February 27th, 2008
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program
A prescribed burn is a purposely set controlled fire.
Prescribed burns have long been recognized as a management tool.
Prescribed burns can be a cheap and effective way to manage habitats. Texas Parks and Wildlife offers free workshops to help private landowners learn more. David Synatzske is the manager of the Chaparral Wildlife Management Area
Most of ours are generally a one or two day workshop where we’re introducing landowners to the potential of fire for them. It’s more of a maintenance kind of activity rather than a restoration type of activity. Restoration fires are something that involve a lot more thought, a lot more preparation than your maintenance type fires. And we’re just trying too provide the knowledge there that this is a tool that’s available for our land managers and something for them to consider in their use of management whether it be brush management, population management, mechanical verses prescribed burning verses any of the other practices that might be out there available to them.
Parks and Wildlife will not conduct burns for landowners, but can provide biologists to assist landowners in surveying their property to see if a burn is right for them.
Find information on these free workshops at passporttotexas.org.
That’s our show…we had research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… providing funding for the operations and management of the Chaparral WMA.
For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in Conservation, Education, Podcasts, SFWR, Shows, WMAs | Comments Off on Prescribed Burns, Part 2 of 2
February 26th, 2008
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program
Fires can be very healthy for habitats
If you’re just getting started in prescribed burning, it’s a very valuable tool. It’s something that was one a way of maintaining the environments that we had.
David Synatzske is the manager of the Chaparral Wildlife Management Area. He says there are two main types of burns.
Basically, there are restoration fires where you are trying to restore habitats; where you’re trying to get back to what habitats were at one time. Then you have maintenance fires, fires that maintain the existing habitat.
Those fires are used to accomplished different goals.
People burn for different reasons. Some people burn to open country up, to control brush encroachment. Other goals might be to simply create a change in under story, to create more grass or to create more forbs.
There are different ways of conducting burns.
If you have a fairly open type of habitat and you only want to control the undergrowth, you may burn it with a backfire as opposed to a head fire.
The season the burn is conducted also has a dramatic impact on the results. More on that, tomorrow.
That’s our show…we had research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… providing funding for the operations and management of the Chaparral WMA.
For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in Conservation, Education, Podcasts, Regulations, SFWR, Shows, WMAs | Comments Off on Prescribed Burns, Part 1 of 2
February 25th, 2008
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife
A couple of years ago, if you owned a motorcycle, an ATV or any other kind of off high vehicle, it was hard to find a place to ride off road.
Steven Thompson manages the off highway vehicle program for Texas Parks and Wildlife
Until recently, Texas had many vehicles and very few legal venues to go to. And it created a situation where it was legal to manufacture these machines, to buy and to own these machines, but there weren’t legal venues to go to. People tended to ride in places that were inappropriate. It was inappropriate because it may have been trespassing onto private land or trespassing on to public land and there may be good reason not to ride there.
The OHV program is trying to change that
There are not any parks where motorized vehicles are allowed. And so my program creates partnerships with the national park service or the national forest service, the Texas Forest Service or working with non-profits like the Texas Motorized Trails Collation. And we have a grant program where we give them money to acquire lands that will be used specifically for motorized recreation. And the parks are designed, they’re constructed, they’re managed and maintained specifically for off road recreation.
The OHV Program has helped create 16 different venues with more in the works.
For more information, visit passsporttotexas.org
That’s our show…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in Podcasts, Shows | Comments Off on Off Highway Vehicle Program, Part 2 of 2
February 22nd, 2008
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife
An OHV is an off highway vehicle.
It’s a motorized vehicle and it’s mainly used off road on trails. In general, they’re not street legal. They include three classes of vehicles: motorcycles, ATV’s and full sized vehicles like jeeps.
Steven Thompson manages the off highway vehicle program for Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Texas is unique in that it has more off road vehicles than any state other than California.
OHVs appeal to a variety of users
I got my first motorcycle in 1968. I’ve owned them ever since. I’ve always enjoyed the thrill of riding motorcycles. I enjoy practicing mechanical skills, but while I was in Vietnam I was wounded and my right knee doesn’t work as well as it used too. And in fact, the surgeon told me in 1972 that I would get x number of steps out of that knee before I needed a titanium replacement. So it’s hard for me to get into the back country anymore and to walk there and carry all my supplies and there are many people that are like me. But over and above the folks that have some mobility impairment, riding off road vehicles is fun.
With 97% of Texas land privately owned, Texans have very little space to ride open to the public More information on one program that is trying to create more trails for OHV riders to explore – tomorrow.
For more information on OHVs, visit passporttotexas.org
That’s our show…with research and writing help from Kate Lipinski… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in Podcasts, Shows | Comments Off on Off Highway Vehicle Program, Part 1 of 2
February 21st, 2008
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife
You know you want your kids to spend more time outdoors, but you’re stumped how to make that happen. The March issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine can help. Managing editor, Louie Bond.
This is an issue we’re so excited about because it’s just so relevant to everyone. You know, when you and I were kids, we used to go outside and play all day long outside. These days, kids have so many distractions; so many amusements inside that I think some of them have forgotten what to do outside.
So, in this issue we’re showing fifty really simple, really easy ways to get kids involved in the outdoors. Everything from taking your two-year-old out to make a mud pie, to taking your teenager fishing to maybe geocaching—and it’s just so topical now for us.
And we have sidebars. We feature an older writer from Texas Parks and Wildlife who talks about going barefoot in the 1930s. Everyone went barefoot in East Texas—you know, spring through fall… to everything down to a graduate student who writes about how she may have been the last child in the woods; like Richard Louv’s book, which is really popular right now.
And so, we’re really excited about this issue. And, so we’re hoping it’s going to be a keeper for parents and grandparents. When they’re wondering how in the world to get their kids outdoors, they can refer to this and know what to do.
That’s our show…Remember: Life’s Better Outside… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in Podcasts, Shows, TPW Mag | Comments Off on TPW Magazine March Preview
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