- 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... - My eyes affect me, yes... - To the right of the feeder.

- ...but I'm still going to do what I love.

And that's the bottom line.

- I like to say this is an eighty-year experiment in land restoration.

- 98.3 KLUM Wednesday means visit with the game warden John Kohleffel is here.

Everybody knows John.

John has been here his whole life.

- Hey, how are you?

- I'm good, man!

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

[upbeat music] - Hi, Cherub, come on.

Come on buddy.

- NARRATOR: Meet Cole Johnson.

- COLE: So I've been volunteering here for six years now.

- NARRATOR: He loves dogs.

- COLE: This is Cherub.

We normally take him for a walk and the point of going for a walk is to get them used to a leash.

Good boy, Cherub.

So getting used to traffic sound so they're not terrified of that really loud traffic sound whenever they get adopted.

- NARRATOR: Cole comes here every week to help get these dogs outside and one step closer to a new home.

- COLE: To watch them open up... Get it.

...and to be trusting to people and wanting to get attention and wanting to play and loving life, that's the big one for me.

- NARRATOR: Loving life, that's what this story is about.

You see Cole keeps a very bright outlook considering that he is legally blind.

- COLE: It's slowly gone to where it is now and it will continue slowly going.

- TECHNICIAN: Other side, same thing.

- COLE: And they could go unstable and I can lose, lose it all, you know, very quickly.

Just trying to, you know, use what I have while I have it.

- Good to see ya.

- Good to see you.

- How ya been?

- Good.

- Been doing all right?

- Um-hum.

- Good, excellent.

I noticed that you're having some difficulties still kind of with the lights, and light sensitivity, is that right?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

Anything else?

So it started out where he wasn't seeing as well wondering if he needed maybe a change in glasses.

- I can't do the next one.

- That was not it, it was, actually the functioning of the cells was degenerating and that was causing the decrease in his vision and in his function.

- I have cone-rod dystrophy with ring scotoma.

The cone-rod dystrophy has to do with the retina.

- DR. MILLER: And this area has some splotchiness to it.

- COLE: So over a distance my clarity and detail is worse and worse the further it goes.

The same, in five is worse.

- Worse, okay.

- COLE: And then the ring scotoma... - Tell me if it ever disappears.

-Right there.

-Right there, okay.

- COLE: ...is the big blind spot that goes around in the center of my vision.

So I can see on the very outside and then there's a big ring, or a donut that is blind, and then I have the very center.

- It's kind of unpredictable, we don't know.

Probably even do that little tiniest one.

Am I gonna wake up tomorrow and it's gonna be decreased or diminished?

- TECHNICIAN: Big, big eyes, that's it.

- DR. MILLER: Am I gonna wake up, you know, in 10 years, and not be able to see anything?

- Flash.

- But he's really accepted it well and he's doing as much as he can with his vision loss and it's awesome.

Good, you can sit back and relax, I know, whew.

- COLE: You have a little lip right there.

- NARRATOR: Cole's day job is as a disability specialist.

- COLE: I'll measure the doorway.

I'm familiar with all the laws and rules which just means a lot of measuring-- 35 inches.

And just make sure that people with any ability can get in.

The only two things that I found were the door width is one inch too short, and then the handle itself needs to be one that someone doesn't have to grab it.

I'm gonna use my phone to measure the slope, - NARRATOR: Cole is here to check the trail down to the park's waterfall.

- COLE: Is the water up or low right now?

- It's up, we got a little rain.

- COLE: All right.

- TOMMY: This trail right here that we're on, this is the Onion Creek Hike and Bike Trail, this is the most popular trail in the park and McKinney sees about 300,000 visitors a year and we're always looking for ways to make it more accessible.

[water gurgling] - About one in five Texans, 20%, have a disability of some kind and for 20% of the population to not get to the falls, or whatever brings people to that state park, they should be allowed to get there just like anybody else can.

- TOMMY: Absolutely, it's just having a level of knowledge and then looking through that knowledge as a lens.

- 7.8% slope right here.

- TOMMY: So what would be a goal slope?

-Five percent.

-Five percent?

And looking at how we can rearrange this, or look at this in a different way to make things more accessible for folks.

- It's all pretty good, it's a little steep, if they just have like maybe one or two resting spots, or make the slopes just a little bit better, not quite as steep, it wouldn't be much of a problem at all.

- TOMMY: Excellent.

- COLE: And to be able to point it out, you know, it turns on a light bulb for people and it feels great to be able to do that and to help people see stuff that they just don't see.

