Tag: tpwd

Texas State Parks Get New Website

“New and improved” is how Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is touting it’s new state park web site. An yes, it may sound like an overused advertising gimmick, but TPWD says it certainly applies in this case. And just in time for the busy spring camping season, no doubt? Campers, hikers, boaters, and recreational enthusiast seeking information about their favorite Texas state parks on the TPWD Web site will be redirected to a new, redesigned online resource to help them plan their visits.

A year-long effort by the TPWD State Parks, Communications, and Information Technology divisions, the new Web site is dedicated entirely to the 93 Texas state parks operated by the TPWD. And the new parks site goes live, online this month at texasstateparks.org.

The new site is in response to an online survey TPWD conducted last year where over 3,000 visitors told the State exactly what they thought. Survey respondents made it clear that they seek more useful state park information online and want the pages to be more visually appealing. And I could not have agreed more! Continue reading Texas State Parks Get New Website

TPWD Public Meetings

Texas seeks public comment on waterfowl seasons and more 

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) willl be holding public meetings across the state that continue until May 15. Meetings will take place this week in Midland, Bay City, Ozona, Tyler, Brownsville, Abilene, and Garland. In addition to seeking public comment on proposed fee increases and dove hunting seasons, TPWD is scoping issues related to migratory game birds. The TPWD Commission will consider proposals in late May that could increase certain license and boat registration fees, as well as general waterfowl season framework options for the 2009-2010 seasons. The meetings will seek public feedback on issues related to migratory game bird seasons in the future. More information, including the complete public meeting schedule, is in a TPWD news release online.

Ducks Unlimited Donations Help Texas Wetlands, WMA

DU helps Texas wetlands and the Murphree WMA 

Ducks Unlimited announced last week it was awarded a federal North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant to enhance more than 5,728 acres of wetland habitat in Chambers and Jefferson counties along the Texas coast. Partners contributed more than $2 million to match the $1 million received from the federal grant. The project will restore high priority wintering habitat for ducks, geese, and other migratory birds within the Chenier Plain of Texas, including at TPWD sites such as the J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area. The project will replace degraded culverts and pipes with modern water control structures, improve existing levees, and construct new levees to provide efficiently managed wetland habitat.

“This partnership project will enhance management capabilities on approximately 1,100 acres of freshwater coastal marsh habitat,” said Jim Sutherlin, area manager at Murphree WMA for TPWD. “The aging water management infrastructure is in need of upgrades to enhance wetland habitat for wildlife and especially migratory waterfowl.”

The NAWCA grant project is made possible with financial support from partners BP America, Suemaur Exploration and Production, LLC, and Jefferson County Drainage District #6.

Anheuser-Busch Pulls Out on Texas Parks and Wildlife

Anheuser-Busch will no longer sponsor Texas Parks and Wildlife 

Several Texas news outlets recently reported that Anheuser-Busch has ended its sponsorship relationship with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD). In addition, the company has ended its cooperation with its official nonprofit partner, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation. On Saturday, the Dallas Morning-News reported that late last year, Belgian-based InBev bought Anheuser-Busch and made some changes in their corporate relationships. The company’s history of support will leave a lasting conservation legacy in Texas. Since 1994, Anheuser-Busch has provided close to $15 million to support the department mission and keep Texas a great place to hunt, fish and enjoy the outdoors.

Over the years the company has supported a wide variety of sites and programs, including ShareLunker, Texas Parks and Wildlife Expo, Big Time Texas Hunts, Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center, Coastal Fisheries Bay Team, Flat Out Fishing, Crab Trap Cleanup, Public Dove Hunting Program, Great Texas Birding Classic, Sheldon Lake Environment Learning Center, Government Canyon State Natural Area, tarpon research and the Texas Big Game Awards. The Dallas newspaper and other outlets have reported how the Anheuser-Busch departure offers new opportunities for companies or organizations that may wish to sponsor TPWD programs and sites.

