- 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 and Wildlife... - Well, I love birds.

They have been transformational in my life.

- We are really blessed that we get to hunt in the state of Texas and we have our freezers full so we want to make sure that we're helping other people be able to eat.

- There's nothing quite as striking as Century Pine.

It's well over 120 feet and it usually takes three adults to hug around it.

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

- SHELIA HARGIS: Like, look, I think there's one circling around now.

Oh, so it's a young bird.

Look for the eyes.

The eyes are not white yet.

Oh, here he is.

I can kind of see him through here.

Well, I love birds.

Oh, here's a kingbird flying.

They have been transformational in my life.

You have to come up here, Ellen, to see it.

There it goes right there.

I don't know what it was about birds, but it's like, I just decided that, okay, you've got to let your passion show fully.

They don't understand how fast my bird walks progress.

- KIM CARTER: And once we took Sheila's class, we just turned into avid birders in gosh, two months.

I'm trying to learn how to make that little "ch ch ch" sound she makes.

I can't remember what they call it.

- That's called pishing.

- KIM: It's like she brings the birds out of the bush when she does that.

[pishing noise] - She is very good with young birders and beginner birders.

That patience really lets her listen to them and help convey some of her passion about birds and conservation.

- That's a mating pair.

- They're important enough to secure their future.

It's important enough that I engage other people in working toward that future also.

[birders quietly cheer] [suspenseful music] ♪ ♪ - So, most people think when they hear the term crime analysts, they think, "Oh, it's just like CSI, right?"

[on speaker] ...and make sure that the data was all verified.

But it's actually not the forensic stuff.

This is a case that's a murder case.

[on speaker] ...because you can see around the murder location there aren't... We are the people at APD who are analyzing data trying to help prevent crime or solve crime or mitigate crime.

- Well, I'm not familiar with birding, but I'll tell you what makes a good crime analyst and how I think it would relate to birding is Sheila's ability to go down the rat hole, so to speak.

Her attention to detail and her tenacity and researching those types of things is what makes her a great crime analyst and probably what makes her a good birding person.

[upbeat music] - And so, we're here tonight waiting for the martins to come in.

- They're starting to come in, like, right now.

[upbeat music] - SHELIA: Travis Audubon has been holding Purple Martin parties for quite a few years now.

- It's amazing.

[upbeat music] - Not only were our eyes opened, but also hearing things that we've never heard before.

- It's like a hurricane of birds.

- SHELIA: They'll go, "Oh my God, there's birds everywhere."

And I'm going, yes, there's birds everywhere.

So, it's opening their eyes and ears to what's been around them this whole time.

So, yes, super cool.

It's just like, it's just, it's, it's just heaven.

[metal clanks] [upbeat music] - Today, we're looking at our venison processing facility.

We call it Casa Venado, which is, you know, in English, House of Deer.

So this is the hanging cooler.

As you can see, we can hold 100 to 150 deer hanging in here, so it looks like we're in for a good week.

[tub clanks] - NARRATOR: Casa Venado is a state-of-the-art processing plant with all the tools needed to clean, carve, and cool th ousands of pounds of protein.

- DAYNA: We're very blessed to have this facility on our food bank campus.

- NARRATOR: The San Antonio Food Bank is the first in Texas to have their own deer processing facility.

- Protein is very hard to come by in food-banking in general.

And the thought was that there are so many deer here in the state of Texas that have to be taken down for conservation purposes.

So what better way to bring a good lean protein, give that to families in need.

- NARRATOR: To make all this happen, the food bank is partnering with Hunters for the Hungry, a statewide program that gives hunters an opportunity to donate venison to Texans in need.

[latch clanks] [door slides] - We are really blessed that we get to hunt in the state of Texas and we have our freezers full, and so we wanna make sure that we're helping other people be able to eat.

It gives hunters like us an opportunity to be able to provide people with deer, meat that they normally probably wouldn't get a chance to eat, and it's a great healthy food.

We're happy to provide it for the people in need.

It's a great way to help the hungry.

- DAYNA: In the back part of the building, that access is there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, allowing donors to come and drop off their wild game.

Just needs to be field dressed and legally tagged.

They have access to drop it off, you know, whenever it's convenient for them.

- We're gonna do a few cuts.

We're gonna put it right here.

- DAYNA: We don't just want it to be a processing facility.

We want it to be a learning facility.

From November through the end of March, we take volunteers in the afternoons.

- If you've never processed a deer, but you'd always wanted to learn, this is a great way to get some skills.

I think you benefit while you're benefiting others.

- So you want to keep a hold onto the hide.

- NARRATOR: So hunters, if you still have one more deer tag this season- - [Eric] Take that opportunity to harvest an extra deer, field dress it, and then donate here at the San Antonio Food Bank so we can get that great lean protein to a family in need.

[upbeat music] - NARRATOR: Visiting Texas State Parks just got easier.

With our new online reservation features, you can choose a specific cabin, campsite or shelter and reserve it for your next visit.

The new reservation system makes it easier to plan group getaways.

[upbeat music] Save the day.

[honk, honk] And don't get turned away with our optional day-use reservation.

- VISITOR: Good morning!

- NARRATOR: And be sure to get in.

- VISITOR: Thank you!

- NARRATOR: Plus, you can buy park passes and gift cards online.

Texas State Parks, getting better for you.

[upbeat music] [birds chirping] [upbeat music] - NARRATOR: With pine savannah's, upland forest and hardwood bottomlands, Mission Tejas State Park is an untouched window into the natural scenery of Texas's past.

[frogs croaking] Near the northern end of the Davy Crockett National Forest, quiet Mission Tejas once sat at a crossroads of early Texas history.

Visitors can step back in time along a portion of El Camino Real de los Tejas.

[upbeat music] - El Camino Real was a big network of a number of old Caddo footpaths and footpaths from other indigenous groups in Texas.

- When you walk down that, you'll be walking in the footsteps of virtually just about anybody in your Texas history textbook.

- KATY: The best part, I think, is just being in the forest, and it's just, it's beautiful here.

You don't get to see the woods like this.

The highlight so far is we went down, and we did the Woodlands Trail.

And that takes you through just a really quiet piece of woods with these huge pines, and you can smell the pines as well.

And it's just quiet.

And then you can go down.

Not too far from that is the creek.

Oh man, do you see that tree over there?

It's leanin'.

- MAN: That's a very straight tree right there.

- NARRATOR: A structure commemorating Mission San Francisco de los Tejas was built by the CCC in 1934.

The original mission was built by Spaniards on Caddo land in response to French colonists settling on the Texas coast in 1685.

Spanish Friars tried to rebuild the mission in 1716, but conflict between France and Spain led them to abandon it a few years later.

Also in the park is one of the oldest structures in the surrounding area.

- The Rice family built this home between 1828 and 1838, and Jonathan Masters was one of the first land-grant holders in this area.

They've been part of Texas before Texas was part of Mexico.

[dramatic music] - NARRATOR: The Towering Pines hold their own deep-rooted history at the park as well.

- JARED: One of my favorite aspects of Mission Tejas State Park is the average age of the trees.

There's nothing quite as striking as Century pine.

It's well over 120 feet, and it usually takes three adults to hug around it.

- Cool place to set your camera up against the trunk and shoot straight up the trunk.

It makes for a very striking photograph, and it's really thought provoking that that thing's been there for 114 years.

[upbeat music] - CHILD: I can't open.

- You need help?

Say, "Can I have help, please?"

- CHILD: I have help, please?

- We've been wanting to see some of the East Texas state parks.

We're probably gonna color, and just kind of hang out.

We're gonna go to the playground here at the park.

That's really exciting for her.

She loves to swing.

Just some decompression time.

So we both work a lot and this is nice to get away.

- GARY: Well, we hope people can connect with the world in which you live, the history that we all share and get some good rest and relaxation.

- NARRATOR: Whether you need a relaxing getaway or want a deeper understanding of an area steeped in Texas history, Mission Tejas State Park will have just what you need.

[crickets chirping] [air hammer tapping] - Here's a statistic for you.

Texas is losing a square mile of open space a day.

So we're losing land at a faster rate than any other state in the nation.

- NARRATOR: Chris Abernathy is on a mission to preserve precious Texas farm and ranch land and protect it from development.

- And these are the lands that feed and clothe us.

I mean, people don't understand that, you know, and so at some point when it all disappears, you know, where are we gonna get those things from?

- NARRATOR: Chris works closely with land trusts and private property owners.

The owners here at Inspiring Oaks Ranch have agreed to conserve a large swath of this serene Hill Country land to keep the springs running clean clear water and to provide a natural habitat for wildlife.

[birds chirping] [upbeat music] - CORKY: Not many people can sit on their back porch and not see any rooftops and have coffee every morning.

[water running] - I'm sitting here on a small portion of Inspiring Oaks Ranch.

[soothing music] We are part of 1,146 acres located just a little outside of Wimberley in the Hill Country of Texas.

We purchased the property in 1999.

Be careful.

- CHRIS: This property is special because it not only has caves that we've been cleaning out that also help protect water quality and protect the aquifer.

It has the cypress forest, which is extremely unusual in Central Texas.

It has springs that protect salamanders, and it also provides open space for all the other wildlife and habitat.

- JENNY: I'd like to show you one of our heritage trees.

It's, I think it's probably at least 300 years old.

Probably more.

Gives you a sense of the timelessness of this place, but it's also part of the natural world that we're all part of, and I'm just real honored to be in the presence of this spectacular tree.

[upbeat music] - NARRATOR: That treasured land and water at Inspiring Oaks is protected by a conservation easement.

An agreement reached with the help of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, - I wanted to preserve it and give it a legacy.

And the more I learned about ways to do it, the more I understood that a conservation easement is the best way that I know of to preserve and create a legacy for the future, a legacy of hope.

- CHRIS: So a land conservation easement protects the land forever against development and also provides habitat for all the fish and wildlife.

This land will never become a subdivision.

- Everything feeds wildlife-wise from plants that are going away from the development is taking away habitat.

And it's no matter what the habitat is, how good or bad it is.

There are insects, there are mammals, there are creatures that use that habitat.

- CHRIS: I'm hopeful that the word about conservation and conservation easements are getting to be a more well known phrase.

- It's almost a crime to think of cutting up the place and selling it for money.

It's not money.

This is our natural world that we live in.

- MAN: Is that four of them?

- MAN 2: Yeah.

- JENNY: We should be the caregivers.

Our job is to be stewards.

[birds chirping] And I guess at the end of the day, when you think about it, what would you rather have, a dollar bill that you can take to Target and buy a bracelet or, you know, some socks, or would you rather have a drink of water that's crystal clear, that is nourishing and life-giving?

It's such an obvious choice.

[upbeat music] - NARRATOR: Wish you could spend more time with nature?

Well, every month you can have the great outdoors delivered to you.

Since 1942, Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine has been the outdoor magazine of Texas.

Every issue is packed with outstanding photography and writing about the wild things and wild places of this great state.

And now Texas' best outdoor ma gazine is available as an app, it's just that easy.

Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine, your connection to the great outdoors.

[birds chirping] [gentle ethereal music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY: Of all the national parks in the lower 48, Big Bend has the darkest skies.

♪ ♪ Beneath this heavenly expanse are the signs of hope.

♪ ♪ These are the marks of a black bear.

♪ ♪ Bears were once killed out of Texas, but across the border in the high mountains of Mexico, a population thrived.

♪ ♪ In the 1980s, bears became a protected species in Texas, and we waited for their return.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ In 1987, a female dispersed from Mexico crossed the Rio Grande and made her home in Big Bend National Park.

♪ ♪ Her pioneering instincts flow through the veins of our bears today, [bear grunts] [birds chirping] and their offspring.

[birds chirping] [bear grunts] [birds chirping] [bear grunts] This mama bear has taught her eight-month-old cubs how to find food with each passing season.

[leaves rustling] [birds chirping] In the fall, that means acorns.

[leaves rustling] [birds chirping] It's slim pickins on the forest floor, but up above, [birds chirping] there's a bounty.

[soft ethereal music] [uplifting music] And these cubs, they have a size advantage.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ The very best acorns are those the big bears can't reach.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [branch snaps] ♪ ♪ The higher the climb, the sweeter the reward.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [birds chirping] [bear sighs] [birds chirping] Life is good in Big Bend National Park.

A century ago, these bears would've been hunted down.

Today, they can rest peacefully.

[soft ethereal music] But the Chicos Mountains in Big Bend are relatively small, and they are already filled to capacity.

♪ ♪ Like their pioneer ancestors, bears are dispersing from the national park.

♪ ♪ They're seeking new mountain ranges in Texas, a place to call home, where their ancestors once roamed.

♪ ♪ [birds chirping] [birds chirping] [water flowing] [water flowing] [water flowing] [water flowing] [water flowing] [water flowing] [water flowing] [water flowing] [water flowing] [water flowing] [water flowing] [water flowing] [water flowing] 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.