- ANNOUNCER: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Television Series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota -- Let's Go Places.

- NARRATOR: Coming up on Texas Parks & Wildlife... - These fish are desperate for habitat because it means life or death for them.

- I think I've made signs for each park in our system.

There might be a couple of parks that I haven't had an order from yet, but I think I've gotten them all.

[rifle shot] - She's down.

Yes, yes.

I got a deer.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ - NARRATOR: Texas Parks and Wildlife, a television series for all outdoors.

[dramatic music] ♪ ♪ - I just never could get away from the water.

Starting back when I was 10 or 12 years old, I did a lot of dock work.

I used to wash my grandfather and my great uncle's boat for 50 cents.

So, I've been through it all.

You gotta wanna do it, you gotta wanna be in this business.

I've been going out there so long, it's just part of me now.

- I've been fishing in the Gulf of Mexico since 1962.

When we were growing up, my cousins and I spent thousands of hours in the Gulf of Mexico.

It was a place of freedom for us.

It was a place where we could go where we wanted to go, do what we wanted to do.

We challenged the elements and figured out how to catch the fish.

- I'm a Charter Boat Captain.

There can be a really big difference from one day to the next.

When the fish are plentiful, the clients really think you know what you're doing, okay?

But when there's no fish, they think you're not even trying or anything, there's just no fish.

It's a really tough business to be in.

- The situation for fishing in state waters was just terrible.

The Gulf's bottom is flat mud plain that doesn't provide food or habitat for little fishes.

We decided we were gonna do something about it.

[water bubbling] [dramatic music] - Certain fish, especially the ones that we like to eat, use hard structure as their habitat.

But we've been trolling the sea floor now for many decades and with that comes a disturbance to the sea floor and any hard structure that's brittle can also be destroyed.

And so all we're left with are soft corals that only get a foot or so high at most.

If we're left with that option, you're not going to have a reef in anyone's lifetime around here.

And if you are it's gonna be very small.

Another option is to put hard substrate down on the bottom and build an artificial reef.

And these have been quite successful throughout the Gulf of Mexico using concrete and steel.

[water rushing] [water rushing] [dramatic music] - RGV Reef is located about 13 nautical miles north of the South Padre Island Jetties.

To create an artificial reef, first, you have to gather up material.

The first material that we put in RGV Reef was the shrimp boat in the tug.

We put down 64,000 cinder blocks to make nursery reef.

And about another 3,000 tons of other concrete material.

We have stacked up here, 15,000 concrete railroad ties donated by BNSF.

We're going to drop these like tangled pick-up sticks in the reef, and we're gonna make all those graduated stepping stones of habitat that will carry these fish through their life stages.

These fish are desperate for habitat because it means life or death for them.

If you deploy that material, it lasts for decades and nobody ever has to cut the grass or pick up the trash.

- We surveyed the RGV Reef before any material was put down and there were very few fish down there.

And so in terms of fish numbers, the RGV Reef has been a success.

There are a lot of red snapper juveniles, and most importantly, there are post-settlement recruit red snapper showing up right after they settle out of the water column.

This means for future generations to come, there'll be more red snapper showing up on this reef.

- The thing about building a reef like this is that it's damned difficult.

Where we need money is in the marine transport.

That's the piece that I have been unable to get donated.

That's the expensive piece.

That's what's stopping us is the boat that takes the material off shore.

We gotta pay for it.

- I tell you what, when they first said, we're gonna spend $10 million in 10 years building a reef, I'm going, "Oh my God, these guys are crazy."

But we're booked up.

The bay fishing boats are booked up.

They're doing it.

- GARY: There's 750,000 saltwater anglers in the state of Texas.

Forty-four thousand of them live in the Rio Grande Valley.

If there's no fish, there's not gonna be a fishing industry.

There's not gonna be tourism.

We use that to sell the reef, but what really counts is the next generation to be able to go offshore and catch a fish.

- CAPTAIN RAY: If there's more fish, my clients are gonna have more memories.

They're gonna have more conversation with their friends.

