Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Whether you seek the cool comfort of a mountain setting, or the peaceful nature of a prairie, the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series has what you want in July. Writer/Producer, Alan Fisher, fills us in.

In the later part of July, we’ll pay a visit to the Davis Mountains. Davis Mountains State Park is home to Indian Lodge, which is a fantastic lodge built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the thirties.

We have hiking trails all over this park. So, if you want to get out and exercise, this is the place to do it. Mountain biking, equestrian trails, hiking, backpacking, or you just kick back and relax.

We’ll also explore the challenges of finding a balance between conservation and urban expansion on the Katy Prairie which is west of Houston. This area has traditionally been agricultural land and wildlife habitat for waterfowl, but it’s becoming more and more a part of Houston. And, as the city grows, displacing the farms and the wildlife habitat can be a problem.

I’m working on my fifty-ninth crop here. And I’d like to see the geese and what ducks there are and the sandhill cranes and what have you, have a place to stay as long as I’m around here, you know.

The story is a good reminder that anywhere we move as human beings, there’s something else that used to be there, and can also be really important to our lives.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Television series airs on PBS stations. Check your local listings.

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

Texas Parks and Wildlife on PBS and Cable
Times and dates are subject to change, especially during PBS membership drives.

• Amarillo, KACV-TV, Channel 2: October–March, Saturday 6 p.m.
• Austin, KLRU-TV, Channel 18: Monday, 12:30 p.m.; Friday 5:30 a.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m. KLRU2, Cable 20: Tuesday, 11 p.m.
• Bryan-College Station, KAMU-TV, Channel 15: Sunday, 5 p.m.; Thursday, 7 p.m.
• Corpus Christi, KEDT-TV, Channel 16: Sunday, 12 p.m.; Friday, 2 p.m.
• Dallas-Fort Worth, KERA-TV, Channel 13: October–March, Saturday, 6 p.m. Also serving Abilene, Denton, Longview, Marshall, San Angelo, Texarkana, Tyler, Wichita Falls and Sherman.
• El Paso, KCOS-TV, Channel 13: Saturday, 3 p.m.
• Harlingen, KMBH-TV, Channel 60: Sunday, 5 p.m. Also serving McAllen, Mission and Brownsville.
• Houston, KUHT-TV, Channel 8: Saturday, 3:30 p.m.; Friday 1:30 p.m. Also serving Beaumont, Port Arthur, Galveston, Texas City and Victoria.
• Killeen, KNCT-TV, Channel 46: Sunday, 5 p.m. Also serving Temple.
• Lubbock, KTXT-TV, Channel 5: Saturday, 10 a.m.
• Odessa-Midland, KPBT-TV, Channel 36: Saturday, 4:30 p.m.
• San Antonio and Laredo, KLRN-TV, Channel 9: Sunday, 1 p.m.
• Waco, KWBU-TV, Channel 34: Saturday, 3 p.m.
• Portales, New Mexico, KENW-TV, Channel 3: Sunday, 2:30 p.m.
• The New York Network, NYN, Thursday 8:30 p.m.; Saturday 2:30 p.m. Serving the Albany area.

CABLE

Texas Parks & Wildlife can also be seen on a variety of government, educational and access cable channels in the following communities: Abilene, Allen, Atlanta, Boerne, Collin County Community College, Coppell, Del Mar College, Denton, Flower Mound, Frisco, Garland, Irving, McKinney, North Richland Hills, Plano, Rogers State University, Texarkana College, The Colony, Tyler, Waco and Wichita Falls. Check your local listings for days and times.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Alan Fisher is a writer/producer for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Television series seen on PBS stations statewide. He tells us July programming really cooks…and quacks… and growls….

Coming up in July, we’ll learn about how to cook a gourmet meal on a campfire with a Dutch oven. Many people don’t know it’s the official cooking implement of Texas.

There’s a couple simple rules that I use for folks when they’re starting out. One is a three second rule: you hold your hand six inches above the coals – thousand one…thousand two…thousand three…. If you have to pull you hand away sooner, because its uncomfortable from the heat…it’s hotter than 350.

We’ll also find out about some high-tech research being done on pintail ducks biologists are actually implanting transmitters inside ducks to track their movements. Also coming up in July in the last week, we have a Wild Things segment. Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Ann Miller talks about black bears and how black bears are making a comeback in Texas.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Television series airs on PBS stations. Check your local listings.

That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti
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Texas Parks and Wildlife on PBS and Cable
Stations and Air Times
Times and dates are subject to change, especially during PBS membership drives.

