- 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 provided by the Toyota Tundra.

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

Adventure: it's what we share.

- NARRATOR: Coming up on Texas Parks and Wildlife... - Checking those boats, it's just a big game.

They love it because it's like if I can find this stinky zebra mussel, I'm going to get a toy or I'm going to get a treat.

- You're in a droughty region.

When I first moved out here, I didn't appreciate it like I appreciate it now.

- Saltwater fishing from the jetty is so much fun because there's always going to be fish here.

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

[gentle music] - LAURA: We are here at Lake Meredith checking boats - ERIC: How's it going?

- LAURA: to make sure that they're not carrying zebra mussels.

- ERIC: I'm gonna do a quick zebra mussel inspection.

- NARRATOR: Zebra mussels.

Tiny, uninvited guests that latch onto boats, clog up water systems, and wreak havoc on Texas lakes.

They may be small but these invasive critters cause big problems.

- Zebra mussels, just like our native mussels, they're filter feeders, so they clean up the water.

You'd think that would be really good 'cause suddenly you have crystal clear water.

But that messes up the food chain.

It impacts the fish.

It's not good.

- If you look at the progression of zebra mussels throughout our country, you can see how quickly they've been able to spread and how quickly they've been able to establish themselves.

We're really just in the past decade really understanding what the negative impacts of them are.

- LAURA: Because they're highly invasive, you can get them in massive numbers.

They're very sharp.

They'll actually cut your feet.

They'll cut your hands, [young girl screams] and then they also get into your boat, potentially up into your bilge, your drains.

They hurt you recreationally, they hurt it environmentally, and then they hurt your pocketbook.

- NARRATOR: In the fight against zebra mussels, Lake Meredith has enlisted the finest detectives on four legs to keep these invaders at bay.

- We have the Working Dogs of Conservation in this weekend.

They're doing our inspection for us.

- MAN: Sounds good.

- NARRATOR: Meet the Working Dogs for Conservation.

The ultimate dog squad with a nose for mussels.

[dog sniffing] These canine crusaders are here to sniff out trouble one boat at a time.

- ERIC: The dogs can inspect your boat in about two minutes.

It will take 15 to 20 minutes for me to thoroughly inspect a boat.

So it really speeds up the process.

- LAURA: Yay.

The dogs are really good ambassadors.

We use dogs that are very people-friendly.

Rain, she is kind of the star right now.

She's been doing this since she was nine months old.

- NARRATOR: Rain and her fellow detectives are specially trained to detect the scent of zebra mussels.

They can find even the tiniest trace better than any human eye.

- LAURA: Zebra mussels like to be in little cracks, crevices, holes.

- NARRATOR: But with Gilly on the case, no mussel is safe.

- LAURA: Gilly is a border terrier.

One of his strengths is we get a lot of boats like kayaks, canoes, so we can actually lift Gilly and do a good job without having to unload the boat.

Good work.

- NARRATOR: Tully is the veteran of the team.

- LAURA: He's close to retirement.

This will probably be his last year.

- NARRATOR: He's like the Sherlock Holmes of zebra mussels but he doesn't need a magnifying glass to snoop the scene.

[Tully sniffing] Just his nose.

- LAURA: He's good.

Checking those boats, it's just a big game.

They love it because it's like, "If I can go find this sneaky zebra mussel, I'm gonna get my toy", or, "I'm gonna get a treat."

To them, it's just wonderful.

- What are y'all checking for, drugs?

- Nope, no drugs.

Just zebra mussels.

- Good work, man, good work.

- ERIC: People seem to listen to us a lot more when they see the dogs here.

The dogs are kind of an icebreaker.

- WOMAN: Oh, look what he's got.

- ERIC: This is the puppy that's looking at your boat.

And it really helps us to message that clean, drain, and dry methodology of keeping those invasive species out of this waterway.

- NARRATOR: With the help of these incredible dogs, Lake Meredith remains safe from the threat of zebra mussels.

[dramatic music] - So it's really important for clean, drain, and dry.

When you move from one body of water to another, ensure that your boat has been drained completely, that it's clean and it's dry before you move into another body of water.

All right, y'all are all clean, good to go.

- Thanks.

- Appreciate it.

- Y'all have a good day.

- Drive safe.

- NARRATOR: For Rain, Gilly, Tully, and the rest of the Working Dogs for Conservation, protecting our waters is all in a day's work.

And they do it with enthusiasm, dedication, and a wagging tail.

So next time you're out on the lake, think of these four-legged heroes and give them some praise if you see them.

They've earned it.

- Good work, yeah.

[gentle music] [uplifting music] - One of the great things about Bastrop is our location.

If you draw a triangle and you go between Houston, San Antonio, and Austin, kind of in the middle of that triangle in the sweet spot, you'll find the city of Bastrop.

But what you'll find is historic, wonderful, friendly environment, a community that works together and a community that enjoys birds.

- Bastrop is blessed with the Colorado River running through it, so a lot of riparian birds.

You're always going to see great blue herons, often egrets.

There's a kingfisher that always hangs out here, a belted kingfisher, bald eagles, bluebirds are almost always here.

In migration, great numbers of warblers.

Within Bastrop County, we have probably five different eco regions represented.

There's black land prairie.

There's the lost pines or the piney woods, there's the riparian, and post oak savanna.

So, each of those has different niche birds.

And just within that, a small area, which is fun.

- Back in March of 2018, we found out that there was going to be Bird City designations and we were so excited to find out that Bastrop was one of only four cities in the state that was designated a Bird City in the very first year.

- The mural behind me, it was in honor of Bastrop getting the Bird City designation.

So that was a collaboration of the Bird City Coalition and local artists to honor our work that we've done in getting it.

[inspirational music] - LOUISE: Birds are kind of bellwether species in a lot of ways, so if we don't focus on conserving birds, we're also going to lose a lot of other things.

What happens to the birds other species follow, you know, so we can't ignore it.

For our own pleasure of having the birds, but also because of their importance in the whole scheme of things.

[upbeat music] - DAVID: Bastrop has something to be proud of and they have something to work for in the future as far as building and restoring bird habitat and seeing it grow even more.

- LOUISE: The Bird City designation, it makes conservation a priority.

Implementing things like dark skies, and, you know, non-reflective windows, and cats indoors, and it's just going to be carried as part of the mission of Bastrop as a city.

- CONNIE: The environment is a really important part of what pulls the community together.

You can go stand-up paddle boarding, you can kayak, you can canoe, you can go for a walk along the river.

And eco-tourism is an opportunity that helps both the economy, and it helps our environment.

[birds chirping] - LOUISE: We did an introduction to birding class.

We had 40 people come every week for four weeks.

There's an interest that's always been there that's being brought more to the forefront.

[bird chirping] - It is a male.

- DAVID: One of our hotspots for birding is here at Fisherman's Park in the June Hill Paved River Walk.

It borders to Colorado River, and it just offers a very wide variety of birds.

And you get a bit of everything when you're down here.

- I think it's an exciting time for Bastrop and for Texas to be highlighting birds.

And cities should go for it because it will add a lot to your community, not just in the in terms of tourism, but just in awareness.

And it will help protect the birds and the environment and just bring people a lot of pleasure.

[wind blowing] [country music] - You are in a droughty region.

♪ ♪ It's droughty more than it rains.

When it is raining, be happy, because tomorrow, it's not gonna be raining.

It's gonna be dry.

[country music] When I first moved out here, I didn't appreciate it like I appreciate it now.

I've been blessed to have the opportunity to live out here and have this ranch for the last 40 years.

[country music] - It can be a very feast or famine out here for producers.

[engine running] We're coming out of three years of drought, and a lot of ranches are looking pretty rough right now.

But due to the management that Mr. Adcock's been doing on this ranch, he has plenty of cover left on the landscape.

He has a great diversity of grasses and forbs.

It's a cool remnant of short grass prairie.

- STAN: I've been real conservative on the amount of cows I have.

- SAM: A lot of folks think all you need is just rain.

That's the only thing.

But the grazing management that you do on your property is gonna influence how well your plants respond post drought whenever you do get some rain.

So he's had plenty of rest periods for all of his pastures after they're grazed.

The grass community itself is just thriving.

One of the things that's unique about it is he's done a lot of work to control the saltcedar all around the lake.

[water trickling] And also one of the unique things about it is it has active springs.

[birds chirping] Oftentimes on these lakes due to saltcedar or nearby irrigation, springs are dried up.

He has native intact springs that are still providing water for wildlife in this area.

- The salt lakes are what supplied the natives and the people that were out here for years and years and years.

It was part of the trail of living water, and that it'd be about a day's ride apart from each area where they could get water.

[country music] You know, I've always wanted to leave a legacy for my children.

I mean, I have great memories of my girls being out here.

My oldest, when she came time for her to go to college, she came in and says, "Daddy, I'm not gonna go to school."

And I said, "Really?

What are you gonna do?"

She said, "I'm gonna ranch."

"Really?

Where you gonna ranch?"

"Your ranch."

"Whose cows you gonna run?"

"Your cows?"

[Sam laughing] Anyways, I'm about ready to let her come out here now.

[gentle country music] [waves rumbling] [upbeat country music] - My brother got into saltwater fishing.

I'd follow him out to the beach and I'd fish with him, and fell in love with it and decided to move out here and make it permanent.

Saltwater fishing from the jetty is so much fun because there's always gonna be fish here.

This is where you wanna go if you wanna get onto some good fish.

This mullet looks like he already got bit by something.

See there?

Okay, let's get him.

♪ ♪ Wouldn't it be cool if you cast it out and got a fish on immediately?

I wish it was like that every day.

♪ ♪ Feeling the rod bend and hearing the reel scream and not knowing what's gonna be on the other end is a major adrenaline rush.

I love it.

No, get off that rock, get off of it.

Come on, come on, come on, come on.

It's like Christmas morning when you don't know what you're gonna get, but you're just excited to open the presents.

That's how it feels every time I reel in another fish.

I think it's a gafftop.

Gonna throw him back in.

♪ ♪ - A jetty is a pile of rocks that's placed at either side of a pass from the Gulf of Mexico into our bay systems and that pile of rocks prevents the jetty from silting in and closing up with sand.

In between those rocks are what we call interstitial spaces, little holes and hiding places in the rocks.

And it provides hiding places for lots of little bait species and in turn that attracts larger predators.

And so you get a really diverse mix of species that occupy a jetty system.

Jetty systems in Texas are very accessible to all anglers.

Basically all you need is a fishing license and basic fishing equipment.

You can come fishing and expect to catch all kinds of fish.

It's really neat because it's really a great opportunity for anglers to get a chance at both inshore and offshore species.

[upbeat music] [acoustic guitar music] - I've been moving around to different states and just fishing around, trying out different areas.

And there are so many fish compared to any other places that I've been so far.

Jetty fishing is just, you're close to the water, you get more action, and you can see the fish.

It's also the first step to exploring fishing.

Just, I love the feeling of catching fish.

There are so many fish here, they're just everywhere.

- ONLOOKER: That's beautiful.

- DEREK: I was lucky enough to catch a nice size, it was about a 30-inch black drum.

[fish splashing] [waves crashing on jetty] [upbeat music] - JEN: I like to come out here and get to meet new people while you're fishing.

Yeah, I got a fish on.

Everybody out here is just super nice.

Whoa, we need a net.

Does anybody have a net?

Oh, my God, it's huge.

It may fit that whole net.

- That's all right.

- I'm bringing him your way.

I'm gonna have to pull it by hand 'cause, oh, it's a drum, black drum.

Wow.

Look at the size of that fish.

Woo-hoo!

Thank you so much.

It was really exciting to see it.

It ended up being 35 inches, too.

It was a good day.

[dramatic music] ♪ ♪ [gentle music] - As a kid, my dad bought me a new shotgun and maybe it goes back to that, this story I'm going to tell you.

