AUSTIN – A two-year-old white-tailed deer in a Medina County deer breeding facility has been confirmed positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). This is the first case of CWD detected in captive white-tailed deer in Texas. CWD was first detected in Texas in 2012 in free-ranging mule deer in the Hueco Mountains in far West Texas.
AUSTIN—The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Great Texas Birding Classic, an all ages statewide birding event, has generated $844,500 for 95 on-the-ground habitat acquisition, restoration and enhancement projects during the last 19 years. This year’s tournament, which saw a record 530 participants representing 100 teams, contributed $25,000 from registration fees and sponsorships to fund conservation grants.
ATHENS—Jennifer Brooks of Kerens has been named Wildlife Forever’s State-Fish Art 2015 Educator of the Year. A pre-kindergarten through grade 5 art specialist at Felix G. Botello Elementary in Dallas, Texas, she is being recognized for her significant contribution to youth conservation education. She receives a $500 gift card for classroom art supplies from the award’s sponsor, Triarco Arts & Crafts.
AUSTIN – Things that live on the ground typically aren’t adept at treading water for long. In the aftermath of flood events that have hammered much of the state recently, biologists with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department say encounters with various wildlife will not be uncommon.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees (Trustees) released a draft plan today that proposes 10 early restoration projects across the Gulf states at an estimated cost of $134 million. This includes two proposals involving Texas, a $45 million sea turtle restoration project and a $20 million bird rookery islands restoration project.
AUSTIN – Target range and recreational shooting facilities looking to expand or improve their operations, grants are now available through the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to help fund construction and enhancements to shooting or archery ranges.
ATHENS—The Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center, headquarters for the Texas division of Wildlife Forever’s State-Fish Art Contest, has announced the Texas division winners for 2015.
AUSTIN — A self-proclaimed “East Texas river rat” with Harvard undergraduate and medical degrees whose lifelong love of bottomland hardwood country ignited landscape conservation along the Trinity River Basin, Dr. Robert McFarlane is the 2015 recipient of the Leopold Conservation Award.
SAN ANTONIO – For 24 years, the Texas Big Game Awards (TBGA), a partnership of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Wildlife Association (TWA), has been the leader in recognizing the contributions that landowners, land managers and responsible hunters make to managing and conserving wildlife and wildlife habitat on Texas’ private lands.
AUSTIN— The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) honors the conservation contributions of private landowners each year with its Lone Star Land Steward Award. This year, seven winners representing several of the state’s diverse ecological regions will join the distinguished roster of landowners who have received this recognition. Over the past 20 years, nearly 200 landowners across Texas have been lauded for conserving more than 3 million acres of fish and wildlife habitat.