WWW. TP WMAGAZINE.COM O DECEM B ER 20 15 T h e O U T D O O R M A G A Z I N E o f T E XAS RIVERS OF SONG MUSICAL STORIES FLOW THROUGH TEXAS WATERWAYS Display until 12/18/15 + SAVE THE QUAIL EATING CRICKETS 30 YEARS OF TP&W TV POINT them at weekends and unleash. 2016 Toyota Tacoma Limited OFFICIAL VEHICLE OF THE TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION OFFICIAL VEHICLE OF THE TOYOTA TEXAS BASS CLASSIC 2016 Toyota Tundra 1794 Edition Make the most of your weekends with the All New 2016 Toyota Tacoma and the 2016 Tundra. Both are rugged, dependable, and loaded with the latest technology. So go hunting, fishing or take on whatever the great outdoors brings, in style. toyota.com d e c e m b e r 38 30 COVER STORY Rivers of Song Musical stories flow through Texas waterways. By Russell Roe Roll Camera! Emmy-winning Texas Parks & Wildlife TV show celebrates three decades of wonder. By Lydia Saldaña 44 ­­­­Can We Bring Quail Back? Preliminary results from focus areas show growth in bobwhite populations. By Tom Harvey 4 2 0 1 5 O DECEMBER 2015 Visit our online archive at www.tpwmagazine.com. Find us on Facebook. For the latest information on Texas’ parks and wildlife, visit the department’s ­website: www.tpwd.texas.gov TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 5 Departments 8 At Issue By Editor Louie Bond 10 Foreword/Mail Call Our readers share their ideas. 12 Scout: Six-Legged Nutrition Craving protein? Try munching on a cricket. By Russell Roe 16 Park Pick: Christmas at Fairfield Lake Why not celebrate the holidays and get a little fishing in, too? By Shelby Vega 18 Flora Fact: Western Pines Though smaller than their East Texas counterparts, pinyons offer large, nutritious seeds. By Dyanne Fry Cortez 20 Wild Thing: Wild Parrots The Valley’s red-crowned parrots may be a wild and rare breed, not just escaped pets. By Karl Berg 22 Picture This: Optics for All Ever-improving scopes and binoculars offer a clear eye on the outdoors. By Earl Nottingham 24 Skill Builder: Using a Muzzleloader You get only one chance to shoot with this primitive but satisfying gun. By Robert Ramirez 26 Three Days in the Field: Strength, Hope and Courage After flood, Wimberley proves it’s more than just a pretty Hill Country town. By Melissa Gaskill 50 Legend, Lore & Legacy: Land Charmer Bob Armstrong helped lead Texas to a ‘golden age’ of state park acquisition. By John Jefferson 58 Parting Shot By Chase Fountain Covers FRONT AND BACK: From the mountains and canyons of West Texas to the pine forests of East Texas, rivers provide beauty, sustenance and inspiration for song. Artwork by Clemente Guzman / TPWD PREVIOUS SPREAD: Texas singer/songwriter Butch Hancock and his son Rory relax on the banks of Blue Hole, a popular swimming spot in Wimberley. They recorded a video of the Texas River Song for this month’s cover story. Photo by Sonja Sommerfeld / TPWD THIS PAGE: Texas rivers are home to many species of fish. Bass and catfish are common targets for anglers. Artwork by Clemente Guzman / TPWD 6 O DECEMBER 2015 In the Field THE OUTDOOR MAGAZINE OF TEXAS D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 , ­ V O L . 7 3 , N O. 1 0 GOVERNOR OF TEXAS Greg Abbott COMMISSION T. Dan Friedkin, Chairman Houston Ralph H. Duggins, Vice Chairman Fort Worth Lee M. Bass, Chairman-Emeritus Fort Worth S. Reed Morian Houston Bill Jones Austin James H. Lee Houston Margaret Martin Boerne Dan Allen Hughes Beeville Dick Scott Wimberley Executive Director Carter P. Smith Communications Director Josh M. Havens MAGAZINE STAFF: Randy Brudnicki Publisher Louie Bond Editor Russell Roe Managing Editor Nathan Adams Art Director Sonja Sommerfeld Photo Editor Earl Nottingham Chief Photographer Chase A. Fountain Photographer Traci Anderson Business Manager Jonathan Vail, Catherine Groth Photography Interns Emily Moskal Editorial Assistant CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Steve Lightfoot, Larry D. Hodge, Dyanne Fry Cortez, Stephanie M. Salinas CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Russell Graves, Larry Ditto EDITORIAL OFFICES: 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, Texas 78744 Phone: (512) 389-TPWD Fax: (512) 389-8397 E-mail: magazine@tpwd.texas.gov ADVERTISING SALES OFFICES: S tone W allace C ommunications , I nc . c/o TP&W magazine 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, Texas 78744 Jim Stone, Advertising Director (512) 799-1045 E-mail: jim.stone@tpwd.texas.gov SUBSCRIPTIONS: (800) 937-9393 Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine (ISSN 0040-4586) is published monthly with com- bined issues in January/February and August/September by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, 4200 Smith School Rd., Austin, Texas 78744. The inclusion of adver- tising is considered a service to subscribers and is not an endorsement of products or concurrence with advertising claims. Copyright © 2015 by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. No part of the contents of this magazine may be reproduced by any means without the permission of Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine. The magazine is not responsible for the return of unsolicited materials provided for editorial consideration. SUBSCRIPTION RATE: $18/year; foreign subscription rate: $27.95/year. POST­­MASTER: If undeliverable, please send notices by form 3579 to Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine, P.O. Box 421103, Palm Coast, FL 32142-1103. Periodicals Postage Paid at Austin, Texas, with additional mailing offices. SUBSCRIBER: If the Postal Service alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obliga- tion unless we receive a corrected address within one year. Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine is edited to inform readers and to stimulate their enjoyment of the Texas outdoors. It reflects the many viewpoints of contributing readers, writers, photogra- phers and ­illustrators. Only articles written by agency employees will always ­represent policies of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. S U B S CRI BER SERV I C ES Subscription inquiries only, please. PHONE: (800) 937-9393 LYDIA Texas SALDAÑA Wildlife is part-time communications nonprofit director for the Parks and Foundation, TPWD’s funding partner. She retired from TPWD in 2013 with almost 24 years of service, and was communications director for more than 17 years. Early in her TPWD career, she was a contributing producer on the Texas Parks & Wildlife television show, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Lydia also serves as communications consultant for sev- eral other conservation organizations, including the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and Audu- bon Texas. She serves on the board of Selah Bamberger Ranch Preserve and is a volunteer for Meals on Wheels in Tarrant County. In her spare time she travels with her husband, making it a point to visit state and national parks wherever she goes. CLEMENTE and Wildlife GUZMAN has for been 27 an years. artist He for was the pro- Texas Parks Department filed in our December 2013 edition. In this month’s issue, he created the artwork for the cover and for the article on Texas river songs. “I love water,” he says. “I’m inspired and attracted by creeks and rivers. I want to show in my painting the power and energy our Texas rivers carry, and how water has supported our ancestors by nur- turing our minds, bodies and souls for thousands of years.” Clemente encourages us to consider how the miracle of life wouldn’t happen with- out water and how we are all one big family linked by water. So, he says, enjoy a cold glass of water and a great day at a state park along a river. ecology KARL birds BERG for more has been than studying years. the He behavioral up birding in of tropical 20 grew central Florida, and after college spent 10 years in Ecuador documenting the natural history and vocalizations of its bird species, especially parrots. He later earned a master’s degree from Florida International University and a Ph.D. from Cor- nell University. Since 2004 he and his wife have studied com- munication in green-rumped parrotlets in Venezuela, a project now in its 28th year. He is currently assistant professor in avian ecology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, where he and his students are launching a study of globally endangered red- crowned parrots, birds that roam freely on the Brownsville campus but have been little studied. TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 7 by editor Louie Bond For those who live along the banks of the Blanco River in Hays County, 2015 will be a year they’ll never forget. After endless drought, the rain came. After a few sweet spring drenches, our gratitude for water turned to a plea for it to stop. During the dark and silent early morning hours of May 24, the rain came all at once, in one place — the town of Blanco, the headwaters of the Blanco River, just north of Wimberley — at least 10 inches in a couple of hours. Millions of gallons rolled down the already soaked earth and gathered into a raging torrent, a virtual riverine tsunami, sweeping away everything along its path. The phone rang early and often at my house, 10 miles from danger. We quickly became aware that our rainy night of peaceful sleep had been a living nightmare for many of our friends. With phone lines and Internet connectivity down in the ravaged area, we wondered who had survived and who had lost everything but their lives. It took agonizing days to find out, and the news was horrific. Our friends had been saved from the quick rise of the raging river, from their perches clinging to rooftops, after abandoning cars and walking cross- country in a black landscape that no longer felt familiar. Worst of all, none of us could stop thinking about the three families in one home swept away that night. We are still haunted by the specter of those missing children, their final moments witnessed and heard by those who lived along the once-tranquil Blanco. Splintered 500-year-old cypress trees line the banks with a solemn salute to those lost. In October, Jonathan McComb of Corpus Christi, who survived the flood but lost his family and friends, joined Wimberley residents at a Blanco River blessing. Participants tossed roses into the water in memoriam, then took park in a New Orleans-style line dance, looking forward to happier times. While Memorial Day has become synonymous with flooding in Central Texas, Labor Day is now associated with wildfire. For the second time in four years, the Bastrop area was hit with raging infernos, this time affecting Buescher State Park. As in Wimberley, restoration and reforestation are at the forefront in the Lost Pines. As Texans, we understand the privilege of living in these little bits of heaven, and we have a responsibility to preserve them. That’s why we end 2015 with the happy anticipation of a bright future for our Texas state parks. How would our grandchildren truly understand their heritage if forward-thinking Texans hadn’t stepped up decades ago to preserve and protect places like Enchanted Rock, the World Birding Centers and Big Bend? The foresight and hard work of Bob Armstrong (featured in this month’s Legend, Lore & Legacy) and other TPWD partners can still be felt today, as catastrophic weather and encroaching development threaten these natural treasures. In honor of these wondrous bits of paradise, 2016 is officially named The Year of State Parks here at Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine. Each month we will feature an iconic park on the cover and as the lead story, accompanied by a sometimes surprising list of state parks that offer your favorite activity, whether that’s hiking, fishing or paddling. Please join us as we discover new parks to explore and share stories about your old favorites. We’d love to hear about your memories of dancing at Garner and hiking the Lighthouse trail at Palo Duro, boogie-boarding at coastal parks and hooking the big one at a state park lake. Texas is too big to cover it all in one year, but these Texans are foolish/brave enough to try. Since we don’t want to spoil the surprise, we’ll just say our view of the January/February issue is a spectacular one. We can’t wait to share it with you! In honor of these wondrous bits of paradise, 2016 is officially named The Year of State Parks here at Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine. EDITOR TPWD Executive Director Carter Smith will return to At Issue next month. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department mission statement: To manage and conserve the natural and cultural resources of Texas and to provide hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation opportunities for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. 