I remember walking out across my dad's ranch and a bird, a large bird flew over me and I shot it and it fell, and I went and picked that bird up and it was, people are gonna hate me for hearing this, but it was a large read-headed woodpecker.

I looked at that bird and I said, "You know, one day I'm going to make up for this."

I was an agriculturalist trying to get all I could from the land, but since that time, I've realized that this land is not just a resource to be used and abused, it's something that we have to take care of, you know, and look at all of it.

We have to go back to the way it was if we're going to save these precious natural resources we've been given to enjoy.

The messages that Mother Nature sends us -- yes, I do believe that happens more often than man wants to admit.

[gentle music] My objective in buying this place was largely a selfish one, having more quail I could hunt.

I was going to have more quail on my land than anybody had ever seen, show the world it could be done.

Needless to say, it's not an easy chore to try to bring back this bird.

The numbers have gone down since 1970, like 90%.

Perhaps it goes back to my childhood, but something kept telling me it was bigger than that.

Bigger than just having quail.

I've realized that what you're trying to save is not above it always, but below the surface.

- My name is Jim Giocomo.

I'm the coordinator of the Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture, and we manage the Grassland Restoration Incentive Program.

Over the past 60 years, we've seen over a 90% decline in grassland habitat.

With massive loss of grasslands, we've lost wildlife populations, including many bird species.

The recent calculations, three billion birds since 1970, a quarter of those birds were grassland birds, 720 million birds.

At the scale that the bird populations are changing, it also indicates that the health of our land is changing and may eventually affect us as people.

[birds chirping softly] - Going back to my childhood, when water would hit the native grasses on my dad's place and surrounding area where I grew up, it would go in the ground.

These native grasses were tall stature, and when a drop of rain would hit those, it would shatter and run down into the roots.

Today, because we planted all these exotic grasses, water would hit the ground and run off the top, over the top, and carry with it all the toxic chemicals, as well as the commercial fertilizers, and all the stuff that we have on land now into the streams.

So maybe that's what caused me to realize that it's bigger than just having more bobwhite quail out here.

It was having better land, better natural resources.

Restoration is not an easy process.

Just because I wanted to do it, just because I understood the need for doing it didn't mean that I knew how to do it.

[gentle music] - The Grassland Restoration Incentive Program or GRIP gives our partners and landowners a tool to address grassland loss.

Right now, we're out here counting birds, looking at the habitats that they're in.

Most of what we do is listen for calls, and sometimes we see them, sometimes we don't, but we can identify most of the birds by calls.

Bottom line is the birds are telling us about the land condition and whether it's good enough for them.

If they're there and if their populations are growing, then the habitat is in pretty good condition.

- I'm a person of action, I suppose, and GRIP allowed me to be that person I wanted to be with respect to conservation.

By being a part of GRIP.

one of the things we do is try to remove invasive grasses.

We have to go in and not overgraze.

So we have to take cattle off for awhile, and so we let that land rest and grow up so that we have fuel to do a prescribed burn, then we burn it.

Following that, we put in cover crops, following that, we sometimes use herbicides as necessary and plant native grasses in that same winter cover crop.

- We can tell right now by the birds that we're hearing, that GRIP is working for Mr. Willis' property.

When we get out here and hear the morning calls of all these birds, that's the magic hour, the exciting part of the morning, and to know that the quail are here because of the type of management that we're doing through GRIP, that gives us a great feeling of satisfaction in a job well done.

[gentle music] - When I look out over this land we own here, before, I saw a wildlife desert.

I saw grass grazed down to the ground.

I saw a lot of dirt.

Today, I see a land that's covered with something beneficial.

The land that's not baked by the sun, not washed off by the rains, a land that's healthy again.

GRIP is not just about cost sharing.

It's the expertise you get with it.

We've gotta be wise, we've gotta work smart, we gotta save and conserve as well as produce the food and fiber this nation needs.

[gentle music] [upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [birds chirping] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [crickets chirping] [wind howling] 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 provided by the Toyota Tundra.

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

Adventure: it's what we share.