Passport to Texas

World Listening Day 2012 Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

It’s easy to forget how the sounds of nature enrich our wellbeing, or how some manmade sounds can have the opposite effect. The World Listening Project recognizes these relationships.

08—The World Listening Project is a not for profit organization whose goal is to help people better understand our relationships with the sounds around us.

Dan Godston lives in Chicago and is involved in the World Listening Project. He says Wednesday, July 18 is World Listening Day, and one way to observe it is by taking a sound walk in a state park.

05—And a sound walk is where you’re focused on what you hear in your sound scape, your sonic environment.

In parks you might hear birds, rustling leaves, water, buzzing insects, the sound of mountain bikes whizzing by, people’s voices, and the crunch of a hiking trail beneath your feet.

Traffic, the clanging and growling of industry and manufacturing, and the thumping bass of car stereos heard from blocks away, are also part of the sonic environment, and often considered sound pollution. Just as bright city lights obscure our view of stars in the night sky, excessive man made sounds muffle our ability to connect with the natural world.

10—As stewards of this planet, we should try to be careful about what’s happening to biodiversity, and certainly, I think, having the range of sounds relates to that.

We have instructions for making a sound map at passporttotexas.org. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
___________________________________________________________

HOW TO MAKE A SOUND MAP

Do You Hear What I Hear?
Make a Sound Map!

What You Need:
•Paper
•Clipboard, tablet or something to write on
•Something to write with like a pencil or pen

Directions:
1.Find a comfortable spot to sit outdoors.
2.Mark an “X” in the center of the paper. This shows YOU on the map.
3.Close your eyes and listen for at least one minute. Listen for sounds from animals, birds, people and other activities.
4.Keep listening, but now draw pictures or symbols on the map representing all the sounds you hear, and where they are coming from.
5.At the top of your page, write down the date, time and where you were (school yard, park, etc.)

What Did You Discover?
Did you hear something from each direction around you? Could you hear at least 10 different sounds? Could you identify all the sounds you heard? If you did this with a friend, compare your maps!

Stuff to Think About:
•What would happen if you sat somewhere else?
•What would be different at another time of day? Another season?

TPW TV: Employee Recognition Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

Throughout the month of July, Texas Parks and Wildlife’s PBS TV series spotlights agency employees and the interesting and meaningful work they do. Producer Don Cash introduces us to one of them.

61—One of those people is Steve Magnelia.

So, the story on Steve and what he’s done with the trout airs on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV show. It will be on the week of July 15th. And if by some reason you happen to miss the television show, you can always see the videos on our YouTube channel.

Thanks, Don.

The WSFR program supports our series and is celebrating 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Wildlife: Prairie Dog Towns Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

Prairie dogs live in connected underground burrows called “towns,” which have been known to cover up to 1,000 acres of land!

These colonies are divided into social groups usually consisting of one male, up to four females, and offspring less than two years of age. And San Angelo SP has a prairie dog town on premises.

04—Actually, we have 2 towns- we’ve established one on the north side and south side of the park.

Assistant superintendent, Pat Bales is a fan of the critters, which aren’t dogs at all, but a type of ground squirrel. Pat familiarizes us with their habits.

30—They’re most active during the cool hours of the day, during that time they’ll engage in the social activities- visiting, grooming, as well as feeding of grasses and herbs. And normally whenever they are out feeding like that, they’ll have a sentry and they’ll have a lookout. And their mounds are built up high. They’re kind of unique little engineers. They’ll build one mound, end of their mound higher than the other, and an out hole. The reason they do that: it creates a high pressure/low pressure situation which enables air to continuously flow through there. And down in the burrow itself, they’ll have little compartments where they can sleep, where they can feed.

Prairie dogs were native San Angelo, but various factors reduced their population. Fortunately, thanks to dedicated “dog” lovers – they live happily at the park.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish restoration program supports our series and is celebrating 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…

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

State Parks: A Grant for Caprock Canyons Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

Caprock Canyons State Park secured a 65-thousand dollar grant from the Ted Turner Foundation to help habitat restoration for the state bison herd. Our State Park Guide Bryan Frazier has details.

63—The Ted Turner Foundation has a history with helping restore bison nationwide. They’ve given a grant to Caprock Canyons SP, and that can go for everything from fencing to prairie restoration—things that will help that Texas State bison herd more viable, more diverse, and just more thriving and visible just so the people of Texas can enjoy it. And the superintendent there, Donald Beard, has done some really interesting things to help restore that prairie habitat there. Everything from getting some donated money to get a big machine that carves up some of the invasive red berry juniper and mesquite trees to make the prairie habitat come back even quicker. But they’re also planning to do a prairie dog town restore, where they’re relocating some black-tailed prairie dogs from Lubbock out to the park. So you should have more of a thriving prairie ecosystem that resembles what we had here in Texas before European settlement. And that’s the long range plan. And this grant from the Turner Foundation allows us to really get a jump start on that—and they’re just really doing some great things at Caprock Canyons State park.

Thanks Bryan

That’s our show for today…with funding provided by Chevrolet, supporting outdoor recreation in Texas; because there’s life to be done.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Also Leopold's Five Tools for Land Management Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

Aldo Leopold, widely accepted as the father of wildlife and habitat management in America, outlined five types of habitat management practices used to restore and maintain habitat.

05—And those involve the ax, cow, plow, fire and gun.

Wildlife Management Area (WMA) facilities coordinator, Dennis Gissell, says these tools have served Texas well, on WMA sites…and explains what they are and how they work together to support healthy ecosystems.

37—The axe actually conveys to the use of mechanized equipment as well as chain saws and loppers that we use to remove invasive species of vegetation, which are not beneficial to wildlife. Cows are used for grazing, and grazing helps to stimulate production of forbs and browse. The plow is used to plant food plots when it’s necessary to help wildlife to survive winters and long summers. Fire is used to restore habitat and to stimulate the growth, once again, of forbs and browse. And, of course hunting is good to control and manage wildlife populations so they don’t become out of synch or too large for the carrying capacity for the habitat.

A $48 dollar annual public hunting permit or a $12 dollar Limited Public Use Permit can provide access to WMAs all year. Learn the difference between the permits at the Texas parks and Wildlife website.

The WSFR program supports our series and is celebrating 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti