Category: Outdoor News

Watercraft Inspections for Lake Granby and Grand Lake

Zebra Mussel 

Get ready for a special watercraft inspection! As part of an ongoing effort to contain the spread of zebra and quagga mussels, the Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) is conducting special watercraft inspections at Lake Granby and Grand Lake on Saturday, the 27th of September. These inspections are designed to provide local homeowners and marina operators a convenient way to have their vessels checked for mussels or other invasive species.

The scheduled inspections will take place from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the East boat ramp at Grand Lake, and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Sunset Point boat ramp on Lake Granby. A hot-water wash station will be available to decontaminate any boats identified as “at risk” for spreading mussels or other invasive species.

“Our primary objective is to inspect and if necessary, decontaminate the boats that are being kept in rental slips and those vessels that are being launched from private ramps,” said Elizabeth Brown, DOW invasive species coordinator. “As fall approaches, many of these owners are getting ready to remove their boats from the lake and we’d like to have the opportunity to inspect these vessels as they are removed and before they are possibly launched into another reservoir.” Continue reading Watercraft Inspections for Lake Granby and Grand Lake

West Texas Rains Cause Problems

Mexican authorities in the state of Chihuahua had cut back outflow from one of the major dams on the Rio Conchos, but unfortunately more rain fell in Chihuahua over the weekend and that could produce more high volumes of floodwater into the Rio Grande, which last week began flooding homes and damaging riverside roads and facilities from Presidio to Amistad reservoir.

The entire Big Bend region in West Texas region has had unusually high rainfall for several weeks. Texas state game wardens and state park employees are coordinating with U.S. border patrol, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and Presidio city and county officials, forming an incident command team to take precautions and safeguard the area. Low-lying eastern and western edges of the city of Presidio have flooded, and some homes have been lost, though so far floodwater has not entered downtown.

The focus near Presidio is to try to maintain rain-soaked earthen levees, which have already breached in several places. So far, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Fort Leaton historic structure has remained above the floodwaters, though water has risen into the park picnic area. Big Bend Ranch State Park riverside campgrounds are likely gone, though nobody can get in to assess damage since the river road FM 170 is closed with much of it underwater. 

TPWD’s Barton Warnock Center is so far unaffected. Sauceda is fine but difficult to access; the only way in is down dirt 4WD roads from the north. Meanwhile, water is still coming in where the levee broke downstream of Fort Leaton, and it’s now slowly backing up toward Presidio.

Texas Wildlife Expo is Here Again!

Texas Wildlife Expo 

Hundreds of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department employees, most of them in the Austin area but also many at field locations, are making final preparations for annual Wildlife Expo on the weekend of Octobert 4-5. The Expo takes place at the TPWD headquarters in Austin, Texas.

Each year, outdoor activities are celebrated at this outdoor expo. Visitors can expect to see everything from rock climbing areas, to falconry, to shooting demonstrations, and even kayaking and vendor booths. Since dozens of game wardens continue to work Hurrica Ike, the Wild Game Cooking area and some other activities may have a reduced presence, but it will still be well worth the trip.

In addition, Coastal Fisheries Division staff busy with hurricane recovery on the upper coast have stated that the stingray touch tank will not be availalbe this year, but there will still be fish! Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is anticipating another big weekend for conservation outreach. Will you be there?

Invaders of Texas Aims to Aid Conservation

Chinese Tallow Tree Leaf 

Become a Citizen Scientist – Do you want to help slow down the spread of harmful invasive species and reduce their ecological and economic damage? The first step is to locate where invaders have arrived and get that information to those who can do something about it. That’s where citizen scientists come in. Citizen scientists are volunteers who receive expert training to identify and track important invaders in our area.

Invaders of Texas Volunteer Workshops – Held in cooperation with the Texas Forest Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas Cooperative Extension, and Texas Master Naturalists.

How to Participate and Register – Go to Citizen Scientist Toolkit page.

Step 1. Download and read “Being an Invaders Volunteer”

Step 2. Download and submit a completed Volunteer Interest Form to the local host of one of the scheduled workshops at least two weeks prior to the workshop date.

Step 3. The Local Host will notify you by email if your registration is accepted. Class size is limited to 30 participants per workshop and registration is on a first come first served basis. So be sure and register early! All materials will be provided. Class size is limited to 30 participants. If you have a GPS unit and/or digital camera, bring them with you. Continue reading Invaders of Texas Aims to Aid Conservation

Hunting: A Conservation Success Story

 A young hunter admires his harvest

We are hunters. As a subset of America, we’re admittedly somewhat smaller than we used to be. Our numbers have been steadily pressed beneath a culture growing ever faster, more complex and distant from its rural ancestry. Now, like growing vegetables, gathering fresh eggs and raising farm animals for the table, the proclivity and skill to harvest Earth’s bounty of wild game — and to pass on this tradition to those longing for simpler ways of life — reside in only a relative few of us.

The meats that hunters and their families consume are grown unfettered by hormones, processed feeds or fences. Low in fat and cholesterol, high in protein, wild game is organic defined. The American Heart Association and American Cancer Society recommend venison, rabbit, pheasant and duck over many commercially produced, packaged and distributed alternatives.

Data gathered by my organization show that 84 percent of us hunt exclusively in our home states. Only 5 percent never hunt locally. Compared with consumers of U.S. supermarket food, which routinely travels as much as 2,500 miles from source to table, we are model locavores.

But “renewable” is perhaps where hunters shine greenest. Continue reading Hunting: A Conservation Success Story

Murphree WMA Impacted by Hurricane Ike

Murphree Wildlife Management Area

At Murphree Wildlife Management Area (WMA) near Port Arthur, Texas, the Jefferson County storm levee held back the storm surge created by Hurricane Ike, protecting WMA buildings from flooding. The levee can resist a 14 foot crest and staff reported the area had 11 feet of seawater surge. One Murphree WMA shop building was severely damaged by high winds, but other facilities are reported in relatively good shape.In addition, eerial overflights are taking place today to assess ecological impacts and damage to various Texas Parks and Wildlife Department facilities. But longtime division staff member Jim Sutherlin had this to say from the Murphree WMA in Port Arthur:

“The Murphree area looks like the Gulf of Mexico. Wildlife impacts to every thing that doesn’t fly will be significant like it was back in the early 1960s with Hurricane Carla. I expect a great reduction in reptiles and amphibians, particularly alligators, but also snakes, frogs, all the things that move on the ground in the coastal plains.

We need to assess the full impacts, and that will take some time. It will set plant communities back to very early successional stages, and we’ll see big changes in the landscape when this water comes off, for a couple of decades. That’s something we’ll see as our careers mature, and the young people starting careers in wildlife ecology now will follow it as we followed Carla.”

Texas Teal Season: Just Add Water

Green winged teal 

The Texas teal prospects are plain and simple: if you have water, you should have birds when the hunting season opens on September 13. However, coastal hunters have another variable — where is Hurricane Ike, forecasted to come ashore sometime Saturday, going to make landfall?

And, if winds blow at hurricane force, what will that do to the teal in the area for the remainder of the season? Good numbers of teal have been reported along the coast, but water is scarce, especially along the coastal prairies. Some outfitters say they cannot get water from canal systems since farmers are using so much water to pour over second-cropped rice.

Those with wells have water, but they paid a heavy price to pump it with farm diesel still hovering around $4 a gallon. Tides have risen on the coast and should rise even more with the approaching storm. That should push new water to barren tidal flats and ponds.

Regardles, teal hunting prospects are good for those with water, unless, of course, the hurricane hits somewhere along the middle or upper coast.