- 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... - There you go, little guy.

- This is a wonderful thing.

Zoos are really getting involved in conservation in their back yards.

- That's what's great about the program is that it does give you some solitude and some private access so that you can get away, right?

- So I don't buy this argument that people aren't enjoying the outdoors anymore.

I think they're just enjoying it in different ways.

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

- ANDY: These individuals will be really small.

- NARRATOR: This habitat and these ants mean everything to the survival of another animal.

- KRIS: Let's go.

Are you ready?

Go find it.

- NARRATOR: The dog is here to search for it.

- ANDY: It should be a target-rich environment.

- KRIS: Hey.

Your typical detection dogs are going to be used in law enforcement.

Obviously this is not a law enforcement context.

[whistle] Conservation dogs have been used with other species.

But we have not seen them used for the Texas Horned Lizard.

- NARRATOR: Efforts to restore Texas horned lizards where they were once common have involved years of research, captive breeding programs at zoos and so far only one lizard-sniffing dog.

- It's definitely a conversation starter.

- If we're successful in this effort, we will find horned lizards on the landscape.

[music] - A lot of Texans my age or older, they have fond memories of horned lizards in abundance.

People tell me about when they were children they would play with them in the back yards or find them in a dirt lot in the neighborhood and that they were just everywhere.

- JOHN: The Texas horned lizard really represents my childhood.

As best we can tell, the Texas horned lizard disappeared from much of its range in about the mid 70s and that coincided with a lot of things in the landscape.

- Fire ants get a lot of blame, and they deserve some blame, but they are not the only factor.

- At the time a lot of people were waging war on the harvester ants, the big red ants mounds.

And also at the time, coastal Bermuda was being planted in pastures.

And these lizards need harvester ants.

They need native bunch grasses, not a turf grass, and they need to be in areas without fire ants.

There are quite a few zoos now getting really involved in conservation of native species in the state of Texas.

The Houston Zoo is raising Houston toads and releasing them.

The Fort Worth Zoo is raising horned lizards and releasing them.

The San Antonio Zoo is raising horned lizards in what they affectionately call their lizard factory.

And so this is a wonderful thing.

Zoos are really getting involved in conservation in their back yards.

[gentle music] - KAMRYN: Our main goal here is to produced as many Texas horned lizard as we can.

I am just putting some ants in his little ant feeder.

- ANDY: Horned lizard have a very specific diet.

They feed primarily on the red harvester ant And if they don't get a sufficient number of ants or termites in their diet, they just die.

Straight up die.

A notoriously difficult animal to keep in captivity, let alone to get to breed and produce viable offspring.

It's a real challenge.

- Let's see how they're feeling.

We put the male lizard into the female lizard's tank.

With around 25 healthy breeders, we're hoping we can get a bunch more babies this year.

That licking and a signs of head bobbing are both of them kind of communicating with each other that they're interested.

A single lizard female can lay over 40 eggs in one clutch.

It's still a little bit early in the morning for them, so these guys are still warming up, so they're taking it a little slow right now.

Anything with animals, it's unpredictable.

It's kind of up to them if we are going to be successful or not, but I have a lot of hope we get to put those babies out on the wild.

- ANDY: I want to thank everyone who came here today.

Big year, big milestone for us.

Today, we are fortunate to release 84 captive-born Texas horned lizards on a ranch in Blanco County.

Our first release.

Very exciting.

All good?

The landowner has been managing for native biodiversity since he purchased the range.

This site includes about 1,000 acres of very high quality horned lizard habitat.

Several hundred harvester ants beds.

In general, one or two lizards per mound.

- BRITTANY: We can back to these for a different location, yeah?

- ANDY: Yeah.

This is a combination of three years of work when we started this project, breeding lizards in captivity until we had sufficient numbers to conduct our first release.

- NARRATOR: Though these lizards have never been outdoors before, this is a homecoming of sorts.

- ANDY: This is our first horned lizard released to the wild.

- NARRATOR: This one little lizard marks the return of a species to this landscape.

- ANDY: Y'all don't step on it.

If you step on a lizard, we're probably going to not invite you back.

