AUSTIN, Texas — Phone calls to Operation Game Thief by concerned citizens this summer resulted in the conviction of two individuals on 38 misdemeanor fishing-related charges and fines totaling more than $13,000 when the cases were adjudicated in September.
The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) have reached an agreement for Eisenhower State Park to continue to operate as a unit of the Texas State Park system. After months of lease negotiations, an agreement was reached in early October for both agencies to continue their long-standing partnership to provide recreational opportunities at Lake Texoma.
BEAUMONT, Texas — The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has completed contractual negotiations for the Texas Clipper to become the first major addition to the department’s Ships-to-Reefs program in more than 30 years. In early spring 2007, the clipper will be sunk 17 nautical miles off the southern coast of Texas to become an artificial reef.
TEMPLE, Texas — The USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Texas has set a Dec. 15, 2006, sign-up deadline for the 2007 Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). These federal grants help farmers and ranchers improve natural resources on private land in Texas, and they have become increasingly important for a range of wildlife species, from game animals like quail to endangered species like the red-cockaded woodpecker.
AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will host public meetings in Dickinson and Corpus Christi Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss proposed changes to regulations affecting offshore aquaculture and the deployment of artificial reef materials by private individuals, groups or associations.
A new harmful algal bloom forecast system is now in place along the Gulf coast of Texas. The announcement of the ecological forecast program was made at today’s meeting of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, a federal-state partnership to address critical coastal issues facing the Gulf states. The system will generate forecasts weekly to determine the current and future location and intensity of blooms, and the likely impacts to the environment.
Washington, DC — Mitch Lockwood, a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife biologist, has been awarded the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ prestigious Mark J. Reeff Memorial Award. The award, for dedication to wildlife, youth, landowners and natural resources, was presented at the Association’s 2006 Annual Meeting last week in Snowmass, Colorado.
WILLS POINT, Texas — The Sabine River Authority of Texas has donated $50,000 to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to construct a new restroom facility for overnight campers at Lake Tawakoni State Park.
PRESIDIO, Texas — A newly appointed advisory committee is taking a fresh look at one of the state’s natural treasures, examining ways to improve natural and cultural resource conservation, public use and visitor access at Big Bend Ranch State Park in West Texas.
AUSTIN, Texas — A 25-year-old Deer Park man set the pending Texas state record for tarpon when he landed a 210-pound, 11-ounce fish off the Galveston Fishing Pier Wed.