- 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... - Coming to BOW has been great.

They've got this laundry list of activities that I haven't even tried yet.

- Lake Casa Blanca, I think has a little bit of everything.

It's just a little oasis here in the city of Laredo.

- The beach has always been the place that I go to to feel calm and peaceful and joyful.

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

[bird caws] [upbeat music] - NARRATOR: Along the waters at Lake Brownwood, a special weekend is beginning to take place.

- Oh, fantastic.

[indistinct chattering] - NARRATOR: These smiling faces are arriving at the 30th year of Becoming an Outdoor Woman.

- Oh y'all are gonna be my teachers!

Awesome, awesome.

[all laugh] - This weekend is a gathering of 120 to 150 women, like-minded women that love the outdoors that are willing to experience different things.

[all cheer] - NARRATOR: What makes this anniversary unique is that BOW started here at Lake Brownwood in a distant era, the 1990s.

- As we said, these little shotgun shells are full of BBs.

- FILM NARRATOR: If it looks like something's missing here, you're right, there's talk of guns and hunting but there aren't any men around.

- NARRATOR: Thankfully, times and attitudes have changed since those early years, but the mission is still the same.

- INSTRUCTOR: This is your drawstring.

This is your grip.

- NARRATOR: Meet Christina.

- CHRISTINA: Right now we're so excited, got beginners archery.

- INSTRUCTOR: Ball of your foot almost in the middle.

- NARRATOR: This is her first time using a bow and arrow.

- Oh my God, this is gonna be so embarrassing, 'cause I'm not gonna be able to hit anything [laughs].

Doggit, too high.

At one point I thought I was dead center and it went sheeeew, sailing way over the target [laughs].

- NARRATOR: Luckily, Christina catches on pretty quickly.

[arrow thwacks] [Christina yells] [women cheer] - Yes!

[cheering] I'm ready, I'm going home now.

Coming to bow has been great because they've got this laundry list of activities that I haven't even tried yet.

[yells] Got it on the first shot!

[laughs] You going down, Veleptasarus.

And it just opened by eyes to new opportunities, and it sparked that interest and that enthusiasm.

It just being a man's world... not this day and age, sister.

[laughs] - HEIDI: We try to give a lot of good experiences like having a campfire and a s'more.

[gentle music] When they come to BOW, this is the first time they've ever had a s'more.

[indistinct chatter] So those are the things that really make these weekends special.

[gentle music] And the whole mission is to introduce basic outdoor skills in a variety of class choices and they're three-and-a-half-hour sessions.

So this program has grown over the years to where we are today.

We now offer here, at least in Texas, we offer about 50 different workshop activities and the ladies get to choose only four.

- That's okay.

Well, no, it's okay.

You'll eventually want to.

- Head down, get it to stop.

Get it to stop and then lay down.

- Hunting and fishing, more hunting though and shooting were probably traditionally male-dominated sports because of the traditional roles of women and men in families.

- NARRATOR: But, family roles are changing.

[gentle music] - HEIDI: When you hook the mom, when you hook the lady of the family, you hook the entire family.

[women cheer] When they understand the value of that, they're gonna take that back home.

- I think my husband's gonna be so happy.

[laughs] [gentle music] [birds chirp] [rain patters] - NARRATOR: Being at BOW means soaking up the outdoors all the time, rain or shine.

- Our current situation at BOW right now is we've got rain, we've got intermittent lightning, but we got a whole lot of enthusiasm.

[women laugh] [gunshot] And more importantly, we've got Jimmy, whose gonna teach us how to execute a shotgun.

- JIMMY: Head down, face forward.

- CHRISTINA: Pull.

[gunshot] Wooooo!

On the first shot!

- I told you, just go up to it and pull the trigger.

Didn't I?

- If I would give it two words to describe how I feel wrapping up the BOW weekend, I'd say, exhilarated and confident.

[gunshot] Woooo!

I got it!

Yes!

Oh, you didn't tell me I was ready-- - JIMMY: That's it, I'm leaving.

- 'Cause I started off thinking, "Oh, I don't think I can shoot a shotgun.

No, I don't think I can do this."

And I'm just excited because I was able to accomplish so much.

So I'm very proud of myself.

Annie, get your gun.

I feel like, you know, the sky literally is the limit, whether it's learning about how to identify birds or how to geocache, or how to hold a firearm.

There's something for everybody.

[gentle music] - NARRATOR: Christina has be come quite the outdoors woman since the BOW weekend.

She fished for the first time... became a Texas master naturalist... owns her own shotgun.

Becoming an outdoor woman transforms from the inside out.

[gentle music] - We're at Viking Archery in Canyon Lake.

Since April, I've been coming here.

[door chimes] It's been great for my posture and my upper body strength.

Good for my core, too.

Really been enjoying it.

It's a nice place for me to come and get away and just relax.

- NARRATOR: After several months of archery practice, Christina has found more self-confidence and peace in her life.

- You could tell?

- Uh-huh.

When she first started, she was all over the place [laughs].

