery program. And we can produce more fish and better support fisheries when this hatchery is operating.

Catch the segment on the hatchery on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV Series on PBS the week of January 22. The Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series.

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

Moving bees for their safety and yours.

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This is Passport to Texas

Urban wildlife biologist, Kelly Simon, says if your yard is the neighborhood hangout for bees, that’s a good thing.

If you find bees in your backyard you should count yourself lucky, because all of our plants in Texas require pollination. Some are pollinated through wind but many are pollinated by our native bees, honey bees, wasps, butterflies and other pollinators.

Yet, if they establish hives in inappropriate places they can become mildly inconvenient to potentially dangerous. As they were at Whitney Nolan’s home in Austin.

A few years back I installed two owl houses. One in the front yard and one in the backyard. And I had screech owls that inhabited both boxes for about two years. Then after that bees started taking over the box in the back. One year the hive was so big they broke off and they swarmed and they inhabited the front owl house.

Whitney wants her neighborhood and the bees to be safe. To ensure everyone’s well-being, she called in Payden Price.

I am a bee specialist with the American Honey Bee Protection Agency. We are at a client’s house. She has a hive in an owl box in her front yard in a tree. We are removing it today. We are going to take it out to one of our apiaries and give it a new home.

And you can see the process from start to finish the week of January 8 – 14 on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS. Check your local listings.

The Wildlife restoration program supports our series.

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

Bats emerging from Bracken Cave.

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This is Passport to Texas

Texas is home to 33 of the world’s more than 13-hundred bat species. Bats devour tons of agricultural insect pests, pollinate crops and native plants, and bring tourists to Texas.

We have the largest congregations of bats in the entire world. People travel all over the world to see Bracken Bat Cave, Old Tunnel State Park, Congress Street Bridge. It’s a wildlife phenomenon

But Jonah Evans, Texas Parks and Wildlife mammologist, says Texas bats face a serious threat: White Nose Syndrome, a fungal disease fatal to hibernating bats, discovered 10 years ago in the Northeast.

It’s right at our border. And during that time, it has killed an estimated 6-million bats. Which, in some states, amounts to a very high percentage of all the bats in their states.

Evans and other bat conservators discuss the problem of white nose syndrome next week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS.

At this point, all we can do is monitor closely, learn what we can, and be prepared if an opportunity to apply some kind of treatment arises. There is currently no way to stop the spread of White Nose Syndrome. However, there are many smart people working really hard on trying to find ways of doing just that.

Watch this highly informative segment on Bat Monitoring in Texas on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS the week of January 1, 2017. Check your local listings.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

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

Teaching about prairies. Image: Texas Children in Nature.

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This is Passport to Texas

Less than 1% of the original 20 million acres of Texas’ tallgrass prairie remains. But restoration efforts are ongoing, and even small pockets of prairie have value.

Our vision for this prairie is that eventually we get back to what it was 250 years ago which would have been six to nine foot tall grasses mixed with forbes and other wildflowers.

Carolyn Klein teaches science at Westside High, in Houston, along with her colleague Lawrence Spence. The land that sustains this pocket prairie was originally destined to be a school parking lot.

Having a prairie here on campus enables us to bring students out during the school day. We don’t have to rent a bus. We just walk them outside and we have access to wild spaces.

In a segment airing this month on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV Series, you’ll meet Westside educators, students and the prairie. Counselor, Jaime Gonzales is also on the show.

I’m trying to fix a broken relationship between people and nature. I think we’re working in a hybrid world. Technology’s cool, but Nature—which is very ancient and a part of us—I think needs to be a part of our lives, too, because it keeps us grounded and healthy.

These plant communities sustain pollinators and other wildlife. The pocket prairie segment airs on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS the week of December 18. Check your local listings.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our show.

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