8 O DECEMBER 2015 UNWRAP THE HUNTING HOLIDAY picks, pans and probes from our readers FOREWORD LETTERS My favorite Texas river song is Rusty Old Red River. I had the privilege of SAVING THE PRAIRIES T listening to a lot of Texas river songs in the course of my research for this hank you for the piece on Bill month’s cover story, and Toni Price’s version of that song is the one that has Neiman in the October issue (“Seeds stuck with me the most. of Hope”). I would love to see more And believe me, there are a lot of great songs about Texas rivers. For enter- stories on the work Native American tainment value, the Austin Lounge Lizards are hard to beat in their cleverly Seed has done with the Texas Parks and redundant Big Rio Grande River. For epic musical landscapes, check out the eight- Wildlife Department in future issues. minute psychedelic Western saga Rio Grande by Brian Wilson (of Beach Boys Ronnie Renick fame) or Michael Murphey’s multifaceted South Canadian River Song. Houston I had “Texas river songs” on my list of story ideas for quite a while, but it wasn’t until I heard the City of Austin’s Kevin FOOD AND TRAVEL Anderson speak on rivers that the idea finally came together. hile Texas Highways In his remarkable yearlong series of lectures on the culture and still provides many science of rivers, he has taken us from the poetry of Robert Frost good articles, it seems to us TEXAS HUNTERS SHARE A PASSION FOR FALL BIRD SEASON. to the fluid dynamics of a waterfall. that over time Highways has We tapped Texas Parks and Wildlife Department artist Cle- drifted too much toward mente Guzman to create artwork to go with the article, and the eating than Texas travel. amazing results can be seen on the front and back covers. You can Consequently, we subscribe watch a time-lapse video of Clemente creating the artwork on the to both Texas Parks & Wildlife Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine app and at www.tpwmagazine.com. and Texas Highways. Both are Elsewhere in the issue, former TPWD communications direc- excellent reading. “Many readers cannot be tor Lydia Saldaña looks back at 30 years of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Tom & Bonnie Connor conveniently labeled as solely television show. I’m always inspired by the TV staff’s commit- Lake Fork ‘nature watchers and hikers’ ment to good storytelling. The producers consistently find ways or ‘hunters.’” to educate and entertain us with stories of the natural world and OUTDOOR PURSUITS the people who work to protect it. n October’s At Issue, DOUG GRAY One of my cousins worked for the city of Keller, in the Dallas- Editor Louie Bond Fredericksburg Fort Worth area, and he loved the show so much that he pro- concedes the varied grammed it on one of the city channels twice a day — once in the readership of the magazine. morning and once in the afternoon so kids would have a chance to watch it. Yet, Louie suggests that hunters, hikers Tom Harvey updates us on the current TPWD efforts to restore bobwhite and nature watchers may not be “so quail, an iconic Texas species. Bobwhites hold a special place in the hearts of different … after all.” many Texans, and biologists and landowners are working together to make Allow me to assure Louie that no sure these birds stick around. I have fond memories of sitting on the front small number of Texans choose to porch of my grandparents’ house outside Waxahachie with my grandfather, participate in both consumptive and who would always point out the call of the bobwhite when we heard it emanat- nonconsumptive outdoor pursuits, ing from a nearby field. and often within the boundaries of There’s lots more to enjoy in this issue — the legacy of conservationist and our TPWD state parks and wildlife former Land Commissioner Bob Armstrong, the trend of eating insects, management areas. the resilience of the town of Wimberley and the spectacle of the Valley’s red- In state parks this past year I have crowned parrot. attended birding programs, hiked with my grandchildren to a fishing spot (stopping for observations of flora and fauna and to pick up trail trash) and Russell Roe, participated in the parks’ conservation Managing Editor BIGHORN BOW HUNT | HUNT WITH AN ASTRONAUT | NATIVE SEEDS W W W. T P W M A G A Z I N E . C O M O O C T O B E R 2 0 1 5 T h e O U T D O O R M A G A Z I N E o f T E XAS WHEN DOVES FLY W I 10 O DECEMBER 2015 MA I L CALL efforts in public hunts. I think Louie suspects, rightly, that many readers cannot be conveniently labeled as solely “nature watchers and hikers” or “hunters.” While I welcomed the October issue’s hunting stories, I would have been disappointed had it not also included stories related to the full spectrum of my outdoor interests. I compliment TP&W magazine’s obvious effort to truly provide readers with “The Outdoor Magazine of Texas.” Doug Gray Fredericksburg BIRTH WAS APT COMPARISON I would venture to say that most of us interpreted Rob McCorkle’s birth analogy in “Birth of a Park” (July 2015) not as a demeaning statement with intent to offend but rather as a tribute to Texas moms as well as our state park producers as nurturing individuals caring for their wonderful creations and laboring hardily throughout conception and realization of a beautiful living entity to be enjoyed by all who have the privilege of being able to revel in their existence. Mike Claybourn Clute MORE MAPS, PLEASE W e have been getting your great magazine since we lived in Houston in the ’70s and ’80s. I have hunted and fished from Port Aransas to High Island to Lake Fork, shot doves near Sweetwater and hunted mule deer and sheep in the Panhandle. Texas is a huge state. When I read your articles about interesting places where I might want to go hiking or birding, often I find that I have no clue as to the location. For instance, in the October issue Carter Smith writes about dove hunting and mentions a county or two. Texas has over 250 counties! Where is Caprock Canyons State Park? “3 miles north of Quitaque on Ranch Road 1065.” Give me a break! How about a map with a star? Or a reference to a city someone who didn’t live in the area might have heard of, like 100 miles northwest of Midland? I feel better now! Keep the good articles coming … Tom James Mathews, Ala. Sound off for Mail Call Let us hear from you! Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine welcomes letters from our readers. Please include your name, address and daytime ­telephone number. Write to us at Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine, 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, TX 78744. Fax us at 512-389-8397 Email us at magazine@tpwd.texas.gov We reserve the right to edit letters for length and clarity. SAN ANTONIO MAN TELLS TALL TALE is a memoir of a south Texas boy coming of age in the second half of the twentieth century. Each tale more thrilling than the last, the book chronicles a lifetime of hunting, fi shing, and traveling throughout Texas, the Gulf Coast, the Rocky Mountains, and South America. These powerful and often humorous stories of chasing white tail deer, avoiding snakes, fi shing for blue marlin, and even courting his wife are based on the author’s experiences in the great outdoors with close friends and family. Colorful illustrations by San Antonio artists Clay McGaughy and Pat Safi r bring the stories to life. In the end, the reader will fi nd that these are not tall tales at all, but the real life experiences of a lucky kid growing up in South Texas. Filled with humorous twists and turns, this book makes for a fun read for anyone. GET YOUR COPY TODAY! $34 99 Purchase on Amazon or by calling Eunice at (210) 820-0404 or by email at epowers@hupecol.com TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 11 NEWS AND VIEWS IN THE TEXAS OUTDOORS SIX-LEGGED NUTRITION Craving protein? Try munching on a cricket. Call center supervisor Luisandra 12 O DECEMBER 2015 Advocates tout insects as a food of the future — an excellent source of protein that uses a fraction of the land, water and feed required by livestock. Producing a pound of beef can use 1,000 gallons of water and 10 pounds of feed, while producing a pound of crickets uses one gallon of water and less than two pounds of feed. Nutritionally, insects are hard to beat: Crickets provide high amounts of protein, vitamins and calcium. They have a mild, nutty flavor, and they produce significantly fewer greenhouse gases than livestock. What’s not to like? Oh, yeah. That. “The only negative thing we have going against us is the ‘ick’ factor,” says Robert Nathan Allen, director of sales at Aspire Food Group USA and Austin restaurants have been offering dishes (at right) such as cricket mortadella sausage, fried cricket and braised pig ear tacos, and cricket and tomato salad with machaca. At top is cricket and kale pizza. PHOTOS COURTESY OF ROBERT NATHAN ALLEN Miranda-Maisonet doesn’t like bugs. But there she was, eating her first insect at Austin’s Eighth Annual Bug Festival in June. “As a matter of fact, I won’t even touch bugs, so this is a big first for me,” she says. “But if there’s a zombie apocalypse, I’ll be good to go because now I know I can live off some bugs.” Advocates are working to change mindsets so that eating insects moves beyond being a one-day-a-year oddity to being a commonly accepted practice. With a flurry of activity in the past couple of years, the movement is, well, starting to have legs. And Austin is in the center of the action, with one of the nation’s first cricket farms, a couple of cricket-based snack food startups, an edible insect nonprofit organization and several local restaurants with insect offerings. “Austin is becoming a bug-eating hub,” says Leah Jones, co-founder of Crickers Crackers, which makes and sells crackers made with cricket flour. Located in the Canadian Coast Mountain wilderness, Arc’teryx is built on the principle of obsessive, precise design and production. Our in-house manufacturing and design centres allow us to evolve and build products the right way. founder of the edible insect advocacy group Little Herds. “If we can get people over that taboo, everything else is a check in the ‘pro’ column.” Much of the rest of the world eats insects — more than 2 billion people already consume them in their diets. It’s just that Americans and other Westerners have a hang-up about it. Cracks are starting to appear, however, in Americans’ aversion to insects. Crackers, too. Several startups specializing in crickets have launched in the past few years, including Austin-based Crickers Crackers and Hopper Foods. Cricket flour, one of the chief products of the edible insect movement, gives people the protein 14 O DECEMBER 2015 benefits of insects without the stigma of crunching a cricket. Crickers uses cricket flour to produce crackers in a variety of mouth-watering flavors such as rosemary garlic. “Our strategy is to incorporate insects into familiar, everyday foods,” Jones says. “It’s a little easier for people to wrap their heads around eating a healthy cracker that tastes like a cracker versus just popping a roasted cricket into their mouth. That’s our approach — making entomophagy [eating insects] approachable in a very delicious, familiar way.” Aspire Food Group USA is the first company in the U.S. to both farm and process insects for food. The business picked Austin for its cricket farm and U.S. headquarters after seeing a groundswell of interest in edible insects in the city. Aspire has been growing and processing crickets since 2014 and has seen an ever-increasing demand for its products. Allen says cricket flour makes up two-thirds of the company’s sales, while one-third comes from whole crickets. Local chefs are getting into the game as well. Austin restaurants such as Barley Swine, Odd Duck, La Condesa, Dai Due and Salt & Time have incorporated crickets into dishes such as tacos, salads and sausage. Many diners may think they’re not ready to take the leap into eating insects, but just wait. “Food trends change over time,” Allen says. “If we look at historical examples like sushi or lobster, these things have gone from gross-I’ll- never-eat-that to commonplace or even luxury items.” The rest of the Western world may be moving in that direction. The European Food Safety Authority is looking into the use of insects as food, and a landmark U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization report in 2013 urged the consumption of insects as one solution to meeting today’s nutritional challenges amid growing populations and dwindling resources. Allen sees lots of potential for insects as food in Texas, where the population is growing, water supplies are increasingly strained and 18 percent of households are “food insecure.” “There’s a place in our diet for beef, pork and chicken, and if we can make a place for insects as part of our diet, we can stretch our resources a lot further and feed people here in Texas who need it,” he says. And if that zombie apocalypse ever comes, at least we know we can all live off some bugs. —Russell Roe with Erin Kedzie PROTECT WH AT ’S OUT THERE FREE BAG * Made from 100% Recycled Plastic Bottles * Get a Free Kick Plastic Bag with the purchase of any new pair of Costa Sunglasses. Offer ends December 31st, 2015 or while gift supplies last. Terms & Conditions at CostaGWP.com. P Christmas at Fairfield Lake THIS Why not celebrate the holidays and get a little fishing in, too? Imagine the ghostly lights of Mission Espíritu Santo at Goliad State Park as the choir raises angelic harmonies high above the stone walls. Picture your family gathered around a tree with handmade ornaments, drinking wassail like the first German settlers in Texas. Hear the lilting strains of your favorite carols bouncing off the rock formations of Longhorn Cavern, or join a Mexican posada to help Mary and Joseph search for shelter at Fort Leaton. Christmas and Texas state parks are a wonderful combination for the holidays, and Fairfield Lake State Park will join in the fun this holiday season. Join visitors and staff at the park on Saturday, Dec. 12, as they celebrate this joyous season with a variety of holiday-themed activities. Take a hayride through the “Tour of Lights” O DECEMBER 