Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

After Texas Parks & Wildlife's Slaughter of a Hunt County Deer Herd, Questions of Wildlife Ownership Abound

For eight hours, rifle reports echoed across the Anderton Whitetail Ranch in Hunt County. In the larger paddocks, a wildlife biologist standing in the bed of a white Texas Parks and Wildlife truck picked them off with a scoped .22- or .17-caliber rifle mounted to a tripod. Another shot them in the s ... More >>

As Legislature Mulls State Parks' Closure, Would-Be Sites Languish For Decades

The budget ax brought down by the state legislature in 2011 gouged a huge chunk from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, which lost more than a fifth of its funding. The result was layoffs and a reduction in staffing and hours of operation at a number of state parks. The initial spending propo ... More >>

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department Has Found No Takers For Corporate Sponsor Program

In July, reeling from state budget cuts, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department came up with a surefire way to make a bit of extra scratch: corporate sponsorships. The proposal didn't include naming rights -- no British Petroleum State Park at Galveston Island, for example -- but companies who paid ... More >>

North Texas Cities Are Trapping Feral Hogs and Selling Them as Bacon. Mmm, Bacon.

Feral hogs are, by all accounts, a pain in the ass. They're voracious. They obliterate crops, gardens and natural vegetation. They can do a helluva lot of damage to your front fender. And mostly? They're just dicks. In Texas, their prevalence has prompted all sorts of countermeasures. One legislato ... More >>

Man Cooks Dove--After it Dies By Flying into His Window. Wait, is That Legal?

Sigh, Reddit. You certainly are two kinds of crazy. Yesterday NewlyConvertedFan posted on Reddit: "A dove slammed into my house, breaking its neck. So I grilled it." He even documented it on his personal website, which appropriately enough is called Nose to Tail at Home. So, this wasn't merely ... More >>

Hungry? Apparently, Wild Pig Is Delicious.

Feral hogs are taking over Texas. The wild beasts have been ravaging the state in numbers in excess of 2 million, and their wallowing, rooting and feeding activities are responsible for more than $50 million in damage in rural parts of the state alone every year. Texas Parks and Wildlife has a deli ... More >>

Dust Off Your Crossbow: For the First Time in Decades, You Can Hunt Deer in Dallas County

David Sierra isn't quite sure why the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department stopped allowing hunting in Dallas County. He's not even sure when. He's only been the agency's director of Region 5, which includes Dallas, for 21 years, after all. He does know that, come September 29, you'll be able to hunt i ... More >>

In a Hidden Texas Farming Village, the Making (and Selling) of a Cambodian Bumper Crop

Cambodian immigrants are growing and selling a plant so invasive it's banned in several states. How did you think that water spinach ended up in your bowl?

In West Texas, a State Park Sends Horses to Slaughter

For years, Julie Caramante was a leader the fight to shutter Dallas Crown, Kaufman's infamous horse slaughterhouse. Dallas Crown closed in 2007, as did the Beltex slaughterhouse in Fort Worth, but Caramante, a lifelong equine welfare advocate, has continued to keep a close eye on the horse slaughter ... More >>

Paddle Fiends, You Got Your Fest

How to Survive a Rabid Squirrel Encounter

Sherri Johnson's condo butts up against a wooded creek a few blocks from Presbyterian Hospital. She likes to keep a few cats around, strays really, to keep the raccoons and possums and other creek denizens from making themselves too comfortable on her property. It works for the most part, but the ca ... More >>

British Petroleum Presents Galveston Island State Park: Texas Parks Department Wants Corporate Sponsors

The Texas Parks And Wildlife Department, the state agency that operates state parks and regulates hunting, fishing and related activities, announced today that it is seeking corporate partners. Seriously. Says so right on their website in big, bold letters: "Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Seeks ... More >>

Zebra Mussels Find Their Way to Lake Ray Roberts, Part of Dallas' Water Supply

Zebra mussels, the innocuously named but virulent mollusk, were first discovered domestically in the Great Lakes back in the late 1980's, having spread westward from their native Eastern Europe and hitched a ride in the ballast of U.S.-bound ships. Since then, they have spread through the nation's w ... More >>

In Southwest Dallas, City Uncovers and Plans to Restore One of Its Oldest Remaining Structures

Before the city of Dallas was contacted several years ago about accepting a few dozen mostly undeveloped acres along the edge of the escarpment in southwest Dallas, few outside the Niblo family knew what it contained. It had been settled as part of the Peters Colony, which was founded at roughly the ... More >>

How To Shuck Oysters Like a Champ

Oysters may be nature's most perfect food. They're rich and sensual and best served with little intervention: freshly opened and raw, with a few drops of liquid sunshine from a lemon. But April is here, and while oysters can safely be harvested in northern waters year round, Texas oyster season en ... More >>

State, Federal Officials Insist Zebra Mussel Threat Confined to Lake Texoma. For Now.

