Regional Highlights

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New Texas State Park Guide Now Available (All regions)

The latest edition of the Texas State Park Guide arrived in tourist outlets in April. Approximately 500,000 copies of this free 112-page color booklet arrived at state parks and other tourist outlets, including at all TxDOT Travel Information Centers, at many Convention & Visitors Bureaus and Chambers of Commerce offices and at other TPWD sites and field offices. Ads promoting the Guide have been running in statewide magazines such as Texas Monthly, Texas Co-Op Power and Texas Parks & Wildlife. To date, these ads have generated some 8,000 public requests for the new guide. The guide is also available online in both English and Spanish. (www.tpwd.state.tx.us/parkguide)

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Game Warden Cadets Near End of Training (All Regions)

New Game Wardens Assigned Across Texas

22 Texas game warden cadets have been assigned duty stations across the state. The cadets started this year's training academy last October. They will graduate May 18 in the Texas Capitol auditorium in Austin, and the following day will begin reporting to their first duty stations. This year, all of the cadets are from Texas and are among the most highly educated law enforcement officers in the state. They've all graduated from Texas Universities, including Sul Ross, Sam Houston State, Texas A & M, Texas A & M Galveston, Kingsville, West Texas and Corpus Christi, Midwestern State, Lamar, Tarleton State, Stephen F. Austin, Univ. of Texas S.A., Tyler and Pan American, St. Mary's, and the Univ. of Houston. One of the cadets has a Master's degree and several others are close to receiving one. They will join their colleagues in enforcing state game and fish regulations, enforcing the state's boating safety act and educating Texans about conservation. Living and training alongside them this year, for the first time, were two cadet trainees from the state wildlife agency with the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon. In May, they will return to Mexico to share what they have learned to improve border conservation law enforcement and training in their home state.

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Corpus Hatchery Gets Facelift (Region U)

Two new facilities were recently completed at the CCA/Marine Development Center in Corpus Christi. The $1 million project included a new maintenance building and a new fish spawning building. Both buildings were 100% masonry that replaced 20 year old metal buildings that had turned to rust and had partially collapsed.

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Sheldon Lake Environmental Learning Center Update (Region U)

Fundraising for the second phase of the Sheldon Lake Environmental Learning Center continues. To date donations and grant funds have increased to $2.5 million, which is 47% of the funds needed to complete Phase 2, which includes construction of a Visitor-Learning Center and the Lake Observation Tower. $110,000 in mitigation funds are being used for control of Giant Salvinia and Water Hyacinth to increase fishing opportunities in Sheldon Lake.

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New Conservation Education Center Opens at TFFC (Region E)

The Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens dedicated a new $2.2 million conservation facility in April funded entirely by outside donations. Back in April 2005, Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris presented a donation check for $650,000 toward the construction of the new building, pledging to match dollar-for-dollar funds raised by Schooling for Bass, a Dallas support group headed by Dick Hart. Hart's group went to work with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation to raise the necessary funds and they were successful in meeting their goal to fully fund construction of the building. The building was named the "Richard M. Hart and John L. Morris Conservation Center." The new building includes state of the art technology and classroom space for environmental youth education, plus staff offices.

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Engeling Wildlife Management Area Dedicates New Facility (Region E)

A new education center is open at the Engeling Wildlife Management Area. The center will offer learning opportunities on a wide range of topics geared toward adults and children, varying from landowner field days to school, Scout and 4-H field trips and conservation education programs. The new facility, built to be accessible for people with disabilities, features a large meeting room, displays of wildlife native to the area, informative maps, restrooms, two large shaded porches and a small picnic area.

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