2015 PHOTOS BY TPWD 16 in the beautifully renovated Cooks Ferry Camping Loop. Gather around a toasty, country campfire and warm up while you listen to classic Christmas music and enjoy a cup of hot cocoa or delicious wassail and holiday cookies. Even Santa will join in the Christmas cheer and is expected to stop by for a visit from 7 to 9 p.m. Local businesses and campers are invited to decorate their campsites. Camping fees are waived for those who participate. Anyone interested in participating should contact the park in advance at (903) 389-4514. Entrance and event fees are waived for this event. Throughout the rest of year, the park boasts many recreational opportunities for all ages, but the most popular activity by far is the excellent fishing. A variety of unusual fish species, including freshwater red drum and blue tilapia, thrive here due to the increased temperature of the lake, which is warmed by a power plant. From November through February, people flock to Fairfield Lake from all over the state to participate in the exceptional winter fishing and tournament opportunities. Other water activities include boating, water-skiing, kayaking and swimming. For visitors who prefer more land-based activities, there are over 15 miles of trails available for horseback riding, mountain biking, hiking, backpacking and running. With close to 250 species of birds recorded, the park is a veritable bird-watching paradise and an attractive site for birders of all skill levels. During the winter, one of the most sought-after sightings is a bald eagle soaring above the lake waters before diving for its favorite meal. Fairfield Lake State Park is located in Freestone County, approximately 90 miles south of Dallas/Fort Worth, 150 miles north of Houston and 60 miles east of Waco. The park is just six miles off of Interstate 45, northeast of the city of Fairfield, via FM 2570 and FM 3285, along the shore of Fairfield Lake. For more information, visit us on the Web at tpwd.texas.gov/fairfieldlake or on Facebook or call (903) 389-4514. —Shelby Vega P Western Pines H T I S Though smaller than their East Texas counterparts, pinyons offer large, nutritious seeds. PHOTO © JOE LIGGIO Mention pine trees, and many Texans think of East Texas, but pines also inhabit the western reaches of our state. Pinyon pines, with their compact stature and slow, patient growth, are well adapted to the semi-arid mountains of the Southwest. Three species are found in Texas. Mexican pinyon (Pinus cembroides) thrives in the volcanic mountains of the Big Bend area. Texas or papershell pinyon (P. remota) prefers limestone soils. It’s found on the western edge of the Edwards Plateau and also in parts of the Big Bend. The Colorado or two-leaf pinyon (P. edulis) grows in the Guadalupe Mountains and Sierra Diablo east of El Paso. Some East Texas pines attain heights of more than 100 feet; pinyons usually top out at 40 feet or less. Pinyon 18 O DECEMBER 2015 cones also are small, about 1.5 inches long, but the seeds inside are bigger than seeds of many other pines, and they’re quite tasty. Pinyon “nuts” were important to the diets of prehistoric Texans and indigenous tribes across the Southwest. As settlers of European descent expanded westward, the seeds became valuable trade goods. The Spanish name piñon is believed to be shorthand for “pine with large seeds.” Like most conifers, pinyon trees have needle-like foliage. The needles are short, averaging little more than an inch in length. They’re packed close together on the branches, and often have a blue-green tint. These traits might lead a passer-by to confuse a pinyon with a spruce or fir, but on close inspection, it’s clearly a pine. Spruce and fir needles are attached one-by-one to a stem, while pine needles appear in a bundle with a paper-like wrapper at the base. Needles of our pinyon species come in bundles of two or three. Pinyons grow on sunny mountain slopes. P. cembroides and P. edulis prefer elevations of 4,000 to 7,000 feet. P. remota has been found as low as 1,500 feet in the Edwards Plateau, and 2,500 to 5,000 feet in West Texas. These trees grow slowly and live long lives. A pinyon might be 25 years old before it starts to produce cones. A 40-foot tree with a trunk diameter of 10 inches might be more than 100 years old. Usually found in community with other trees, pinyons tend to be more crooked and gnarly in the lower part of their range. A U.S. Forest Service handbook published in the 1990s remarked, “A typical pinyon-juniper SIGHTS & SOUNDS TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE TV AND RADIO PHOTOS @ KEITH RUSHFORTH / MINDEN PICTURES T E L E V I S I O N LOOK FOR THESE STORIES IN THE COMING WEEKS Nov. 29–Dec. 5: A hunter’s refuge; Lavaca Rio Ranch; falconry; pines in East Texas. Dec. 6–12: Gulf wardens; Rancho Zunzun; swimming hole history; flying Franklin Mountains. Pinyon pines can be found in the western Hill Country and in the mountains of West Texas. Their nuts serve as an important food source for several wildlife species. woodland, with its many-branched trees resembling shrubs, has the appearance of a stunted coniferous forest.” People still harvest pinyon seeds for commercial and traditional use. This mostly occurs to the south and west where the trees are more abundant. Pinyon habitat is limited in Texas, and much of it is located in national parks or other protected areas, so we don’t see much human harvest here. Instead, the seeds are enjoyed by a variety of birds and mammals including scrub jay, Mexican jay, Steller’s jay, squirrels, porcupines and the bears of the Chisos Mountains. High in fat, with respectable amounts of starch and protein, pinyon seeds provide essential nutrition in an environment where food can be hard to find. Jays, in particular, are important to the pinyons’ survival. Some pine species have winged seeds that can ride the wind. Pinyon seeds are wingless and fairly heavy, so they depend on birds to spread them around. The jays consume many seeds, but they always drop a few. Also, as our human ancestors did, jays will often gather a pile of seeds and put them away for the winter. Some will survive to germinate and send roots reaching into mountain soil. Two hundred years from now, a grandchild of your great-grandchild may stop to rest in the shade of a pinyon tree that was planted by a noisy bird this winter. —Dyanne Fry Cortez Dec. 13–19: Eye in the sky; Gore Family farm; photogra- pher Wyman Meinzer, Big Bend sunrise. Dec. 20–26: Sledding Monahans; volunteer family; angler Mark Stevenson; forgotten borderland. Dec. 27–Jan. 2: An inspired artist; Rio Grande rafting; Guadalupe River trout; barn swallows. Surf the sands at Monahans Sandhills State Park. Watch the week of Dec. 20-26. TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE Winner of 12 Emmy Awards, our ­television series is broadcast ­throughout Texas on local PBS ­affiliates. In stereo with closed captions. www.tpwd.texas.gov/tv RADIO YOUR RADIO GUIDE TO THE GREAT OUTDOORS Passport to Texas is your guide to the great Texas outdoors. Any time you tune in, you’ll remember why you love Texas. Go to www.passporttotexas.org to find a station near you that airs the series. PASSPORT TO TEXAS Join host Cecilia Nasti weekdays for a 90-second excursion into the Texas Outdoors. Find a station near you, or listen on the Web at www.passporttotexas.org TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 19 Wild Parrots P THIS The Valley’s red-crowned parrots may be a wild and rare breed, not just escaped pets. PHOTO BY EARL NOTTINGHAM / TPWD Parrots are colorful, talkative and cherished family members in many Texan homes. However, they less often adorn our natural parks and wild areas, being more commonly found in the tropical forests of Mexico and Central and South America. One exception is the red-crowned parrot, populations of which thrive in the subtropical landscapes of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. About the size of an American crow, the birds gather by the hundreds at local 20 O DECEMBER 2015 parks at sundown to socialize, gossip and sleep — to the delight of the many bird watchers traveling to the Valley to observe the wild array of birds. At dawn, the red-crowned parrots explode unannounced across the sky in a noisy spatter of flapping wings as they fission into smaller groups that venture largely unnoticed throughout neighborhoods to feed on nuts and berries. Every spring, mated pairs perform loud duets at tree cavities, especially large palms, where they will soon raise their chicks. While many metropolitan areas in the U.S. boast feral parrot populations that began as escapees from homes or zoos, scientists and wildlife managers are increasingly convinced that the Rio Grande Valley red-crowned parrots are in fact a wild population. This is an important distinction because the species has long been considered globally endangered due to its small original range in northeast Mexico, the high rate of habitat destruction and illegal capture for the pet trade. Though studies are lacking, free- ranging populations in Texas likely measure into the thousands and could rival the remaining populations in Mexico. U.S. populations could provide an important source of genetic diversity for conservation of the species, a candidate for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. While the birds were not seen much in the Rio Grande Valley before the 1980s, ornithologists and bird watchers began to notice large flocks shortly thereafter and think the parrots could be wild birds expanding their range northward. Ornithologists have documented numerous other tropical bird species that have undergone northward range expansions from Mexico into Texas during the last century. Unlike many of those cases, red-crowned parrots seem to prosper in the lush urban environments in the Valley. The close proximity of red-crowned parrots to human populations provides numerous opportunities for public engagement. Unfortunately, it also provides opportunities for pet traffickers to raid the roosts where the birds sleep and to fell trees to capture nestlings (which grab a higher price than wild adults because they are more easily domesticated). As a result, several municipalities in the Valley have ordinances protecting them, and in the city of Brownsville, a favorite hot spot, the red-crowned parrot is the official city bird. As a native species, this parrot also enjoys federal and state protections that we hope will keep them flying the friendly skies of South Texas forever. —Karl Berg Do You Suffer From: · Diabetes · Obesity · Achilles Tendinitis · Bunions · Hammertoe · Heel Spurs · Heel Pain · Joint Pain · Back or Knee Pain · Neuropathy · Plantar Fasciitis · Arthritis G-DEFY GAMMA RAY Absorbs Harmful Impact Enjoy the benefi ts of exercise without harmful impact on your joints! o Boost energy Combat health issues Increase mobility Relieve pain Gamma Ray Returns Energy W hether it’s health-related or caused by an injury, discomfort can occur in anyone at any age— and there’s no excuse to exercise less. In fact, being active with discomfort is the most natural way to keep your joints moving smoothly. Experience a better life with Gravity Defyer footwear—ease your discomfort and rediscover movement! The moment you put on a pair of Gravity Defyer shoes, you’ll get fl ashbacks of the days where nothing could stop you. Women Sizes 5-11 - Blk/Purple TB9016FLP - Gray/Red TB90016FRI - Wht/Blue TB90016FWU Each Gravity Defyer shoe is exclusively designed with patented VersoShock® Technology, a system of springs that simultaneously work together to absorb harmful shock and return energy throughout the body. Get rid of that “I-can’t-do- anything-anymore” attitude and let Gravity Defyer give you the relief you need while boosting your endurance and confi dence. Transform your life right now and invest in a pair of Gravity Defyer shoes today! Men Sizes 7.5-15 - Black TB9016MBB - White TB9016MWS - Blue TB9016MUL 115 $145 $ $ 30 00 Your OFF Order Free Exchanges • Easy Returns Promo Code: MX8MGB1 Call 1(800) 429-0039 GravityDefyer.com/MX8MGB1 Don’t Forget Gravity Defyer Corp. 10643 Glenoaks Blvd. Pacoima, CA 91331 to check out our other products to relieve discomfort: Men’s Dress Women’s Sandals G-Comfort Insoles VersoShock® U.S Patent #US8,555,526 B2. This product has not been evaluated by the FDA. Not intended to treat, cure or prevent any disease. Shoes must be returned within 30 days in like-new condition for full refund or exchange. Credit card authorization required. See website for complete details. P THIS Optics for All Ever-improving scopes and binoculars offer a clear eye on the outdoors. As the holiday season approaches, the quandary of finding the perfect gift for the active outdoor enthusiast once again rears its ugly head. What better way to enjoy the natural world than experiencing it up close and personal through crystal-clear optics — whether looking through a camera lens, spotting scope, binoculars or rifle scope? While this column is typically devoted to photography and cameras, this month we’ll focus on spotting scopes, binoculars and rifle scopes. One of the major trends in the optics industry is the use of more (and better) lens coatings combined with ED (extra- low-dispersion) glass, resulting in a clearer and sharper viewing experience for any type of scope. While ED glass has been offered for several years on higher-priced optics, newer proprietary lens coatings combined with lower prices are making this feature more widely available. With many quality products from well-known optics companies to choose from, it can be difficult to find the perfect model. The first stop should be the company’s website to compare models based on your particular viewing needs. As a practical example: a Texas Hill Country hunter may need a less- powerful set of binoculars or rifle scope than a Western U.S. counterpart who needs longer-distance viewing. So for Holiday Season 2015 (drum roll, please), here are some representative and highly rated optics that are currently available. Use these examples as starting points to explore similar product lines from various manufacturers that may be more appropriate for the lucky gift recipient. — Earl Nottingham Please send questions and comments to Earl. (earl.nottingham@tpwd.texas.gov) For more tips on outdoor photography, visit the magazine’s photography page. (www.tpwmagazine.com/photography) Enter the Lifetime License Drawing to win a Lifetime Super Combo License. This special license, an $1800 value, allows you to hunt and fish in Texas without ever buying another state license. 