Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Fire’s always played a vital role in the creation of healthy ecosystem. Yet, as Europeans settled Texas, fire suppression was the name of the game.

That’s correct. As Europeans settled Texas, the occurrence of fire went down, because nobody obviously wants to have their house burned up.

David Veale is biologist for the M. O. Neasloney (nez-low-NEE) WMA in Gonzales County. On January 16 he leads a prescribed fire workshop at the WMA.

We start off with the historical perspective of fire, you know, what some of the fire intervals were. The native Americans did use fire to manage some of their grassland communities. And, so why it’s important to reintroduce that fire into the landscape; we also talk about what fire can do, and what is the role of fire in vegetation management.

And that’s just the beginning of what participants can expect…although Veale says the workshop is simply an overview.

You know, you can give somebody the information, and you can talk about it on paper, but until they’re actually put fire on their actual place where they’re responsible for that fire, that’s a big hurdle to get over.

Veale recommends after the workshop, landowners and managers consider joining prescribed burn associations.

We have a lot of them popping up throughout the state. And it’s a pooling of resources, it’s a pooling of expertise—it’s really a good thing.

That’s our show… supported by the Wildlife Restoration program. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

We’re taught from a young age to prevent fires. What we’ve forgotten is that nature relies on fire to flourish.

When you look at the historical occurrence of fire throughout the state, it’s something that pretty much every ecosystem in the state evolved with. All of our plant communities were evolved with fire at some certain interval—that’s going to differ throughout the state. But it’s been a pretty formative force in Texas ecology.

David Veale is a biologist for the M. O. Neasloney (nez-low-NEE) WMA in Gonzales County. He says we need reeducation about fire’s benefits.

And so we want to show landowners that it’s a responsible land management practice when applied correctly, when applied safely. And it’s something that’s really going to benefit not only your wildlife habitat, but generally your livestock program as well.

On January 16, Veale will lead a prescribed burning workshop at the M.O. Neasloney WMA.

The workshop is primarily targeted at landowners and land managers—the folks that are actually going to have the management decision to put fire on the ground and the responsibility for that. But it’s really kind of an introduction to burning. Because we’re not going to tell you everything you’d ever need to know about running a complete fire program in one day. So, this is just kind of a good overview; some of the things that need to be considered before a fire management program is started. And once that decision is made, it shows you some of the avenues for receiving some more training.

We have information about the workshop at passporttotexas.org. That’s our show… supported by the Wildlife Restoration program

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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January 16, 2010 — M.O. Neasloney WMA — Prescribed Fire Workshop — This workshop is designed to give landowners and managers a basic understanding of the use and application of prescribed fire in a wildlife and/or grazing management program. Topics will include historical perspectives on fire, the role of fire in vegetation management, fire weather and safety, planning the burn, fire line preparation, suppression equipment and smoke management. Participants will conduct a burn if conditions permit. Bring your lunch, drinks, leather gloves and boots and wear cotton outerwear. Accessible for the mobility impaired. 8 a.m.-4 p.m. (830) 424-3407

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This is Passport to Texas

To hunt ducks, you need to know where to find them.

People know where ducks typically are—along the coastal zone, maybe in the playa lake region of the Panhandle—but oftentimes they don’t think about these other places.

And those other places might surprise you, says Dave Morrison, waterfowl program leader at Parks and Wildlife.

Had we not been surveying places like the Blackland Prairies and Rolling Plains, people wouldn’t understand that there’s a large number of ducks in Texas on the stock tanks out in the central part of Texas. Sometimes we’ll see upwards of 800-thousand birds there. Those numbers actually, a lot of times, rival the numbers of ducks we count on the coast.

Biologists are presently conducting the annual mid-winter waterfowl survey, where they visually count and ID birds throughout the entire state, in a small plane 150 feet overhead. It helps them understand the birds’ movement, which they discovered is weather dependent.

You get conditions that are dry on the coast, but you get a hurricane that pushes a lot of water up on that brush country, puts a lot of water—guess what—a lot of ducks show up there….that otherwise people wouldn’t know they’re there. They say, well, the ducks aren’t here. Well, yeah they are. They just moved. Habitat conditions forced them into other areas. So, it gives us the ability to better understand where do birds go under different circumstances.

That’s our show…we receive support from the Wildlife restoration program…working to increase shooting and hunting in Texas.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

It’s time for the annual mid-winter survey of waterfowl.

Mid-winter surveys are pretty much a snapshot in time that states conduct every year the first week in January.

Dave Morrison is waterfowl program leader at Parks and Wildlife. He says the survey gives biologists an idea of how many of what species are “on the landscape.”

And, what it does for Texas, it gives us a comparison of what Texas has within the Central Flyway. Typically, when we do the mid-winter surveys, compared to the other nine states, seventy percent of the ducks are in Texas during that snapshot in time.

And this is good news for Texas duck hunters, because the survey can tell them where the ducks are.

It provides an opportunity for us, when people start questioning—well, there’s no ducks in Texas—well, we can say ‘no…here’s what it shows.” Because our surveys are designed to be able to detect changes over time. So, if there was a significant decline in numbers of ducks, we’d see it. But, by and large, we’d say, ‘well, they may not be where you’re at, but we know where they’re at. They’re over here.’

See what I mean? What factor moves ducks to unexpected locations? Find out tomorrow.

That’s our show…we receive support from the Wildlife Restoration Program…working to increase shooting and hunting in Texas.

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

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This is Passport to Texas Outdoor Stories

When you love the outdoors, you may be hard pressed to come up with a single moment in nature as being the most memorable of your life. Texas Highways Editor, Charles Lohrmann, took on the challenge.

When you asked me to describe one of my most memorable Texas outdoor moments, I thought about a particular amazing sunrise over the gulf in Padre Island, and then sort of a psychedelic sunset at Big Bend. And then, one afternoon I was out birding, and saw a bobcat who seemed to watching me as I was birding.

And I feel like I can sense the earth’s heartbeat at that time, and that I’m connected to something far greater than my imagination.

Thanks, Charles…works for me. Have an outdoor story to share? Go to passporttotexas.org and tell us about it.

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

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