Passport to Texas

Caddo Lake

TPW TV: Caddo Lake Paddling Trail Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

[SFX – paddling]

Gliding along the paddling trails on Caddo Lake in East Texas is at once intimate and humbling: mist dances on the water; giant, moss-covered bald cypress rise up as silent sentinels along the banks; the chorus of bird songs serenade you as you pass by; habitat teams with diverse and abundant wildlife. It’s a special place.

04— It’s beyond words to describe how wonderful this place is.

Vanessa Adams is a natural resource specialist with parks and wildlife.

13— The paddling trails here on Caddo Lake will get you back into some habitat that is just not everywhere, it’s unique. It gets you into a place that you may have never seen before.

Marshall, Texas resident, and Caddo Lake paddling enthusiast, Sandra Phillips, says she feels close to the earth when she’s on this enigmatic lake.

09 – You can’t find this well really anywhere else. All the network of canals and the swampyness of it.

Caddo Lake is different every season, says Vanessa Adams. Paddlers should return often to experience it fully. [SFX – ambience]

05— You gotta get out on the boat, you gotta get in the swamp and you really gotta sit down and you gotta sit and listen.

Caddo Lake’s Paddling trails are featured on the Texas Parks and Wildlife PBS TV series the week of January 19. Check local listings.

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

JA Ranch

TPW TV: The JA Ranch Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Andrew Bivins uses technology to manage his land.

11— He can tell you what kind of method they used. He can tell you how much it cost per acre. The amount of information he’s been able to incorporate into his databases is unheard of.

Bivins is managing partner of the historic JA Ranch in the Texas Panhandle, founded by Charles Goodnight and Bivins’ ancestor, John Adair. Texas Parks and Wildlife TV’s Ron Kabele produced a segment for the series about this fifth generation rancher.

05—When it comes to using computers and new technologies – Andrew gets it.

Bivins, a 2013 Lone Star Land Steward Award winner uses available GPS technology to keep track of his work on the property. This includes removing invasive woody species and prescribed burns to return the land to the prairie habitat it once was.

17—It’s a very long-term strategy. It will be my lifetime of working on it – and it will be my son’s lifetime of working on it. And hopefully, our grandchildren will have a ranch that’s more of a prairie than what my son and I will have.

Bivins has a detailed database of brushwork done on the ranch. Each acre he reclaims for prairie habitat translates into untold savings in water.

08— Everything out here is in competition for the little water we get. Pulling the woody invasive species out allows more water for the grasses.

This segment airs on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series the week of December 29.

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

Game Wardens and their K9 Partners

TPW TV: K-9 Game Wardens Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Texas game wardens are a hardworking group, but this fall, five of them went to the dogs. John Thorne.

11— Parks and Wildlife law enforcement division is starting a new canine program. We looked all over the country for the best training, and we came to Utah for the Utah post training academy.

Thorne was among the officers who traveled to Utah earlier this year for an eight-week intensive training program with the dogs. Texas Parks and Wildlife TV producer, Alan Fisher was there to document their progress.

21—These wardens made a real sacrifice. They were away from their families for eight weeks of this training; the training days were long and intense. But you could tell that they really wanted to
have this tool available to them; they really loved dogs and enjoyed working with them. To me that really said a lot right there. These are dedicated people and they’ll have some very dedicated
companions with them.

Wardens learned to work with and guide the golden labs that became their partners.

15—These dogs really do become canine partners with their wardens. They’ll be spending their entire lives with them from working every day in the field, as well as retiring with the wardens as their pets when their careers are finished.

The K-9 Wardens segment airs on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV Series on PBS stations, the week of December 15.

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

Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine, December 2013, cover art by Clemente Guzman

TPW TV: An Inspired Artist Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

When Texas Parks and Wildlife TV producer Abe Moore decided to shoot a segment on a wildlife artist for the PBS series, he didn’t have to look any further than Parks and Wildlife’s own Clemente Guzman.

58—He’s just so good at painting wildlife. It’s just a natural gift that he has.

So, we followed him from the beginning of a project to the culmination of the finale, and it’s just a great picture he did. So, you can see the story and the painting that he finished the last week in November on the TV show.

Thanks, Abe.

Check your local listings.

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

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

Kids participating in the Great Texas Birding Classic

TPW TV: Flocking with Friends Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Each spring, birders from across Texas and beyond, participate in The Great Texas Birding Classic.
This week on the TPW TV series, meet a group of young birders and their teacher who took part in this year’s tournament. Alan Fisher produced the story, Flocking with Friends.

The teacher really believes a lot of these kids are going to go on and be interested in biology or ornithology. So, it was really neat to see how engaged they were and interested to learn about the world around them.

Thanks, Alan.

Flocking with Friends airs the week of November 17 on PBS stations across Texas.

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

Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.