​Zebra mussels are really Schutze's thing; he likes his with saffron and a white-wine broth, though of late he's taken to the far more exotic variation with aquavit, tarragon and cream. And per a release just dispatched by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, ... More >>

Roll Red Tide: Still No Good News for Oyster Lovers from the Coastlines of Texas

Steven Doyle​Red tide, the naturally occurring algae bloom that causes toxicity in shellfish, continues to plague the state's coastline -- keeping Texas oysters out of local restaurants and threatening the $18.5 million Texas oyster industry. The state closed the entire coast of Texas to oyst ... More >>

Wild Time: Steps Begin to Protect the Neches River Before Dam-Thirsty North Texas Kills It

​How would you like to have a federally designated wild and scenic river within a 90-minute drive from Dallas? That could be kind of a life-changer for a lot of us. We wouldn't have to be satisfied with donning a Hazmat suit and a motorcycle helmet, signing a new will and medical power of atto ... More >>

Bill Holston's KERA Commentary on Preserving What Remains of Dallas's Blackland Prairie

​Attorney and Friend of Unfair Park Bill Holston posts semi-regular pieces to FrontBurner under the header Law Man Walking, in which the nature-trekker documents his strolls through the heretofore oft-overlooked slices o' heaven that remain in and around the city limits. And when Bill's not pennin ... More >>

When the Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Or, How Killing Big Gator Got Dallas Attorney In Trouble

Via.​It was mighty big news last month when Dallas attorney Levi McCathern shot and killed that 880-pound, 14-foot-long alligator along the Trinity River down in Leon County -- big enough that it made CNN, matter of fact. Said the proud lawyer for the Dallas Cowboys, "We got a lot of the meat and ... More >>

No Paddling Allowed on Trinity River Paddling Trail. Which, Come to Think of It, Is So Dallas.

​Thank goodness. Finally reached Judy Schmidt, marketing director for the city's Trinity River Corridor Project, to ask about tomorrow's grand opening of the Trinity River Paddling Trail. I had been trying to reach her since last week to ask if she was going to warn people they might be killed. Bu ... More >>

Scratch That May 7 Dedication Off To-Do List, As Dallas Wave Is Closed Till Further Notice

Photo by Harry Wilonsky​Below, unhappy Friend of Unfair Park Ben notes in the comments that the Dallas Wave (formerly known as the Standing Wave) is off-limits -- meaning, you can wave adios to that May 7 dedication ceremony that's been on the books since last fall. Willis Winters, second-in-comma ... More >>

On May 10, the "Dallas Wave" Officially Becomes Part of One of Seven New Texas Paddling Trails

TPWD/Michael BlackwellPaddling down the Dallas Trinity Trail​The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department sends word: May 10 is Texas Travel Rally Day, during which the TPWD will officially launch seven paddling trails in North Texas, beginning with the 8 a.m. shove-off from the Walnut Creek Paddling T ... More >>

DISD Announces Members Of Its First-Ever "Citizens Budget Review Commission"

Sadly, Murray Blum was not available to trim DISD's budget.​Two weeks back we noted that at least one person had already been appointed to the Dallas Independent School District's first-ever Citizens Budget Review Commission: Dallas Friends of Public Education's Mike MacNaughton. The commission, m ... More >>

After Proposing Land Swap, State to Pay Dallas Homebuilder $13 Mil for Devils River Land

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department​A couple of months back we noted that the Texas Park and Wildlife Department had proposed making one hell of a trade with Dallas's Rod Sanders, co-founder of Huntington Home, for some land down in Val Verde County. Sanders, you may recall, owns the 17,638-acre D ... More >>

Watch As Dallas Animal Services and Sanitation Crews Free Deer From a Fence Near White Rock

