Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

When you hear the word tilapia, you may think of a savory meal with lemon butter sauce, but you probably don’t think of the term “invasive species.”

11—The tilapia are great to eat. They’re raised as a food fish, and they’re quite tasty. They’re quite popular in restaurants. But the problem is when they’re in our natural waters they are upsetting the ecosystem.

Tilapia have been in Texas for decades. They were originally brought in as a food source to be raised in fish farms, but eventually made they’re way into Texas waters.

Gary Garrett, a Texas Parks and Wildlife fisheries biologist, says tilapia can be a threat to large mouth bass and other native species.

16—They build big pit nests and in doing that they stir up a lot of the settlement. And it’s been shown, for example, with large mouth bass, all that sediment stirred up and settling back down will often kill large mouth bass eggs.

When tilapia do this, they can potentially damage the entire ecosystem because of the intricate food chain.

Texas Parks and Wildlife does have state regulations for tilapia, but because tilapia are found all over the state, they are difficult to control. But if you like to fish, Garrett says you can help.

03—Don’t throw them back. If you catch them, keep them.

So next time you catch a tilapia, turn on the grill and get cooking. You’ll be doing yourself and the Texas ecosystem a favor. The SF Restoration program supports our series…and works to increase fishing and boating opportunities in Texas.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

David Bamberger knows something a lot of us don’t.

11—Grass on the ground is the biggest single, and the least expensive, and the quickest responding conservation measure that one can do.

That’s because the root systems hold water. After 40 years, countless man hours and tens of thousands of dollars spent reseeding with native grasses—water is plentiful on the once parched 55-hundred acre Blanco County ranch. Now Bamberger has a new project.

09—The idea behind this project is to capture all the water that falls here, and to keep that little perched aquifer charged up.

This perched aquifer is almost entirely on his property. Bamberger is bulldozing depressions into the tops of his limestone hills to catch rain.

21—And so when rain falls on the tops—and these are very shallow calcareous type soils—it quickly runs off. So, what we’re doing is we’re creating what I call water pans (I want 12 miles of those), about eight foot wide and eight to ten inches deep. When rain falls, it’ll fall into that pan and can sit there long enough to soak in.

And recharge the aquifer. The octogenarian says the project includes plans for 26-miles of terraced rock berms on the hillsides to further impede runoff.

06—When I explained this to the staff here, I said it’s going to take us 10 years. When you see it, you’re going to know why.

Find out how you can visit Bamberger Ranch at passporttotexas.org.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

Forty years ago a soil conservation service technician told David Bamberger he’d purchased the worst piece of land in Blanco County. But Bamberger had a plan.

06—We were wanting to demonstrate and try to develop a model that perhaps other people could follow.

Bamberger, and his late wife Margaret, created a conservation model by dedicating themselves to restoring ecological balance… including flowing water…to their fifty-five hundred acre ranch.

09—Let me tell you, there wasn’t a drop of water here. There wasn’t anything in the way of wildlife. I drilled 7 water wells 500 foot deep; I never got a drop of water.

With careful land management, including the removal of 3-thousand acres of “wall-to-wall” cedars and seeding the land with native grasses…the land revived.

18—So, over this forty years, as the habitat was improved, we got 11 springs that started to run; after 7 years we had two creeks that were running. Today we have 22 ponds or tanks that weren’t here when I came. Two of them we call lakes because of their significant size.

This award-winning octogenarian conservationist’s latest project also involves water.

09—The idea behind this project is to capture all the water that falls here, and keep that little perched aquifer charged up.

We’ll learn more about that tomorrow.

That’s our show…made possible by a grant from the Wildlife Restoration Program…supporting habitat restoration in Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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This is Passport to Texas

Prairie dogs live in connected underground burrows called “towns,” which have been known to encompass 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 that are less than two years of age.

Pat Bales, San Angelo SP Assistant Superintendent, says the animals are active only in daylight hours.

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 indigenous to the San Angelo area, but various factors drastically reduced their population. Yet, thanks to dedicated prairie pup lovers – they’re back.

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

See a video of the park and the prairie dogs on the Texas Parks and Wildlife YouTube channel.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

Garner State Park in Uvalde County is the recipient of dozens of new, healthy trees thanks to a juice company contest and your votes. Our state park guide, Bryan Frazier, explains.

49— Garner is the recipient of 88 new trees because of a campaign that Odwalla has done nationally. And they did an online contest and the parks that got the most votes go money to be used to plant trees. And over the decades, we’ve lost hundreds of trees—a lot of these were planted by the CCC in the 1920s and 1930s, so to be able to replenish some of those is a real gift. And so Garner is getting more than 18-thousand dollars worth of trees. They’re all 10 feet tall, and they’re all native pecan trees, lvie oak trees and chinquapin oaks—and they were all bought at a local nursery there. And so it’s a win-win for us. And Odwalla is getting ready to do the campaign again this year. The parks that receive the most votes online, will get those trees as well. So, it’s a good situation for us.

Thanks, Bryan.

That’s our show for today…with funding provided by Chevrolet…building dependable, reliable trucks for more than 90 years.

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

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