Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Jordan Rethmeier: That's One Helluva Big Catfish, Dude

Catfish for dinner!! For the next month and a half. That's what would have been on the menu at the Jordan Rethmeier home after he reeled in a massive ol' blue catfish at Lake Zebco this weekend, except he released the fish back to the (relative) deep. Lake Zebco, in Athens, is the Texas Parks & Wi ... More >>

Battleship Texas, Seriously Injured, To Get (Some) Repairs

The good news: On the 99th anniversary of its commissioning, the Battleship Texas will be getting "the first significant structural repairs...in more than 20 years,: Texas Parks & Wildlife announced. The bad news: Those repairs are about half of what is needed just to make a solid first step toward ... More >>

Cambodian Weed

The invasive plant water spinach is banned in some states — and essential to Asian cooking. In a small village outside Houston, relocated Cambodians are growing and selling it across state lines, up North, out West, hoping to get rich.

Facebook Weirdness

Butt-Dialing "Hide The Gun In Them Woods" Makes An Investigator's Job Easier

A wild and wooly rural chase over some road hunting ended with one of the simpler investigations the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department has likely had to conduct. According to info released by TPWD today, wardens received a call about possible road-hunting going on near Red River and Bowie counties ... More >>

Prairie Dogs Become Prairie Gods; Have Humans Working for Them

A colony of black-tailed Prairie Dogs has been moved into a Texas Panhandle park and just to make sure the move would take -- local humans clawed through the earth, initiating the deep drilling that would follow. "Park staff pre-drilled several holes to encourage the animals to being making their ... More >>

Unleash the Swamp People: Texas Nuisance-Gator Hunters Can Now Peddle Their Services

A new samurai walks the Texas earth, or will soon: the hardened, stoic hunter of nuisance gators. In years past, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department contracted with a limited number of hunters, who put in bids to be selected. Winners would be assigned a specific region and TPWD had to approve hun ... More >>

Upcoming Events: Foraging Food and Cooking Game

Next weekend: Prepare for all the chicken soup you can nosh.​Attention, DIY-ers and wild food fans: Two upcoming events are right up your paths. Follow chef Randy Rucker down one path for a Tapas on the Trails evening Saturday, February 11, at the Houston Arboretum. The food-filled evening wi ... More >>

Galveston's Red Tide Appears to Have Dissipated, Oysters Recovering

Photo by mintprofusionOysters affected by red tide are toxic to humans.​On January 27, two small portions of Texas Gulf waters were conditionally opened to shellfish harvesting after a red tide epidemic forced the indefinite closure of oyster season in October. San Antonio and Espiritu Santo ... More >>

TPWD Raises $335,000 In Three Weeks, But...

It's been about three weeks since the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department put out a frantic call for donations to make up for a $4.6 million budget shortfall caused by the drought. How are they doing? At first glance, it seems okay -- $335,000 has been raised, TPWD says. But that includes a single d ... More >>

Drought-Ravaged Texas Parks Need Money & Visitors, State Says

Texas parks: Visit or send cash or both, please.​The crippling drought of 2011 left Texas parks under-visited and in need of cash to make up a budget shortfall, officials are saying. The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department is putting out a call for people to come to the parks (and therefore gen ... More >>

Scary Wildfire Video Of Bastrop State Park

All but about 100 acres of the 6,000-acre Bastrop State Park have been blackened by fire, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department says, and they've posted this video to show why. With surprising alacrity, a fire creeps across the land, with nothing to stop it and wind to push it along. And that is w ... More >>

Helicopters Save Bastrop Park's Historic Building, For Now

​The Refractory in Bastrop State park, built by FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps back in the Depression, had a close call today with the wildfires that have hit the park hard. At 2 p.m., the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department says, fires got within 200 yards of the structure.

