Texas Game Wardens are part of the communities they serve. They’re accessible and ready to answer your questions. With that in mind, our show is beginning a new feature in June called Ask a Game Warden.
We’d love to hear from some of your listeners on the radio show.
Grahame Jones is chief of special operations for Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Law Enforcement Division.
We have a very robust social media platform, both the department’s social media and then our division’s social media as well; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Or submit your questions on your radio show.
No matter where you are in the state, questions submitted to the radio show will receive answers, and some will be answered on the show, during our Ask a Game Warden feature.
We have game wardens all over the state. Most counties have game wardens assigned to those particular counties. We have some counties in far west Texas and some counties in the panhandle that have one game warden assigned to a couple of counties. But, for the most part, we’re assigned to every country throughout the state.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation supports our series and helps keep Texas wild with support of proud members across the state. Find out more at tpwf.org.
For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Texas Game Wardens became part of the fabric of our state in 1895 with the creation of the Fish and Oyster Commission by the Texas Legislature. The commission evolved into Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Since that time, our mission is to protect the citizens of Texas. Protect the natural resources of Texas. Conduct boating safety—water safety. It really encompasses a lot.
Grahame Jones is chief of special operations for Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Law Enforcement Division. He says Game Wardens are highly trained state peace officers.
We can enforce all Texas law. A big part of what Game Wardens do is public safety.
They’re often first on the scene during natural disasters. Game Wardens are members of the communities they serve, and advocate community policing.
We’re part of the community. We take great pride in outreach and education with schools—elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, community groups… And, we require our Game Wardens to take part in outreach, but we don’t have to. They do it anyway [because they want to do it].
With outreach in mind, we’re starting a new feature on the show called Ask a Game Warden.
We want to hear from the people, and I think this is a great way to do that, because that relates back to community policing.
To ask your question go to the contact page at passporttotexas.org and send us an email.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation supports our series and helps keep Texas wild with support of proud members across the state. Find out more at tpwf.org.
The 10th Annual Toyota Texas Bass Classic, May 20 through 22, takes place on Lake Ray Roberts, and features family friendly activities at Toyota Stadium in Frisco.
This is a new thing for Bass Classic. The fishing portion is going to take place at Lake Ray Roberts, and then they’re going to come over and do all the awards in the stadium. So, it’s really going to be a little different than it’s been, but almost a little cooler, because usually we’re out in the country, and this time a lot of people that haven’t been able to come out to this event in the past are going to get to come out and try it.
Lacey Estus is outreach and recruitment manager at Texas Parks and Wildlife. The festivities in Frisco offers urban families an opportunity to get acquainted with the agency and the diverse outdoor recreation opportunities available to them.
A lot of times, it’s the first time they see us. They’ve heard about us, but they don’t really know who we are and what we do. A lot of people have no idea we that we even do archery; they think a lot of times we’re just fishing and camping. But, we’re a lot of things. And, it’s a great place for them to touch and feel things. It kind of goes back to when we did EXPO. The idea was ‘Hey, let’s take this on the road and give people that experience—[take it] to places that may not have seen it before or know anything about it.
Enjoy country music concerts all three days of the Toyota Texas Fest. There are plenty of family friendly activities, food, drinks and big bass. Discounted single day tickets or weekend passes are available before the event at toyotatexasfest.com.
There’s a lot to learn, for sure. Not only just with our production process, but also [becoming familiar with] all of the biology, all of the wildlife management…
The job involves more than knowing where to point the camera. It’s challenging, and also keeps producers on the road for long stretches. Yet, even when they’re done for the day, they’re never really done. As you’ll see when you view an upcoming segment called Balmorhea Fun.
I was actually doing a story with producer Abe Moore—we were out in the Pecos region studying the Pecos Pup fish for another segment. We’d finished in the middle of the afternoon, and we were considering—okay, we could either do the drive back to Austin over six hours, or we could just stay here in Balmorhea, enjoy the afternoon, make a fun little video, and drive back the next day.
And that’s just what they did.
We had a bunch of small Go-Pro cameras, and, we had a Quad-Copter that can shoot video. We spent the afternoon swimming with folks, giving them cameras [to use], and coming up with this fun little video.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife TV segment Balmorhea Fun airs on PBS stations the week of May 15th.
Dump out standing and stagnant water around the outside of the home to limit breeding areas for all mosquitoes. Image courtesy of freshorganicgardening.com
Aedes aegypti is a mosquito known to carry the zika virus we’ve heard about in the news. It’s an introduced species found in the eastern half of Texas. But Mike Quinn says there’s no cause for alarm.
There’s no locally acquired cases in the [50] United States.
Quinn is an Austin entomologist who’s been following reports of the virus and its host species. This mosquito is different than most.
We mostly we think of large numbers of mosquitoes at dawn and dusk and through the night. But the Aedes aegypti is a day biting insect.
Aedes aegypti is a creature of the summer months, and most active May through August. One way to control it is to prevent it from breeding.
Controlling breeding sights on our property can be a very effective way to reduce the mosquito [population]. It’s what we call a container breeding mosquito. [It breeds] in pots and barrels, and toys and bottles. It can breed in a very small amount of water—a tablespoon or less, even. But it takes about a week under optimal conditions to go from egg to adult. So, doing a weekly cleanup of property, checking for water sources, changing out birdbath water on a weekly basis, is a good way to keep the population down locally.
Using products containing DEET on your person can be an effective deterrent. We have links to more information about the zika virus at passporttotexas.org.
For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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