As you'll see in this video just posted by Dallas City Hall, a six-point buck got stuck, then put in a truck. At the end, a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden explains what happened, but long story short: The city was called out after TPWD received reports of two deer seen fighting in a street wit ... More >>

Half-Shell Fans Beware, the Future
For Gulf Oysters is Murky

​A waiter at City Diner and Oyster Bar in Corpus Christi broke the appalling news to my wife, in-laws and me last weekend as we made a trip to the coast: No fresh Texas oysters on the half-shell. Not one. Sorry, he said. Dealer prices a week into the start of Texas' oyster harvest from public leas ... More >>

For Now, State Shelves Proposal to Swap Devils River Land With Dallas Homebuilder

Texas Parks and Wildlife DepartmentA canoer paddles his way through the Devils River State Natural Area​On Friday we took a look at the Texas Park and Wildlife Department's proposed land swap with Dallas's Rod Sanders, co-founder of Huntington Homes. The states offering to swap the 20,000-acre Dev ... More >>

A Devil of a Deal? State Wants to Swap Much Land (and Money) With Local Homebuilder

Texas Parks and Wildlife DepartmentPart of the Devils River State Natural Area the state wants to swap for local homebuilder Rod Sander's land​On October 12, the Texas Park and Wildlife Department issued a press release that went virtually unnoticed at the time: The state's offering to swap the 20 ... More >>

The Trinity Needs A-Paddlin': The City and State Are Turning 10 Miles of River Into "Trail"

​Funny thing, this showing up on the Trinity River Corridor Project Committee's agenda this week of all weeks: Texas Paddling Trail Program. Which is ...? Well, in short, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has told the city that, why, sure, it'd love to include a 10-mile stretch of the Trinit ... More >>

Hophead: Beer Of The Year

​It's almost time to pop the cork on your favorite bottle of bubbly (and surely anyone reading this column will know that beer is bubbly too). That means it's time for Hophead's contribution to City of Ate's endless stream of Year In Review posts. While I may not have sampled all of them (some hav ... More >>

The Gourds Keep On Keeping On

Council's on the TxDOT Money Trail to Fund "Non-Traditional" Transportation Projects

For years the city's been trying to find a way to convert the Santa Fe Trestle into part of a trail that would include a Trinity River overlook.​The city of Dallas has till December 11 to submit to the Texas Department of Transportation a list of projects it thinks worthy of the Transportation Enh ... More >>

Get lost with Jim Schutze while canoeing the Neches River and find the wildlife refuge Dallas wants to dam to secure its water supply

Like Shootin' Hogs From a Helicopter!

What we don't want, insists state Rep. Sid Miller, is "some Bubba flyin' around, sayin', 'Pass me the beer and the ammo!'" The District 59 rep's talking about his most recent proposal, H.B. No. 836, which calls for extending aerial hunting of feral hogs -- which currently is done only by Texas Wildl ... More >>

Oyster Lovers Unite

Now may be your best chance for a little raw love

Hophead Extra: What Does Beer Have In Common With The Blind Salamander?

Photos by Benjamin Lewis Some people consider it uncouth to begin drinking before 5 p.m. Thankfully, you won't run into any of those spoilsports at the "Blind Salamander Day" tour and tasting at Rahr & Sons brewery tomorrow from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. I took my first tour of the brewery last weekend ... More >>

High on the Hog

In Texas, shoot as many feral pigs as you like. Just don't let your dog bite them.

Remember the Bass-amo

Plus: Move Over, Kids

Fear Factor

Ever wonder what's inside the Great Trinity Forest? Enter if you dare.

Hubbard Mother

Bahama Beach Club is Baja-crazy

The Nutria Are Here

The scourge of Louisiana has found a happy home in Dallas' man-made lakes

This Week's Day-By-Day Picks

True Believers

Do big hairy primates occupy East Texas? Other than humans, we mean.

Catch Those Tigers

Years of little or no regulation have made Texas a place where big cats prowl--and sometimes kill

Shallow Impact

Why don't tourists flock to the meteor crater outside of Odessa? Because most don't know a bona fide Texas treasure from a hole in the ground.

Brave New World

What's new, CueCat? A redesign, a rediscovery and re: layoffs.

Nurturing Nature

New growth blooms at the Dallas Nature Center at last

Belly up

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

The Goatslayers

When a herd of wild goats became a nuisance at a posh lakeside resort, their wholesale slaughter by a couple of property owners divided the community