Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

For a family friendly, memory-making, spring break getaway—you can’t beat Colorado Bend State Park, and the white bass run. Our State Park guide, Bryan Frazier has more.

55—And at Colorado Bend, when the white bass run is on, it could be one of the best in the state of Texas. You can catch lots of fish, get kids involved and other people, and really share a memory that you might not be able to find anywhere else, or any other time of year. Well, before I turned on this machine, you shared a memory, and you said that you took your mom and son. Tell me about that. Well, I took my mother and my young son who hadn’t fished much either last year; it was one of the best white bass runs at Colorado bend that we had in a long, long time. The water levels were up, and we took our little boat, and we had a ball. We put the boat in the water and moved upstream just a few hundred yards, and started catching white bass, and we caught them for a couple hours. We kept, you know, enough for us to eat, and white bass are great to eat, so I recommend doing that when you know what the bag limits and the length limits are. We had a time that I know I’ll remember for the rest of my life, and probably my mom and little boy will as well. So, get outdoors and enjoy that—it’s spring break—white bass run…Colorado bend. That’s a great recipe right there for a lot of fun.

Thanks, Bryan.

That’s our show for today…with funding provided by Chevrolet…building dependable, reliable trucks for more than 90 years.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

Texas Parks and Wildlife recently completed the ninth and final map in its Great Texas Wildlife Trails map series.

05—And that is the Far West Texas Wildlife Trail map, which just launched in December of 2010.

Shelly Plante oversees nature tourism for Parks and Wildlife. The latest map, divided into 10 loops, features 57 sites.

21—It stretches from Midland-Odessa down to Sanderson, Big Bend, and up all the way to El Paso. So, we go over two different time zones in this trail. In other trails, we’ve tried to keep sites within a half hour of other sites; in West Texas we’ve had to make that within a couple hours within the closest sites, but in West Texas standards—that’s close.

You’ll find the GPS coordinates for each site on the map, as well as relevant information. Some of the wildlife viewing sites included on this map may surprise you.

18—A golf course is involved… RV parks…and things that you wouldn’t necessarily think of as wildlife viewing sites—but they are. They’re protected habitat, and they’re these green oases, in the middle of Far West Texas, so they really do make good wildlife viewing site. But they aren’t necessarily what you would think of as a visitor. So, they’re perfect sites for a map like this.

Download any of the nine maps of the Great Texas Wildlife Trails from the Texas Parks and Wildlife website, and experience the wild(life) side of nature.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

We know how spring breakers like to get wild on their week away from classes. This spring break, you can either follow the crowd, or blaze a trail when you follow our maps to the best wildlife in Texas.

07—Through this series of maps, we now have over 950 sites, statewide, that show you the best places to see all kinds of wildlife.

I’m sure you’ve figured out we’re talking about actual wildlife—not questionable behavior.

07—From bighorn sheep to monarch butterflies to migratory song birds, to nesting shorebirds on the Texas coast.

Shelly Plante oversees nature tourism for Parks and Wildlife.

30—Fifteen years ago we started with the Great Texas Coastal Birding trail, which was a series of three trails on the Texas coast: the upper, central and lower Texas coast. With the success of those, we moved on and did the Heart of Texas, and Panhandle Plains, and those were so successful we then moved on to the Prairies and Pineywoods. About two years ago, I started partnering with the Texas Mountain Trail and Texas Pecos Trail regions of the Heritage Trails of the Historical Commission to create the final map of the series. And that is the Far West Texas Wildlife Trail map.

Download any of the nine maps of the Great Texas Wildlife Trails from the Texas Parks and Wildlife website, and have a wild spring break—the kind you can tell your folks about.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

The Louisiana pine snake is so rare, it’s even hard for wildlife professionals to find.

Craig Rudolph is a research ecologist for the US Forest Service Southern Research Station. He says the US Forest Service and the zoo in Lufkin, TX, have established a new captive breeding program for the Louisiana pine snake.

There’s just one problem…

07—Over the last four years, we’ve only come up with one female, so that is obviously limiting our ability to establish this population.

The non-venomous snakes are native to East Texas and Louisiana, where they depend almost entirely on the pocket gopher. The snakes burrow into the gopher’s tunnel, then…

06—They wait in one of the feeding tunnels for the gopher to come along, and they function as ambush predators.

But, in East Texas, much of the gopher’s habitat has been destroyed. That means fewer gophers and fewer pine snakes. Rudolph says this problem isn’t new and they’ve been working to restore native habitat for decades.

12—Habitat on public land especially has been considerably improved over the last 10 to 20 years, primarily through more prescribed fire.

By the time the snakes are ready to be released in several years, researchers hope the habitat and, consequently, the gopher population will be ready for them.

That’s our show… the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program supports our series… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

When you sign up for free e-newsletters from Texas Parks and Wildlife, you’re signing up for multimedia outdoor adventures delivered to your inbox.

03—It’s a really fun way to find out about what’s going on.

Darcy Bontempo, Marketing Director at Texas Parks and Wildlife, says the e-newsletters give subscribers more than a list of outdoor activities.

11—Also learning about conservation, about wildlife. People love stories about animals and all the critters in Texas. So, this is a really easy way to get the information to them, but it’s also fun to read.

The free e-newsletters from Texas Parks and Wildlife can help to streamline your interactions with the agency.

21—[If you] Read a story on a state park and you’re interested in going there, you just can click right there and go right to our online reservation system [and] make a reservation. Or, if you read a fishing story, and you want to buy a fishing license, or you might see a promotion about the horned lizard license plate, or one of our other license plates; you go directly online and buy. So, it’s real convenient, and you know you even can do it from your smart phone. So, it’s pretty cool.

Look for the envelope icon on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website to sign up your e-newsletters. You decide what you want depending on what your interests.

24—Also, they can opt out at any time; they can change their profile at any time, so if they find they’re getting too much or too little information, they can just go right online to their subscription profile and change it.

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

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