[laughs] - It's wonderful opportunity to be able to return these lizards to the wild, but not just any place, to paradise for horned lizards, where we're hoping that they're going to establish a viable population.

- BRITTANY: Don't run away from me please.

- ANDY: ... that's going to grow.

- JOHN: For years we've been hearing from landowners that they want to have horned lizards back and we do too, and so, there's been a lot of research that's gone in to determining what kind of habitat these animals need, what kind of threats we need to avoid.

And today, all of the forces came together for horned lizard reintroduction.

- WOMAN: Hey little buddy.

- ANDY: Going about our daily lives, we may not notice the changes in the landscape that squeeze out certain species, but they certainly do.

The native grasses and forbs that you see in abundance around me are also key for quail habitat, and there are quail coming back on this ranch, there are other species like native pollinators and migratory birds that depend on exactly the same sort of habitat that good land management creates in this part of the state.

I'm going to let him go because he wants to go.

I really hope I see him again.

- NARRATOR: So, once you release a load of well-camouflaged lizards, how do you hope to find them again?

- KRIS: You want to go to work?

Let's go.

- NARRATOR: That's where the dog comes in.

[upbeat music] - KRIS: Sit.

Go find it.

[whistle] - ANDY: We've released 15 or so lizards between me and that stand of trees.

- KRIS: Off.

Come.

- ANDY: The goal here today is to try and find the lizards that we turned loosed a week ago.

- KRIS: Gren!

[whistle] She's starting to peter out.

- ANDY: The fact that we haven't seen any lizards yet, and Gren hasn't smelled any yet, it still doesn't mean they're not here.

They're just really good at hiding.

It's kind of windy day, so she just may not smell them.

But we'll come back in two weeks.

- KRIS: Uh-mm!

[whistle] Let's go.

Get over.

- NARRATOR: Animals and nature are never entirely predictable.

- KRIS: Ah-ah!

Come here.

- NARRATOR: But months after the first release, a small but hopeful sign.

- KRIS: Maybe?

She's indicating.

Andy!

- ANDY: Yeah?

- KRIS: Yes!

Did you see where her nose dropped?

- ANDY: Two or three of us will spend a couple of minutes looking to see if we can find what she smelled.

I'm not heartbroken that we didn't find lizards because we found scat that came from a lizard, so we know there are lizards out here.

That's definitely horned lizard.

- KRIS: Good girl, Gren!

- ANDY: The lizards that we released back in October, at least some of them, survived the winter, so that's really encouraging.

Yeah!

- KRIS: Yeah!

- BRITTANY: Hello, little guy!

- ANDY: Our strategy is to release around 100 lizards per year on this site for three years.

- NARRATOR: Ongoing releases will improve the odds of establishing a self-sustaining population.

- ANDY: My hope is that in the future we will find the offspring of the lizards that we released still on this ranch.

And my true hope is that we'll find lizard on the next ranch, and the ranch over there and the ranch over there.

Returning horned lizards to the landscape so that Texans can enjoy them forever.

- LESLIE: Huge milestone for the San Antonio Zoo.

Very exciting.

- NARRATOR: But even one release on one patch of restored habitat, can provide a lot of hope.

- JOHN: See him there?

Yeah!

I would say the horned lizard is probably the reason I'm a biologist today.

Because I could catch them.

They were the only lizard not faster than the little boy.

And they're gone now from most of our landscape, and so it's like a part of my childhood is gone.

But today my son was here.

And he held his first horned lizard and he released that horned lizard back on the landscape.

It's a glorious day.

[wind blowing] [gentle music] - JOHN: 95% Of the state is private property and the rivers are public domain.

Very, very few places to access.

- You have to put in some work to get to these sites.

But the good thing is, not a lot of people are doing that and then you get the beauty of solitude.

So that's what I really enjoy about it.

[gentle music] - NARRATOR: Russell Husted ... - Call them what's called matching the hatch so we want to match what's living in this river.

- NARRATOR: ... loves him some fly fishing.

- A really awesome pattern for Llano is the Umpqua swim baitfish in the shad color, it's beautiful.

[gentle music] - NARRATOR: Russell has called ahead and gained access to his own private put-in spot.

