- 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... - As far as jobs go, this is pretty amazing, I mean getting to work out here in these mountains.

It's all very beautiful.

- Stock enhancement is when we grow young fish and release them into the wild.

- This year with the huge influx, people aren't used to seeing this many turtles, uh, we weren't used to seeing this many turtles.

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

- NORA PADILLA: Devils River is just a place to come and reconnect with Mother Nature.

- NICOLAS HAVLIK: So what you're seeing here is actually very pristine.

- TIM ROBERTS: Devils River, like it does today, has drawn people to it for thousands of years.

- ASA VERMEULEN: This gorgeous desert oasis of a river.

- NORA: Just hearing the water relaxes you.

[water gurgling] - ASA: Crystal-clear blue waters.

[majestic music] - NORA: It's a very unique place.

- NARRATOR: This is the Devils River State Natural Area, Dan A. Hughes Unit.

Near Del Rio, it's the latest addition to your Texas state parks.

[majestic music] - We're excited to open the Dan Allen Hughes Unit of Devils River State Natural Area.

We have two main river access points, and the primary one is the day-use area.

You can go down into the river basin and fish and swim and kayak along the river.

- NORA: Are you able to see the nest?

- ASA: You can birdwatch in the river corridor.

- NORA: A little bit lower.

You'll see the male vermilion.

- ASA: And then there's hiking and mountain biking along the landscape.

- CYCLIST: Woo!

[gentle music] - ASA: If you want to beat the heat, you can try stargazing.

We have a campground that has a short walk from a parking lot.

- CHILD: Where are we going next?

- ASA: We have the option to backpack into the back country along our trail systems and camp at designated campsites.

[majestic music] There's lots to do here, and we're excited to have you come out.

[wind blowing] - I like that it is so remote out here.

I enjoy that I can stand on top of a bluff and look out across the landscape and not see any evidence of human occupation.

You're surrounded by the sounds and sights of nature, and then the colors out here are just fantastic.

The contrast of the water, the turquoise, with the gray and the golden of the cliffs is just something that's once in a lifetime, you don't see in many places.

- One of the sensitive species that you'll find here is the Conchos pupfish, and you can find it in these shallow pools in this part of the state and nowhere else.

This is just a beautiful place.

You've got so many unique things that you can find here that are so unexpected, and it makes it very special.

[wind blowing] [gentle music] - The shelters and the caves are especially sensitive time capsules where people would've come generation after generation.

The rock imagery here at Devils River, some of it we're learning goes back 5,000 years or more, the Pecos River style.

A lot of it was spiritual in nature.

Those things are all important to try to tell the story of the prehistoric people that lived here.

[water rushing] - It's not like any other water.

It's very pristine, it's very calming, it's very inviting.

[water trickling] You get a inside view of what it is.

[water gurgling] [dramatic music] - ASA: This place is special to me because in a world that is getting busier and busier, you find a moment of isolation.

[wind blowing] You travel through this rugged and harsh landscape and see the blue waters of the Devils River, and it's just this moment of awe.

And you can't help but stop and look, thinking how amazing this place is.

[gentle music] [water rushing] [calm music] - WILL RHODES: It's quite amazing to see the sun peaking up over the mountain like that.

- TRAVIS SMITH: You know the way the sun hits the mountains and shades part of them, and that changes you know as the sunrise comes up.

It's very majestic.

[foot steps] - WILL: As far as jobs go this is pretty amazing, I mean getting to work out here in these canyons and mountains.

It's all very beautiful the way it all comes together; the varied topography of the area is quite amazing.

- My name is Travis Smith.

- My name is Will Rhodes.

I used to live in the city and got tired of that pretty quick.

Found that this is just really where I fit in.

- TRAVIS: Just a different way of life out here, and I love it.

[truck passing by] - WILL: This is Black Gap Wildlife Management Area.

We're in southern Brewster County which is in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas.

- TRAVIS: We're in the Chihuahuan Desert Ecosystem.

The area is 103,000 acres or a little over.

Black Gap is kind of in the middle of nowhere.

You know it's 55 miles from the closest town.

