Tag Archives: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Another kind of feral hog to worry about

Texas now has a warthog problem. Over its 46-year history, the Chaparral Wildlife Management Area has been the site of a long list of achievements that cemented its reputation as the premier state-owned wildlife and wildlife habitat research, education and … Continue reading

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Please don’t feed the gators

Should be obvious, but apparently not to everyone. In the time it took for something to hit the water and the unseen creature lying in wait to snap at it, the legend of the “killer gator” was born. It didn’t … Continue reading

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Making room for quail

Preservation isn’t just for urban elites. Jim Willis knows it isn’t easy to love a prairie. The quilt of burnt orange and brown that covers his Colorado County land can’t awe or inspire the way a canyon or mountain range … Continue reading

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A home where the Texas State Bison Herd can roam

Very cool. It was a little confusing at first, but the bison at Caprock Canyons State Park are settling into a pasture that’s 10 times what they were used to — basically the entire park. Park staff opened up 10,000 … Continue reading

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Two environmental stories

Some good news, and some bad news. The bad news: We have an oyster shortage. Add an oyster shortage in Texas Gulf Coast to the problems exacerbated by the state’s years-long drought. But Texas’ dry spell isn’t the only reason … Continue reading

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Make sure you check for zebra mussels

New boating rules are in effect in an effort to combat the spread of zebra mussels. Starting on [July 1], boaters are going to have to take an extra step to clean their vessels if they want to cruise around … Continue reading

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Feral hogs cross the border

You can’t stop them, and hoping to contain them is not looking so likely, too. If nothing else, the voracious wild hogs that years ago destroyed the lucrative melon and cantaloupe harvests in this isolated border city — and are … Continue reading

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Look out for zebra mussels

Take proper care of your boat, y’all. Fishing and boating enthusiasts take note: you’re probably going to need a little extra time as you head out on the lake this year. Rules to prevent the spread of the invasive zebra … Continue reading

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The feral hogs of Montgomery County

Because three blog posts about feral hogs are better than two. Feral hogs – which some find more pesky than mosquitoes and more invasive than fire ants – are alive and well in Montgomery County. Officials in The Woodlands say … Continue reading

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Radack finally gets to implement his feral hog plan

I can’t wait to see how well this works out. Locally sourced pork finally may be on the menu for needy Houston-area families as Harris County Precinct 3 launches its most ambitious effort yet to eradicate feral hogs damaging parkland … Continue reading

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So you want to see Bigfoot?

He’s coming to your town, Houston and San Antonio. Or at least, whatever the huckster Rick Dyer is trying to pass off as a Bigfoot carcass is coming to your town. Dyer, 36, says he killed an 8-foot-tall Bigfoot in … Continue reading

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The feral hogs of Kingwood

They’re everywhere. Kingwood communities that are battling feral hogs could be in it for the long haul, experts say. The huge, fearless cousins of domestic pigs have been roaming through the affluent northern suburb for at least a month, said … Continue reading

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Educating people about invasive species

Worth a shot. Every two months, Christopher Churchill, a U.S. Geological Survey biologist, scuba dives in Ray Roberts Lake, northwest of Dallas, to monitor the growth rates of zebra mussels, which have wreaked havoc on several Texas lakes and rivers. … Continue reading

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The hogs keep winning

Same old story. More than two decades into Texas’ ever escalating war against feral hogs, the wild swine continue gaining ground while Texas and the state’s native wildlife, plants and ecosystems lose it. Despite taking millions of casualties – an … Continue reading

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The parks that weren’t there

Very sad. For 30 years, the state parks department has owned 1,700 acres of diverse wilderness about 45 minutes east of downtown Houston. It stretches from the highest hill on the Texas coastal plain down to a pristine, white sandy … Continue reading

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No, we shouldn’t be closing any state parks

We shouldn’t be closing them in bad times, and we definitely shouldn’t be closing them in good times. “We need to turn up the volume and let people know that our state parks are threatened,” said Ian Davis, director of … Continue reading

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Here come the tax cut proposals

When the sunny revenue forecast came in, we immediately got one crappy tax cut idea, to eliminate the margins tax at a cost of $4.5 billion. The Texas Association of Business didn’t care for the idea, at least at first, … Continue reading

