Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Despite improved public relations, people remain—if not terrified—then at least apprehensive of bats.

A lot of people fear bats because of a lot of myths and superstitions associated with them.

Meg Goodman, former Parks and Wildlife’s bat biologist, says bats will not purposely entangle themselves in your hair, nor will they attempt to suck your blood.

We do a lot of work to get the message across that bats are actually very, very beneficial for us, and they’re very gentle creatures and very interesting to learn about and learn from.

With education, more people are beginning to appreciate bats than fear them. In fact, we’ve even started looking forward to seeing certain bats—such as Mexican free-tails—that winter in Mexico and summer in Texas.

The Mexican free-tailed bat is probably one of our most common bats in the state, and people know it because it lives in such large numbers in places such as bridges and caves and makes nightly emergences that many people can come out and watch.

Tomorrow: the benefits of bats.

The Mexican free-tailed bat, in particular, is really valuable for agricultural purposes.

That’s our show for today… with support from the SFWR Program…working to restore wildlife habitat in Texas…we record our series at the Production Block Studios in Austin…Joel Block engineers our program…

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

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This is Passport to Texas

Spring break is that much anticipated week-long hiatus from school and work, which—for most Texans—takes place in March. And if you have a week to spare this month, and you live in the Hill Country, and are on the lookout for a nearby outdoor adventure, then get over to Inks Lake State Park. Bryan Frazier has details.

It’s hard to talk about spring break time of year without referencing Inks Lake SP.

A popular place, year-round. It’s one of our parks that has great and solid year round visitation. And with good reason.

You can find more SP Getaway information on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show… we record our series at the Production Block studios in Austin, Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

[ticking clock] Hear that? That’s time running out to register your team in the thirteenth annual great Texas Birding Classic. Shelly Plante.

The Birding lasts for an entire week. And we have events for all ages and all different kind of groups of people.

Plante oversees nature tourism for Texas Parks and Wildlife. If you don’t mind paying a late fee, you may register your team up until the day of the tournament, which is April 24. The event is open to birders of all skills and abilities.

With birding, everyone is equal. If you’re blind or visually impaired you can do birding by ear. And we actually have a tournament category for that in the birding classic—the Outta Sight Song Birder Tournament. We have ADA accessible trails throughout the Texas coast, so, anyone with mobility impairments can get out there and bird. It really is an equal opportunity activity.

It’s easy to register your team in this tournament.

To find out about registration for this year’s event, go to birdingclassic.org online.

Registration deadline is March 22. The event is April 24 through May 2, and concludes with an awards ceremony.

Winning teams decide which proposed avian habitat conservation projects receive funding this year.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Birders of a feather will flock together next month for the fourteenth annual Great Texas Birding Classic. During this weeklong event, birders from around the globe converge on the Texas coast for fun, and friendly team birding.

The area for The Great Texas Birding Classic goes from the Louisiana Border, all the way down to the Mexican border—in a forty-one county area of the Texas coast. So, it’s a very large swath of land, with a lot of different habitat types and a lot of different bird species you can see.

Shelly Plante oversees nature tourism for Texas Parks and Wildlife. The Birding Classic donates tens of thousands of dollars each year to avian conservation projects.

The top [winning] teams are the ones that get to pick what projects receive all this money. So, we give over fifty-thousand dollars to projects every year, and those winning teams are the ones that get that opportunity.

Three different flyways intersect the Texas coast, making that habitat essential to birds as they make their spring and fall migrations.

We hold this event to raise some money for that habitat for restoration projects, acquisition projects so that we can ensure that Texas remains a wonderful place for birds to visit year after year.

Registration deadline is March 22. The event is April 24 through May 2. Find a link to registration information at passporttotexas.org.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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For more information about how you, your business or community can be involved in this year’s event, please contact the Birding Classic Staff, call: ( 9 7 9 ) 4 8 0 – 0 9 9 9, or send an email to
Carol Jones, cjones@gcbo.org

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This is Passport to Texas

Before we had grocery stores, we had nature.

Whenever the edible wild plants were domesticated, tamed and cultivated, that’s when human culture could grow.

Human culture evolved, says Joe Roach, because people no longer spent their days searching for food in the wild. Roach, a park interpreter, occasionally takes visitors on wild food hikes in Tyler State Park.

The program is to have park visitors recognize and gain and appreciation of how edible wild plant support our human culture. We do that by taking a very moderate one half mile hike. We point out the various the various things that the Caddo Indians used [and others] when they were here. And we investigate how the human culture rose on the foundation of edible wild plants.

Roach warns never to eat any wild plant unless you are 100% certain it is safe, as some edible wild plants are similar in appearance to poisonous wild plants. One ubiquitous edible plant is the juniper tree, more commonly referred to as cedar.

You can make a tea out of them, or chew on the leaves. Some people have reported that it helps control various gum diseases. In survival training some people say you can chew on the juniper to freshen the breath.

And juniper berries are a classic seasoning for wild game dishes. There’s a Wild Food Hike at Tyler SP March 20; it’s accessible for the mobility impaired. Find details on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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March 20, 2010 — Tyler SP — Wild Food Hike — Explore the edible wildscape during a moderate, half-mile hike. Learn to identify and prepare some of the common edible wild plants and other benefits they have to offer. Accessible for the mobility impaired. 11 a.m.-noon (903) 597-5338.

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