There are only four individuals who live on the area.

- To the nearest Walmart is 110 miles and even there, there's not many people there.

At night, you know, you get the full stars, everything.

You see the entire Milky Way.

Where as in the city you might be able to see a couple of stars.

- My wife is a very understanding woman, she actually loves it just as much as I do out here.

[truck on gravel] - WILL: Just by its definition, this a Wildlife Management Area so we have to manage and maintain the wildlife for the people of Texas.

We have close to 300 miles of roads that all need to be maintained.

- TRAVIS: With just the two of us, there is very little down-time.

We don't get bored very often.

[truck stopping] As we all know, animals need water.

Our annual rainfall is only around 11 inches a year.

So we're trying to supplement that water during dry periods.

A guzzler is a rain catchment.

Water will be collected, funneled into a tank, which then feeds a water trough for wildlife.

We have 45 guzzlers on the area that we maintain.

We like to periodically check them to make sure everything is in working order.

[drill whirs] Make sure the wind or animals haven't walked on the catchment and bent it, or the wind has loosened it.

Just make sure everything is in good working order to provide water for wildlife.

- WILL: With it being just me and Travis out here it would be nearly impossible to get all this work done without the support and funds from the Mule Deer Foundation, Texas Bighorn Society, and Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Fund.

So this catchment consist of R-Panel in 12 foot lengths, which is connected to these 6-inch C-Purlins (audio speeds up) by a 5/16 inch bolt head with a 14 x 7/8 pitch thread, (faster audio, high pitch voice) which is then welded onto the 2" square tubing.

This all leads to a 4-inch gutter into a 4-inch (faster, higher pitch) drainage pipe, which leads into a 2,500 storage tank.

A 1" rain should, in theory, catch 400 gallons of water.

(normal voice) And that right there is a rain guzzler.

[metal banging] - TRAVIS: We have a lot of tools as biologist but one of the most unique ones are game cameras.

A game camera is a camera we can set over basically anywhere.

We like to focus on water sources since that's where animals come to congregate.

- WILL: On these game cameras, it's triggered by motion.

Usually that's going to be wildlife coming in to get water from the guzzlers here.

And game cameras also have infrared illuminators so we can get video and photographs even in pitch black.

We wait two weeks before collecting images from the cameras, so we just have to be patient.

[gate closes] - TRAVIS: It's a very relaxing commute to the office in the mornings.

It's just a stone's throw away from my house.

There's no fighting traffic or road rage.

- WILL: All right these are the ones we pulled from the camera today.

Should be about two weeks worth of data.

- TRAVIS: All right, now we're getting some deer.

Four does and that's one collared one, or an ear tagged.

Yeah, there's the ear tags.

They look very healthy, good shape.

- WILL: Buck here.

- TRAVIS: Decent little buck.

If you go back, you can get kind of an age.

He's not too young, he's got a little bit of Roman nose there.

I'd say that's a typical buck that you'd find on Black Gap.

- WILL: Oh, we got a little coyote.

A young one.

We're seeing what you'd expect out here, coyotes and mule deer.

A lot of javelina, that's probably your most common thing on the camera.

- TRAVIS: Some collared mule deer going to these waters, and that helps with determining movements of wildlife as well.

Even hawks and buzzards will benefit from these water sources.

Really every animal on the area is going to benefit from this water.

[playful music] [buckles releasing] - WILL: This is one of our new game cameras, this is setup on one of the water troughs that is on the guzzler here.

Get the files off and see what's been visiting this guzzler.

These are all going to be videos.

From all these videos, we can see it's quite impressive the amount of wildlife and the diversity of the wildlife coming to this new guzzler.

[playful music] ♪ ♪ Looks like we have several mule deer.

Along with some of our collared released does from earlier this year.

We've got some gray fox, looks like a whole lot of javelina as was expected.

That tells us that it has been effective and what we wanted it to do.

[dramatic music] Time takes on a different feel out here.

I love this area of Texas.

I love the mountainous region mixed in the Chihuahuan Desert.

- TRAVIS: Not every person can be this isolated and this happy.

This is God's country.

[drill whirs] [truck rattling] [upbeat music] - JENNIFER: Today, we're getting ready to release southern flounder fingerlings into the Texas bays.

[upbeat music] I've been working with this fish for well over a decade now, and we're still learning new things about it, and it's just, everyday working with them is fascinating.

Sea Center Texas is one of three facilities along the Texas coast that raise fish for stock enhancement, and stock enhancement is when we grow young fish and release them into the wild.

We have broodstock here.

We get fertilized eggs, we hatch them, and we grow them up past metamorphosis.

After metamorphosis, they are prepared to survive in our bays and estuaries.

Then we take 'em out for release.

- So, I am individually siphoning flounder off the bottom of the tank, and then using the clicker to count 'em as I go along.

This is the most precise way to count these individuals so we get good counts, so how many we're putting out the door.

[waves lapping] - JENNIFER: The biggest cause for concern with flounder populations are changes with temperatures along the coast.

Our science team has decades of data that show the warmer the water temperature is offshore, then the fewer flounder will actually make it into our bays for their nursery ground.

[upbeat music] The purpose for stock enhancement is to bolster the numbers of wild fish that are out there and to have more fish enter the breeding population.

We also wanna help create better fishing opportunities for anglers along the Texas coast.

[dramatic music] Once we get to our stocking site, we'll acclimate the fish to make sure that they are ready to go into their new environment, and then we'll slowly release the fish into the wild.

[dramatic music ending] [pump humming] [water lapping] [waves crashing] [wind blows] [upbeat guitar music] - DR. DONNA SHAVER: This is the Packery Channel.

It's in south Texas.

The Packery Channel divides Mustang Island on the north and North Padre Island on the south.

It is a very important habitat for juvenile green turtles.

My name is Dr. Donna Shaver and I'm chief of the division of sea turtle science and recovery at Padre Island National Seashore and I'm also the Texas coordinator of the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network.

People often times don't think about sea turtles being in our Texas Waters.

It's only been within about the last 20 years that our numbers have shot up.

[somber piano music] The green turtle was once commercially exploited in Texas.

They were captured and they were butchered in canneries right here in Texas.

The good news is though that the green turtle is rebounding in Texas, but we've got a moving target here of greatly increasing numbers of green turtles being found stranded in Texas each year.

Oh, I hope we can find this turtle Mac.

- MAC PURVIN: The call said just a while south of the uh.

- DR. SHAVER: Thank goodness somebody called it in.

- NARRATOR: Dr. Shaver, and marine biologist Mac Purvin are responsible of rescuing sea turtles on south Texas beaches, and they've been busier than ever.

- The Packery is of course like a great place for fishing and recreation.

We'll get a lot of entangled turtles.

These jetty rocks, they're perfect.

They're covered in algae.

The turtles love to eat the algae off of them.

They'll get stuck in the sea rocks themselves.

So that's the two main source of standings we're getting.

- Right in there.

Get this done quick.

The water's coming in.

Be careful.

- Yeah here it is.

- DR. SHAVER: Did we get it in time; is it alive?

- It's deceased unfortunately.

We've had record breaking months of stranding since May.

Uh, May, June, July, August we've broken every record.

- In a normal summer though, it's generally a slower time for our green turtle strandings.

- MAC: This year with the huge influx people aren't used to seeing this many turtles.

We weren't used to seeing this many turtles.

- DR. SHAVER: So, it's vital that Texans know that sea turtles are all threatened or endangered species.

We had to embark on a very intense educational effort.

It was all hands-on deck fire alarm.

We had to get out here quickly to initiate efforts.

- MAC: We had to get together pamphlets, educational materials.

We've been posting signage that lets people know not to touch the turtles or harass them in any way.

- If you see any turtles in distress, give us a call.

- MAC: We send down volunteers and park service representatives and we talk to the public out here.

- If I could give this to you.

- Yes ma'am.

- CAROL: If you see anything, please give us a call.

We appreciate your help.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- ANGLER: Have a good morning.

- CAROL: I come out in the mornings or on the weekends and I walk up and down the Packery Channel jetty on the southside looking for stranded turtles.

I'm finding more and more fishing line where it's been improperly disposed of.

This all creates a hazard for our turtles.

Sometimes I have to cut the line.

In the past you'd come down on low tide, you may see few, but you didn't see that many.

This year you can look every 10 feet and you may see 10, 20, sea, green sea turtles.

- MAC: Any sea turtle on the beach generally has something wrong with it.

Those are important to call us, collect, and bring over to rehabs.

- MAN: You got him.

Ok put him down.

- NARRATOR: Rehab partners like the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi, Texas work with Dr. Shaver's team to make sure the rescued turtles are healthy before they are released back into safe waters.

- JESSE GILBERT: This is the Texas State Aquarium's Wildlife rescue center in Corpus Christi, TX and this is one of the most robust centers in the state, where we take in marine mammals, sea turtles, and then shorebirds and raptors.

- JESSE: So, about a week ago, a large presumed male green sea turtle was found on Padre Island National Seashore.

It has a significant amount of monofilament around its right front flipper.

He's been here a week.

Showing some improvement.

He's got some fight to him which is really good.

I think prognosis is guarded whether or not we'll be able to keep that flipper intact or if we'll have to amputate it.

The good news is even with that flipper amputated that turtle most likely still be a candidate for release.

Typically, on a release day we get started about 7:00 in the morning.

Again, we'll clear the turtle.

We'll scan it, make sure it's the right turtle.

We then transport it to wherever it's going in a conditioned vehicle.

If it's in the winter, we kind of try to keep the vehicle the same temperature as the water so the animal isn't shocked when we get to the location.

- Amy, smile!

- AMY: Ok!

- JESSE: From there it will either be transferred to a boat.

We go try a place that's nice and calm that has a lot of algae for the green sea turtles to eat.

Once we find that location, we've got some kind of secret locations where that, that really works out well.

We'll just release them from there.

[upbeat music] - MAN: [whistles] Look at that.

- WOMAN: I know.

- AMY: Yes!

- WOMAN: Nice.

- DR. SHAVER: Somebody that hasn't been to the Texas coast in 20 years, they're in for a treat because if you're patient and you watch you're going get to see green turtles swimming and being a green turtle.

Enjoy the beautiful resource we have of having a natural aquarium, green turtles swimming and enjoying our south Texas waters.

They can do it safely.

We can have a balance of people and turtles inhabiting this earth, but it requires education and some careful actions with our citizens.

[acoustic guitar music] [upbeat music] - NARRATOR: To celebrate 40 years of our television series, we are taking a trip back in time to look at some of our earliest episodes.

♪ ♪ [upbeat music] - WOMAN 1: We love wild flowers.

- WOMAN 2: It makes you feel alive.

It makes you feel good.

- WOMAN 3: I think the wild flowers are magnificent.

- NARRATOR: A drive along a Texas highway in the springtime is a visual treat.

Getting out to smell the flowers and pose for pictures is a Texas rite of spring.

- We always try to get out and take bluebonnet pictures and a picnic on the weekends when it's nice like this.

- NARRATOR: Many out-of-state visitors are taken by surprise by the breathtaking vistas.

- When I used to think of Texas, I used to think of, I don't know, tumbleweeds and things like that.

You know, I never thought of anything like this and the fields and with beautiful flowers in them.

- NARRATOR: The Texas Highway Department makes sure roadsides remain beautiful by promoting the growth of wildflowers on more than one million acres of highway right of way.

- And one of our major techniques that we use to keep wildflowers on the right of way is not to mow in the areas where we can leave the wildflowers until they set seed.

[weedeater whirs] - NARRATOR: The policy means pretty flowers for Texas travelers, but it can be a pain for state contractors who must carefully mow around the flowers.

- Yes, we have to be very careful and if we inadvertently cut one bluebonnet, we'll probably hear about it from someone.

They'll call the state or they'll call our inspectors and we'll be told.

[gentle music] [traffic] [insects chirp] [insects chirp] [insects chirp] [insects chirp] [insects chirp] [insects chirp] [insects chirp] [insects chirp] [insects chirp] [insects chirp] 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.