Passport to Texas

Accessible trail at a state park.

TPW Magazine: Accessibility for All Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Whether it’s ADA-accessible pit toilets in Enchanted Rock State Natural Area’s backcountry… or accommodations for disabled hunters in the public hunting program—access is important wherever and whenever possible.

The March issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine addresses accessibility in an article by writer Kathryn Hunter.

Hunter writes: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is currently developing a five-year accessibility transition plan that Sandra Heath, TPWD’s first ADA coordinator, calls “ADA and beyond.”

The agency strives to provide access and inclusion for users of all abilities, while also recognizing that public lands are equally tasked with the protection and good stewardship of wildlife and cultural and historical resources.

In fact, nearly any capital project underway has an accessibility component to it.

Research has shown that when you make something accessible for one group of people it often improves accessibility for everyone.

Read Kathryn Hunter’s article on accessibility in the March issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

Our show receives support in part from RAM Trucks: Built to Serve.

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

Huff Wagon Train encampment at LBJ State Park

Honoring Texas' Buffalo Soldiers Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

I was once a captured slave. Now I’m just a black man who came to be….

In the 19th Century, Black men who served in the 9th and 10th Regiments of Cavalry and 24th and 25th Regiments of Infantry of the United States Army were …

I am a Buffalo Soldier!

The Native Americans whom they fought during the Indian Wars gave troops the name because of their hair texture, courage, and ferocity in battle.

He feared and respected the buffalo. And he learned to fear and respect the black soldier as well.

That’s Buffalo Soldier reenactor, John Olivera, who says Buffalo soldiers played a major role in settling Texas.

Seventy-five percent of the soldiers that settled this area were Buffalo Soldiers. The only white men that were with them were the commanding officers. Almost all of the forts were manned and built by Buffalo Soldiers.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department offers Texas Buffalo Soldier Outdoor Educational Programs. Find their schedule on the Parks and Wildlife website.

The Buffalo Soldiers fought not only the Indians, and outlaws, but racism and prejudice. We had a job to do, and we done it.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Pensacal wind farm and avian radar.

TPW Magazine: Wind and Wildlife Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Texas is the number-one wind energy state; but what’s the effect of wind farms on bats and birds? Writer Russel Roe addresses this matter in an article for the March issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

The stakes are high when it comes to wind and wildlife, especially as you consider that Texas has the largest population of bats in the world and the nation’s highest diversity of bird species.

Although clean, renewable wind energy offers benefits to the environment, you’ll learn in Roe’s article that it does so at the cost to wildlife. Hundreds of thousands of birds and bats die annually, their fates sealed when they fly into the turning blades of gargantuan turbines.

Bats are hardest hit—no pun intended. With more than twice the number of fatalities than birds.

Roe writes that wind companies and conservation groups agree that responsible siting of wind turbines away from areas with high wildlife activity is a key first step to reducing the problem. TPWD is working on its own set of wind energy guidelines and hopes to release them sometime in 2019.

Meanwhile, read Russel Roe’s article about Wind and Wildlife in the March issue of Texas parks and Wildlife Magazine. You’ll also learn about research on ultrasonic acoustic deterrents that reduced bat fatalities by 46 percent.

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

A past dish prepared at Central Market Cooking Schools.

Fish and Game Cooking with a Tropical Twist Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Learning to cook can be fun, especially when you attend a Texas Parks and Wildlife / Central Market Cooking School wild game and fish class.

We joined forces to introduce non-hunting and fishing food enthusiasts to the joys of wild proteins, and to help hunters and anglers learn a few new culinary tips and tricks to get the best flavor from the animals they harvest.

We hold classes the second Tuesday of every other month; we have one coming up in March. The recipes will have a tropical twist this time around, and feature crab, wild boar and shrimp with the flavors of coconuts, plantains and luscious fruits, like pineapple.

At each class a TPW volunteer shares information about wildlife management and conservation in Texas.

Classes take place in Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Dallas, Plano and Southlake.

Find a link to the locations, full class description and menu, as well as how to register at passporttotexas.org.

And you can also find wild game and fish recipes on the Texas parks and Wildlife website.

We record our series in Austin at the Block House, and Joel Block engineers our program.

We receive support for our show in part from RAM Trucks: built to serve.

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

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Here’s the menu for the March 12 class:

• Cornmeal (polenta) with Crab, Tomatoes & Bell Peppers served with Green Plantain Chips
• Oven-roasted Wild Boar with Jamaican Seasonings, Pineapple Salsa & Sweet Potato Mash
• Coconut Shrimp with Lime

Class registration is simple. Just go the Central Market Cooking School main page, find the school in your area, click on the link, and then search the calendar for the TPWD class.

Follow the directions and you’ll be all set.

Painting: An evening walk along looking at the Resaca off Retama St by St. Joe. Artist: Jesus Toro Martinez

The Art of Nature: Jesus Toro Martinez Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

When San Antonio artist, and native Texan, Jesus “Toro” Martinez, isn’t inside his studio at Lone Star Art Space, he’s nearby, collecting materials for his work.

This morning I got some trash along the San Pedro Creek, here outside my studio. This is a piece of aluminum can; I’m cutting it into pieces, so I can put it into my grinder and start making different levels of pigment.

He creates pigments from trash that washes up along the creek bed. When we met, he was working on a series called Creeks and Rivers.

Our Texas lands are so beautiful and vast, and we need to figure out how to protect them. This is more or less a way of me trying to advocate for that by showing it in my work, and then showing them the process of where it came from.

For years Toro has turned non-traditional elements into pigments for his abstract paintings

And now, I’ve created more of a stronger cause, such as: let’s clean our rivers and creeks. This is stuff that I’m finding here. And going down to the gulf—these will end up down there. And since I love fish, I don’t like to see my fish to start tasting like plastic.

Toro’s work is available in Texas through Lone Star Art Space and Dock Space Gallery in San Antonio.

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