Comment of the Day: How to Get Rid of the Grass Carp

​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involv ... More >>

Grass Carp: You've Done Your Job Saving Lake Conroe, Now They're Coming to Kill You

Grass carp: You're fired!!​When Lake Conroe began to be overrun with the harmful plant hydrilla, Texas officials had the answer -- they brought in a bunch of grass carp to eat that stuff up. The carp performed admirably: The lake is now essentially free of hydrilla, Texas Parks and Wildlife s ... More >>

Texas River Lovers: Your Scary Drought Map of the Day

USGS​The Texas Observer's Forrest Wilder just tweeted some truth: If you love to have fun on Texas rivers, this is a scary map. It's from the U.S. Geological Survey, and it shows the streamflows of Texas rivers. (There's an interactive version of it here, where you can see what individual sta ... More >>

Gulf Shrimp Season Officially Closed

Photo by motg​This past Sunday, May 15, marked the end of the Gulf shrimp season until at least mid-July. "The closure is designed to allow these small shrimp to grow to a larger, more valuable size before they are vulnerable to harvest," said Robin Riechers, coastal fisheries division direct ... More >>

Play Frisbee, Have a Picnic, Catch Some Catfish

Catching catfish as a kid with our ranch hand, Billy Garrett.​The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is about to give Houstonians another activity at their local parks: fishing. Now, plenty of folks already fish at parks around Houston. My personal favorite spot is at River Terrace Pa ... More >>

Possum Kingdom On Fire: The Official Video

Possum Kingdom, the beloved state park west of Fort Worth -- celebrated in song by The Toadies -- has been very unlucky when it comes to the wildfires hitting west and north Texas. The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department has released some official video of the event, including interviews with firefig ... More >>

West Texas is Burning: Maybe the Worst Wildfires in State's History

Tough times in the vast stretches of West Texas​Massive drought conditions have turned West Texas and the Panhandle into a tinderbox, and the spark has been lit. This weekend saw what might develop into the worst wildfire days in the state's history, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department and ... More >>

Cold Turtles: Rescued & Headed Back to the Gulf

TPWDIt shrinks like a cold, frightened turtle​More than 800 sea turtles who had been stunned by the state's cold snap are getting their release back into the wild starting today, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department says. In the past the animals were kept for weeks, but TPWD says a new philo ... More >>

Chinese Tallow Trees Continue East Texas Takeover

An example of a Chinese tallow tree​The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department says the invasive Chinese Tallow tree is getting more and more of a grip in East Texas. The tree, which can hinder plant diversity, has seen its numbers grow 174 percent in a 15-year period ending in 2007, TPWD says. T ... More >>

DPS Tells Falcon Lake Jet-Skiers To Stay On The U.S. Side If They Value Their Lives

There be pirates on the border​The Texas Department of Public Safety has issued a warning telling people who jet-ski on Falcon Lake, which is divided by the U.S.-Mexico border, to stay the hell on the American side.David Michael Hartley, 30, was shot yesterday afternoon and is believed to be dead. ... More >>

Genius: To Prove He Doesn't Have An Alligator Skull, Dude Shows Lawmen His Dope Crop

"Officer, check my dope crop to make sure I don't have an alligator skull!!!"​An Angleton dude was selling alligator meat illegally online, which triggered a sting by Texas Parks & Wildlife Department authorities.As they negotiated the sale, the guy mentioned he also had an alligator skull he ... More >>

Galveston Island State Park's Makeover: Your Chance For Input

Photo courtesy TPWDGalveston Island State Park in the wake of Ike​Galveston Island State Park was ravaged by Hurricane Ike, but plans are now underway to make it, according to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, "a premiere destination within the Texas state park system."Parts of the park h ... More >>

Deep In The Piney Woods, A Big-Ass Pot Farm Grew

Don't give these two any ideas​Police say they typically find a couple of hundred pot plants when they raid an outdoor growing operation. This is Texas. Everything's bigger here, including the pot farms.Hunters sprucing up their deer blinds in darkest East Texas made a startling discovery Sunday - ... More >>

Twitter That There Dove Hunt, With TPWD's Help

Take cover, little Twitter bird!!!​You bag yourself a nice impressive set of doves in a kill-or-be-killed situation, what's the first thing you want to do? Tweet the ever-living shit out of it, of course.The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department understands this. That's why they're premiering new ... More >>

Downtown's Sam Houston Park Getting $2 Million Facelift

Photo courtesy GHCVBSam Houston Park -- often forgotten, but it's there, dammit​Sam Houston Park -- come on, it's that picturesque if undervisited piece of grass and historic homes just outside of downtown -- is about to get a makeover.The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department and the city's Capit ... More >>

TPWD Cutting Back Access To Bat-Viewing, Cave-Visiting

Batpoles temporarily out of order​The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department is closing some of the state's caves and prime bat-viewing sites to fight a contagious disease that's fatal to bats.White Nose Syndrome has spread from the East Coast, and the sites are being closed "our of an abundance of ... More >>