- That's what's great about the program is that it does give you some solitude and some private access so that you can get away, right?

That looks real good over there.

There's a lot of places that you can go fish that get pounded by people all the time, and you're just not going to get the experience that you are when you access one of these sites.

[gentle music] - This program allows everyday folks to explore and experience wild parts of Texas that not a lot of people have been able to enjoy in the past.

Best way to get information about our leased accessed sites is to check online at our website.

There you'll find contact information for the landowner and any special conditions, and you will find some great information on where to go river fishing.

- Fly fishing is tough when you have to go more than five to 10 foot deep.

And this river is just perfect for that, because I'd say the average depth is anywhere from three to seven feet, which is ideal for fly fishing.

[water flowing] Fly fishing is an art.

It is a thing of beauty to see a line with a tight loop flying out of the water.

There's one.

And going to a tight spot to catch a fish.

Oh yeah, oh yeah, this is what we came here for, woo, nice.

All right, so this is a Guadalupe bass, state fish of Texas.

You can tell by the spots on the belly, if you also look at the tongue.

You can tell by that little spot on the tongue.

It's in really good shape, probably about a pound.

And this is an average fish in the Guadalupe range, so, it's beautiful fish.

[water flowing] Try to miss this big rock in the middle.

You know, I've used this program on the Brazos River, I've used it on the Colorado River.

Oh yeah, this is easy.

I'm here today on the Llano river and there's these access points all across the state.

Nice.

[metal clanking] [gentle music] - The water's beautiful.

- Oh it is.

- NARRATOR: This is Joanna Laake's place.

It's called Pete's Pecan Patch.

- JOANNA: I can remember going out on here with my father in a boat and it was some of the best memories I have of remembering my father.

- JOHN: Oh, that's awesome.

[gentle music] - This is a little bit deeper part, there a lot of people catch catfish in here.

- Yeah, I can see that.

- But we're happy to share it with the people that want to make use of it because, we feel like this river does belong to everybody.

- This is on the Llano River.

You can float from here down to Grobe Crossing.

It's about five miles of Llano River.

You can fish and paddle year round.

- It is important to me that everyone should be able to experience the joys of the out of doors.

It's remote, it's secluded.

It's just a wonderful opportunity to get away from the cities and just relax and be with nature.

[bird chirping] - JOHN: We lease access sites on East Texas rivers, down on the coastal plain, as well as in West Texas on the spring-fed Devils River.

Lots of different rivers to experience and we're constantly adding more sites.

[rapids flowing] - RUSSELL: I love being in nature, I love the challenge.

I love moving water.

You add all those things together, this is about the best experience that a fly fishermen can have.

Piece of cake.

And this is my escape.

A little hill country fun.

Coming out here to the river, fly fishing for bass, for me it's like the top level.

I'm thinking right over there, looks really solid.

I like it, like it a lot.

That's a good one.

- What's great about this program is these sites are in remote locations.

- Just laying it out there.

- JOHN: But once you're out here, it feels like you're the only one in the world, you're the only one on the river.

- Right into the grass, right on edge, oh, that's perfect.

And then you gotta be ready.

You gotta be ready.

Oh, ho, ho!

This is about the best experience that a fly fishermen can have.

This fish is way up here in that dark corner over there it's clobbered that bait.

You're catching a lot of fish, you're seeing nature at its best.

Ah, beautiful, beautiful.

[gentle music] It's just a great escape.

So you really want to put the effort in to get to these places so that you get the full experience.

[gentle music] [suspenseful music] - Welcome to the woodshop.

My name is Alex.

I'm a woodworker here in Austin, Texas.

I've always loved the outdoors and loved hiking, and I recently began making wooden maps of the places that I love.

[upbeat music] I made the first design just as a passion project like this is, I love this place and I wanted to make some kind of art.

I did Enchanted Rock first.

When I first go to a new park, I get the map, I look at it.

One thing I really love about whenever you look at a map, immediately you see both the shape of the space, as well as the features that the person who made the map finds important.

Really, I decide where I want to go based on what features I'm going to see.

Like, how long the trail is, what I'm feeling.

I always find it really rejuvenating to get out on the weekends for several hours and go hike a trail.

