Passport to Texas

Devonte Hill, decked out as a Buffalo Soldier

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This is Passport to Texas

After graduating from college, but before entering the working world, Devonte Hill—who has a passion for storytelling—volunteered with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Buffalo Soldier program.

 I was a Texas state parks youth ambassador and got turned on to the Buffalo Soldiers program. I’m always open to new experiences.

Buffalo Soldiers entered Texas history in 1866; these African American men assisted and protected settlement as it moved westward. Texas parks and Wildlife developed the Buffalo Soldier program to preserve that history. As a volunteer, Devonte wore a soldier’s uniform to help bring history to life for grade school students.

 I don’t have too much experience with kids besides my cousins; so it will be interesting dealing with the little people. [laughs]

The program uses the Buffalo Soldier’s rich heritage and history to connect urban audiences to the outdoors. This is important because, as Devonte points out…

When you see things on TV about outdoors and things like that, all you really see is a certain type of demographic. And so you kind of get raised thinking those things are not for me.

Devonte Hill has gone on to a job in television, and says his work with the Buffalo Soldiers was life changing.

Hopefully this is the first step to me continuing my training and practice at being a storyteller. And this is part of my story.

See a segment with Devonte Hill and other Buffalo Soldier volunteers next week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS.

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

Pictograph at Hueco Tanks State Historic Site

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Hueco Tanks, about 30 miles east of El Paso, is one of the most important pictograph sites in the Southwest, with the largest collection of painted faces in North America.

There really is no other place like Hueco Tanks, in terms of the nature and the number of the pictograph images. And for a tiny place of only eight hundred and sixty acres there’s just an amazing number of separate pictograph sites.

We visit the park next week during a segment of the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS.

This mask that we sometimes call starry eyed man has been staring out of his little niche in the rocks for between six hundred and eighteen hundred years. Um, it’s amazing that it’s in such good condition.

Vandals damaged several paintings with graffiti. During the TV segment, we watch as scientists, use high tech devices to restore the pictographs.

This is pre-Colombian, and the graffiti is about fifty years old. We’re using infrared light, and it’s the similar technology that’s used in tattoo removal to take tattoos off, so you can be very precise with the laser. The work is going really well, it’s really difficult for me to stop because it’s really exciting!

Check out the segment about Hueco Tanks next week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV Series on PBS. Check your local listings.

That’s our show… Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram

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

Tim Birdsong receiving an Employee Recognition Award for his work, from TPWD Executive Director Carter Smith.

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This is Passport to Texas

Tim Birdsong is Chief of Habitat Conservation for Inland Fisheries at Parks and Wildlife.

I feel like it’s my job as a rivers biologist here at Texas Parks and Wildlife to help people understand what would be lost if we didn’t take care of these resources.

He works closely with landowners to develop projects to preserve healthy, flowing waters in Texas.

Since 2010, We’ve entered into agreements with over 100 landowners to do stream corridor conservation projects to conserve these lands along these flowing waters like you see here. In my personal life, I love to get out and recreate on rivers and streams, and so I don’t really feel like my job is work. So conserving those natural resources is about conserving that relationship that I want to pass down to my own children.

Conservation is hard work for all involved, and can at times seem like one step forward and two steps back. But people like Tim Birdsong never lose focus or faith.

I feel like I’ve made a difference. I feel like the team that I work with has made a difference. I associate my work with not just conserving fish and wildlife, but preserving a way of life. If I can have a role in helping more people get out and experience the outdoors, or promote a way of life that’s going to lead to a healthier, happier society then I’m all for it.

Meet Tim next week in a segment on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV show on PBS, Check your local listings.

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

Richaland Creek WMA Team

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This is Passport to Texas

To work for twenty years on one project and see it go from a design on paper to over 2,000 acres of wetlands, functioning as designed is extremely rewarding.

Jeff Gunnels, with the Middle Trinity River Ecosystem Project, leads a Texas Parks and Wildlife team that reconstructed wetlands in the Richland Creek Wildlife management area; wildlife biologist, Matthew Symmank.

We pump water from the Trinity River into a series of sediment basins and then we flow it through a series of wetland cells. The wetland plant community and the wetlands themselves act as a filter, filtering out the nutrients.

Gunnels said algae blooms would occur if that water flowed directly into a reservoir.

So, we’re using those wetlands to take up those nutrients and clean this water, and that water is re-lifted into the Richland Chambers Reservoir and ultimately pumped back to the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.

The ecosystem project provides clean drinking water to the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex and to wildlife. And that creates outstanding hunting opportunities, says wildlife technician Edwin Bowman.

For the average public hunter that comes in, they see it and they’re like, “Man, it looks amazing”. Just knowing how much time behind the scenes it takes to make it look amazing is pretty cool, how much work and sweat and dedication we have out here.

The Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series.

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

Robert Newman. Photo Credit: elpasotriathlete.blogspot.com

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This is Passport to Texas

Seventy-nine year old retired math teacher Robert Newman looks after the Franklin Mountains; he hand builds the trails visitors enjoy.

I just take it day-by-day. One Rock at a time. Ah…it looks alright.

For fifteen years, Robert has done this difficult work on his own. And says he doesn’t mind because the surroundings are beautiful.

Now this is going to be a pretty rough ride, I’m going to go very slow. Today we are at the Tom Mays unit of the Franklin Mountains State Park, and we’re going on up to where we are working on a new trail. There’s existing trails, well actually old bulldozed roads basically. That are really tough, so I’m trying to put in one that’s more user friendly!

Robert takes his old jeep up the side of the mountain as far as it will go, before walking the last half mile over rocky terrain to his work site where, with simple tools, creates trails.

When I’m out here working on a trail I have basically three settings: the first setting is very slow. The second setting is even slower, and the third setting is stopped. And stopped eats up more time than the other two put together. When I’m out here working most of the time I’m sitting and I’ll just sit and look in awe at what’s out here.

Enjoy the scenery and meet Robert Newman on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS next week. Check your local listings.

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