5 $ PER ENTRY WIN A LIFETIME OF FREE HUNTING AND FISHING ENTER AS MANY TIMES AS YOU LIKE Available wherever hunting and fishing licenses are sold. www.tpwd.texas.gov/lifetimedrawing ENTER BY DECEMBER 27 Winners also receive a one-year subscription to Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine. 22 O DECEMBER 2015 SPOTTING SCOPE Alpen Rainier 856 ED HD: Whether you’re viewing wildlife or sighting-in a rifle, a good spotting scope can make all the difference. Alpen Optics produces a variety of high-quality spotting scopes — most notably the Alpen Rainier 856 ED HD 25-75x86 model, which recently won Outdoor Life magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award. The editors concluded that the scope’s workmanship, resolution of the ED glass and durability made it worthy of the award. Alpen also has a complete line of binoculars and rifle scopes. (www.alpenoptics.com) RIFLE SCOPE Nikon ProStaff 3-9x40 (BDC): With the DNA of quality optics in its lineage from the Nikon name, the ProStaff line of rifle scopes complements Nikon’s premier Monarch line by offering a well-made alternative at an affordable price. Nikon says “these rifle scopes will help you bring home the big bucks without spending them.” The scope transmits up to 98 percent of available light, ensuring maximum brightness from dawn to dusk. Its unique BDC reticle (crosshair) with see- through ballistic circles allows the shooter to compensate for bullet drop and hold “dead on” at longer ranges. A generous eye relief of 3.6 inches helps ensure that kickback from recoil isn’t an issue. (www.nikonsportoptics.com) GIVE A TEXAS STATE PARKS PASS AS A GIFT. www.tpwf.org BINOCULARS Bushnell Legend Ultra HD 8x42: The venerable Bushnell name has been around for years with a wide range of quality, affordable products. Now it ups the ante with the Legend Ultra HD series with ED prime glass and ultra- wide band coating that promises high-definition and “true-to-color” viewing. Fully waterproof with a water-repellent lens, it also has a wide field of view and long eye relief (which eyeglass wearers will appreciate). (www.bushnell.com) Give the gift of a full year of unlimited free entry to more than 90 wild and wonderful state parks. Our gift to you: $5 off the standard price. Just go to www.tpwf.org to order a Parks Pass for the special price of $65. It makes a great gift. And since all the money goes back to support our state parks, it’s also a gift that gives back to Texas. Since 1991, TPWF has leveraged public funds with private philanthropy, raising more than $100 million to help ensure that all Texans, today and in the future, can enjoy the wild things and wild places in Texas. TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 23 SKILL BUILDER / Robert Ramirez USING A MUZZLELOADER You get only one chance to shoot with this primitive but satisfying gun. There are two reasons that compel hunters to pick up the humble muzzleloader: simplicity of operation and the “one-shot challenge” that forces hunters to get close to their quarry. A muzzleloader, not surprisingly, is a firearm that is loaded from the muzzle. While not all Texas counties have a special season for this firearm, some do, and muzzleloaders can be used during the general hunting season as well. PARTS. As with any firearm there are three basic parts: the stock, the action and the barrel. The stock is the part that holds the barrel. It is usually made from wood, but synthetic materials are being incorporated with modern versions as well. The barrel has a breech and a muzzle. The breech end on a muzzleloader is identified with a breech hook or a breech plug, with screw holes to attach it to the stock. The muzzle is the end where the HOW TO LOAD A MUZZLELOADER (FROM LEFT): Pour the measured black powder into the barrel; place the bullet in the muzzle; get it started into the barrel with a bullet starter; and use a ramrod to push the projectile down until it is seated on the powder charge. projectile comes out, along with the smoke (more on that later). The action in a muzzleloader is referred to as the lock. The lock is a mechanism that holds the hammer before the trigger assembly sets off the firing sequence. Yes, the commonly heard expression “lock, stock and barrel” comes from a muzzleloader. Typically, this phrase is used as a reference to a complete deal or package. FIRING MATERIALS. T he basic components to fire the muzzleloader include: the appropriate black powder or black powder substitute, patch material for the bullets, patch lube and round lead bullets and caps or pan powder for flintlocks. These components vary with the type of muzzleloader that is to be used, but we will focus on the traditional flintlock and percussion rifle muzzleloaders for simplicity. Make sure you match your caliber with the game you are pursuing. For small game (rabbits, squirrels), .32-.45 caliber will work. For big game (deer, hogs), .50-.58 caliber is recommended. Black powder and black powder substitute are the only gunpowders that should be used in a muzzleloader; don’t use modern smokeless powder in a muzzleloader. For example: Pyrodex, a black powder substitute, is labeled for muzzleloader use only. Always read and follow the manufacturer’s guidelines for the muzzleloader. Black powder granulations are described as “F” granulations — the “F” stands for “fine.” The granulations range from Fg (cannons), FFg (rifles), FFFg (pistols) and FFFFg (pan ignition on flintlocks). Pyrodex granulations are designated as P for pistols and RS for rifle/shotgun. Patch material is typically cotton ticking and requires lubrication. The round bullet is smaller than the barrel caliber, and the patch seals the gases caused by the ignition during the firing sequence and engages the rifling of the barrel. This increases the accuracy of the projectile. The lubricant allows for easier loading of the patch and ball. Conical bullets can be used for muzzleloaders and do not require patch materials, but also need to be lubricated for ease of loading. TOOLS AND GADGETS. Muzzleloader hunters need an array of tools and gadgets to keep their gun functioning for a safe and enjoyable hunt. This PHOTOS © GRADY ALLEN 24 O DECEMBER 2015 gear is contained in a “possibles bag” that the hunter carries at all times while using a muzzleloader. The basic items include a powderhorn or flask, powder measure, ball starter, bullet bag, patches, caps or pan powder flask, a variety of ramrod tips for loading, cleaning or clearing a barrel and a carbon dioxide discharger to unload the muzzleloader safely. SAFETY. As with any firearm, the No. 1 rule in safe gun handling is to make sure that you point the muzzle in a safe direction at all times. Once you have the firearm in a safe direction and an upright position, check to see if it is loaded by placing the ramrod down the barrel. Each muzzleloader comes with a ramrod that is specific to the barrel length. When inserted, the ramrod will almost disappear in the barrel. Once you confirm that the barrel is not loaded, mark the ramrod to ensure that in the future you can easily identify the status of the muzzleloader. conical bullets need lube but no patch.) Start loading the projectile with a bullet starter. Seat the projectile firmly against the powder charge with the ramrod. Prime the gun. Use percussion caps for cap locks and FFFFg black powder for the pan on flintlocks. CLEANUP. Once you fire your gun, it is important to clean your muzzleloader to keep it functioning properly. Black powder and black powder substitutes are very corrosive, so follow the manufacturer’s guidelines for cleaning your gun. Most black powder is water soluble and can be cleaned with warm water. Make sure that you dry and oil the metal parts of your gun before storage. I have found that a three-day follow-up is advisable to swab and wipe the barrel and safely eliminate any possibilities for corrosion. The next time you feel ready for the one-shot challenge, give the muzzleloader a try. You’ll experience an instant connection to the rich hunting history and heritage these primitive firearms have to offer. O 1000 G EORGE B USH D R . W EST C OLLEGE S TATION , T EXAS 77845 LOADING. With the gun butt placed firmly on the ground and the barrel facing away from you, follow the loading sequence. Swab the barrel to clear any oil. Properly stored guns will have a light oil film on and in the barrel. Measure the powder charge from the powder flask. Charge the barrel with the powder. Place the lubricated patch on the barrel with the round ball. (Remember, bush41.org 979.691.4000 @bush41 This program made possible in part through Hotel Tax Revenue funded from the City of College Station through the Arts Council of Brazos Valley. TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 25 Days in the Field By Melissa Gaskill DESTINATION: WIMBERLEY O T R A V E L T I M E F R O M : AUSTIN – .75 hours / DALLAS – 3.5 hours / EL PASO – 7.5 hours HOUSTON – 2.75 hours / SAN ANTONIO – 1 hour / LUBBOCK – 5.75 hours / BROWNSVILLE – 4.75 hours Strength, Hope and Courage After flood, Wimberley proves it’s more than just a pretty Hill Country town. 26 O DECEMBER 2015 Cypress-shaded Blue Hole, a popular swimming spot in town, provides a place to cool off in a spring-fed creek. flags reading “Wimberley Strong” fluttered in the breeze. Sale of the flags, designed and produced by local Eagle Mountain Flag Company, raised money for local charities providing flood relief. Six hundred were flying so far, and owners Mike and Vickie Young said they will keep making flags as long as people want them. “The flags really show how the community came together,” says employee Andrea Williams. “The blue is from our high school colors and Texas colors, and the words across the bottom — strength, hope, courage — symbolize the town.” We stayed in a cozy log cabin near the square, overlooking Cypress Creek. The creek flows through town, beneath the shade of cypress trees and over limestone rapids. Weathered chairs, rock steps to the clear water and rope swings dangling from limbs testify to the creek’s long-lasting popularity. Cypress Creek has always played a major role in this town. Early settlers built mills on the creek, which begins at a nearby artesian spring, forms a popular swimming hole just below the square and empties into the Blanco. We enjoyed our first dinner at The Leaning Pear, a restaurant overlooking the creek’s grassy, tree-lined banks. Native Texans Rachel and Matthew Buchanan opened it in 2006 in the restored Lowery House, one of Wimberley’s oldest stone structures. The couple tapped into their time spent in Italy and Matthew’s degree from the Culinary Institute of America to focus on seasonal, local food. In August 2013, they moved into an PHOTO BY SONJA SOMMERFELD / TPWD n Sunday, May 24, as news of overnight massive flooding along the Blanco River emerged, I received an email from The New York Times. As an independent journalist, I sometimes conduct interviews and identify sources in the Austin area for the paper’s writers. I drove to Wimberley a few days later to report firsthand on the aftermath. Seeking a way to send in my notes, I stopped by the Chamber of Commerce building. The staff graciously lent me an Internet connection, a comfortable chair and a table. As I typed away, chamber director Cathy Moreman came in and asked me for a favor: Please ask people to visit Wimberley. Late in the summer, I returned with my 22-year-old daughter, Bridget, to grant that favor. The day we arrived, the pale green waters of the Blanco flowed serenely beneath the RM 12 bridge, but along its banks, cypress trees stripped of limbs and bark or lying like matchsticks on the ground served as stark reminders of the horrific flood that killed 12 people. The high water mostly affected property directly along the Blanco, meaning most restaurants, shops and other businesses in town had remained dry. Residents immediately rallied after the flood, picking themselves up, helping one another out, dusting off and moving forward. It turns out Wimberley has a history of doing just that. We joined a steady stream of cars driving into the town square — stopping politely at crosswalks for pedestrians — and pulled into a beehive of activity. Everywhere, blue In addition to its natural attractions, Wimberley is home to many shops, restaurants and galleries. The Wimberley Pie Company (above) has been providing delectable treats since 1989. Bootiful Wimberley celebrates the arts with decorated boots around town (right). playgrounds and volleyball and basketball courts. The second Saturday of every month, Hays County Master Naturalists lead hourlong guided hikes in the park, doling out interesting facts and trivia. “The area of the creek under the big rope swing is about 12 to 14 feet deep, depending on water level,” our guide, Deb Bradshaw, told us. Water conservation permeates, pun intended, these talks. “We have a 3,900-gallon rainwater cistern that irrigates the native plantings around the office building and a 5,100-gallon one used to flush the toilets at the pavilion.” Bradshaw pointed to an agarita bush. “Early pioneers used the roots of these plants to make yellow dye, and if you break off a small piece, you can see bright yellow in the stem.” After our informative walk, we sat in the shade by the creek listening to the water and the breeze, grateful that Wimberley saved this treasure. Wimberley also saved another treasure: Old Baldy, a steep little knob of a mountain near the high school. It has long been tradition to climb its 218 stone steps, installed by then-owner Ed James in 1950 (along with a dance floor PHOTOS BY CHASE A. FOUNTAIN / TPWD airy new building across the parking lot, where a back wall of glass and large outdoor seating area flanked by rain cisterns and herb gardens take advantage of the creek view. The next morning, we had breakfast at Mima’s Kitchen, consuming tacos on fresh-made tortillas under large oaks and colorful umbrellas on the outdoor patio. Tony and Helen “Mima” Sauceda started out selling fajita tacos cooked on a barbecue pit on their driveway to Market Days patrons in 1994. It was such a hit that the Saucedas made things permanent on July 4, 1995. Market Days has been a Wimberley institution since 1964, held the first Saturday of every month, except January and February. The shopper’s paradise now occupies about six shady acres with more than 475 booths selling antiques, yard art and everything in between — clothing, plants, furniture, tools, hats, jewelry and food. It began as local vendors setting up on truck tailgates around the town square, offering live pigs, homemade tamales and other unique fare. The local Lions Club later took on the event and, when it grew too big for the square, moved it to the current location on FM 2325. Proceeds go to charities, scholarships and community projects — a total of roughly $500,000 a year, according to administrative manager Lee Gibson. Shopping to support good causes sounded good to me, and I made a note to return soon on the proper weekend. Fortunately, any weekend is the proper one for Blue Hole, another Wimberley institution. This iconic swimming hole once sat on private land, and for almost 100 years folks could pay to swim and camp. But plans were afoot for residential development. The community came together, raising more than $873,000 in private donations and securing funds from the National Park Service Land and Water Conservation Fund, Hays County, the Lower Colorado River Authority and TPWD. The city purchased the property and created a regional park that opened in 2011. Based on a master plan created by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, it includes a natural swimming area (open Memorial Day to Labor Day), 3.5 miles of nature trails, primitive camping, fire pits, on the top). No doubt a few first kisses and proposals occurred on this peak, as well as some good, clean fun and perhaps a bit of mischief. “As a kid, I would climb Old Baldy and look out over the valley,” says attorney Andrew Weber. “In 2014, I heard that it was for sale and just had a visceral reaction that this couldn’t be right. There had to be a way to keep it open to the public.” Locals formed the Save Old Baldy Foundation, worked out an agreement for the city to provide half the money to purchase the land, and raised the rest. Local artists created works to support the effort, Wimberley’s many musicians held fundraising festivals, and restaurants donated proceeds from special dinners (a pattern of community spirit repeated and magnified after the flood). Continued on Page 52 TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 27 Emmy-winning Texas Parks & Wildlife TV show celebrates three decades of wonder. On a cold winter day, the sun sets near Eagle Lake as the full moon rises over the horizon. The sky darkens and, as if on cue, thousands of geese begin pouring from the sky to settle in for the night, creating an extraordinary silhouette against a glowing lunar backdrop. For Texas Parks & Wildlife television series producer Lee Smith, it was a magical moment, captured forever as his camera rolled, totally unplanned. Smith was at the right place at just the right time to capture a wild and wonderful moment to be shared later with us all. Photos from TPWD archives 30 O DECEMBER 2015 TV CONTEST! Tell us a story idea you would like to see featured on the Texas Parks & Wildlife television series. If your idea wins, you can be part of the story or the TV crew — plus receive some exciting prizes. For more information, visit tpwd.texas.gov/tv30. PHOTO © GINOSPHOTOS | DREAMSTIME.COM TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 31 Lee Smith was a member of the first team of producers who covered the state from the coast to West Texas. BY THE NUMBERS 641 Shows 991 Stories 28 Regional Emmys 205 ICONS © VLADIMIR YUDIN | DREAMSTIME.COM Awards 50,000+ PBS viewers weekly 10.8M+ YouTube views 32 O DECEMBER 2015 Smith, who retired in 2014, was one of the original members of the team that began producing a television show about Texas wildlife and state parks in 1985. Over the years, he and his colleagues have traveled the length and breadth of Texas to share stories about magnificent wildlife, awe- inspiring landscapes and the dedicated professionals working to conserve them. It’s rare for any television program to have a 30-year run — much less one produced by a state agency — but that’s how long television audiences in Texas and beyond have been entertained, informed and inspired by these talented storytellers. IN THE BEGINNING In the early 1980s, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department leaders considered ways to raise the public profile of the agency. Roy Hogan, then-administrative services director, was inspired by a comment from a new Texas Parks and Wildlife commissioner that the agency was the best-kept secret in state government. He and then-Executive Director Dickie Travis kicked around a few ideas and decided: Let’s do a TV show! “If you talk to anyone who says we had some sort of plan, don’t believe them,” recalls Hogan. “It was just a crazy idea. If we had known then what we found out later, we would have never done it!” Producing a television program from scratch is no easy feat, with equipment to buy, producers to hire and distribution channels to consider. Hogan didn’t have a clue about any of those things, so he hired Anne Benning. Her plan was to create a high-quality product, then convince the program directors at PBS stations in Texas to pick it up. “The original idea was to create a companion to the magazine, so we aimed for one show a month,” Benning says. “There were just two of us at the beginning. We put three programs together before we visited with the folks at KLRU in Austin.” And the rest, as they say, is history. After seeing those first three programs of Made in Texas (the original series name), KLRU committed to air them in 1985, and other Texas stations followed suit. “The production quality has always been very good,” says Maria Rodriguez, KLRU’s senior vice president for programming. “That’s one of the reasons we’ve always been interested in airing it. The program allows our viewers to see the natural and cultural wonders of Texas.” FROM MONTHLY TO WEEKLY When Benning left her position in 1989, Richard Roberts succeeded her as executive producer. He was impressed with the high production values of the show and the broadcast-quality equipment already in place. Roberts transitioned the program from monthly to weekly in 1991, also changing the format from a single topic to a magazine-style show, with several features in each half- hour episode. The name of the series was changed to Texas Parks & Wildlife, like the magazine. “It’s a good formula for a show because you can mix and match stories and appeal to more people,” Roberts says. “We established a really good rapport with stations all around the state, and the series was picked up weekly. The show has been on ever since.” Producing a season of half-hour weekly programs is a yearlong task. Producers are responsible for coming up with story ideas, doing field production, writing scripts and editing the final product. With cameras at the ready, these talented storytellers travel the state, from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico to show how artificial reefs are created to the mountains of West Texas for a visual lesson on how wildlife biologists monitor bighorn sheep populations. It’s a dream job for any video producer who loves the outdoors. “My favorite time in the field is when I’m following someone on some kind of journey,” says producer Alan Fisher. “Maybe they’re trying to catch a fish and they finally do. Or a biologist is trying to capture an animal that they are studying and they finally succeed. I think everybody can identify with that feeling; it’s just a universal, human thing. It’s a real treat to be there for that, to capture and then share that moment.” As the years rolled by, new producers were hired as others left or retired. “The show’s been on longer than I’ve been alive,” says Kyle Banowsky, one of the newest members of the team. “There are so many people who have been here for so long. I consider all of them my mentors and my teachers. I feel hugely grateful to be a part of this.” TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION Communication technology has changed dramatically over the years, and the program has evolved with it, mastering ways to reach new audiences with these changing tools of the trade. “When I started here in 2001, we were shooting on large tapes and editing from tape deck to tape deck, the video equivalent of writing on a typewriter,” Fisher says. “We’ve since gone to computer-based editing and are on our third incarnation of software. Instead of videotape, we’re now shooting on tiny little digital cards.” Whitney Bishop came on board in 2007. She was thrilled to work on a program she had watched for years, one she always thought of as “the National Geographic of Texas.” Bishop not only produces TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 33 Ron Kabele (right), Bruce Biermann and the staff have won multiple awards for their work. 34 O DECEMBER 2015 video, she also manages TPWD’s primary social media channels. “One of the most significant events in our history was taking our videos online,” Bishop says. “People don’t just watch TV anymore. They watch videos online; they look at videos on their cellphone. So we want to take our TV show out to where people are. In addition to TV, our videos are on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and PBS Online.” In the mid-1990s, the PBS show had a potential weekly audience of more than 200,000. Like other programs on PBS and the major networks, broadcast viewership began to dwindle as a plethora of other options became available to viewers. But once TPWD took to YouTube, audience numbers exploded. Since 2009, when the first video was posted online, TPWD’s YouTube channel has had more than 10.8 million views. So now, instead of creating one video with a single purpose of being programmed into the PBS show, producers are finding multiple outlets and larger audiences for their work. “The stories we produce for the show are repurposed in as many ways as possible to maximize our efforts,” says Bruce Biermann, who replaced Roberts as executive producer in 2013. “We’re constantly evolving to meet the needs of new media outlets. But no matter the outlet, at the core will be the quality products and stories that are motivated by the high standards for the PBS television series.” Over the years, viewers have shared their appreciation for those high standards in letters, phone calls and emails. “I just wanted to express my thanks and admiration to all of you for the tremendous programs you produce each week,” wrote one viewer. “The caring and effort you all put forth on behalf of our beautiful natural resources is so informative, interesting and inspiring. Thank you for helping to educate and inspire the public. You are making such a positive and vital difference.” TEXAS: THE STATE OF WATER One of the signature efforts of Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine in the 2000s was the commitment to cover the important water issues facing the state. The first Texas: The State of Water special magazine issue was published in July 2002. The following year, a one-hour companion television documentary on water was produced. The water communications initiative spanned an entire decade and included 10 themed, annual magazine issues, five one-hour documentaries (some narrated by Walter Cronkite), a companion website and a symposium. The materials produced for the initiative are still being used in TPWD’s conservation education efforts. Lee Smith produced four of the five documentaries, and while he was primary