Passport to Texas

Billingsley Ranch

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This is Passport to Texas

The Billingsley Ranch in the Trans-Pecos is made up of pristine Chihuahuan dessert grassland. Shortly after buying the ranch in 2008, Stuart Sasser said a wildfire set him back to square one.

And it came up through here and burned about seventy percent of this ranch. We were able then to start completely over with a new set of fences that were antelope friendly type fences.  And build a new type of water system.

In an upcoming segment on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series, viewers see the ranch and meet, Sasser: a 2018 Lone Star Land Steward Award recipient. Michael Sullins is a Natural Resource Specialist with Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Stuart’s approach to management out here is not really all from a cattle production perspective. He has a holistic view of the place; he wants to improve it for the native wildlife.

Whitney Gann is a Research Scientist with Borderlands Research Institute. She says the ranch’s prime grassland habitat made it an ideal place to translocate pronghorn.

We’ve completed seven translocations since 2011, the Hughes Sasser ranch served as our release sight for pronghorn in 2016, and the results of these translocations is an upturn in the population, and so we’ve actually doubled our population size since 2012 to today.

A segment featuring innovations on the Billingsley Ranch airs the week of November 4 on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV show on PBS.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

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

TPW TV- Opening weekend of hunting season in small town Texas.

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This is Passport to Texas

The week of October 21, Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series captures the excitement of deer season opening weekend; series producer, Don Cash.

We sent a lot of producers to Goldthwaite, Texas for the opening weekend of deer season. We follow a young deer hunter who lives in Goldthwaite; we spend some time at a processing facility–people bringing their deer in. We take a look at some of the businesses, restaurants and  different places in Goldthwaite that look forward to the opening weekend of deer season because it’s good for them financially. So, this is
something we’ve talked about for years–being able to show people the economic impact of hunting. I think it’s going to be kind of interesting, actually.

Cash said, his team could not have achieved this feat without the kind and enthusiastic support of the people of Goldthwaite.

A gentleman named Warren Blesh who’s the President of the Simms Creek Wildlife Management Association went out of his way, and the people of Goldthwaite went out of their way, to help us find people to tell their stories. And really cleared the way for us to come in and run wild with our cameras. And, we showed up with our cameras, and people were pretty excited about us coming in to tell the story of what goes on in a small town in Texas when hunting season rolls around.

See this show the week of October 21 on PBS; check your local listings.

The Wildlife restoration program supports our series.

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

TPWD TV Series producer, Don Cash.

TPW TV -- Looking Ahead to the New Season Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Texas Parks and Wildlife is one of the few state natural resource agencies that still produces a weekly television program. It’s been on the air 33 years.

And the reason we do it is because we have a very good message to let Texans know about.

Series producer, Don Cash.

We’re the folks who help take care of deer and birds and water and parks and all kinds of things. And like I always say: if we don’t tell people what we do here, no one else is going to do it for us.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series, which airs on PBS and other outlets, spreads the message of conservation and recreation in Texas. The new season is shaping up to be one of the best.

Our new season begins the week of October 14th. You know, we’ve got a lot of new stuff. This year, we’re going to look at green jays, black-capped vireos, paddlefish, prairie dogs, chimney swifts. Coyotes. We’ve got stories coming on paddling the San Antonio River. What’s up with Bastrop State park after the fires. We’re going to go diving the Kraken. Take a trip to the Austin library to look at their very green roof. We’re going to look at the oyster industry in Texas, too.

But there is one show this season that took more planning, coordination and cooperation than any other produced before it.

We are devoting an entire show to what happens on the opening weekend of deer season in Texas.

Details coming up on tomorrow’s show.

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

K-9 Game Warden Ruger ready to protect and serve.

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This is Passport to Texas

Texas Game Warden, Christy Vales says her partner has a knack for sniffing out illegal items. Of course he does. After all, her partner is a K-9 police dog named Ruger.

He is a certified Peace Officer, you know he’s been commissioned. His badge number is K-9-5. All of our dogs are very high drive, they need a job. The job that we give them is to use their nose. You know it’s just a win-win for everybody.

Catch Officer Vales and Ruger in action the week of October 7 on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS.

So I got a call this morning from Sonny, the Game Warden out of Bastrop County, and he entered a property to check a group of dove hunters. Sonny felt maybe there is, there was a chance that they hid a shotgun, so, I was going to assist with Ruger to do an article search. [Christy] How’s it going Sonny? [Game Warden Sonny Alaniz] We’ve got a 13-year-old that just came out right now. He claimed that he wasn’t hunting. [Christy] How y’all doing? State Game Warden Christy Vales. So are you doing any hunting today? [Hunter] Uh, no ma’am. [Christy] Do you have a hunting license? [Hunter] No I do not. [Christy] Okay. So I’m going to get my K-9 partner out Ruger just to clear the area. What we’re going to do is if you can just go back there and just stay with Officer Alaniz and then I’m going to get my K-9 out, okay? (dog barks).

See Officers Vales and Ruger in action the week of October 7 on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS….and find out of the young man was telling the truth.

Our show receives support from RAM Trucks: Built to Serve.

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

Fishing for Guadalupe bass in the South Llano River

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This is Passport to Texas

Courtney and Brandon Robinson love to fly-fish for Guadalupe Bass in the South Llano River.

[Courtney] We’re not looking at a whole lot of deep pools, it’s more shallow water, skinny water.
[Brandon] Fish on! This is why I love catching Guad’s, their little fish, but they use the river to fight!
[Courtney] Um so we’re gonna see little bass in the shoal’s area like in that little rapids area over there. Oh, there we go!

The state fish of Texas wasn’t always easy to catch. It was on the brink of disappearing from the South Llano, due to introduced Small Mouth Bass that crossbred with the native Guadalupe for decades!

They can breed with each other and what results is what we call a hybrid, and those fish, they’re not our pure native Guadalupe bass, so we’re trying to restore these populations throughout the state.
We’re stocking large numbers of these pure fingerlings, and what the goal is these pure fish outnumber the Hybrids and so we reduce that overall hybridization rate and get it back to where we have almost an entirely pure population of Guadalupe Bass.

But the data shows the Guadalupe Bass are back.

We’ve been working on the Guadalupe Bass here in the Texas Hill country for about twenty-five years, and been really successful in restoring these populations in these iconic Texas hill country streams, and now we have Guadalupe Bass in a lot more reaches of these streams here for people to enjoy!

Reel in an eyeful of Guadalupe bass the week of September 23 on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV show on PBS.

The Sport Fish restoration program supports our series.

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