Passport to Texas

Extracting venom at the John C. Perez Serpentarium at Texas A&M- Kingsville, TX

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This is Passport to Texas

Venomous snakes demand our respect — not because they can hurt us — but because they can help us.

Venom from snakes is used to treat heart attacks, treat strokes. It has paralyzing properties, so it’s used to prevent the metastasizing of tumors….

Reeve Hamilton, wrote about the National Natural Toxins Research Center in Kingsville, part of the Texas A & M system –which studies uses for venom – for the April issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine.

There’s really a variety of health issues that the venom in snakes is actually used for once researchers at the Natural Toxins Research Center and other places can isolate the properties and put them to use in medicine.

The center is the only federally funded facility of its kind, and Hamilton says its Serpentarium is home to 450 venomous snakes from around the world. Researchers are attempting to develop a universal anti-venom.

Right now, anti-venom is snake specific. So, for people who are in far flung areas, where snake bites are a bigger concern than they are here; if you can’t access the right anti-venom, then you’re going to be in serious trouble. So, they’re trying to come up with an anti-venom that can be administered by anyone, and used in response to any snake, which would really – I think – be a really big discovery.

Read more in Reeve Hamilton’s article in the April issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Dale Blasingame with Lucy at Caprock Canyon State Park. Photo credit: Dale Blasingame

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This is Passport to Texas

Texas State University lecturer, Dale Blasingame visited all 95 Texas state parks in just one year; he wrote about it for the January/February issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

I got the essence of the parks, even though there were some of them that I didn’t spend a ton of time at.

Dale spent most of his time in parks with diverse hiking opportunities, and preferred going solo.

I like to travel alone. I’m kind of weird like that. I like being on my own schedule and not having to worry about if other people are having fun. I realize I’m kind of a pain in the “you know what” to travel with because I’m always going off path to try and go see something.

One day, while hiking at Buescher State Park he met a man hiking with his dog.

And we didn’t really talk much, but just silently hiked together. And I was watching his dog the whole time, and when we got to the end of the trail where he was heading out, I turned and I said: Do you like hiking with that thing? And he goes, Aw man. You will never regret it.

On the way home, Dale noticed a rescue dog adoption day at his neighborhood pet store, which is where he met and adopted 1-year-old Lucy.

She’s been to about 50 parks with me. So, one of my goals is I want to take her to the rest of the parks that she hasn’t been to. I don’t think she’ll care, but it would matter to me. I’ve only had her for about a year. But, I cannot think of what life was like without her.

Read Dale Blasingame’s article One is Not Enough in Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine.

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

Soldier fly granola

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Experts predict the world’s population will increase to nine billion people by 2050. That’s two billion more mouths to feed. And Robert Nathan Allen, or RNA, says insects provide eco-friendly protein to keep us fed.

07— Compared to say a cow, where we can only really eat about forty percent of the cow, with insects we can eat most if not all of them.

Allen founded the nonprofit Little Herds to educate the public about insects as a nutritious alternative food source. Insects are high in protein, fiber and micro-nutrients. 70% of agricultural land supports meat production, which limits the industry’s future growth.

15—So, with insects, we can raise them in a modular fashion vertically on a fraction of the land as traditional livestock, with a fraction of the water, with a fraction of the feed, and end up with more nutritionally valuable protein.

Since founding Little Herds, RNA took a job with Aspire Foods Group; it farms edible insects in Ghana, Mexico and Austin, Texas. Forage for your own bugs in the wild, if you like, but RNA recommends eating farm raised bugs.

11—That way we can assure that they’re raised in a hygienic, safe, clean environment. We can make sure that there’s no risk of diseases and parasites, and we can make sure that they’re eating a clean, wholesome diet.

Learn more about edible insects in the December issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

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

Robert Nathan Allen at McKinney Falls State Park with a container of toasted crickets. Lunch, anyone?

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When certain insects show up at your picnic, don’t shoo them away. Chew them away.

04— They really do have a crunch [crunches]; really similar to roasted nuts.

That’s Robert Nathan Allen, crunching a toasted cricket. He’s quoted in an article about edible insects in the December issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine. RNA as he’s known, is founder of the Austin, Texas nonprofit Little Herds

08—And we focus primarily educating the public and particularly children about edible insects and why and how we can adopt them into our diet.

We call eating insects as food Entomophagy; it’s commonplace among 80% of the world’s population, and he’s trying to convince the other 20% to take the leap.

19—Once western societies started becoming very agriculturally based, particularly in northern climates, it just became ingrained in our society that insects are dirty. And so, that idea has continued to be passed down generation to generation in these western cultures. Whereas in the tropical environments where the habit has continued, it’s just another food source.

We eat more than 400 insects a year without knowing it. RNA says by intentionally substituting insect protein for animal protein, we can improve the environment and our nutrition. Learn more in the December issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

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.

Fred Gipson, writer of “Old Yeller”. Memorabilia from Mason, TX Memorial Library.

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Old Yeller by Fred Gipson is—at its heart—a story about a boy and his dog. It’s also about our connection with nature. Gipson gives readers a sense of what it was like to live close to the land in Texas’ Hill Country of the 1860s.

07—He’s talking about hunting—sitting quietly. In which, if you haven’t hunted, you sit for hours listening and watching.

Cynthia Pickens wrote about the book and its author for Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine. Through his protagonist, a boy named Travis, Gipson reminds all that nature rewards us when we slow down to enjoy it.

25—To him, it was like a picture show. It was like entertainment. And I don’t think many of us realize that that can be the case. If you go out and sit in nature, and if you sit long enough, you will start to see the creatures and the light in the trees and the water playing over the creeks… It is a form of entertainment. It is lovely and peaceful, and anybody can do that. You can do it in your neighborhood; you can do it in your backyard.

Whether you read it as a child, or have young readers in your home, Pickens says Old Yeller is timeless.

20— I think it’s for any reader, and especially any person who’s interested in the Texas outdoors. I hope it would encourage children to go outside and see nature, because it’s a wondrous place. There’s lots to see if you open your eyes and your ears. And, all parents should give their children a copy of Old Yeller for Christmas [laughs].

Find Cynthia Pickens article that looks back at Old Yeller and Texas author Fred Gipson in the August/September issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine.

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