[gentle music] She got stronger and started shooting her arrows and started hitting more close to the center.

[gentle music] Watch your grip.

- Coming to BOW has been great because they've just opened my eyes to new opportunities and it sparked that interest and that enthusiasm and you basically get to reinvent your life.

It just brings peace to your heart, peace to your mind, breathing the fresh air, being around the trees and nature helps you get reconnected with the important things in life.

[gentle music] [upbeat music] - Welcome to Lake Casa Blanca International State Park.

You'll find us at the southern part of Texas along the Rio Grande River.

Very natural vibe here at the lake.

It's a very peaceful area, nestled within the city of Laredo, which is an extremely busy city.

People get a chance to come out here, relax, get some quiet time, and get away from the busy city life.

- The lake itself is probably a little bit more than 1,200 square acres.

[boat motor revs] You can go boating, you can go jet skiing, you can go fishing, you can go swimming.

It's just a little oasis, if you will, yeah, here in the city of Laredo.

[upbeat music] - KIRO: We have one large 42-foot pier.

Really good crappie fishing off of the pier, good catfish fishing.

A lot of people try to get there as early as they can, pretty much spend all day there.

- SYDNEY: Honestly, I would say the fishing pier is the most popular place to go to go fishing.

Although fishing along the shoreline is probably a very close second.

[water lapping] - You see how it's wiggling like that?

That's gonna go ahead and bring the fish in.

They're gonna say, "Ooh, that looks nice.

I'm gonna eat that."

There we go.

We'll just cast it out a little ways.

And if they're there, they're gonna hit it.

[chuckles] So let's see what happens.

Now sit back and wait, relax.

[water lapping] [upbeat music] [bell ringing] - Uh.

Well, here we go.

- SYDNEY: We've got blue catfish.

We've got channel catfish.

We have crappie, carp.

We've got freshwater drum.

Once you catch a really good fish, you can take a picture and bring it into our headquarters, and we'll even post it on social media.

- It's actually a nice trail.

- It is.

- SYDNEY: So if fishing's not really your thing, we have four different hiking trails.

Our longest hiking trail is called the Mesquite Bend Trail, and I always recommend that trail for people who maybe want a little bit more of a challenging hike.

It has a lot of switchbacks, a lot of kind of tight turns, but there's lots of mesquite trees everywhere, lots of prickly pair cacti, really good for wildlife viewing.

You'll get white-tailed deer, armadillos, javelina, just to name a few of the different types of mammals that we have here.

- We really like to come out here and just regroup after a long day.

- What you can expect is very clean trails, hot weather, but you get a good sweat, so that's a good thing.

- It's a great place for a family to come, 'cause you have biking, you have hiking, you have fishing, and it's a fun full day of different things to do.

- What I like best about hiking is that I get to enjoy it with my wife, yeah.

[gentle music] - KIRO: We have lot of bird watchers that come in through the park, and it's a great destination to do some bird watching.

- The least grebe is a type of unique bird that you can find here at the park.

They will build their nests on top of the water, and they'll usually lay about four to six eggs.

And soon after the young hatch, they're able to swim.

But usually find the young on top of the parents' back as they hunt and look for food.

Lake Casa Blanca, I think, has a little bit of everything, so you can go hiking, you can go biking.

We've got geocaching.

We've got wildlife viewing, tons of birds, so you can go bird watching.

You would definitely not be born here at Lake Casa Blanca.

- KIRO: A great place to visit, a great place to come and camp.

A great place to come fish, enjoy some wildlife activities.

So look forward to having everyone come out and enjoy the park.

[insects chirping] [gentle music] - The longleaf pine has been a part of our culture for many centuries.

It's a very important species to our people.

We would use the trees to make our cabins.

We would use the needles to make our baskets.

So, you know, it's very important that we move that tradition down 'cause once we lose that information, we lose part of our culture.

And the same thing happens to the species.

If we lose that species, it's no longer part of our culture.

[gentle music] When you see a basket and you open it up, you look in there, there's nothing in there except you can see the weaving.

But it's not empty.

The basket is full of love.

It's full of happiness.

It's important to have those thoughts.

Let's be thankful for the Creator giving us these longleaf pine trees to be able to continue with this legacy.

[gentle music] - SHAWN: Longleaf pine is the historic tree of the south from Florida to East Texas and then up into the Carolinas.

What once was 90 million acres was logged out, and by the early 1900s was virtually lost from the landscape.

I mean, looking at 98% loss of this species.

And I call it the tree that fire built.

Without fire, you don't have longleaf.

Fire suppression, or removing fire from the landscape, has attributed to the loss of this habitat that needs fire to exist.

- GESSE: For our people, we use fire as a tool to clear the brush, keep trails open, trade routes open.

We used it as a hunting technique.

We used it to keep the woods healthy.

Just maintain a healthy ecosystem in the area where you're living.

Taking a lot of that, applying it to what we're doing today, we want to make sure that these longleaf pines are stimulated, make sure they have some good growth.