producer, everyone in the shop took part in the production. “Everyone pitched in,” says Don Cash, PBS series producer. “We all felt ownership in this important project.” PBS stations across Texas aired the programs in prime time. “Texas Parks and Wildlife has always been at the forefront of important issues facing our state,” KLRU’s Rodriguez says. “If we lose resources like water, wildlife and parklands, these are things we’ll never get back. TPWD has helped our viewers understand what Texas has and what we need to hold on to.” TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 35 TPWD's TV show began as "Made in Texas" and has continued to evolve over the years. THE NEXT 30 YEARS As the calendar turns toward another year of production in 2016, the daily grind of work to keep the series up and running continues. “It’s phenomenal and humbling to be part of this,” Biermann says. “I don’t know of any other state-operated television program that has this longevity. I believe that as long as there is PBS, we’ll have a home for our storytellers.” That’s a belief underscored by PBS executives. “Seldom do any programs last 30 years anywhere but PBS,” says Bill Stotesbery, KLRU’s general manager. “PBS is willing to maintain the relationship with a producer for high-quality programming and keep it up over the years. It’s a great relationship, and we hope there’s another 30 years!” From the people responsible for getting it started to those now in the trenches, being involved in this production has been a labor of love. “I am eternally grateful for this experience,” Benning says. “The fact that it was good and kept getting better is a real testament to TPWD’s commitment to the program. We just wanted to do something right, and here we are 30 years later. We did something right.” Biermann is committed to continuing the show’s legacy. “We know we’re standing on the shoulders of those who came before us, who had the vision, enthusiasm and talent to create and continue the show,” Biermann says. “It’s now in our hands to carry it forward and evolve to meet the expectations of newer audiences.” 36 O DECEMBER 2015 ONTRIBUTING TPWD STAFF PRODUCERS FOR THE PBS SERIES, PAST AND PRESENT. Kyle Banowsky Whitney Bishop Kristen Berg Anne Benning Bruce Biermann Jeffrey Buras Don Cash Curtis Craven Joe Henry Delgado Alan Fisher Cleo Zoe Garcia Bill Garrison Cyndi Griesser Mike Hanneman Ron Kabele C Karen Loke Randall Maxwell Abe Moore Kathryn Palmer Luis Peon-Casanova Richard Roberts Leslie J. Rodier Lydia Saldaña Lee Smith Mark Southern Mark Thurman Stephanie Todd Gwen Zucker Wild Life Find out more about the history of the show and some of the “wild” times our producers have experienced in the field at tpwd.texas.gov/tv30. Behind the Scenes with Kyle Banowsky Behind the Scenes with Lydia Saldana PHOTO COURTESY OF NANCY MICHALEWICZ TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 37 38 O DECEMBER 2015 PHOTO © LEFTY RAY CHAPA If you hurl a stick off the edge of the Panhandle’s Caprock into the first stirrings of the Brazos River below, you can watch the river, as portrayed in song, carry it past heartbroken lovers, cattle- driving cowboys, early Texas settlers and cane-cutting prisoners before washing into the Gulf of Mexico. TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 39 river to dump the body. That’s the other side that rivers mythologically bring out. It’s a shadow place, too.” The dual nature of our relationship to rivers appears in stark contrast in Roger Creager’s River Song, in which Creager celebrates good times with his buddies on the Comal River, and the folk song La Llorona, in which a mother haunts the Rio Grande after throwing her children into the river to gain the affections of a man. River songs tie together the human world and the natural world in musical ways. Rivers are witness to the full human experience; activities seem to take on a deeper meaning when they take place next to a flowing stream. In many ways, rivers define Texas. They form our borders, and our cities were founded on them. Our songs celebrate them. Songs about Texas rivers have flowed melodically across the state for generations, from the Red River to the Rio Grande. In fact, the first known English-language song written in Texas was a river song. What do crooning cowboy Gene Autry and ’80s pop band Duran Duran have in common? They’ve both sung songs about Texas rivers. For ages, rivers have inspired people with their mystery, beauty and strength. That’s reflected in American songs such as the traditional Shenandoah, the political Roll On, Columbia and the spiritual Down by the Riverside. In Texas, the allure of rivers is given voice in songs such as Guy Clark’s ancestral Red River, Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s lyrical Another Colorado, Mance Lipscomb’s bluesy Which-a- Way Do Red River Run and Billy ARTIST IN ACTION: Watch a time- Walker’s country classic Cross lapse video of Clemente Guzman the Brazos at Waco. creating the artwork that accompanies At their foundation, river this story. Visit www.tpwmagazine.com. songs tell our stories in ways that viscerally link us to the natural streams that flow through our state. “Songs let us celebrate rivers,” says Kevin Anderson, who directs the Austin Water Utility’s Center for Environmental Research and has been giving a yearlong lecture series on the science and culture of rivers MUSIC VIDEO: Check out a video of in 2015. “There are wonderful noted Texas singer/songwriter Butch songs like that. But then you Hancock and his son singing the Texas also take people down to the River Song. Visit www.tpwmagazine.com. 40 O DECEMBER 2015 “Songs let us celebrate rivers. There are wonderful songs like that. But then you also take people down to the river to dump the body. That’s the other side that rivers mythologically bring out. It’s a shadow place, too.” “Rivers are something mystical that cut through the hard landscape,” says El Paso songwriter and artist Tom Russell, who has a few river songs to his credit. “They come from up above and go somewhere else. Rivers seem to be like a good melody. They’re always moving. The river runs by; our problems are transient. Our problems are like sticks in the river.” River songs often deal with intimate personal concerns, most commonly the blossoming of love or the ending of a relationship. Just as most pop songs are about love, it’s no different with river songs. Corey Morrow happily dances with his gal by the river boundary or carrying away your sorrows (Hays Carll washes his sins in the Angelina River in Rivertown). Great river songs engage a river at multiple levels to provide a personal and enduring portrait of a person and a river. In Tim Henderson’s Rusty Old Red River, sung exquisitely by Toni Price, the singer addresses the river and notes that both singer and river have experienced lives of sorrow and pain: “Rusty old Red River, now at last I see. Like your miles have muddied you, all my years have muddied me.” Three Texas rivers seem to appeal to songwriters the most — the Brazos, the Red and the Rio Grande. And three songs have particular prominence in the canon of Texas river songs — Mary Austin Holley’s Brazos Boat Song, the prison work song Ain’t No More Cane on the Brazos and the cowboy folk song Texas River Song. Each represents a unique and important chapter of Texas history. BRAZOS BOAT SONG in the contemporary Dance by the Rio Grande, while Michael Fracasso cites the Brazos River’s “restless waters stirring trouble down deep” before his lover disappears in the river in Brazos River Blues. The Guadalupe River proves to be particularly amorous. Butch Hancock, Pauline Reese and Jackson Eli all spend time with their lovers along the river’s banks in three different songs that share the same title: Banks of the Guadalupe. “The river always seems to be the location for love or maybe even a metaphor for love and one’s love life,” says John Wheat, coordinator of sound archives and music history at the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas. “Oftentimes you’re meeting someone there, or you’ve been left there. The river usually has some sort of emotional, metaphorical value for the singer.” Rivers also serve as a nostalgic reminder of home and childhood. They retain an eternal quality even when everything else has changed. In There’s a Rainbow on the Rio Colorado, Autry croons that the rainbow on the river “calls me to my western Texas home.” Rattlesnake Annie, who must leave her Brazos River home, laments “goodbye to a river, goodbye to the trees, goodbye to the night birds that sing in the breeze” in Goodbye to a River. What makes a river song? The song can’t just mention a river or just have a river in the title. To be a true river song, it has to do one of two things. It has to engage a river as a physical entity — going down to the river, getting into the water or being directly affected somehow by the river (T-Bone Walker curses “that dirty Trinity River” coming in his windows and doors in Trinity River Blues). Or it has to embrace a river as a metaphor — cleansing your sins, serving as a barrier or River songs have been a part of Texas history going back to before Texas was a republic. Mary Austin Holley, a cousin of Texas colonizer Stephen F. Austin, visited Texas in 1831 and composed what is acknowledged to be the first English- language song written in Texas, the Brazos Boat Song, inspired by her trip up the Brazos River to Austin’s colony. Holley, known for being a chronicler of early Texas through her well-received 1833 travelogue, begins Brazos Boat Song with a plea for favorable sailing winds: “Whistle, my boys, that fav’ring gales blow.” TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 41 “Ain't no more cane on the Brazos. Ohh-ohh-ohh. It’s all been ground down to molasses. Ohh-ohh-ohh. You shoulda been on the river in 1910. Ohh-ohh-ohh. They drove the women just like they drove the men. Ohh-ohh-ohh.” The song was resurrected a century later, in 1934, when playwright John William Rogers wanted to include it in his play Westward People, based on Holley’s letters. He was unable to find a copy and wrote his own Brazos Boat Song. In 1936, musician David Guion adapted Rogers’ song for use in the Texas Centennial celebration, propelling the song into national prominence, even though the 20th century version bears little resemblance to Holley’s original. AIN’T NO MORE CANE ON THE BRAZOS West of Houston, where the Brazos River cuts deep into the rich Texas plain, the fertile land is ripe for producing crops like cotton. And if you’ve heard of a town called Sugar Land, you might know that the plantations there also grew sugar cane. Ain’t No More Cane on the Brazos originated in the prison work farms along the lower Brazos River in the late 19th and early 20th century. It’s a song that Anderson says is “foundational to Texas river songs and American river songs.” Noted folklorists John and Alan Lomax made a field recording of the song in the 1930s, and singers in the 1960s folk movement who were looking for authentic folk music picked it up. “If you want a song about the gritty realities of prison life, this is it,” Wheat says. Ain’t No More Cane has been recorded by groups such as The Band (on the landmark Basement Tapes), Odetta and Son Volt. Lyle Lovett does a stirring version of Ain’t 42 O DECEMBER 2015 No More Cane in live performances with his Large Band. In the movie Festival Express, Janis Joplin joins Rick Danko of The Band in an ad hoc rendition of the song as they travel by train across Canada. Bruce Jackson, a folklorist, writer and professor at the University of Buffalo in New York, says these types of prison songs were called work songs in other states, but in Texas, prisoners called them “river songs” because most of the prison farms were on the Brazos and Trinity rivers. The work song tradition originated in West Africa and was carried over by slaves to America. The tradition continued at Texas prison farms. Prisoners used machetes to chop down row after row of sugar cane, their big blades moving in ringing rhythm to the song. The songs allowed workers to pass the time, coordinate body movements and give poetic voice to things of interest — a brutal combination of art and survival. “The songs would keep everyone working at the same pace so nobody could be singled out,” Jackson says. “You’d have to whip everybody or whip nobody.” The mournful moaning voiced after each line adds to the mystical, musical beauty of the song. “One reason it caught people’s fancy is that it’s an absolutely beautiful song,” Jackson says. “The melody is beautiful. And it sounds wistful. You know, ain’t no more cane on the Brazos, they grind it all up in molasses. Ohhhh- ohhhh-ohhhhh. For outsiders, you can imagine all kinds of stories behind that. It just seemed to capture something of a world we didn’t know but a world we knew was there.” “We crossed the wild Pecos, we forded the Nueces. We swum the Guadalupe and we followed the Brazos. Red River runs rusty, the Wichita clear. But down by the Brazos, I courted my dear.” TEXAS RIVER SONG Any discussion of Texas river songs has to include the Texas River Song, a folk song that manages to name 14 Texas rivers. Singer Townes Van Zandt recorded the song, as did Lovett on his album Step Inside This House. “I call it the granddaddy of all the Texas river songs,” Wheat says. “You get all the rivers in there.” Wheat says it’s a well-known song that people started singing in the 1800s. The