What is the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department?

Background

Regan Templeton of KUT News researched and reported this article.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) mission is to manage and conserve the natural and cultural resources of Texas. TPWD seeks to provide hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation opportunities for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.

TPWD regulates and provides licenses for fishing, hunting, and boating. The department has authority to manage fish and wildlife resources under the Wildlife Conservation Act of 1983. The department also manages state parks.

TPWD is headquartered in Austin. Carter Smith has been the executive director of TPWD since 2008.

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February 20, 2013

How New Legislation Could Help Texas Go Native Again

New bills could help reseed Texas with the hardy native plants and grasses of a bygone era.

February 12, 2013

Why One Lawmaker Wants Texas Lakes to Post Mercury Warnings

Many of Texas’ lakes and bays have become contaminated with mercury, which has, in turn, contaminated the consumable fish living in them, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD). Now one lawmaker has filed a bill, HB 993, that would help notify people of mercury problems in state waters. “Right now there aren’t any […]

January 15, 2013

Thanks to Limits, Flounder Making a Comeback on Texas Coast

Captain Dan, the ‘Flounder Man’ has been hunting flounder on the Texas coast for more than 30 years. In the dark of night, Captain Dan escorts his clients along the Gulf shore in his brightly lit skiff and stalks flounder laying on the sandy floor. Armed with miniature tridents set on poles, his clients wait […]

January 14, 2013

Lesser Prairie Chicken Has Energy Industry Worried

From the Texas Tribune: In a few months, a grouse known as the lesser prairie chicken will emerge from its West Texas winter hideaway. Males will do a loud and elaborate mating dance, delighting females — and birdwatchers. But there is less dancing now because the chickens’ numbers have declined. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife […]

November 29, 2012

Texas Scientist Says Bigfoot is Real. Let the Hunt Begin?

Update, 2/14/13: The second week of February, Ketchum released her paper claiming to have sequenced Sasquatch DNA. It was published in a ‘scientific journal’ created only a week earlier. You can read more over at the Houston Chronicle. You may have read some dubious new claims by a Texas “scientist” that Bigfoot is real. Nacogdoches veterinarian […]

November 12, 2012

How ‘Landfarms’ For Disposing Drilling Waste Are Causing Problems In Texas

A criminal case about drilling waste disposal is raising questions about how state regulators are enforcing pollution laws.

November 1, 2012

Readers Respond: The Dove Dinner that Ruffled So Many Feathers

The media is still talking about Ryan Adams and his blog post about illegally eating a dove that flew into the side of his house. In homage to the close of dove season, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite user comments on this quirky Texas wildlife story.

October 26, 2012

How One Food Blogger Caused a Firestorm For Texas Parks and Wildlife

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has been receiving hate mail from around the country thanks to the gastronomic adventures of an Austin-area food blogger. It all started when the man’s unlikely dinner literally went bump in the night.

September 24, 2012

No, Vampire Bats are Not in Texas. Yet.

If vampire bats do make it to Texas, it will be because of something more terrifying than tales of the undead: climate change.

September 18, 2012

In Bastrop’s Ashes, Officials Find a Lesson in Prescribed Burning

There is a notion that wildfires, as destructive as they are, are at least natural. That they are an unfortunate condition of living in proximity to the uncultivated world.