Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

It’s easy to forget how the sounds of nature enrich our well-being, or how some man-made 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 Sunday, 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 a collection of sounds at passporttotexas.org, and instructions for making a sound map. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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World Listening Day Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Bats Emerging Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Black Bear Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Bobwhite Quail Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Prairie Mountain Soundscape Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Noé Cuéllar is a sound designer, photographer, and curator originally from Laredo, Texas, who currently lives in Chicago. He worked on a project called “Prairie Mountain Soundscape” for which Chicago-based anthropologist Lise McKean commissioned him to compose a soundscape of Chicago’s both natural and urban sounds. The podcast is above.

“Prairie Mountain Soundscape” is a sound journey through the evaporation and condensation of Chicago’s sound environment, where the audible embodies urban and natural landscapes.
– Noé Cuéllar

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?

This is Passport to Texas

Our state park guide, Bryan Frazier, says when it comes to our parks and the outdoors, we can hold a slew of unwarranted beliefs. One of the biggies out there is that state parks are boring—that they’re places where only retired people in RV’s go for the winter.

That is a very real stereotype out there, and we want to address that in the fact that it is completely NOT the case.

Those are sometimes the most fun of all: the wildlife that you see, the experiences…if that’s what people really think…give it a second chance…and I think they’ll come to realize and remember just how enjoyable and exciting state parks can be.

Thanks, Bryan.

Blow those myths out of the water, and start planning your next state park getaway when you log onto the Texas and Wildlife website.

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

Myth #1 About State Parks--They"re Boring Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

White Nose Syndrome is headed to Texas.

O6—This disease has the potential to impact over half of our North American bat species.

Mylea Bayless is a conservation biologist with Bat Conservation International, also called BCI. Little is clear about the disease, other than it’s a fungus that’s killed about a million hibernating bats, mostly in the northeast, since its discovery in NY State in 2006.

As of June 15, the disease had affected nine species of bats, in 14 states. In May, it was confirmed in Oklahoma, poised on Texas’ doorstep.

O3—So what we’re trying to do right now is to implement a surveillance plan.

John Young is a non-game mammalogist for Parks and Wildlife. He’s enlisting the help of BCI, the Texas Department of Health, Universities and others to help monitor the diseases’ progression. So far, it’s not been found in Texas.

16—We have taken a bit of a proactive stance on our wildlife management areas and some of out state parks where we’re looking at closing cave access if there’s bats present. But that won’t be all of the caves that we have because some don’t have bats, and it will only be a select number of caves.

Find detailed information about your role in limiting the spread of this disease at passporttotexas.org.

The Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program supports our show.

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

Stopping White Nose Syndrome at the Border Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Geomyces [gee-oh-MY-seez] destructans, also called white nose syndrome, has been killing bats in the Northeastern US since 2006.

11—White nose is this really mysterious disease, we’re still trying to figure it out. It’s brand new. It’s closely associated with a fungus that invades the bat tissues while they’re hibernating.

Mylea Bayless is a conservation biologist with Bat Conservation International. Researchers think the white fungus burrows into bats’ skin during hibernation, killing 90 to 100 percent of affected animals.

14—It seems like this fungus is disrupting their hibernation patterns and they’re waking up twice as often, and so they run out of fat twice as quickly. So, in January or February they’re out of stored fat and they simply starve to death in the caves and mines.

In May, University students in Oklahoma discovered a species of bat called cave myotis with the fungus, putting the disease on Texas’ door-step, and creating a potential threat for the 50 species of bats that live here, like the Brazilian free-tail.

21—Cave myotis very commonly roost in close association with Brazilian free-tail bats. So, I fully expect the Brazilian free-tails to become infected with the fungus very soon. What I hope will happen is that our free-tails won’t die en masse, because they don’t really hibernate for very long. Most of our free-tails migrate to Mexico.

Proactive measures to protect bat colonies in Texas—that’s tomorrow. The Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program supports our show

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

White Nose Syndrome in Bats Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas.

Each year, a species of invasive aquatic mussels called zebra mussels has crept further south toward Texas.

Parks and Wildlife Inland Fisheries Manager Brian Van Zee says last year they found zebra mussels for the first time in Lake Texoma on the Oklahoma-Texas border.

Since that time they’ve spread pretty much throughout the entire reservoir. You can find them attached to just about any rocks or hard structures in Lake Texoma now.

Zebra mussels filter small organisms and plankton out of the water for food. So when there are millions of zebra mussels, they can make the lake look pretty clear.

Most people would say that’s kind of neat, it’s a good thing. But actually it’s harmful because it’s filtering out the phytoplankton and zooplankton out of the water column. And that zooplankton the basis of the aquatic food chain.

That means fish may not have enough food to survive. And that’s not all.

Another thing that zebra mussels do by increasing the water clarity is that it allows other invasive species such as hydrilla or something like that to grow either quicker or at deeper water levels because now you can get more sunlight.

To prevent the further spread of zebra mussels, Van Zee encourages boaters to clean their boats thoroughly each time they take them out of the water.

You can find more information at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… we had research and writing help from Gretchen Mahan…the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program supports our series… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Invasive Species: Zebra Mussels Play Now | Play in Popup | Download