[water gurgling] - NARRATOR: Just like you and me, Cole has to hit the store.

- We are shopping at HEB for my groceries.

I come about once a week, my house mate brings me.

I generally know where most stuff is, not all the time-- jalapenos.

Like for produce, I can't really see if it has a bad spot so I'll feel it more, that one's good, and use my sense of touch more than my eyes.

Tomatoes can be kinda hard, has a little bad spot on it I can feel it.

Squishiness isn't necessarily a bad thing with tomatoes.

That'll work.

- NARRATOR: What may seem like a simple shopping trip... - COLE: Depends on how my eyes are that day.

- NARRATOR: ...can sometimes get complicated.

- What in the hell, they moved my pasta sauce and I don't know where it is so I have to take a picture and look for it on my phone.

I can tell that there is glass jars full of red sauce.

I can't read any kind of words or labels.

That's it right there and it's right above coupons, it's right there right where the aisle breaks.

- NARRATOR: Cole takes the challenges in stride.

- COLE: That one.

- NARRATOR: He's even more confident in the kitchen.

- So cooking has always been something I've always enjoyed ever since I was a kid.

I don't really use my eyes.

I just kinda feel around and I've taught myself how to keep my fingers out of the way.

I use deer pretty much all the time.

Knowing that, you know, I know exactly where this thing came from, I know how it was harvested because I did it.

Garlic powder.

That is important to me and I do like that I have that knowledge of, you know, where it's coming from.

[meat sizzling] It smells like cinnamon, they're a great combination.

Time for cheese.

I love to eat, to begin with, [chuckling] I also like to cook, so, I should be able to do whatever I enjoy, regardless of what vision I do or don't have.

They're done.

My eyes, they have influence on my life, but they don't control my life.

So if I wanna cook then I'm gonna cook, If I wanna eat, I'm gonna eat.

[upbeat music] And if I wanna hunt, I'm gonna hunt.

That's just kinda been my life.

My eyes affect me, yes.

It was a fawn, but I think he ran off.

But I'm still gonna do what I love and that's the bottom line.

[windmill creaking] [turkeys gobbling] I enjoy being out, just watching the deer, the birds, you know, whatever it else is moving around 'cause it's relaxing.

- NARRATOR: For scouting trips, Cole uses his tiny video camera to get a closer look.

- COLE: And I had this idea, just hey, I wonder if I started recording, I can kinda record stuff that I can't see with binoculars, I can zoom in more.

A few deer down there.

I also have videos of a few fights that we've had.

It's super cool.

I mean, you can see it coming right before it happens they get all big and stiff and ears tucked back and... [horns thumping] ...a lot of people don't get to see that.

It's cool to watch for sure.

- NARRATOR: Cole and his dad, Jody, have been hunting here since 2011.

- I just fell in love with the South Texas brush country and everything down here will sting ya, scratch ya, or bite ya, it doesn't matter.

And in the cool of the evenings, or the early mornings, it just transitions into like a huge zoo, there's so many different animals that come up.

I mean, there's all kinds of different species from tortoises, to cottontails, to bobcats, to big white-tailed deer, and man, it's crazy, it's just the wildest place in Texas, I think.

- COLE: I mean, I'm just like anybody else down here.

- JODY: You got your knife, buddy?

There you go.

- COLE: You know, some of the typical ranch chores, filling feeders and gettin' firewood.

[grunts] I'm gonna do 400.

- JODY: You're gonna shoot a 400?

- COLE: Yep.

Checking to make sure my rifle is, you know, good to go, accurate.

- JODY: Nice and slow.

- COLE: In general, I mean, I can do just what anyone else can do here.

[whoosh] [ping] - JODY: Bingo [laughing] - Oh, I hit it the first shot, holy moly.

- JODY: He loves to spend so much time out here at the ranch.

Oh man, that was awesome.

And he just excels in it in so many ways and it's, it's just a wonderful experience to be able to watch somebody grow up and enjoy that part of their life.

Man, it's great, in the South temperatures, rare cold morning, it oughta be a good hunting day, right?

- COLE: Yes sir.

You know, kinda the primary bonding time I have with my dad, we both enjoy it, we have this opportunity to do it, so it's pretty much what we do.

[gentle guitar music] - JODY: We got a lot of deer.

Typically a pretty populated part of the ranch, a good place to be.

- NARRATOR: To shoot safely, these two run down a checklist before Cole ever pulls the trigger.

- JODY: We identify what deer we're looking at.

Okay, to the right of the feeder?

