May 14th, 2008
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife
Susan Gonzales’ family knew nothing about the outdoors…
We’ve always wanted to go camping, but we didn’t know where to start.
So, she brought her husband and children to Steeplechase Park in Kyle last month for a Texas Outdoor Family Workshop.
Now we feel more comfortable to be outdoors. We know what to do—the things that we’re going to need, what to bring, and cook, and stuff like that (laughs).
The Kyle Parks and Recreation staff, and students from Texas State University in San Marcos, mentored the families. Susan’s daughter Marisol tells us what she learned.
Mmmm… How to use a compass, and how to set up a tent, and fish and all that.
Susan Gonzales says her family will use their newfound outdoor skills at Texas State Parks.
I got a really great guide—the Texas State Park Guide—so we’re going to look through it, and sit down and see what we like and what we want to go see. So, do you think that you’re going to talk other friends and family into joining you? Oh, definitely yes. It’s a great experience that I’m having today, so I’m going to definitely tell them about it.
That’s our show for today, with support from Toyota, reminding you to do whatever it takes to get your kids outside. For tips and ideas, go to lifesbetteroutside.org.
For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Texas Outdoor Families–The Gonzales Family
May 13th, 2008
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife
Women can gain a lot from outdoors experiences.
I think women are strong and they’re smart. And I think we’re stronger and smarter than sometimes we give ourselves credit for being.
Krista Allen is a participant turned instructor of the Becoming an Outdoors Woman workshops.
And I think the outdoor experience help women realize their strengths because the skills we learn help you grow as a person and those skills have application in their everyday lives.
Allen believes that women finding passion outdoors will encourage them to share it with others. Your most effective doing things that your passionate it about and when you find an outdoor activity that you love and you’re passionate about, you’re going to pass that on to other people. Showing the outdoors to people, I think, is one of the coolest things that you can do.
Once women discover an outdoor activity they’re passionate about they’ll find new value in state parks.
If you’re a mountain biker or if you’re a cyclist you have a huge appreciation for the out of doors and the value of having those sort of spaces and preserving those sort of spaces.
To find out more information about Becoming an Outdoors Woman Workshops, visit passporttotexas.org.
That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in Education, Events, Podcasts, Shows | Comments Off on Women in the Outdoors
May 12th, 2008
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife
The mystery of the tarpon is a story you’ll see this month on the Texas Parks and Wildlife television series– writer/producer Ron Kabele.
The funny thing about a lot of young anglers is, there’s so few tarpon left in the gulf of Mexico that a lot of them don’t even know what a tarpon looks like. But, it’s a big silver fish; when I say big, I mean ninety to two hundred and fifty pounds.
Just as recently as fifty years ago, it was a very prominent thing to see in the Gulf of Mexico. But since then, their population has just bottomed out, and the thing is, scientists just don’t know why. So, they’ve been doing research the last few years. It’s a program where anglers and scientists work together– anglers to catch the tarpon, so that the scientists can do some experiments, like what conditions do they need to reproduce. They just don’t know why the tarpon aren’t reproducing—it’s not because they’re over fished—it’s because there’s something going on in the gulf that’s causing the population to crash.
The producer who did the story went out a number of times—they never saw a tarpon. They’re really hard to catch now because there aren’t that many left. One of the biologists said, in the course of the story, that they didn’t want to happen to the tarpon to what happened to say the Attwater’s prairie chicken, where the population gets just so low that bringing the species back would be virtually impossible. And that’s what they’re trying to circumvent with this research.
The series airs on PBS stations statewide.
That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in Fishing, Podcasts, Saltwater, SFWR, Shows, TPWD TV | Comments Off on TP&W TV May Feature: Mystery of the Tarpon
May 12th, 2008
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife
The mystery of the tarpon is a story you’ll see this month on the Texas Parks and Wildlife television series– writer/producer Ron Kabele.
The funny thing about a lot of young anglers is, there’s so few tarpon left in the gulf of Mexico that a lot of them don’t even know what a tarpon looks like. But, it’s a big silver fish; when I say big, I mean ninety to two hundred and fifty pounds.
Just as recently as fifty years ago, it was a very prominent thing to see in the Gulf of Mexico. But since then, their population has just bottomed out, and the thing is, scientists just don’t know why. So, they’ve been doing research the last few years. It’s a program where anglers and scientists work together– anglers to catch the tarpon, so that the scientists can do some experiments, like what conditions do they need to reproduce. They just don’t know why the tarpon aren’t reproducing—it’s not because they’re over fished—it’s because there’s something going on in the gulf that’s causing the population to crash.
The producer who did the story went out a number of times—they never saw a tarpon. They’re really hard to catch now because there aren’t that many left. One of the biologists said, in the course of the story, that they didn’t want to happen to the tarpon to what happened to say the Attwater’s prairie chicken, where the population gets just so low that bringing the species back would be virtually impossible. And that’s what they’re trying to circumvent with this research.
The series airs on PBS stations statewide.
That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in Fishing, Podcasts, Saltwater, SFWR, Shows, TPWD TV | Comments Off on TP&W TV May Feature: Mystery of the Tarpon
May 9th, 2008
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program
Abundant water and huge old cypress trees makes Caddo Lake ideal wildlife habitat.
Caddo Lake is the mother load for several species of neo-tropical migrants.
Cliff Shackelford is a non-game ornithologist stationed in Nacogdoches. The prothonotary warbler, northern parula, and yellow-throated warbler flock to Caddo.
A dawn chorus of those warblers singing is quite a neat thing. It’s good to be out in a boat, a canoe, a kayak, something where you can get out in the middle of the swamp to hear these things—they’re just loud and explosive. It’s really refreshing to hear things like that singing in the morning.
But warblers aren’t the only creatures that make use of Caddo’s resources. Vanessa Adams is the area biologist at the Caddo Lake Wildlife Management Area. And says you’ll find white-tailed deer and…
We unfortunately do have feral hog, but that is a huntable population, of course. We see several species of ducks. You’ll see wood duck year round. We get mallards; we have other unusual ducks. In fact, we’ve had black-bellied whistling ducks nest here.
We have links to Caddo Lake Wildlife Management Area at passporttotexas.org.
That’s our show… with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program… providing funding for wetland conservation through the Private Lands Enhancement Program. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
_____________________________________________________________
CLICK HERE for canoe rental information at Caddo Lake
CLICK HERE to watch a video of Caddol Lake.
Posted in Conservation, Podcasts, SFWR, Shows, State Parks | Comments Off on Wetlands Month–Caddo Lake, 2
Passport to Texas is a 
Passport to Texas is made available by: