Trail Mapping: Hitting the trail... to take inventory at state parks. 
That's coming up on Passport To Texas.


Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife. 

Volunteers and Parks and Wildlife staff are literally putting 
one foot in front of the other... cataloging every single trail in 
the state park system.


"There has been a real need to inventory our trails and update 
the associated trail maps for the state park system for quite some time. 
 Many of our trail maps were created with rather crude methods by 
today's mapping standards, so we are initiating an effort to provide 
more information for the public."


Greg Creacy is a regional natural resources coordinator for 
state parks. Starting in Bastrop State Park, mappers will use GPS 
receivers to catalog every trail in all 120 state parks and historic sites.


"Trail characteristics, such a length, slope, special hazards along the trail, 
accommodations along the trail, points of interest. The public needs good, 
accurate information, in order to plan their trips to our parks. Park staff 
and local authorities need good accurate information for search rescue 
and emergency operations and our parks need accurate inventories for 
management and planning purposes. This data can later be used to 
monitor changes and assess future needs in our trail system"


Whether it's mountain biking, hiking or horseback riding, familiarize 
yourself with trail etiquette before you head out. You can find this information 
at passporttotexas.org. For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I'm Cecilia Nasti.