They're gonna send more people to us.

They'll come back.

Everybody can fish.

Everybody.

- All of us are looking to make the Gulf of Mexico better.

All of us received tremendous joy from the Gulf of Mexico when we were younger and had no way to give back.

That's what pushes us.

I personally think about a little boy or a little girl that's gonna go fishing and catch a fish.

That's what I care about.

[dramatic music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - My name's Wade, and this is what it's like to do some sand surfing at the Monahans Sandhills State Park.

Ready?

[exhale] Let's give it a shot.

[playful groove music] [laughs] [playful groove music] [breathing heavy] Whoo!

Man, look at that view!

You can see some jackrabbit tracks.

And you can see the little beetles, the dune beetles.

[playful groove music] You get that wax all the way around there.

You can rent these at the Dunagan Visitor's Center.

They always say the purple ones are the fastest.

[laughing] [playful groove music] We need elevators.

Oh mercy.

I'm getting too old for this!

[sighs] [playful groove music] [shrieks] [playful groove music] - That was fun!

[playful groove music] - WADE: That's what it's like, sand-surfing at the Monahans Sandhills State Park.

[playful groove music] [laughing] [light wind blows] [spraying] - NARRATOR: Robin Bradberry and her husband Steve just arrived at Mason Mountain Wildlife Management Area.

- ROBIN: This is a good spot though!

- STEVE: Yeah, I know.

- NARRATOR: They are here for a public deer hunt.

- So I'm going to put out not a lot of corn, but I'm going to scatter it quite a bit!

- ROBIN: Make em work for it!

- STEVE: Yeah exactly!

Still too thick right here but I'll be able to see em!

- Yeah!

- STEVE: Our hunting strategies go hand in hand!

[footsteps] - ROBIN: And there's quite a few tracks right here!

- STEVE: She's extremely good at seeing signs and finding a good area.

I'm pretty good at reading the land, you know, seeing which way the wind's going and things like that!

Bye!

- Bye, love you.

- Love you too, bye bye!

- I like it, I've never hunted in any place quite this open before so I'm curious to see what shows up and how they move!

Steve calls it nesting!

It's good!

[zipper] - NARRATOR: Steve sets up about a mile away.

- Just getting settled in, I think we've got it positioned where we can just ease the gun out there.

- Well there's limb deer, and bush deer, and leaf deer, rock deer, lots of rock deer.

Well when you haven't seen anything in a while, the mind starts making things into deer.

[gentle music] - NARRATOR: Robin has to keep her mind at ease, relaxed.

- ROBIN: If I get into a situation where I'm not comfortable with then I shut down, go away.

It really shows up!

- NARRATOR: It is autism, Robin has high functioning autism, it's sort of like Asperger's but with a much higher incidence of anxiety, stress, and depression.

- I didn't go to prom, any dances, I don't dance.

It's way too close!

But like I said I don't miss anything because I don't know what it's like to have it.

I don't want to talk about that anymore.

- NARRATOR: Robin is like many others on the autism spectrum.

[rooster clucking] She does better away from the high energy, high stress world, where most of us live our lives.

- ROBIN: Nevel, Bridgette, Stormy!

My chickens lay different colored eggs, there's brown eggs, and white eggs, and occasionally I get a pink egg.

[pig grunts] Come on pigs!

You always know deep down, you know you don't quite fit in, but you really want to but you never will.

What this bucket?

This bucket?

Are you sure?

Most high functioning's have learned coping mechanisms.

- STEVE: Legend come here, come on!

- ROBIN: I think that's why animal therapy is so good for autism.

These are all rocks that I have picked up over the years and a few artifacts.

Other kids, you know they're home playing video games and stuff, and I'm climbing in dirt piles looking for fossils.

- NARRATOR: Even at an early age, she knew she was dealing with something.

- ROBIN: Thinking back, I did I just didn't know it, cause it was normal to me.

It was never pointed out, well that's different.

I was always called odd or strange or shy.