wording can change depending on who sings it. Jim Kimmel, a musician and geography professor at Texas State University, sings the song in some of his classes to illustrate the trail-driving, post-Civil War era of Texas history. He says cowboys sang the river song as they drove cattle from Texas to points north. The rivers held special importance, he says, because “the river crossings were the most dangerous part of trail driving.” Kimmel often points out to his students another aspect of the song: “These guys were supposed to be driving cattle, but what they were really thinking about was girls.” —————— As Ain’t No More Cane on the Brazos, Texas River Song, Brazos Boat Song and countless others show, there’s something about a river that lends itself to song. In Texas, the rivers flow out of the hills and across the plains and into the bays. The songs flow with them. Along the way the songs carve the canyons, flow over the rocks and flood the fertile river bottoms of our imaginations, carrying our stories, our history and our secrets, lifting up our joys and drowning our sorrows. “Rivers sing,” Anderson says. “There’s always music in a river. It’s everything from the gurgling sounds to the rapids. If you analyzed the melodies of these songs, there’s an aspect of a flow of a river to all of them.” O MUSICAL ROUNDUP: Listen to our Spotify playlist of dozens of Texas river songs. Visit http://spoti.fi/1Xz1RIR or scan the QR code to the right. Jimmy LaFave Music Video Selected Texas river song discography (in addition to the 20 or so songs mentioned in the article): Across the Borderline, Ry Cooder Banks of the Guadalupe, Randy Frisch Banks of the Old Bandera, Rodney Crowell Big Rio Grande River, Austin Lounge Lizards Blanco River, Chuck Pyle Brazos River Run, Chris Kleiber Broke Down on the Brazos, Gov’t Mule Colorado River Blues, Kevin Seale Band Down Along the Guadalupe, Hal Ketchum Down on the Rio Grande, Johnny Rodriguez Down the Rio Grande, Tom Russell Guadalupe Days, Gary P. Nunn If I Can't Get to the River, Steven Fromholz Just Across the Rio Grande, Reba McEntire Lazy Tubin Brazos River Blues, Theodore A. Henning II Llano River, Theron Pfeifer Matamoros Banks, Bruce Springsteen Mineral Wells, Amanda Shires My Heart’s Tonight in Texas (by the Silver Rio Grande) Pecos River Queen Red River, Lead Belly Red River Blue, Blake Shelton Red River Shore Red River Valley Rio, Duran Duran Rio Grande, Eilen Jewell Rio Grande, Brian Wilson River of Innocence, Shake Russell Sabine River Blues, Texas Alexander Sabine River Blues, Cole Allen Sleepy Rio Grande, Gene Autry South Canadian River Song, Michael Murphey Texas Flood, Stevie Ray Vaughan The Well, Jennifer Warnes Whiskey River, Johnny Bush Photo © Anan Chincho | Dreamstime.com TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 43 Preliminary results from focus areas show growth in bobwhite populations. CAN WE CAN WE BRING QUAIL BACK? PHOTO © RUSSELL GRAVES by Tom Harvey 44 O DECEMBER 2015 “IF BRING QUAIL BACK? by Tom Harvey TPWD's three quail focus areas YOU’D ASKED ME when I was a college senior if I’d be in the cattle business, I’d have said no. I might have said I want to be a corporate attorney in Argentina.” Despite those joking words, conservation-minded rancher Frates Seeligson ended up taking a different road back to his country roots. After formative years in the country on family ranches, followed by a later sojourn in urban Austin, he is today a man on a mission: to bring back the prairie and its wild creatures, including one of the most iconic of Texas birds, the bobwhite quail. “I feel responsible to do my part to improve the land, to put it back the way Mother Nature intended it to be,” Seeligson says. “Some people enjoy watching stock quotes go up and down — I couldn’t do that. The quail and the grasses are my stock ticker.” Together with their neighbors, Frates and his wife, Josie, are part of a 20,000-acre focus area of multiple ranches making use of $4 million appropriated by the Texas Legislature to restore quail habitat. And they’re not alone. Across Texas, hundreds of landowners are chasing the call of the bobwhite. They’re working with wildlife biologists to save the quail and, in the process, save the prairie, save water and preserve a way of life. It’s a story that goes far beyond one bird. Yet “poor bobwhite” has become a rallying cry, bringing together ranchers and biologists, hunters and birders, government and nonprofits. This little ground- dwelling bird with funny head feathers is emerging as a poster child for saving our prairies. TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 45 PHOTO © LARRY DITTO; INSET BY EARL NOTTINGHAM / TPWD Bobwhite quail build their nests on the ground using grasses and other vegetation (below); Pajarito Ranch owner Frates Seeligson (at right) meets with TPWD biologist Matthew Reidy (inset); a bobwhite spreads its wings (opposite). 46 O DECEMBER 2015 PHOTO © LARRY DITTO Before the pioneers came, vast grasslands sprawled across most of Texas, broken by tree-lined river corridors and savanna landscapes, where oak tree clusters dotted the plains. But in the early to mid-1900s, people changed the land. Tall native bunch grasses like bluestem were replaced by exotic grasses from Africa or other countries and by short-growing turf grasses that don’t tolerate drought well and provide little to no habitat for native wildlife. Today, many enlightened ranchers are going back the other way, finding it makes economic and ecological sense to go native. What’s so special about native prairies? The answer may surprise you. Grasslands are possibly the least impressive landscape from an aesthetic perspective — plains and prairies can look like a lot of flat nothing. Looking closer, they are richly diverse ecosystems. When Texas soil is rich with the fibrous roots of native grasses, it’s like a giant sponge. Rain soaks in and percolates slowly down, replenishing underground aquifers that bubble forth as springs. This is water conservation at the earliest possible point, using the soil to hold and filter water. The process helps sustain aquifers and springs during droughts, and it sends cleaner water into lakes, rivers and coastal estuaries. The reverse is also true. When the land is abused and overgrazed, when invasive plants suck the life out and turn the land bare and rocky, rainwater runs off quickly, carrying precious topsoil that silts up rivers and lakes, quickly flushing everything away and leaving little behind for the dry times. With the loss of native prairies came the loss of native wildlife. Since 1980, Texas bobwhite populations have declined by 75 percent. Why? Evidence points to changes in the quantity and quality of habitat as the leading cause. There’s even more trouble in paradise. Besides quail, at least 24 other grassland birds are in serious decline. In the same period, the eastern meadowlark, songster of the plains, declined 84 percent, and the acrobatic scissor-tailed flycatcher declined 35 percent throughout its breeding grounds in Texas. “Neither of these traditionally common birds are hunted, so hunting is not the issue,” says Robert Perez, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department upland game bird program leader. “Even though the bobwhite is our flagship species, we don’t have a narrow focus on a single species; we know when we improve grassland habitat we’re helping dozens of bird species.” And this brings us back to the Seeligsons and their 5,200-acre Pajarito Ranch. They are in one of three focus areas where TPWD is funding habitat work using the legislative appropriation. “We chose places where quail are gone, but they haven’t been gone long, kind of the front line in the battle to restore bobwhites,” Perez says. “It’s a ‘last out, first back in’ concept. Can we bring quail back? That’s the question we’re exploring in these focus areas.” The three areas are in different parts of the state: a portion of southeastern Texas, involving close to a dozen counties around Columbus, Sealy and Victoria; the Interstate 35 corridor area in Navarro and Ellis counties in North Texas; and the Rolling Plains/Cross Timbers area, involving counties around and south of Wichita Falls. In these areas, landowners and support organizations are planting native grasses and removing invasive brush through controlled burns or other means. “The government will never be able to pay enough to restore millions of acres for quail habitat,” Perez says. “The goal is to demonstrate success in various areas of the state and show that quail habitat can be restored, to inspire and guide private landowners throughout the quail range.” In late 2014, 15 grants were awarded to various groups for grassland restoration in the three focus areas. Although the Legislature directed allocation of the money, the $4 million in grants came from the sale of $7 upland game bird stamps purchased by Texas hunters. Grant recipients include the Wildlife Habitat Federation west of Houston, the Western Navarro Bobwhite Recovery Initiative south of Dallas, the National Wild Turkey TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 47 ative prairies provide crucial habitat for bobwhite quail. TPWD is working with landowners in focus areas to improve grasslands and help birds. N 48 Federation and the Grassland Restoration Incentive Program under the Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture, which has already delivered habitat restoration projects on more than 40,000 acres of grasslands in the three focus areas. In addition, a federal Wildlife Restoration Program grant for $200,000 is funding bobwhite quail and grassland bird population monitoring over four years in partnership with the joint venture, to measure the impact of restoration efforts in the focus areas. “What’s different here is the monitoring,” Perez says. “That scale and quality of monitoring is often left out because there isn’t enough staff or money to do it. But this time we are counting birds carefully in new ways, before and after restoration. We hired summer technicians to cover thousands of points, counting quail and other grassland birds that share this habitat and are also in decline.” One of those summer technicians was passionate young birder Rosemary Kramer, who spent the first three weeks of June on Pajarito Ranch after graduating from high school. “There was a very notable difference in bird species in restored habitat,” Kramer says. Her experience mirrors that of the Seeligsons, who are starting to see years of work paying off. “I’m seeing more quail than I’ve ever seen before,” Frates Seeligson says. “In the areas where we’ve done habitat work and in areas with water, where we’ve run irrigation for trees, for example — you’ll see quail under the little oak trees we’ve planted.” Although the Seeligsons lived for years in urban Hyde Park in Austin, Josie grew up in a family connected to ranches and wide-open spaces. She well remembers the bobwhite’s distinctive call, and is happy to hear its song O DECEMBER 2015 returning to Pajarito Ranch. “I remember hearing that call and everyone getting excited,” she says. “You knew that quail were out there and you knew what that represented. For a while you didn’t hear it, but now I when go on walks with the dogs, I hear it more often. Our neighbors say they have quail all over the place, too.” Indeed, though it’s early yet to say, and scientists want more years of data to draw reliable conclusions, preliminary analysis of the expanded monitoring shows promise. In 2013 and 2014, there were almost twice as many bobwhites in the southeast quail focus area as there were in nearby reference areas where no habitat work was done. Interestingly, when it comes to 2015, the data reverse, showing almost twice as many quail in unimproved reference areas. Perez thinks that’s because in 2013–14, Texas was still in a parching drought. “Management shines in the tough years,” Perez says. “During drought, birds will be limited to where they can find refuge on the landscape. But when things get good, quail expand out on the landscape.” Still, it’s a long-term investment. Quail didn’t disappear overnight, and it could take many more years to bring them back. Fortunately, more people are making the commitment to stay with it. “I like watching the succession of nature,” Frates Seeligson says. “Every time I’m out there, I marvel at how we humans have this idea that we can do things better. We’ve brought in all these improved grasses and so on, but Mother Nature can do things better. It’s a long-term process. Things don’t happen fast. But because it takes a long time, it’s that much more gratifying.” Got Land? Want to Help? Ranchers in quail focus area counties can get help from organizations like these: Wildlife Habitat Federation, west of Houston — whf-texas.org Western Navarro Bobwhite Recovery Initiative, south of Dallas — navarroquail.org Oaks & Prairies Joint Venture, statewide — www.restoreourgrasslands.org Anywhere in Texas, landowners can get free technical guidance from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Find your local wildlife biologist at tpwd.texas.gov/biologist. The Future of Quail PHOTO OPPOSITE PAGE © ROCKY PHILLIPS; THIS PAGE © RUSSELL GRAVES TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 49 Legend, Lore & Legacy PHOTOS COURTESY OF BOB ARMSTRONG ARCHIVE Land Charmer by John Jefferson Bob Armstrong helped lead Texas to a ‘golden age’ of state park acquisition. “Fish and animals cannot be Democrats or