The Hill Country is the crown jewel of Texas. And the Kerr Wildlife Management Area teaches landowners how to keep it polished.

We’re a 65-hundred acre wildlife research and demonstration area for the Edward’s plateau ecological area. And it serves as our experiment station for private landowners to come out and find out more about the basic tools of wildlife management.

Donnie Frels is the area manager. While wildlife species at the Kerr WMA are typical for the region, plant diversity is unique by Hill Country standards.

We keep animal numbers in check, and we make sure that we maintain our grazing animals within the carrying capacity of the range, and our plant species and diversity reflect that now.

Research on the site also protects three endangered species: the golden-cheeked warbler, black-capped vireos and the tobusch fishhook cactus.

And we do surveys for all three of these species; and our management program benefits not only white-tailed deer but those endangered species as well.

The site is open to the public for wildlife viewing during daylight hours when public hunting is not underway, and offers a driving tour brochure for those visiting the site. Learn more at passporttotexas.org.

That’s out show… made possible by a grant from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Holidays challenge the creativity of gift-givers everywhere. If you have nature lovers on your list, gift giving is easy—and the giving is twice as nice.

A sixty-dollar Texas State Parks Pass is a thoughtful and sensible gift for your outdoor enthusiast. Pass holders enjoy twelve months of unlimited visits to more than ninety state parks and historic sites. They also receive discounts on camping, park store merchandise and recreational equipment rentals. Money spent on the pass supports your Texas state parks.

For thirty dollars each, you can give the drivers on your list a conservation license plate. Twenty-two dollars from every sale goes directly to help fund conservation efforts in Texas. The horned lizard plate, in particular, funds research and conservation of non-game species such as the horned lizard.

Give every outdoor lover on your list access to more than a million acres of public land—with the Limited Use Permit—for the ridiculously reasonable price of twelve dollars. The permit holders receive twelve months of access to Texas’ wildlife management areas, where they can fish, hike, bird watch, cycle, and camp.

When you give one of these gifts, you delight the receiver, and help support state parks and conservation in Texas. Details at passporttotexas.org.

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

Are you in need of a hunting forecast, or a place to experience nature at its most wild? Then look no further than the September issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine. Managing Editor, Louie Bond.

In September, we always have our big hunting forecast. It’s much more than the dates and the permits required. We actually have lot’s of biologists who contribute to the interview, and tell us about how, perhaps, rain has affected the particular season and other environmental factors—just to tell us how’s it looking this year for quail and javalinas and things like that. So, it’s a really thorough, up-to-date look at what the hunting season is going to look like.

Another thing we have in the September issue—we featured Big Bend in our August issue—and if Big Bend is a little too populated for you, you can head out that way and go to Black Gap WMA. And it’s the biggest one in the state, and it’s really for roughing it, but it’s just huge and there’s so many things you can do out there, and the hunting is great out there, they’ve reintroduced the big horn sheep…but there’s also a lot of recreational opportunities for people who aren’t afraid to rough it. So, check out our September issue and find new ways to get outdoors.

The September issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine is on newsstands now.

That’s our show for today…we receive support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program… providing funding for the operations and management of more than 50 wildlife management areas …For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Are you in need of a hunting forecast, or a place to experience nature at its most wild? Then look no further than the September issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine. Managing Editor, Louie Bond.

In September, we always have our big hunting forecast. It’s much more than the dates and the permits required. We actually have lot’s of biologists who contribute to the interview, and tell us about how, perhaps, rain has affected the particular season and other environmental factors—just to tell us how’s it looking this year for quail and javalinas and things like that. So, it’s a really thorough, up-to-date look at what the hunting season is going to look like.

Another thing we have in the September issue—we featured Big Bend in our August issue—and if Big Bend is a little too populated for you, you can head out that way and go to Black Gap WMA. And it’s the biggest one in the state, and it’s really for roughing it, but it’s just huge and there’s so many things you can do out there, and the hunting is great out there, they’ve reintroduced the big horn sheep…but there’s also a lot of recreational opportunities for people who aren’t afraid to rough it. So, check out our September issue and find new ways to get outdoors.

The September issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine is on newsstands now.