• Amarillo, KACV-TV, Channel 2: October–March, Saturday 6 p.m.
• Austin, KLRU-TV, Channel 18: Monday, 12:30 p.m.; Friday 5:30 a.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m. KLRU2, Cable 20: Tuesday, 11 p.m.
• Bryan-College Station, KAMU-TV, Channel 15: Sunday, 5 p.m.; Thursday, 7 p.m.
• Corpus Christi, KEDT-TV, Channel 16: Sunday, 12 p.m.; Friday, 2 p.m.
• Dallas-Fort Worth, KERA-TV, Channel 13: October–March, Saturday, 6 p.m. Also serving Abilene, Denton, Longview, Marshall, San Angelo, Texarkana, Tyler, Wichita Falls and Sherman.
• El Paso, KCOS-TV, Channel 13: Saturday, 3 p.m.
• Harlingen, KMBH-TV, Channel 60: Sunday, 5 p.m. Also serving McAllen, Mission and Brownsville.
• Houston, KUHT-TV, Channel 8: Saturday, 3:30 p.m.; Friday 1:30 p.m. Also serving Beaumont, Port Arthur, Galveston, Texas City and Victoria.
• Killeen, KNCT-TV, Channel 46: Sunday, 5 p.m. Also serving Temple.
• Lubbock, KTXT-TV, Channel 5: Saturday, 10 a.m.
• Odessa-Midland, KPBT-TV, Channel 36: Saturday, 4:30 p.m.
• San Antonio and Laredo, KLRN-TV, Channel 9: Sunday, 1 p.m.
• Waco, KWBU-TV, Channel 34: Saturday, 3 p.m.
• Portales, New Mexico, KENW-TV, Channel 3: Sunday, 2:30 p.m.
• The New York Network, NYN, Thursday 8:30 p.m.; Saturday 2:30 p.m. Serving the Albany area.

Cable

Texas Parks & Wildlife can also be seen on a variety of government, educational and access cable channels in the following communities: Abilene, Allen, Atlanta, Boerne, Collin County Community College, Coppell, Del Mar College, Denton, Flower Mound, Frisco, Garland, Irving, McKinney, North Richland Hills, Plano, Rogers State University, Texarkana College, The Colony, Tyler, Waco and Wichita Falls. Check your local listings for days and times.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish Restoration Program

Working with boating safety educator Jack Dyess, Ron Kabele, a writer/producer with the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series, created a segment that will make everyone think twice about before getting on the water.

I was trying to come up with an idea of how to present boating safety. And then Jack told me that, ‘well, you know you go out on the fourth of July, and there are going to be about two dozen people who die on that day from different kids of accidents, and one of them is boating accidents.’ One of the things he said was that you can reduce the chance of a fatality in your boat by eighty percent simply by putting on a life jacket.

I have never, nor do I know anyone who has ever, retrieved a drowning victim who was wearing a life jacket. Not once. Not one of the people thought that they were going to drown that day. Not one of them thought that they were going to need a life jacket. But they’re just as dead. If you want to reduce the odds of there being a fatality on your boat by eighty percent, all you have to do is require that everyone put on a life jacket.

And these days the life jackets aren’t those red, bulky, ugly things…the new generation life jackets…they’re very lightweight and they expand when they hit the water. So you can be safe and it not really affect your having fun. There’s really no excuse anymore for not wearing a life jacket.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Television series airs on PBS stations. Check your local listings.

That’s our show for today… with support from the Support Fish Restoration Program…funded by our purchase of fishing equipment and motor boat fuels. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

From conservation to cooking, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Television series has you covered in June; writer/producer, Ron Kabele.

In the program that airs the week of June third, there’s one story –it’s about snow geese. One of the frightening things that most people don’t even know about snow geese — there’s six million of them, and that’s about four million too many. They’re literally eating themselves out of house and home. And they’re stripping bare the vegetation that’s around them. And the biologists are worried right now that it’s just going to cause a vicious cycle that’s going to continue for years.

The following week there’s a story at Dinosaur Valley State Park. You hear about dinosaurs all the time, but you don’t make that connection until you see the actual tracks, and that’s what they have there. This isn’t Hollywood. This is the real thing.

Then following week, we went to Big Bend Ranch State Park. And this is the biggest State Park in Texas by Far. It covers three hundred thousand acres, four hundred and fifty square miles – it’s huge. This park was originally a working sheep and cattle ranch…and they even have a lot of outreach programs where people can come in and behave like cowboys.

[Whistling] Anybody that wants to get in here and help…yes sir…good caught there….it’s a hands on experience…they’re out there, you know, working the cattle [moo]…

One of the segments in the show is about learning new skills when you’re outdoors. And, we did a three-part series on cooking with Dutch ovens. They’re one pot meals – it’s a skillet that you cook over the fire.

Thank you, Ron. Check your local listings.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Window to the Past is a segment airing on the Texas Parks and Wildlife television series the week of May 13. Series writer/producer, Alan Fisher, says it examines prehistoric rock art in the lower Pecos River Region of Texas.

In the canyons and cliffs in and around Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site, there are these amazing pictographs – ancient rock paintings.

You go down right in that canyon and you step back three-thousand, four-thousand years.

We followed, not only the personnel at the state park there, but also some scholars who were doing some of the latest research on trying to figure out what these rock paintings really mean to the people who made them so long ago.

Now, another symbol in this rock art that is what is called a crenelated arch; it is there to represent the physical barrier between the real world and the spirit world, or the after world.

There aren’t too many places you can look at something that was made by human hands that is that old in Texas, or really anywhere in North America. So, it’s really remarkable to stand before a painting that was painted so long ago and try to imagine what the people who made it were thinking and what their lives must have been like.

The Window to the Past segment airs the week of May 13, as part of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Television Series.

Check your local listings.

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

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