AUSTIN NATURE DAY: If you live in or near the Austin 
metro area...have we got a day for you ... details ahead on 
Passport to Texas.
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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Austin is blessed with an abundance of green spaces.

Austin has the highest per capita acreage of parkland in the 
United States. :06

Jeff Hershey is education and outreach coordinator for 
McKinney Falls State Park in Austin. On April 15, the park 
participate in Austin Nature Day.

It's designed to get people to come out into Austin's natural 
spaces, special places, parks, open space, museums ... all of it. 
It's really geared to show people what's available to them in 
terms of nature education, recreational opportunities, and the 
like. :19

Hershey says more than 40 unique events are open to the 
public to learn about, experience, and enjoy the open 
spaces and natural places that make Austin special. And 
if you need a reason why this event is valuable ... 

Young people these days are continually being educated 
through the screen, through the computer, through the 
television ... They're not getting out, and figuring out what goes 
on in the natural world, what's around them, how they exist in 
the natural world, their place in it. There's an ever-widening 
disconnect between people and the natural world that produces 
their food, that produces the oxygen, produces the water ... all of 
it.:25

Details for this event are at austinnatureday.org.

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