Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program

The Texas National Archery in the Schools Program certifies teachers as instructors. Teachers learn the program, as they will teach it to their students.

It’s an all day workshop to become a certified instructor. They learn with the same equipment and the same method.

Burnie Kessner is archery coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

We use international style archery. It’s bulls-eye target faces, Olympic size. We use Olympic whistle commands, and they learn the same way worldwide.

Kessner says while certified instructors prepare students for tournaments, the successes a child
experiences extend beyond the bulls-eye.

So, when a kid is shooting archery, and they’re on the shooting line—they’re all the same. So, it doesn’t matter what kind of home they go home to after the tournament, when they’re at the tournament, they’re the same as everyone else. So, that’s the self-esteem building piece; it’s standardized.

Archery is a sport where anyone of nearly any ability can participate…and we have more about that tomorrow.

That’s our show… our series receives support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Archery in Schools, Part 2 of 3 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program

Archery, the original shooting sport, is making a comeback in schools nationwide. Burnie Kessner is archery coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Ninety-five percent of my job is, I’d say, is coordinating the archery in the schools program—The Texas National Archery in the Schools Program.

Forty-five states currently participate in The National Archery in the Schools program. Texas joined in 2004 to become the seventeenth state.

We got some schools on board in oh-five, and we really kicked off officially in February of oh-six with our first state tournament where we had a hundred and twenty kids. Our second state tournament was last February oh-seven, where we had almost four hundred kids.

And this spring the third tournament is expected to draw more than five hundred participants…which begs the question: what is it about archery that sees tournament involvement continually climb?

Schools are finding out all of the benefits and the great assets of having this program. It’s very inclusive. It doesn’t matter your gender, your physical ability doesn’t matter, your size doesn’t matter. As long as you can learn the process, as long as you can learn the process you can do archery and you can excel.

We’ll have more on the Archery in the Schools Program tomorrow.

That’s our show… our series receives support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…working to increase fishing, hunting, shooting and boating opportunities in Texas…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Archery in Schools, Part 1 of 3 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Wildlife needs habitat to survive, but developments have encroached on their turf. Homeowners can assist wildlife by creating oases of habitat around their homes called wildscapes.

A wildscape is simply a backyard landscape that takes into consideration the needs of wildlife. So it will provide food, shelter and water for various forms of wildlife, with a minimum of fifty percent native plants.

Marks Klym coordinates the Texas Wildscapes program. He says using native plants in a wildscape serves a two-fold purpose.

Native plants are the plants that the wildlife are accustomed to using in the wild. So, that’s going to be what they’re looking for when they’re moving through the area, as well as the fact that a lot of our native plants are becoming rarer and rarer in the wild. And we don’t want to encourage their loss by using the exotics.

Many commonly used landscape plants are exotic and invasive.

An invasive plant for a biologist is something that will escape your garden, survive for a minimum of one year, and when it gets out in the wild, it has a tendency to reproduce in a way that discourages everything else. It may have a chemical that it puts into the soil to discourage other plants, or it may simply be that it grows in such a tight formation that it chokes out everything else under it.

Find Wildscaping information at passporttotexas.org.

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

What is a Wildscape? Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish Restoration Program

Fishing the late shift is a feature you’ll see this month on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series. Producer, Alan Fisher.

Fishing is a favorite pastime, coastal and inland, but there’s this whole other little subculture out there; people who like to fish at night.

So, when you were talking to these nighttime fisher folk, what did they say the appeal was of doing their fishy business in the darkness.

Everybody seems to have their own reasons for fishing in the dark. I think for a lot of folks, in the summertime, there’s a good reason in Texas, it’s a little more pleasant to be on a pier or in a boat in August. But there are people who fish at night in the wintertime, too. So, it’s not just the weather.

But, also, it tends to calm down a little bit at night. Sometimes the heat causes a lot of wind, and maybe that’s not so good for fishing. At night you get the still waters, and sometimes its just a little more pleasant to be outside.

Thanks, Alan.

That’s our show…we receive support from the Sport Fish restoration program…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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CLICK HERE for a list of stations that broadcast the Texas Parks & Wildlife Television Series

TP&W TV April Feature: Night Fishing Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish Restoration Program

Fishing the late shift is a feature you’ll see this month on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series. Producer, Alan Fisher.

Fishing is a favorite pastime, coastal and inland, but there’s this whole other little subculture out there; people who like to fish at night.

So, when you were talking to these nighttime fisher folk, what did they say the appeal was of doing their fishy business in the darkness.

Everybody seems to have their own reasons for fishing in the dark. I think for a lot of folks, in the summertime, there’s a good reason in Texas, it’s a little more pleasant to be on a pier or in a boat in August. But there are people who fish at night in the wintertime, too. So, it’s not just the weather.

But, also, it tends to calm down a little bit at night. Sometimes the heat causes a lot of wind, and maybe that’s not so good for fishing. At night you get the still waters, and sometimes its just a little more pleasant to be outside.

Thanks, Alan.

That’s our show…we receive support from the Sport Fish restoration program…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
______________________________________________________

CLICK HERE for a list of stations that broadcast the Texas Parks & Wildlife Television Series

TP&W TV April Feature: Night Fishing Play Now | Play in Popup | Download