That’s our show for today…we receive support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program… providing funding for the operations and management of more than 50 wildlife management areas …For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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.

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.

Squirrel hunting was considered a right of passage for young people, but that’s changing. TPW TV writer/producer Ron Kabele tells us about a story airing this month called Last of the Squirrel Hunters.

We followed a father and his daughter, who were hunting on Engeling WMA. Her name was Macy; and she was very enthusiastic—she was about 12 years old.

I have four daughters. Macy is my outdoors person, so she likes to go and tromp out in the woods as long as the bugs don’t bother her too much.

And, his fear is that at some point, Macy’s generation is going to be the last generation of squirrel hunters. Squirrel hunting is actually a very good way to get people into hunting, because you’re moving around the forest, you’re not sitting in one place, you have lots of targets to aim at if you’re in good habitat. In other words, there’s lots of action.

(ambience walking) That other squirrel’s gotta be right here. Dad, put it in your pocket. Whoa. That’s cool.

A lot of time with hunting, it’s that first experience that determines whether someone’s going to be a hunter or someone’s not.

That’s our show for today…thank you for joining us…we receive funding from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program… providing funding for the operations and management of the Gus Engeling WMA.

We record out program at the Production Block in Austin, Texas. Joel Block engineers our show.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Find out on which PBS stations the Texas Parks and Wildlife Television series airs when you click here.

Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area is 80 miles southeast of Dallas.

Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area [WMA] is approximately 14-thousand acres that lies almost totally within the Trinity River Flood plain. It’s a large block of bottomland hardwood habitat.

Jeffery Gunnels is a wildlife biologist for Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area.

Parks and Wildlife Department acquired Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area in 1987. It was deeded to the state from the Tarrant Regional Water District as a mitigation property when the Richland Chambers reservoir was constructed. That was to satisfy their requirements under the US Army Corps of engineers section 404 permit.

It wasn’t long before a wide array of bird species started arriving.

The WMA is a very good place to find species of birds. On our North Unit we have lots of different wading birds such as great egrets, great blue herons, snowy egrets, lots of ibises, roseate spoonbills and a wide variety of other shorebirds that migrate through the spring. It’s also very, very good wintering waterfowl habitat. We regularly over winter lots of waterfowl and have lots of waterfowl hunting in the fall months.

That’s our show….supported by the Wildlife Restoration Program providing funding for the operations and management of more than 50 wildlife management areas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…Cecilia Nasti

When mist cloaks Caddo Lake it’s easy to understand how the lore and legend about this east Texas destination came to pass.

Native American legend says a giant flood created Caddo Lake. Others say an earthquake was responsible.

Meanwhile, scientists believe the lake formed when floodwaters, blocked by massive log jams on the Red River, backed up into the Cypress Bayou watershed, forming the lake.

One thing that is true: Caddo Lake’s beauty. And visitors to Caddo Lake State Park/WMA not only experience nature at her most beguiling, they also have a plethora of recreational opportunities — from hiking to hunting – to choose from.

With an annual public hunting permit, hunters may harvest deer, eastern wild turkey, and quail during appropriate seasons. Licensed anglers find largemouth bass, catfish and brim plentiful in the lake.

Find more on Caddo Lake SP/WMA at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show, made possible by the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program providing funding for the operations and management of more than 50 wildlife management areas.

For Texas parks and wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

When mist cloaks Caddo Lake it’s easy to understand how the lore and legend about this east Texas destination came to pass.

Native American legend says a giant flood created Caddo Lake. Others say an earthquake was responsible.

Meanwhile, scientists believe the lake formed when floodwaters, blocked by massive log jams on the Red River, backed up into the Cypress Bayou watershed, forming the lake.

One thing that is true: Caddo Lake’s beauty. And visitors to Caddo Lake State Park/WMA not only experience nature at her most beguiling, they also have a plethora of recreational opportunities — from hiking to hunting – to choose from.

With an annual public hunting permit, hunters may harvest deer, eastern wild turkey, and quail during appropriate seasons. Licensed anglers find largemouth bass, catfish and brim plentiful in the lake.

Find more on Caddo Lake SP/WMA at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show, made possible by the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program providing funding for the operations and management of more than 50 wildlife management areas.

For Texas parks and wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.