Republicans.” It’s hard to argue with the mantra of the late Robert Landis “Bob” Armstrong, Texas land commissioner throughout the 1970s. That philosophy, coupled with a sunny smile and an easygoing attitude, was the key to his success on a Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission made up of appointees from both political parties. No Washington, D.C., gridlock for Armstrong — he kept the wheels turning for conservation. Armstrong displayed sincere respect to everyone he encountered, regardless of race, creed, religion or political affiliation, and cared not whether they preferred a fly rod, bait-casting equipment or spinning tackle. (He was adept at all three.) Armstrong’s work wasn’t limited to fish and wildlife. He was the guidon bearer — out in front, bearing the colors, leading the charge — for the acquisition and protection of some of the most precious parcels of land now in Texas’ park system. He was Texas land commissioner for 12 years. He was also a close friend of Texas Parks and Wildlife Commissioner Bob Burleson (featured in our April 2015 issue), and both 50 O DECEMBER 2015 were unabashed canoeing enthusiasts, having seen some of the wildest parts of Texas from the water. They paddled an 80-mile, multi-canoe trip through the Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande near Big Bend with press and dignitaries to show the ecological importance of the river, leading to its national designation as a Wild and Scenic River in 1978. Burleson suggested that an inventory of Texas’ unique landscapes was needed, and Armstrong initiated a natural area survey through the General Land Office. The survey, and the action following it, was a significant turning point for Texas state parks. Thousands of acres of wild country identified as exceptional resources became state parks or natural areas, including Big Bend Ranch, Devils River, Matagorda Island, Enchanted Rock, Lost Maples, Devil’s Sinkhole and others. Of course, none of this happened overnight. Each acquisition took its own course. For example, after driving all night to a hunting trip in West Texas, Armstrong arrived at the Anderson Ranch and watched a new dawn break over a breathtaking, snow-covered landscape. He mentioned to the owner that it would make a wonderful state park, and told the owner to call him if he ever decided to sell. Joined by others (including former TPWD Executive Director Andrew Sansom), Armstrong worked diligently for nearly two decades to obtain the Anderson Ranch for the state. Seventeen years after that hunting trip, Armstrong, as a member of the TPW Commission, made the motion to approve the purchase of the Anderson Ranch, now known as Big Bend Ranch State Park. Acquisition of the 212,000-acre ranch more than doubled the amount of land in the state park system. A visitors center there is named for Armstrong. Armstrong’s adventures weren’t confined to Texas. He and Austinite Walter Yates, both licensed pilots, partnered in an Alaskan gold mine exploit. It’s unclear, though, whether they panned enough gold to cover their fuel. (Coincidentally, the two friends each died of natural causes the first week of March 2015 with their boots under their beds.) A practicing attorney, Armstrong was a Travis County state representative for seven years before being elected Texas land commissioner, serving for 12 years. In Washington, he worked five years as assistant secretary of the interior for land and minerals management. As he had done as Texas land commissioner, Armstrong raised royalties for mineral rights on public land. With the most affable personality in state government, that ever-present smile and a broad résumé, Armstrong was a likely candidate for governor. However, Armstrong’s bid for governor in 1982 was against two popular and well- funded candidates. Mark White won the race, and showed his respect for his opponent by appointing Armstrong to the TPW Commission. At Armstrong’s memorial service, former Texas Observer editor Ronnie Dugger proclaimed: “He should have been the senator from Texas. He might have become president.” Despite all these accomplishments, he was particularly proud of a suggestion made to Matt Martinez Jr. (an owner of Matt’s El Rancho Mexican restaurant in Austin) to spice up his chile con queso appetizer by adding guacamole and taco meat. The dish has lived on as a popular favorite bearing his name — Bob Armstrong Dip — and is often simply called a “Bob” by servers and patrons alike. Other Mexican eateries copied the dish, but not the name. For years, Armstrong held infamous annual campouts on his ranch on one of the highest points in Travis County for his eclectic group of political, environmental and media friends. Attendees still talk about the campfire cooking and the music; no telling how many deals were cooked up in the firelight of those parties. The handwritten invitation to the first campout was vintage Armstrong, composed on a yellow legal pad with hand- drawn illustrations of campout activities: campfires, guitar pickers and singers, deer, rabbits, tents, bonfires. Recall your third-grade attempts at art and you’ll get the picture. When duplicated, the lines of the legal pad were still visible. In a subsequent invitation penned on letter-size paper instead of the customary legal pad, Armstrong explained its brevity by referring to his former boss at the U.S. Interior Department who made a short-lived run for the presidency: “Bruce Babbitt urged me to keep the invitation like his campaign, brief.” The campouts were Armstrong’s way of sharing with his friends, business associates and political cronies the things he valued most in life: the outdoors, good friends, good humor, good music, campfire philosophy, fresh air and freedom. The music usually lasted long into the night until the campfires lost their glow. The only campout he ever missed was the weekend his father died, and that was the only time it snowed on the event. ob Armstrong, who served as state land commissioner and member of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, was instrumental in the acquisition of Big Bend Ranch State Park. He also held legendary campouts at his ranch and created a signature queso dip. He passed away in March. Armstrong never seemed to be in a hurry, although his accomplishments speak of a man mostly on the move. “Often he was a little tardy, sauntering through his world unhurried and engaged in casual conversation with any convenience store clerk, postman or passer-by,” wife Linda Aaker writes in one of her two books. George Bristol, a longtime friend of Armstrong’s and chairman of the State Parks Advisory Committee, recalls something Sansom had told him about their mutual friend, that Armstrong’s travel behavior had spawned a new verb: armadilloing. “He never moved in a straight line,” Bristol explains, “veering off course to examine this and that, constantly nosing into nooks and crannies like an armadillo.” Armstrong’s life brought joy to everyone who knew him. His colorful charm knocked down walls and lifted spirits. Sadness over the loss of this ever-positive and highly productive life has been replaced by appreciation for Armstrong’s conservation legacy in Texas and the U.S. At a reception following Armstrong’s memorial service, a crew from Matt’s El Rancho served … you guessed it … Bob Armstrong Dip. Armstrong is survived not only by his loving family, but also by thousands of acres of wild country and millions of Texans who enjoy the lands he helped protect. B TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 51 DAYS IN WIMBERLEY Continued from Page 27 The land was deeded over to the city and officially became Old Baldy Park. The climb isn’t easy, but the views are worth it, and, as Weber predicted, I could tell where Cypress Creek flows and see clear across the valley. “This has always been a special place,” he says. “We’ve taken our grandkids up there, and 50 years from now, they can take theirs.” Another must on any visit to Wimberley is Jacob’s Well Natural Area, site of the springs that create Cypress Creek a few miles northwest of town. A trail leads from the parking lot through scattered juniper to a limestone ridge. Below us, water emerged from limestone caves and channels of the Trinity Aquifer to form a circular pool an unearthly shade of blue. I could see about 30 feet down into clear water pierced by sunlight; beyond, it reaches 140 3 feet deep, and the actual well is a mile long. Water used to flow from the springs with such force that it would push swimmers out, but increased pumping and development have reduced that power. In 2000 and 2008, the well even dried up, inspiring creation of the natural area. Having worked up an appetite, we went to Linda’s Fine Foods to satisfy it. Linda Allen grew up in California but spent every summer in Wimberley before moving here permanently in 1980. She started a catering business in 1991 and opened the current location, a circa-1940s limestone house surrounded by oak trees, in 2006. Customers came in for take-out and lingered to eat on the premises, so Allen transitioned the place into a restaurant. She changes about half the menu every week, calling her cuisine “comfort food with a twist. It is sort of like eating in someone’s home, in the best of ways.” After a hearty breakfast at Wimberley Café on the Square the next day, we visited the EmilyAnn Theatre and Gardens. Its indoor theater and outdoor amphitheater hold Shakespeare Under the Stars in summer and productions throughout the year, but these 12 acres offer plenty of off-stage diversions as well: trails, native gardens, a hilltop veterans memorial, children’s play areas, giant chess and checkers, a musical garden, a picnic grove, sculptures, disc golf, sandboxes, a fairy land and more. Every night from the Saturday after Thanksgiving through Dec. 29, these grounds host a trail of lights, more than 100 exhibits along the walking paths, live entertainment and a yule log bonfire complete with complimentary hot chocolate and marshmallows to roast. Another reason to return. Spending three days in Wimberley, I realized that the words on all those flags — strength, hope, courage — go beyond an upbeat slogan here. They describe a way of life, whether for people mobilizing to save a beloved swimming hole or rallying to recover from a terrible tragedy. Turns out that by coming here, I was doing myself a favor. Presenting Sponsor Thanks to our 2015 sponsors Presenting Sponsor of the 2015 Leopold Conservation Award for Texas Gold Level Sponsors Silver Eagle Distributors Texas Westmoreland Coal Company Silver Level Sponsors Colorado River Land Trust and Lower Colorado River Authority Earth Day Texas U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Partners for Fish and Wildlife Bronze Level Sponsors To find out more about becoming a sponsor of the Lone Star Land Steward Awards, or to learn how to nominate a deserving landowner for recognition, please visit www.tpwd.texas.gov/lsls or contact Nancy Gillespie at (512) 389-8119 or nancy.gillespie@tpwd.texas.gov Nominations must be submitted by November 30. 52 O DECEMBER 2015 Advanced Ecology, Ltd. & TerraStone Land Company Ag Workers Auto Insurance & AgPro Insurance Agency Capital Farm Credit • DM Wood Foundation Dorothy Drummer & Associates • Ducks Unlimited East Wildlife Foundation • Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority Hill Country Alliance • Hoffpauir Auto Group & Outdoor Stores Legacy Land & Ranches • Llano Springs Ranch, Ltd. National Wild Turkey Federation – Texas State Chapter Native American Seed • Nueces River Authority Oncor • Sarco Creek Ranch – Milton and Bridey Greeson Texas A&M Forest Service Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association Texas Farm Bureau • Texas Land Trust Council Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board Texas Wildlife Association USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service Analog and digital display Stop watch function Built-in alarm LCD complications Electro-luminescence backlight Suggested Retail $395… NOW, on you wrist for $29 95 r For a limited Time Only Amazing New Hybrid Runs Without Gas The new face of time? Stauer’s Compendium Hybrid fuses form and functionality for UNDER $30! Read on... I nnovation is the path to the future. Stauer takes that seriously. That’s why we developed the Compendium Hybrid, a stunningly-designed hybrid chronograph with over one dozen analog and digital functions that is more versatile than any watch that we have ever engineered. 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Rating of A+ • 6 1 / 4 " fixed German stainless steel blade (12" total length) • Stag horn and Pakkawood™ handle • Includes leather sheath Stauer. A Different Tale to Tell. TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 57 IMAGE SPECS: Nikon D3S camera with 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. Shot at 1/160th of a second at f/2.8. ISO 4000. Over the years, Texas Parks & Wildlife photographer Chase Fountain has made the rounds to visit numerous holiday celebrations at state parks. At Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site southeast of Bryan/ College Station, lanterns illuminated the grounds during the annual Twilight Firelight event. The evening is a journey back to the 1850s at the old stagecoach inn, with period music, stagecoach rides and a host of living history characters. 58 O DECEMBER 2015 SAVE TODAY. S’MORES TOMORROW. 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