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Save those seeds

What would have been worse than the drought and the wildfires in Central Texas that wiped out millions of trees? Not having the wherewithal to properly reforest afterward. Thankfully, that didn’t happen, but it was a closer call than you’d … Continue reading

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One form of federal funding Texas has not rejected

Funding for bike trails is still welcome in the state. As you may know, under the new federal transportation bill, MAP-21, bicycle and pedestrian projects now have more competition for less money than was available under previous transportation laws. The … Continue reading

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From the fish fraud files

My name’s Friday. I’m a fish fraud cop. Game wardens inspecting the takes of the “Nice Tails” team at the annual Ladies Kingfish tournament last month knew something was up when they saw a trout with a mottled belly and … Continue reading

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A dollar a tree

Replacing the trees lost in the Bastrop fires last summer is going to cost some money, but there’s now a foundation working on raising that money. Flanked by containers bristling with pine tree seedlings, state and local officials on Tuesday … Continue reading

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More porkchopping, please

Apparently, shooting feral hogs from a helicopter isn’t as popular a pastime as you might think. “Number one, the cost is kind of limiting,” said Steve Lightfoot, a spokesman for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, explaining that interest has … Continue reading

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It’s what comes after the rain that’ll get you

All that rain we got was great and badly needed to finally kill off last year’s drought. But we know what comes next. In the last three weeks, Harris County has confirmed three cases of this potentially deadly disease in … Continue reading

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Environmental drones

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! A plane! A drone! One year into a $260,000 two-year grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, [civil engineer Thom] Hardy and his crew of biologists, geographers and spatial analysts have … Continue reading

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See you later, alligator

In some parts of town, it’s more like See you sooner or later, alligator. This time of year, the proprietor of Janik Alligators in El Campo spends much of his time trying to keep that scenario from happening. In the … Continue reading

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Tough times for Texas parks

Between the drought and the budget cuts, Texas parks are hurting. Dry weather and depleted lakes and rivers from the prolonged drought mean fewer folks are visiting parks or buying hunting and fishing licenses, the head of the Texas Parks … Continue reading

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State not appropriating red light camera funds to trauma centers

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Sandy Greyson drove away from an Arlington meeting eight years ago, and 2 tons of irony wiped her off the road. A red-light runner struck her passenger side, pushing the Dallas City … Continue reading

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It’s (almost) 2012, and Bigfoot still does not exist

Which will not stop stories about Bigfoot and the fools who keep looking for him from being written. The Finding Bigfoot crew has not visited Texas yet, but something is out there deep in the Big Thicket, say members of … Continue reading

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The giant prawn menace

Yet another thing to add to your list of Things You Didn’t Realize You Needed To Worry About: Giant prawns in the Gulf of Mexico. The Asian tiger prawn, a foot-long crustacean with a voracious appetite and a proclivity for … Continue reading

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Piranha!

You never know what you might find in Texas’ lakes. When a pre-teen girl dunked a hook baited with a piece of hot dog into the 23-acre lake in Tom Bass Park on Aug. 27 and pulled out a flapping, … Continue reading

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Texas gators hanging in there

There’s good news despite the bad news for Texas’ alligators. This year’s admittedly inexact estimate of the gator population in their prime habitat zone – the wetlands along the arc of the Texas coast – indicates there are a lot … Continue reading

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What we lost in the wildfires

It’s going to take a long time to recover from the fires. The fire burned through the heart of the Lost Pines area, a unique ecological island encompassing some 64,000 acres of loblolly pine, the westernmost stands of the great … Continue reading

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Rescuing fish

Wow. Wildlife biologists [last week evacuated] two species of minnows from the shrinking waters of a West Texas river in the first of what could be several rescue operations involving fish affected by the state’s worst drought in decades. Smalleye … Continue reading

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Let the porkchopping begin!

Are you ready for some death from above? “Pork choppers,” Texas’ newest weapon in the war on feral hogs, will take to the skies Thursday when it [became] legal for hunters to buy seats on hog-hunting helicopters and gun down … Continue reading

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