Passport to Texas

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Texas game Wardens live in the communities they serve, and their success hinges on developing good relationships with residents. This month on the TPW TV Series, producer Ron Kabele introduces viewers to game warden Shawn Hervey. And in his case…good relationships begin at home.

Well, Shawn is a game warden up in Texarkana. And the thing that he’s really known for in the community is taking a lot of the local kids out hunting. And a lot of these kids, they’ve never been exposed to nature or they’ve never seen a deer, or they have no concept of what stewardship is.

It was just so out of the blue that he said that. And when you think about that, if a son thinks that, and is able to verbalize that, what is that game warden doing to the community? And that’s really what Shawn does—he inspires people.

This segment airs the week of December 25 on PBS stations in Texas. Check your local listings.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

This is Passport to Texas

Civil Restitution laws were passed by Texas legislature to make individuals accountable for illegally injuring, killing, or possessing a wildlife resource.

If someone’s convicted of illegally taking one of these resources, we ask them to pay for it. We even offer them a discount if they pay it early.

Kris Bishop, Assistant Chief of Fisheries Enforcement for Law Enforcement.

If they don’t pay it, they passed a law in 1998 that anybody that was in arrears to the state that they would not be able to get a hunting of fishing license, and thereby punishing them. If you don’t pay, then you can’t play anymore. If they don’t pay, then we’ll put a hold on their license and they’re not able to buy a license to go hunting or fishing.

These laws were put in effect conserve animals and create collective consciousness among the citizens of Texas. Of course, there are consequences for those who hunt without a license or have outstanding unpaid fines.

To kinda give that law a little bit of teeth, because a lot of people just say ‘Well then I don’t buy a license- what’s the worse that’s going to happen to me?’ Well, instead of having just your regular Class C misdemeanor, which is a fine of $25-$500, it’s been moved up to a Class A. So it’s a lot more severe penalty for doing that if you’ve had your license suspended already.

Details about Civil Restitution can be found on the Texas Parks & Wildlife website.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

Each day, hundreds of Game Wardens dedicate themselves to protecting our state’s natural resources. Texas Game Wardens face a variety of dangers in their line of work. While most of the people Game Wardens come in contact with are harmless, Game Warden Kris Bishop explains the risks of being in the field.

:46 Think you’ll see a couple of different scenarios- what Game Wardens experience in the field. In general, the people that we come in contact with are good, family people. They’re taking their family, their children out hunting, and fishing, and boating. That’s how they want to spend their free time. The kind of person who goes out and communes with nature is usually a good person and they have good intentions, and so that’s the average person that we meet. But occasionally, you are going to meet the criminal element no matter where you are. It’s going to be anywhere. You’ll always have that certain amount of danger out there because most of the people that we’re dealing with have knives, guns, things like that, on them. That’s part of what they’re doing. They’re either fishing they they’ll have a filet knife, or they’re hunting and have a rifle or a shotgun. There’s always that little bit of an element of you could possibly get into a situation with a bad person.

Details about Law Enforcement can be found on the Texas Parks & Wildlife website.

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

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This is Passport to Texas

Being a Texas Game Warden is an important and rewarding profession. Occasionally, though, it takes an outsider to recognize you have the right stuff to wear the badge.

09—When I was going to college, I studied a lot of science and as a Texan I grew up hunting and fishing. One of my professors actually was the one who thought I’d make a good Game Warden.

Kris Bishop, Assistant Chief of Fisheries Enforcement for Law Enforcement, outlines the steps involved in becoming a Game Warden.

15—To be a Game Warden, you have to have a four-year college degree. Once you’ve finished your four-year degree, if you are accepted into the Academy, it’s about a seven month live-in academy, and they teach you everything about the Code of Criminal procedures, Penile code, and then animal identification.

Graduates of Game Warden Academy enforce all state laws because they are Texas Peace Officers.

08—You’re a conservation enforcement officer, and then because you are a state peace office, you are responsible to know and be able to enforce all the laws of the state.

Whether you seek information on becoming a Texas Game Warden, or you need information on various hunting, fishing a conservation regulations and policies for our state—you can find all of it on the Texas Parks & Wildlife website.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

The fifty-third Game Warden Cadet Class will be the last to graduate from the training Academy in Austin.

And, we’ll archive that class, and sometime in June and July we’ll unplug, and take the pictures off the wall, and load up the boxes and we’re going up to Hamilton County and open up that new facility.

Randy Odom is Chief of training. He says the Police Activities League of Houston donated land for the new center.

It’s large enough to house a new admin building, state of the art classroom, gymnasium, an indoor swimming pool — we hope to have constructed — a firing range, and also an emergency vehicle operating course. To have all of these facilities on site, keeps us from being at the mercy of other agencies and having to beg, borrow and schedule times for events. Not all folks are great at everything, and having on site capability allows us easy and quick remediation.

The sale of the Austin site, plus contributions from benefactors will fund building costs.

Our goal is twelve and a half million to build, and if we get fifteen million it will offer us an endowment to help offset the operating costs once its all constructed. :09

Learn how you can help make the new Game Warden Training Center a reality when you go to passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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To learn about the New Game Warden Training Center, click here.

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