CANYON – At his March 1933 inauguration amid the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called for the creation of a “forest army” to staff a massive conservation and public recreation program that included the development of state and local parks. By July, 274,000 men between the ages of 17 to 25 had joined the Civilian Conservation Corps.
AUSTIN – In the late summer of 1963, the most popular show on television was “The Beverly Hillbillies,” a gallon of gas cost 29 cents, the University of Texas Longhorns were headed toward their first national football championship, “My Boyfriend’s Back” was the top hit on AM radio and Texas had a new state agency called the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
CEDAR HILL—Ordinarily, the miles of scenic hike and bike trails of the 1,500-acre Cedar Hill State Park are a welcome retreat for nature lovers seeking respite from surrounding urban sprawl. But this weekend, those same wooded paths along the shores of Joe Pool Reservoir in the southern DFW Metro area will play host to a series of running events, including a unique triathlon format of the Eco Lone Star Adventure Race series and the XTERRA Trail Run 5k and 15k.
AUSTIN – Grab your binoculars and birding guides and get ready for fun at the 17th annual Great Texas Birding Classic. The registration deadline for year’s event, which will feature a number of firsts, is April 1.
ATHENS—Lake Palestine produced its first Toyota ShareLunker March 2, becoming the sixty-fourth public reservoir in Texas to allow an angler to land a 13-pound or larger largemouth bass.
AUSTIN — Operation Shark Fin, a four-day, around-the-clock Texas Parks and Wildlife Department law enforcement effort along the lower coast aimed at disrupting trans-national criminal organizations engaged in illegal commercial fishing and other activities in the Gulf of Mexico, the Rio Grande, and Lake Falcon has resulted in the seizure of 17,500 feet of long lines, two vessels and 15 citations or arrests.
DALLAS — Almost two years after a devastating wildfire, signs of new life and activity are springing up once again at Bastrop State Park, thanks in part to the generosity of donors like The Meadows Foundation, which recently awarded the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation a $150,000 grant to help restore the fire-ravaged park.
AUSTIN – Channel your inner Ansel Adams or Wyman Meinzer this spring by heading to one of more than 90 Texas state parks and historic sites to photograph your friends and loved ones, wildflowers, wildlife and revered state landmarks. Snap away just for fun or record your best images to enter in the Texas State Parks Photo Contest.
ATHENS—Puxatawney Phil may herald the onset of spring for folks in the Northeast, but for Texans there is another signal: The beginning of the annual white bass run upstream from reservoirs into rivers.
ATHENS — The Dallas Fly Fishers will teach classes for beginning fly-fishers at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens on March 9.