Passport to Texas

TPW TV Preview — Hands on Habitat

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This is Passport to Texas

Healthy aquatic habitat means good fishing.

We are at Lake Cypress Springs to construct some artificial fish habitat structures.

Fisheries biologist Tim Bister works to enhance declining aquatic habitat.

There is not a lot of structure for fish like largemouth bass or sunfish to relate to underneath the water. And fish need habitat structure in general. Even in reservoirs that left timber standing, over time that timber in the water breaks down and the habitat for fish declines, so we’re at a point where we really need to start doing something with these reservoirs to improve fish habitat.

With supervision from Texas Parks and Wildlife, anglers Kody Corrin and Calvin Lamont, installed artificial habitat of PVC pipes in the lake.

We love fishing, but we both understand that without conservation of the lakes, we are not going to be able to do that. So it is on our part to make sure we help take care of that, take care of the resource that provides our recreation.

Structure is important, but so is food. Rick Ott manages a native aquatic plant nursery at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center.

The vegetation is producing food that invertebrates consume, small fish consume the invertebrates, bigger fish eat the smaller fish, and we eat the bigger fish.

Learn about artificial fish habitat next week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS.

Check your local listings.

The Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, Cecilia Nasti.

Enjoying time on the Goliad Paddling Trail

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Goliad State Park and Historic Site was the first park to host an inland paddling trail. The trail meanders along the San Antonio River.

It’s about 6.1 miles of beautiful pristine river. The site here in our park is the take out site. The other developed areas to get on the paddling trail is north of our park. So once you get to the park people have to get off the river unless they want to continue to float with no easy access to get off.

Brenda Justice is park superintendent. Next week the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS features the trail and the folks who love it, including Charles Clapsaddle.

The six and a half miles current trail I can make in about an hour and a half, most people take a little over two hours. We will go pretty close to downtown Goliad, a couple of blocks from the courthouse and you wouldn’t know you were near a town. You hear crickets and cicadas and birds, nothing that sounds like humans. It’s a nice friendly river.

Even people new to paddling will enjoy the Goliad Trail.

It’s a coastal stream so it has muddy banks. Grass and trees grow right down to the bank. You usually see a lot of wildlife because of that. It’s good for families. You don’t have to be a skilled canoeist or a kayaker to enjoy the river. Right now we’re just drifting, we’re floating on the current.
Get a sense of the Goliad paddling trail’s serene beauty next week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS. Check your local listings.

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

Dr. Grubh searching for bugs.

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The Blanco River flood of 2015 devastated vegetation along the river banks, and demolished river substrate.

These flood levels were really huge. Regular discharge on the Blanco river is about 90cfs, which means cubic feet per second, and it peaked around 150,000 cfs.

Archis Grubh is an aquatic biologist.

 I primarily focus on the invertebrates.

He says that flood knocked out nearly 90 percent of the river’s invertebrates, which are essentially aquatic bugs.

Invertebrates are really good indicators of water quality. Because, if the water quality is going down, those are the first ones to disappear from the water.

Since the flood, Dr. Grubh’s collected specimens, which he’s taken back to his lab.

We collect three samples; we just dump all whatever we have. There’s gonna be tons of insects packed in it. It’s very important, because I’m studying and finding out what all the diversity of these invertebrates are. So, I am capturing a snapshot here and recording what all we find.

Diversity means a healthier river ecosystem overall. Grubh’s research will help in future river management.

[I want to find out] Which ones were most affected and how they are doing now.

Learn more about Dr. Grubh and his work next week on a segment of the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS.

The Wildlife and Sportfish Restoration program supports our series.

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

Fox Finders of TPW TV Series on PBS

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The swift fox is one of the smallest species of the wild dog family in North America.

We’re working with Texas Parks and Wildlife to survey for swift foxes in a nine county area in the Texas Panhandle that falls within the historic distribution for this species.

Doni Schwalm is a research associate at the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University. The Texas Parks and Wildlife TV Series follows Schwalm and her team for a segment on swift fox airing this week on PBS.

This species, from what we can tell from historic records was almost gone. We know for sure there has been a big decline historically. About 50 percent of their historic distribution now no longer has swift foxes, and where they do still exist, the population is kind of patchy and so it’s not very continuous. We think that the first and foremost thing that led to these major population declines were historic predator control programs where they were poisoning, kind of indiscriminately for wolves mostly and really just anything, and unfortunately those baits, they’re not specific. And we ended up with a lot fewer foxes that way. Of course they like grassland habitat. The more agricultural development there is, especially just like irrigated farmland, the fewer swift foxes there will be. And finally, primarily because there are no more wolves, there are way more coyotes than there used to be, and coyotes are their highest source of mortality, up to 77 percent of their mortality, so it’s a pretty big deal.

The segment Fox Finders is airing now 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.

The Illumination

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Mission Espiritu Santo de Zuniga, part of Goliad State Park & Historic Site, was established in 1749 by Franciscan priests. Next week the TPW TV Series on PBS takes you there to experience an annual event called “The Illumination”. Assistant Superintendent Jason Ramirez.

In a lot of the Franciscan missions there is a documented event that will usually coincide with a solar event; a lot of the times it’s one of the holy days of the Catholics. In our mission we have something that happens every year on April 16th; we don’t really have an official explanation for it, but basically what happens is the sun will set in the ‘window of the sun’ as we call it, and cast a direct beam of light onto the Crucifix here. It happens every year on April 16th at around 7:00pm. One of the things we do know is that April 16th is an important holy day for Franciscans. It’s the anniversary of the founding of the Franciscan Order, and so it’s a very important day for the Franciscans. It’s a day that they renew their vows and rededicate themselves to the faith. And so we think that this may have been something that the missionaries here planned to convert the native people here, also to celebrate their faith.

Witness “The Illumination” next week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS.

Check your local listings.

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