- COLE: Yes, sir.

- JODY: There's a good doe standing out there.

You know, he knows what I wanna know, and I know what he needs to know.

You got her?

- COLE: Broadside?

- JODY: Um-hum.

It just connects and it really comes together and when it happens, it's really a great experience.

How you feel?

- COLE: I feel good.

Just because you have a disability... [gun shot] ...whatever it is.

-Good shot.

- COLE: You can still get out and experience, you know, the outdoors and nature.

- JODY: Way to go.

- COLE: You know, you can get out and you can do it.

- JODY: It's the greatest feeling in the world.

One, two, three, cheese, all right.

Man, you know, just the feeling to be able to watch him succeed, it'd make any dad proud.

- NARRATOR: And that evening, who do you think is back in the blind enjoying the last beautiful light of one more day?

- To be able to see it now, while I still can... ...but just to have it here and have the opportunity at my age with how my eyes are now, and just, you know, using the vision that I have, while I have it.

I'm not gonna waste it.

[light guitar music] [crickets chirping] [light wind blowing] [upbeat music] ♪ ♪ - The Shield Ranch is 6,400 acres, including six-and-a-half miles of Barton Creek just on the edge of, of Austin.

- There's few places this close to an urban hub like Austin, Texas that are protected in the way that the Shield Ranch is.

- ROBERT: My maternal grandparents, Fred and Vera Shield, bought the first portion of the ranch in 1938.

[cheerful music] And so over the next 10 or 15 years they invested a lot into the ranch... building barns, drilling wells, building fences.

- PATRICIA: I was six or so years old when mother and dad bought the ranch, so I grew up spending lots of time here.

As I got older, I would get up early, and we had cattle and goats.

I would ride out to check the livestock.

And so for me as a child, that was so wonderful.

[water rushing] - ROBERT: I like to say that this is an 80-year experiment in land restoration providing water quality, clean air, wildlife habitat, open space, in an area that's growing very rapidly.

[dramatic music] And I'd grown up in San Antonio and I'd seen the ranches of families that we knew become residential subdivisions and strip malls, and I knew personally that I didn't really want that to be the future for our ranch.

[dramatic music] - PATRICIA: We realized that we need to do everything we could to protect the land from the encroaching developments.

- That's where the Nature Conservancy came in.

In 1998, we were at a moment in our family's history where we wanted to secure the long-term future of the ranch but we also needed to realize part of its economic value.

[upbeat music] Our family, the city of Austin, and the Nature Conservancy were able to come up with a plan where we put 95% of the ranch under conservation easement.

- The fact that the Shield Ranch put a conservation easement on such a visible and valuable piece of property caused some landowners across the state to take notice that there was another way, another path forward.

- I give a lot of credit to my mom, and my uncle, and my grandma, and my grandpa for having the vision in the late '90s to say, "We're gonna protect this space."

- Look at him.

- STUDENT: Oh, it's slimy.

- MARSHALL: And then, to follow that up with the commitment to share this place with others.

- Can I see?

- Whoa.

- That was almost scary.

- CHILD: I wanted it.

- Today we get to find bugs.

I found a big spider and it was a little bit scary.

- Nature's really cool.

- ROBERT: We're calling this the Campsite at Shield Ranch, [children chattering] and this will enable us to do educational programming year round.

- Can you see it, Jacen?

- Oh, my God.

[laughs] - The camp was started in 2007 as a way to share the outdoors experiences that the Shield Ayers family had had.

- And what I love most I hear from kids is that they feel the most themselves here.

- Oh, it's right there, it's right there.

- VERA: Just that they can go out into the world as young adults, and to feel strong and empowered to make a difference.

[kids laughing] - So I had a lot of love for my counselors and they were always there to support me and encourage me.

I am going to Duke University this fall.

I will be studying environmental engineering.

Yay, we got something.

- What is it?

It's so weird.

- MARSHALL: I love getting to share our story with a diversity of people who have no experience with land stewardship or conservation to people who are deeply devoted to that.

Just being able to connect with them on some piece of what we've done at the ranch.

[inspiring music] [gentle wind blowing] [acoustic country music] - JOHN: Every day is different and it can start out one place and end up somewhere else.

A lot of times, it's just getting up and going on a proactive patrol looking, seeing if you can find something going on and being seen and stopping and meeting people, getting to know people, that's one of the things that makes us the most effective.

And then it's little things like maybe driving down the road and somebody's fixing the fence or trying to put a cow back in and you stop and help, you know.

[window motor grinding] Maybe a window that won't roll up.

