AUSTIN, Texas — A small, single-engine private plane crashed and caught fire around 10:15 a.m. today near the public airfield inside Lake Whitney State Park. The sole occupant, the pilot, was transported in stable condition to Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth.
AUSTIN, Texas — Visitation to more than 90 Texas state parks, up significantly in June compared to last year, remains steady this summer, even as much of central and south Texas suffers with above-normal temperatures and severe drought conditions that have negatively impacted river flows and lake levels, and sent all but the hardiest campers indoors.
WASHINGTON-ON-THE-BRAZOS, Texas — Barrington Living History Farm in Washington County northwest of Houston seems a little emptier this week.
ATHENS, Texas — Texas anglers and boaters get it: Invasive aquatic species are a real and growing threat to their ability to do what they love to do-but they don’t have to stand by and watch it happen.
Brownsville, Texas — Some exciting news for entomologists: a new species of tree cricket has been found in the United States. On May 16, 2009, Nancy Collins from Wisconsin and Laurel Symes, a PhD candidate at Dartmouth University, heard a tree cricket sing at Resaca de la Palma State Park and World Birding Center in Brownsville. On a return trip in June they found another cricket at Bentsen Rio Grande State Park, another World Birding Center in Mission. Further analysis by Dr. Thomas J. Walker, Professor Emeritus, University of Florida-Gainesville, revealed that it was an unnamed species of Oecanthus. Collins says that it will be called Alexander’s tree cricket, in respect of R. D. Alexander who first discovered them in Mexico in the 1960s.
CONROE, Texas — This Saturday morning, July 25 on Lake Conroe, state fisheries biologists and volunteers will plant about 150 native plants in protective cages, part of a statewide effort to restore lake vegetation that improves water quality, prevents erosion, and provides high quality habitat (food and shelter) for fish and other wildlife.
AUSTIN, Texas — When the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publicly announced the last week of June that it was providing $5,148,369 to help restore critical wetlands in West Galveston Bay, the news took Texas Parks and Wildlife Department staffers who wrote the grant request by surprise.
AUSTIN, Texas — The popular Texas Outdoor Family Program has released its fall campout dates for 24 state parks throughout the state.
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is inviting public participation in a major revision of its 2005 Land and Water Resources Conservation and Recreation Plan.
AUSTIN, Texas — State officials who in March feared a repeat of 2008’s near-record boating fatality numbers now say a quiet July 4 holiday weekend could put Texas on track for the lowest number of boating deaths in years.