And I've always been connected to the great names that are kind of attached to a lot of the different parts of the parks.

The Enchanted Rock itself, Turkey Peak, Buzzards Roost, Frog Pond.

They've all got like cool names too.

We're going to pull up our design here and we're going to make a map of enchanted rock.

First step is to fire up the laser.

All of the designs that I've made so far are places in which I've spent a lot of time.

They're places I know really well.

Parks like Enchanted Rock, and you go there and you know, obviously the most striking features are the giant rocks that you're going to.

I kind of called those out.

[upbeat music] Right now I'm cutting out a big piece of masking tape.

And I'm going to put it over the design that we've just etched so that we can cut out the exact shape of the park and paint it on there.

That's another part of what I kind of consider whenever I'm coming up with a new design is, is this feature important to someone who knows the area and has spent time there?

And also, how does it look as it's laid out, you know, on the physical layout of the map itself?

[upbeat music] Is that feeling that you get from looking at the whole map, is that the feeling that I connect with that space, and that's how I kind of see if the final design stays true to, to what I'm trying to do.

[upbeat music] Yeah, I think most people are lying if they say that they came up with a plan of why they were doing what they were doing.

I think most of the time you just, you want to do something, so you do it.

And then maybe you notice a pattern in what you've been doing and kind of mentally try to break it down from there about maybe what your motivations were, even if you didn't know what they were when you started.

That's definitely the case for me.

So I'm still kind of analyzing why I'm doing what I'm doing.

[upbeat music] [music] - MITCH HARRIS: I work for the Paramount Academy for the Arts, which is the educational branch of the Paramount Theater.

Working at the Paramount is a very fast-paced environment, it's "go go go!"

Okay.

[chuckles] You know what I mean?

Oh, I don't know.

Is "showstoppers" one word?

Yeah, I'm excited!

See ya!

Paramount is in downtown Austin.

It's right off Congress Avenue, just a few blocks from the Capitol.

Everything is very fast-paced.

So that's why I really like to take a step back, take a breather, get outside.

There are so many opportunities, even within an hour's drive.

So I don't think it's difficult to get outdoors, but it is something you have to - you have to make it a priority.

I think a lot times being outdoors can be intimidating.

I definitely felt that way, I know a lot of people feel that way.

But I don't think you have to have that background information to enjoy a state park.

I don't think I bring anything super-special to the table, I just ask the right questions, and I'm not afraid to admit when I don't know the answer to something, or I don't know how something works.

It's not state of the art.

It's not anything fancy.

It's pretty simple, but it works for me.

I probably do not get outside as often as the generation before me.

But I also think it's coming back into style.

I think people are re-realizing the value of being outdoors, and value of just experiencing and enjoying nature.

I don't know what it is but it does not look friendly.

I don't think anyone hates the outdoors.

That's bogus when people say that.

I think there's something in the outdoors for everyone and you just have to find what your thing is.

So I don't buy this argument that people aren't enjoying the outdoors anymore.

I don't think that's true.

I think they're just enjoying it in different ways.

I don't think there is a right way to use nature, you know what I mean?

I don't think there is a right way to experience the outdoors.

Reading a book outside is one of my favorite things.

And it's good in almost any circumstance.

And if you're going for a selfie versus going to tough it out in the wilderness for five days, great both are valid options.

Alright, I'm going to do it.

I'm going to be super-narcissistic and get a selfie.

Please don't judge me.

I think the outdoors are for everyone, I think they are called "public lands" for a reason.

[crickets chirping] [tent crumpling] [tent crumpling, zipper] [door slams shut] - Alright.

I think we're good.

I feel like that's a common goal in general... is to, "I want to spend more time outdoors."

But until you book it, until you make the plans, it's not going to happen.

[upbeat music] And the opportunities are there, it's just about really committing to it and going for it.

[upbeat music] [water lapping] [water lapping] [water lapping] [crickets chirp] [crickets chirp] [crickets chirp] [crickets chirp] [crickets chirp] [crickets chirp] [crickets chirp] [crickets chirp] [crickets 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 is provided by Toyota.

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

Toyota -- Let's Go Places.