I personally wanted to bring this resource back to the tribe, make it readily accessible, and then take advantage of, you know, the longleaf that is here.

- SHAWN: The partnership with the Alabama-Coushatta, we really partnered to get fire on the landscape together.

You can't do this work alone, so you're gonna need all the players and all the partners to ultimately put more acres in longleaf here in southeast Texas.

- With the Nature Conservancy and Alabama-Coushatta tribe, when you look at their goals, what's beneficial for them, and you meld it together, it makes a beautiful story.

If enough people care about anything, they can make wonderful things happen.

And that's happening with the longleaf restoration efforts.

- GESSE: We have this valuable resource right here.

You know, this is the woods that we grew up in.

To know that I could use my talents, my skills, to improve our lands, it really means a lot to me to have this resource for the benefit of the tribe.

[wind blows] [gentle music] - People don't normally think of a tree as a threatened species.

Usually, folks are thinking of a snake or a bird.

This species having three percent or so remaining of what once was.

Yeah, just as important to bring back in the system for generations to see and experience.

The Nature Conservancy owns and manages almost 6,000 acres of longleaf pine at the Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary in Silsbee, Texas.

I've worked here for 15 years, so this is really not only my job, but really my lifestyle.

This is kinda my backyard.

I've done this work and seen these management units change and improve over time.

Longleaf is my life, for sure.

This is the native landscape.

This is truly what East Texas is supposed to look like out here.

[gentle music] - In our culture, a lot of our history is passed down orally.

A great deal of it wasn't written down anywhere.

And for us, it was our elders and our family, it was their way of teaching us why things are the way they are.

- Without her teaching and her passing it on to us, the culture wouldn't be where it's at today.

- The weaving is all right here.

Everything that goes on in your head, it goes in here.

You wrap it up.

- We face a crisis when we lose an elder because there's stories and history that is no longer available.

We wouldn't know how to use a longleaf if that information was never brought down to us.

- KK: When you're talking about longleaf pine, of course, you're talking about revitalizing that species to still be here for future generations.

You want them to have the same strength in our customs, our traditions that our previous generations, our ancestors had.

[gentle music] [waves crashing, boat engine revs] [birds chirping] [water splashing] [birds chirping] - ALIA: This is definitely my happy place.

The beach has always been the place I go to to feel calm and peaceful and joyful.

And I think we're passing on that tradition to our kids, too, every time we come to South Padre Island.

It's really awesome because Padre has miles and miles of beaches.

The kids love to boogie board.

Sometimes we love to walk up and down the beach for a really long time.

They love digging in the sand.

They just have a lot of activities.

They have the best time.

[kids yelling] And we've got a really fun day planned.

First, we're going to go out on a boat and we're gonna go snorkeling and a shell beach later today.

The kids are very excited to go.

[waves crashing] We come here with our family and my sister's family, and it's a tradition that we do every year, and it's just really fun for the kids.

It's a nice familiar vacation spot that we love to come to every summer.

Ready to get on the boat?

- KID: Oh, yeah!

- Hey, guys, welcome aboard.

My name's Chris, I'll be your captain.

This is my first mate, Anthony.

We'll be taking you out on today's adventure.

Welcome aboard, guys.

- ALIA: We're also trying snorkeling this year, which the kids have never done, and they're very excited about.

[flippers tapping] - Who's excited to get in?

- I am!

- Yay!

- All right, let's go.

[upbeat music] - Diver down.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - I saw a fish down there.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ - I love getting out there with the kids, giving them new experiences, seeing their eyes just light up with all that enjoyment.

That was fun.

[birds squawking] [water lapping] This afternoon, we're going to go up to Seashell Beach.

It's on the north side of South Padre and we're going to go pick out some seashells, let the kids find their favorites.

- KID: Let's go!

- VICTOR: I'm excited about that.

Traveling, for us, it means bonding, getting the kids together with you and letting them experience time away from normal life, a little bit out of their comfort zone, and just let them see it.

- Wait, doesn't this sound like the ocean?

Here.

- Wow, that's good!

- Yeah!

- I hear it!

[waves crashing] [feet pattering] Wait for me!

- ALIA: My sister and I were both raised with the idea that just family is everything, and so every summer to come to the beach and spend this time together as a family, it's just really, really special time for us and we look forward to it every year.

- Wow!

- The sunset, it's pretty!

- Yeah.

Look at the beach!

- That's great.

- That's great, that's great.

[gentle music] - What a beautiful day.

Coming to an end.

- BOY: I love days like these.

- SABIA: Me too.

- ALIA: A great day, guys.

- SABIA: It was a beautiful day.

[waves crashing] [wind blowing, birds chirping] [wind blowing, birds chirping] [wind blowing, birds chirping] [wind blowing, birds chirping] [wind blowing, birds chirping] [wind blowing, birds chirping] [wind blowing, birds chirping] [wind blowing, birds chirping] [wind blowing, birds chirping] [wind blowing, birds chirping] [wind blowing, birds chirping] [wind blowing, birds chirping] [wind blowing, 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.