Passport to Texas

Guzzler on the Black Gasp Wildlife Management Area

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This is Passport to Texas

A guzzler is a rain catchment device. Collected rainwater gets funneled into a tank that feeds a water trough for wildlife.

As we all know, animals need water. Our annual rainfall is only around 11 inches a year. So we’re trying to supplement that water during dry periods.

Travis Smith is a biologist at the Black Gap Wildlife management area in Brewster County. So is Will Rhodes.

We’re in southern Brewster County which is in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas.

They build and maintain guzzlers on the Gap—45 so far—and see to the needs of wildlife on the management area.

We’re in the Chihuahuan Desert Ecosystem. The area is 103,000 acres or a little over. Black Gap is kind of in the middle of nowhere.

Next week the men explain and demonstrate guzzlers on a segment of the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS.

So this catchment consist of R-Panel in 12 foot lengths, which is connected to these 6 inch C-Purlins by…

Let’s stop there. Will’s going to tell us about purlins and pitch threads and storage tanks; it’s not sexy stuff. But it’s necessary when building guzzlers at Black Gap. And, so are wildlife cameras.

On these game cameras it’s triggered by motion. Usually that’s going to be wildlife coming in to get water from the guzzlers here.

Which means their efforts are successful. See the segment on Guzzlers next week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV Series on PBS. The Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series.

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

Turkey at the Matador WMA

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Seven miles north of Paducah… in the Texas Panhandle… the Matador Wildlife Management Area offers about 28-thousand acres of rolling grasslands.

Former assistant area manager, Bill Adams, said it’s open to the public.

It’s open throughout the year for hiking, bird watching, nature tours, horseback riding… We have 76-miles of road on the area, and it will take you through a diversity of landscapes.

The site is off limits to the casual visitor only a few times a year.

We have a few hunts during the year that it’s closed. And those are our gun hunts for feral hogs, and deer and also for our spring turkey hunts.

Adams says turkey hunting is strictly regulated on the Matador.

We’ve got three good roosting sites for those turkeys, but they’re range is limited to those roost sites. We have to regulate the number of hunters we allow to take those Toms. We also have to consider natural mortality of the turkey population in the area. We want to be careful with what we harvest. Regulating that harvest is a way we can provide for public hunting but also provide for betterment of the turkey population on the Matador.

That’s our show… made possible in part by the Wildlife Restoration Program… helping to fund the operations and management of more than 50 wildlife management areas.

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

Archaeological Dig

Pre-History: Preserving Texas' Ancient Past Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Before Texas Parks and Wildlife starts projects on its nearly 50 wildlife management areas, they call this man:

04— My name is Chris Lintz, and I’m the culture resource specialist for the wildlife division.

As an archaeologist, Chris ensures the agency complies with federal and state laws around preserving cultural resources.

10— Cultural resources constitute both the prehistoric Indian sites, and historic sites up to 50 Years of present, according to both federal and state laws.

Think: ancient campsites, rock art, and Indian burial mounds…. With more than three quarters of a million acres of public lands, Chris says there is plenty of history to protect and preserve.

17— And that’s true. There’s an awful lot of buried cultural resources that exist out there. Our goal – before we develop projects on our WMAs—is to go out and take a look and see what’s out there. And if we can, we try to redesign projects to avoid impacts to cultural resources.

Whether TPW is building a structure or an oil and gas company requests access to lay new lines on public lands, Chris says protecting the past has value in the present.

16—The folks that made these artifacts at various times in the past going back 11,000 years, are no longer with us. So the sites that they’ve left behind are finite. Our job is to identify which resources are the most important and save those for future generations.

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.

Feral Swine

Conservation: First Friday at the Kerr WMA Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Friday September 7th marks the second of a three month series called First Fridays at the Kerr WMA. It’s an education and outreach program for resource managers, land owners, and other interested persons in the Edward’s Plateau Ecoregion. This session addresses critical issues facing the area.

07—We have many issues critical here in the Edward’s Plateau. Number one primarily, probably on everyone’s mind right now is water.

Water for humans and wildlife; Ryan Reitz is a wildlife biologist at the Kerr.

16—We’re here to address this issue on a rangeland scale. We’ll have Steve Nalle, a natural resource manager, discussing how to manage your land to capture water, retain water and to get that water into the aquifer. As well as provide that water more effectively in terms for wildlife.

Feral swine research and management and censusing white-tailed deer in small acreages will also get attention during this First Friday event at the Kerr WMA. Registered attendees will tour the facility.

15—We want to give the public a good and specific look not only into what we are doing here on the Kerr area, in terms of research, but give them a perspective of what role you can play as a land manager, a resource manager, or an interested party in wildlife management.

First Friday – part two – at the Kerr is September 7. It’s free to attend, but you must register. Find out how on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

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

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

The Hill Country is the crown jewel of Texas. And the Kerr Wildlife Management Area teaches landowners how to keep it polished.

We’re a 65-hundred acre wildlife research and demonstration area for the Edward’s plateau ecological area. And it serves as our experiment station for private landowners to come out and find out more about the basic tools of wildlife management.

Donnie Frels is the area manager. While wildlife species at the Kerr WMA are typical for the region, plant diversity is unique by Hill Country standards.

We keep animal numbers in check, and we make sure that we maintain our grazing animals within the carrying capacity of the range, and our plant species and diversity reflect that now.

Research on the site also protects three endangered species: the golden-cheeked warbler, black-capped vireos and the tobusch fishhook cactus.

And we do surveys for all three of these species; and our management program benefits not only white-tailed deer but those endangered species as well.

The site is open to the public for wildlife viewing during daylight hours when public hunting is not underway, and offers a driving tour brochure for those visiting the site. Learn more at passporttotexas.org.

That’s out show… made possible by a grant from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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