Resaca de le Palma State Park Grand Opening

A break in inclement weather conditions, as well as a day full of family-friendly activities, welcomed about one thousand visitors and community leaders who turned out for the grand opening of Resaca de la Palma State Park this past Saturday. The new park is operated by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and is named for the shallow, flooded oxbows that existed before reservoirs changed the Rio Grande, preserves 1,700 acres of disappearing native riparian and wetland habitat in the ever-growing metropolitan area of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It’s the largest of the three state parks in the nine-site World Birding Center network and underscores the region’s renown as a premier birding destination, an area home to more than 500 avian varieties, including locally popular species such as the green jay and the chachalaca.

TPWD Executive Director Carter Smith, State Parks Director Walt Dabney and various other staff members and local dignitaries spoke to the crowd. The day included a ribbon cutting to commemorate the official opening of site facilities, mariachi bands, an art display and contest from local students, interpretive tours for birding, butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies, and various exhibits and activities that included everything from Buffalo Soldiers and the Gladys Porter Zoo to the Last Chance Forever birds of prey show. With the opening of Resaca de le Palma, eight of the nine World Birding Center sites are now complete and open to the public, with the final site still under development at South Padre Island.

Resaca de le Palma State Park is Open!

Texas’ newest state park, and the last of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) three World Birding Center sites, opens this Saturday in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Resaca de la Palma State Park near Brownsville will host a grand opening celebration Dec. 5, though it opened quietly months ago. The 1,200-acre park near the southernmost tip of Texas is the largest of the nine sites that comprise the World Birding Center, a project begun by TPWD in partnership with local communities a decade ago, now nearing final fruition. South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center, the final wing of the WBC, is under construction and slated to open in spring 2009. The other World Birding Center sites are: Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park (WBC headquarters), Edinburg Scenic Wetlands, Estero Llano Grande State Park (Weslaco), Harlingen’s Arroyo Colorado, Old Hidalgo Pump House, Quinta Mazatlan (McAllen) and Roma Bluffs.

Not a state park in the traditional sense (there is no overnight camping), Resaca de la Palma caters to bird watchers, butterfly enthusiasts and other nature lovers who seek an up-close view of wildlife in a natural setting. Like Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley, Resaca visitors must park at the visitor center and walk, bicycle or take the free tram into the park. The park’s centerpiece is a restored resaca (an ancient coil of a river bed once filled by Rio Grande floodwaters), but it also includes marshes, dense thorn-scrub, and mature palm and ebony forests. The new state park was made possible in large part by increased funding provided by the Texas Legislature in 2007, which helps pays the salaries of 14 full-time and part-time employees, among other expenses. Interpreting the park story for the visiting public is a major focus, with staff and exhibits, trails and observation decks, guided tours and other activities, all designed to teach visitors about the area’s unique natural and cultural resources.

Texas’ South Zone Dove Season May Change Dates

Dove season is big in Texas

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is proposing moving the South Zone second split of dove season deeper into January, but otherwise is recommending minimal changes to the 2008-09 Early Migratory Game Bird Proclamation. TPWD staff announced the proposed dove and teal season calendar during the Regulations Committee meeting of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, Wednesday, May 21.

The proposed dove season in the North Zone would run Sept. 1-Oct. 30, with a 15-bird bag and not more than two white-tipped doves; the Central Zone would be Sept. 1-Oct. 30 and reopen Dec. 26-Jan. 4, with a 12-bird bag and not more than two white-tipped doves; and the South Zone would run Sept. 20-Nov. 2, reopening Dec. 26-Jan. 20 with a 12 bird bag and not more than two white-tipped doves. Possession limit is twice the daily bag.

The Special South Texas Whitewing Zone, which now encompasses land west of I-35 and south of U. S. Highway 90, would open to white-winged dove afternoon-only (noon to sunset) hunting the first two Saturdays and Sundays in September and reopen Sept. 20-Nov. 2 and again from Dec. 26-Jan. 16. The daily bag limit is 12 birds, not more than four (4) mourning doves during the first two weekend splits and two (2) white-tipped doves. Continue reading Texas’ South Zone Dove Season May Change Dates