So we spend a lot of time becoming part of the community and getting to know everyone on a level where they know and trust us and they feel comfortable calling us because every time we establish one of those relationships, it, it magnifies my effectiveness at doing my job.

- RADIO HOST: 98.3 KULM, Wednesday means visit with the game warden, John Kohleffel is here.

- JOHN: I do a community radio show once a week and we talk about new laws, new regulations, just things I think people might find of interest or be not completely sure of.

All the safety equipment, the life jackets, fire extinguishers all that kind of stuff.

- Comes in, walks in every week, sits down the microphone and gets everybody caught up.

What they've been doing.

- Fishings have been real good.

- Well, I think most everyone in their community wants to know that their law enforcement officers are out there working and they're busy.

- GREGORY: Have you already said how many years it was?

- Your dad told 'em 15.

- I think it was 15, that's what I was trying to remember.

- I also do a big youth event at the Pitchford Ranch with-- we have about 800 kids come through there each year from anywhere from kindergarten through fifth grade.

- John's the one who suggested, "Hey, why don't we do this?"

So John is the major part in it.

- JOHN: So it started out as just a small handful of kids.

It belonged to the owner of the ranch, his son and me and we brought 'em out and it kind of gradually grew.

- GREGORY: Shipley's Donuts comes out here and donates all the Shipley's every morning when the kids get off the buses and mom makes 800 cupcakes a week for 'em.

- JOHN: We have helicopter demonstrations, trained canine demonstrations from the department.

- GREGORY: There's a lot of effort goes into it from the game wardens-- everybody helping, volunteering.

Everybody knows John.

John's been here his whole life.

- How are you?

- I'm good man.

- Good.

You got this guy with you?

- His mother was my school teacher in the eighth grade and she was pregnant with him when I was in eighth grade.

That's how far I go back with John.

- It's, it's huge because they'll see John in town.

"Hey John."

"Hey, when's that thing coming up?"

Or "Hey John, can we do that again next year?"

- Alright.

- Good seeing you.

- Yes sir, you too.

- BALTA: His, his word is his bond is and a handshake seals the deal.

He's old school and, and that's what we like about John because his, his whole family was old school.

- ...not be too busy, up here eating lunch.

He ought to be working today.

My grandfather was a game warden here for close to 35 years.

My dad was a game warden in Edna which is Jackson County next county over where I grew up.

I myself joined in 1997, so there's been one or two of us working for around 75 years now.

As far as I know, I'm the only third generation.

I know of quite a few two generations, fathers and sons, but I don't know of any other third-generation game wardens.

It's very gratifying to be able to play a part in so many people's lives, whatever part that is.

Like when you can help somebody, it gives you really good feeling inside.

Celebrating a century of Texas State Parks.

[upbeat music] - Here at Cooper Lake State Park, we have a little over three miles of dedicated mountain biking trails, and that's on the Coyote Run Trail.

- Hey guys.

- What's up?

- Good to see y'all.

[upbeat music] - It's a fun, fast trail which is real flowy, it's twisty and it's turny, which is good for mountain biking, it's what you like.

- You know, basically any skill level could come out here and ride, and have a, you know, have a good time.

It's all around, it's just a fun trail.

[upbeat music] - This is a fast, flowy trail.

It's a out and back loop and about four and a half miles.

It's beautiful.

And we're having some fun on the trails.

Woo-woo!

The only wildlife I'm seeing are these hoodlums I'm riding with.

- Ow!

Get it, get it, get it!

Yes.

It's been great, yeah.

It's been smooth and flowy.

There's some cool little turns and twisties and it's been great.

- Mountain biking is a lot of fun, a good stress reliever from work and other problems in life you have, might have, but it's a good release and it's good exercise.

It's good for you.

It's all around good.

Good fun.

[upbeat music] - You go out here and you take a break and you hear the leaves rustling, you hear the birds, you hear the, all the insects.

It's kinda soothing to be out here.

Woo-woo!

But on the other end of that, you got all the exhilaration of your flying past these trees at 20 miles an hour.

It's really fun.

Think Cooper Lake State Park.

It's got some great views.

Come check it out.

And if you're not into mountain biking, you should get into it.

It's a lot of fun.

[upbeat music] [insects, birds chirping] [insects, birds chirping] [insects, birds chirping] [insects, birds chirping] [insects, birds chirping] [insects, birds chirping] [insects, birds chirping] [insects, birds chirping] [insects, birds chirping] [insects, birds chirping] [insects, birds chirping] 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.