Battleship Texas Almost Sinks Again; Saved By Stuffing Rags In Holes

Photo by diveofficerSaved by rags​The Battleship Texas made it through World Wars I and II, but she almost lost it over the weekend.The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department said today that the ship sprung a leak, and only the stuffing of rags into holes -- and furious pumping -- kept the ship afl ... More >>

The Easy Way To Win A Bass Tournament: Stick A Lead Weight In The Belly Of Your Fish

​Wily criminal minds never sleep. Luckily for the forces of good and justice, neither do the dedicated men and women of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.Robby Rose, 45, a competitive fisherman from Garland, was playing (fishing?) in a bass tournament in Rockwall County last October. Appar ... More >>

Silence Of The Hams

Photos by Katharine ShilcuttThis was a pig at one time.​Sad to report that I'm not clever enough to have come up with that little pun on my own (or even, "It puts the BBQ sauce on its skin, or else it gets the hose again!" - a friend came up with that gem shortly afterwards). No, the credit fo ... More >>

Texas Parks Are Like A Tea Party: White, Old & Cranky

​People visiting Texas parks are like a Tea Party convention -- they're white, old and cranky.That's not quite the spin the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department puts on the results from their latest customer survey, but it seems pretty clear to us.TPWD surveyed 27,000 customers over five years an ... More >>

Hispanics And Texas State Parks, Part Two (The Weird Part)

​We asked Texas Parks & Wildlife for more details on the customer survey we wrote about today, and they have come through. And it's crazy enough to deserve its own post.TPWD provided a power point presentation of the study; scrolling through it we noticed a summary of focus-group research done ... More >>

Net Gains and Losses

Is the Omega Protein company overfishing the most important fish in the sea?

Sam Rayburn Reservoir Gets Hit With A Killer Weed

​A little over 10 years ago, we wrote about a "Killer Weed" that had been mistakenly introduced to some Texas lakes and was quickly covering them with a thick blanket of vegetation.Salvinia molesta, also known as Giant Salvinia, reproduces itself faster than the Octomom and is a dire threat to fre ... More >>

TPWD Says "Great Outdoors Day" Is Coming: How To Celebrate It With Your Teen-Ager

Photo by marxchivistYou knew this, of course, but June 13 is National "Get Outdoors" Day. We knew this because the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department just sent out the news."As a part of the second annual GO Day, more than two dozen Texas state parks are joining federal agencies, nonprofit organi ... More >>

Gulf Shrimp Season Ending This Week

Gulf shrimp season is over as of this Friday, May 15. It is scheduled to resume in mid-July. "The closure is designed to allow these small shrimp to grow to a larger, more valuable size before they are vulnerable to harvest," said Robin Riechers, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Coastal Fisherie ... More >>

Recession Claims Texas Parks & Wildlife Expo

The annual Texas Parks & Wildlife Expo, a giant exhibition held in Austin, will be suspended for at least the next two years, officials said.TPWD says they just can't line up enough corporate sponsors to defray the $400,000 cost of the October event, which features a 35-acre area filled with poo ... More >>

The Battleship Texas Gets A Boost...If It Can Raise $4 Million

The limping Battleship Texas, which has fallen into disrepair but has really been one of the underrated attractions in Houston, got some good news today: The state released $25 million in bonds for drydocking and repairs for the aging World War II ship.The not-so-good news: Supporters need to raise ... More >>

The Effects of Hurricane Ike on the Oyster Industry

Gator Aid

Thanks to the Endangered Species Act, alligators are everywhere in southeast Texas. So now the state is going to make it easier for you to shoot you one.

Letters

Shooting Bambi's Mom

A gourmet environmentalist shares his favorite venison recipes

Wet World

Texas Master Naturalists give kids a peek at life in the gulf

Raw Roots

Excavations for plantation artifacts - and the real truth - are unraveling the genteel gloss covering Texans' old notions about the slave era here

Do As I Say...

Reeling

Bass kills and lesions on fish worry Sam Rayburn anglers. So does the state's plan to lower the lake's pollution standards.

News Hostage

Down the Drain

Encroaching development and bureaucratic inertia are jeopardizing Sheldon Reservoir, one of east Harris County's last natural outposts