Winning teams in the 2008 Great Texas Birding Classic have awarded their conservation prize money to fund seven habitat projects totaling $73,000 along the Texas coast. Touted as the world’s longest birding competition, the Birding Classic has funded a total of $651,000 for avian habitat conservation since it began 12 years ago.
Four projects designed to enhance boating access to Texas waters will share more than $1.4 million in matching federal grants through the State Boating Access Program.
Boat ramp facility improvement projects at Lake Buchanan, Cameron Park in Waco, Port Aransas and Surfside Beach were approved by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission at its Jan. 24 meeting.
State fisheries biologists have set a January series of public input meetings in Port Arthur, Dickinson, Port Aransas and Port Isabel to discuss possible changes to the way fishing and fisheries are regulated along the Texas coast.
LAKE JACKSON, Texas — The world’s longest bird watching competition is changing to a new “big weekend” format this year, marking the first year the Great Texas Birding Classic will hold the majority of competitive categories and events all on a single day. Also, thanks to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant, prize money for conservation projects has increased this year from $52,000 to $73,000.
The popular Redfish Bay area receives an extra measure of protection beginning May 1. On that date, a new regulation takes effect, prohibiting the uprooting of seagrass within the Redfish Bay State Scientific Area (RBSSA).
The shallow, highly productive body of water straddling the Aransas Bay and Corpus Christi Bay systems in the Coastal Bend boasts the state’s northernmost extensive stands of sea grasses, highly evolved marine flowering plants that are one source of the area’s bounty of red drum and spotted seatrout.
AUSTIN, Texas — Christmas came early this year to dozens of state parks throughout Texas, thanks to lawmakers and voters who gave a strong thumbs-up to more funding for parks. That’s good news for families planning a state park outing during the upcoming holiday season.
As in past natural disasters, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is opening the gates of Texas state parks to evacuees from Hurricane Dolly. Campsites and screen shelters will be offered free to those who need a temporary place to stay.
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens redeployed from the Rio Grande Valley to their home counties this morning as state parks officials began cleaning up storm debris in area parks.
Some 72 game wardens and supervisors, along with seven boat mechanics and two communications specialists deployed to South Texas in preparation for Hurricane Dolly. Game wardens brought with them 70 boats. The storm made landfall as a Category Two hurricane at South Padre Island about noon Wednesday.
AUSTIN, Texas — An early and intensive response by state game wardens and coastal fisheries biologists, aided by United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Park Service (NPS) biologists and a network of volunteers is bolstering efforts to rescue record numbers of Atlantic green sea turtles stunned during recent cold weather along the Texas coast.
ROCKPORT — Women interested in the outdoors are invited to attend the second annual Women in the Wild workshop, a weekend-long event being held by the Rockport chapter of the Texas Outdoors Woman Network (TOWN) on May 1-2. The event is designed to help familiarize women with the various outdoor activities in the Coastal Bend and encourage them to participate in a fun and safe outdoor environment.
