AUSTIN, Texas — Dozens of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens continue to deliver food, water, medical assistance and peacekeeping support to East Texas counties still reeling from Hurricane Rita. Meanwhile, the number of state parks temporarily closed by Rita is down to four from about 20 two weeks ago. State wildlife management areas remain open, but fall hunters are being urged to use caution.
AUSTIN, Texas — Quail hunters have enjoyed the rewards of ideal range conditions and above normal bird production during the last couple of years. Although hunting prospects are still favorable heading into the 2005-06 season, they probably won't measure up to recent years in a few locales where it has gotten dry over the summer.
AUSTIN, Texas — The cool front that blew through Texas this week brought the leading edge of the annual migration of millions of monarch butterflies traveling south to their Mexico wintering grounds, and early indications are the monarch population has finally recovered from the severe snow storm that struck overwintering colonies in 2004.
AUSTIN, Texas — The endangered whooping crane may be the state's most famous "winter Texan." This year as biologists and bird-watchers anticipate the arrival of another record population on the Texas coast, Texas Parks and Wildife Department is offering a new tool for sportsmen to help protect whooping cranes and other similar birds.
AUSTIN, Texas — High school students from Abilene, Knott and Port Lavaca walked away with top shooting honors after 15 leading youth shotgun shooters from 4-H Shooting Sports Clubs across Texas competed in the Whiz Bang state finals at Texas Parks and Wildlife Expo on Sept. 30.
Information from Texas Parks and Wildlife is available on radio and television, as well as the newsstand.
AUSTIN, Texas — As Hurricane Rita was bearing down on the Texas coast, those who work to protect coastal estuaries had occasion to ponder the value of wetlands to absorb storm impacts and control flooding. As it happened, Sept. 24 was National Estuary Day.
ROCKPORT, Texas — The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is proposing mandatory seagrass protection measures for the Redfish Bay State Scientific Area to protect ecologically important seagrass beds from motorboat propeller scarring.
AUSTIN, Texas — Despite offering 4,400 hunter education courses throughout the year, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department understands there are some who will still wait until the last minute before hunting season to get certified. This fall, those procrastinators need not panic.
The following are excerpts from recent Texas Parks and Wildlife Department law enforcement reports.