LEGACIES: MIDGE ERSKINE - Meet a woman whose work has 
saved millions of migrating waterfowl in the Trans Pecos 
Region ... We'll explain just ahead on Passport to Texas 
Legacies ... 
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Passport to Texas Legacies from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Midge Erskine was a wildlife rehabilitator in Midland in 
the 1970's when she became aware that migrating 
waterfowl were running afoul of open oil and gas waste 
pits.

At one time, every oil pump jack had a pit next to it. And the 
birds would think this was water, and they would come down to 
that. And the oil company had come in and cleaned out one of the 
pits and there was a pile, about this high, and it was almost all 
bones. Millions and millions of birds in there. And just of the 
duck population, we were losing over a million just ducks here in 
West Texas because of the oil field. It was a horror story out here, 
and it took twelve years before we got anything really done. And 
we had to get Fish and Wildlife in. Once it showed this that was a 
great killing area for birds, US Fish and Wildlife could then say, 
you're illegally taking birds under the Migratory Treaty Act. And 
so they gave the oil companies - I think it was like a year and a 
half - to go ahead and get netting put over the tanks and the pits, 
or get rid of the pits. :60

And they did.

That's our show for today ... .produced in cooperation with 
the Conservation History Association of Texas ... visit 
them on the web at texaslegacy.org.

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