- NARRATOR: It could be crowds at the store, or on the way to an amusement park.

- ROBIN: This is it!

- NARRATOR: Anxiety is there.

- ROBIN: I don't see too many people this will be fine!

[band plays] I don't like it when people are behind me, I can't see them.

It's my personal space issue.

And how far away someone is really depends on the situation and who I'm with.

So I don't like people behind me, I can put up with it, I just don't care for it.

[applause] There was a red fish, yeah!

- STEVE: I don't know how to explain it, it doesn't bother me at all.

Try to distract her, try to keep her close, keep her mind off of it.

Why are you flexing?

- ROBIN: What?

I don't think I'd be who I am if it wasn't for Steve.

You are imagining things.

- STEVE: Nooo.

- ROBIN: He's my support, he's really sensitive to when I'm getting uncomfortable, and he's always there.

[wind blowing] - NARRATOR: Robin conquers her autism because of places like Mason Mountain.

Here her fears fade away.

[birds] - ROBIN: This is almost like therapy for me, cause it doesn't exist out here, it's just gone.

It goes away.

It's on the other side of that gate up front, it's not out here.

- STEVE: It's more serene out here, you don't have all of the movement of people, the distractions.

You come out here and you can focus on your surroundings more.

You don't have to worry about avoiding people.

- And listen.

- And you can listen, exactly.

- ROBIN: Listen, there's nothing, there's wind, there's crickets.

[wind and crickets] [upbeat music] If you don't have access to a lease or any way to go out on your own, you can get into these Texas hunts and get after some of these animals that you wouldn't be able to otherwise.

- [whispering] Wind's picking up a little bit, not too bad though!

I grew up in the city so being able to come out here in the quiet solitude and just be able to watch all the critters, watch nature, that's what I get out of it.

Look there's movement, see the turkey!

[turkey gobbles] - NARRATOR: And as the day ends, Robin sees much more than a couple gobblers.

- Don't move, don't move, there's a deer, there's a deer, she's looking right at us.

O.K.

I'm gonna try and get my gun up.

She's got us pinned, don't move, they see us... [gunshot] I got her yes, she's down yes, I got a deer.

I got a deer!

Let's go see her!

[footsteps] Oh man, I could barely keep the gun still, the scope kept jumping around for some reason.

- CAMERAMAN: It's your heart!

- Oh yeah that, boy it was thumping, I couldn't hear anything except that!

Bump, bump, bump, bump!

[upbeat music] I feel great, I just harvested my first hill country doe.

This is wonderful, this some good meat in here too.

This is going to be some good eating.

Take it through the woods.

My autism, I can function with it, some people lost arms and legs they are dealing with cancer, I got off easy.

- NARRATOR: There will always be obstacles to overcome in life.

How you choose to overcome them is a personal choice.

For Robin, she chooses how she lives her life.

- ROBIN: If this is the worst thing that happens to me, my life is great.

I mean, look at this.

My life is great!

[acoustic guitar music] - WILLIE STEINHAUSER: I enjoy my job.

I like coming to work in the morning.

Because I'm a visitor also, I enjoy working for the agency, I truly do.

So, I do have a lot of pride in it.

[guitar music] [door creaks] [guitar music] [whirring] I enjoy running the machine, and making the signs that go out there, because that is something, as minor as it may seem to people, they're just signs, but it's something I enjoy doing.

My name is Willie Steinhauser.

I'm the sign shop manager at Bastrop State Park for the entire state park system.

[guitar music] They go throughout the entire state of Texas, different parks, small or large, and I make them all.

[guitar music] The yellow lettering on the brown backfield kind of stands out.

It catches your eye easily, it's visible out in the world... durable through the years.

[guitar music] Historically, the signs were made with more manual labor involved.

Have to spell out the phrase with all these little tiles, get the spacing just right.

The operator would bring this carriage down and trace out on those tiles and the router would follow that pattern and make the sign.

[ratchet clicking] A few years ago, the state parks bought the CNC machine over here, which has just sped things up dramatically.

It's more computer-driven.

I just type in what that sign is supposed to say, save it on a drive, and the machine actually comes across and carves out the pattern.

[whirring] It's a printer if you want to use that comparison, but it has got a router bit.

The machine basically just does all the work.

If I have misspelled something in the software, the machine is going to misspell it in the real world.

I truly don't think I've ever made a spelling mistake-- I check it all the time, just to make sure it's spelled right.

That is it, but for some reason, that doesn't look right to me.

Some of our signs are even in the Spanish language and I always have to get assistance to make sure that the verbiage is proper.

Change this or this or add a tilde or something like that.

So those are kind of unusual, but I get help on those.

[prairie dog barks] I had a guy in the agency ask me, "Willie, what's the most unusual sign you're ever made?"

There's one for Caprock Canyon that claims to be the official scratching post for the state bison herd, or something like that.

And I didn't even know bison could read.

I had an order for a sign, it was two signs, actually, for Big Bend Ranch State Park.

One side said simply, "Nowhere".

A big sign that said "Nowhere".

And the other sign that went with it said "The Other Side of Nowhere".

His name was Kevin, I said, "Kevin, I assume these signs go out somewhere in the desert and they're mounted on the same post opposite each other."

And he emailed me back, "You are correct."

And he had a picture of himself with some other mountain bikers.

One that says "Nowhere", and then the other picture said "The other side of nowhere".

So that's probably the most unusual sign I've made.

[intriguing music] It's treated lumber.

It's supposed to last, but obviously in the Texas environment, there's going to be some heat involved.

[wind] They are in the elements 24 hours a day.

They don't get any break.

I would hope they get 6 to 8 years out of a sign.

I truly don't know because, at some point they're going to split and get damaged by mowers hitting them or trailers bumping into them.

It's just kind of part of the deal sometimes.

Some are lost obviously through fire, as we know here at Bastrop all too well.

Flooding, uh, hurricane Harvey did a lot of damage to some of the parks and I had to get those replaced in a hurried fashion.

Uh, even vandalism.

The fire at 2011 was actually just out here outside the building, but uh, it was saved.

They were just spraying water on it.

A lot of sign damage at that time, and it was ground zero for the big fire.

This building dates back to the 1940s when it was rebuilt after a fire.

The original was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

They built furniture here for state parks, they built boats for state parks, in addition to the sign shop, and the sign shop is the only thing that is still in operation in this building right now.

[machine whirring] I think, by now, in the four years, I think I've made signs for each park in our system.

There might be a couple of parks that I haven't had an order from yet, but for the most part I think I've gotten them all.

[click] It is really not even that dusty in here.

The vacuum takes care of a lot of that.

It gets kind of loud; I wear ear covers.

So, if my wife is calling on the occasion, sometimes I just don't hear her because I've got ear covers on.

- PRODUCER: And is it a good excuse?

[laughs] - I'm not going to say that, so don't air that.

[laughs] [upbeat music] [whirring] [upbeat music] It's not a bad gig to have.

I enjoy doing what I do, I like doing it.

As I make these signs and know that they're going to be mounted in various parks, I want to make sure that our visitors have a good experience.

These signs are concise and to the point.

And let that visitor know which direction they need to go to see a certain attraction.

- BOY: Oh, Dad, see that sign?

- WILLIE: My family, we do visit parks.

I do like to point out those that I've made and those I didn't make.

I've looked at a lot of them, so I should know.

Not mine.

[ratcheting] I have said before that I am the best sign shop manager that state parks has right now.

But I'm also the worst one.

So, take that for what it's worth.

[laughs] [whirring] I haven't caught up yet.

I don't know if I ever will, but I try.

I would like to just catch up and not have signs to make, but I'll see if that ever happens.

[upbeat music] [paddle splashing] [indistinct chatter] [paddles splashing] [water trickling] [wind blows] [water flowing] - MAN: Come on Erika, get up.

[laughing] [wind blows] [paddles splashing] [paddle splashing] [paddle splashing] This series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota -- Let's Go Places.