- NARRATOR: 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.

Coming up on Texas Parks & Wildlife... - This is just the pure essence of what's great about being outdoors.

- Hi!

- That's about the average size of an alligator egg.

- You don't let your guard down!

- People like to come here to relax.

It's not real hectic and busy.

It's nice and serene and quiet.

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

[upbeat music] - CHRISTY SEALS: It's gonna feel kinda natural, the shapes are going to be organic.

- ANDEE CHAMBERLAIN: This kind of stuff that our society discards as trash can be upcycled into something creative and new and interesting.

- NARRATOR: What is now an empty spot of shade at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, will soon be transformed into a playground.

Andee Chamberlain, and Christy Seals are building this one-of-a-kind playscape.

It's something they've never done before.

- CHRISTY: Where are all my two by sixes, that's what I want to know!

So, this is day number one of actual on the ground, were building this thing, it's real.

Here is the new layout.

Stage at this end.

- ANNALISE REICHERT: Here's this next marker!

- CHRISTY: OK.

There's a lot of thinking and like putting our thoughts now that we've had on paper onto the ground.

I think that's kind of the shape of the neck!

- NARRATOR: In less than a month, this will be a playscape paradise as part of the nature center's annual Fortlandia project.

- It caught our attention at Texas Parks and Wildlife because it encourages outdoor play.

Brings kids outside, and so it's something that we thought we should get involved in.

- CHRISTY: We've got 21 days.

Each day we'll chip away at it.

Okay, were figuring this thing out today and then tomorrow well figure out the next thing.

So I'm feeling good, I usually feel good!

[thunder rumbles] - NARRATOR: Day two has a stormy start, but free supplies can't wait.

- ANDEE: We are at the Austin Resource Recovery facility.

Yeah so what I'm thinking is we set em up as best as we can.

- VOLUNTEER: One roll at a time!

[laughs] - We're going to upcycle them by taking them, instead of recycling them, and reusing them for our project.

So, these tires are actually gonna become the base of our fort.

- VOLUNTEER: Efficiency that's what we're after here!

- ANDEE: How many did you guys fit in?

Fifty?!

What, we might have to do only one trip!

It feels really good to upcycle these tires.

[sighs] It's expensive to recycle and so it costs the state and the taxpayers money, and so when we can find a better use for it, all the better for everybody.

- CHRISTY: Kids could walk on top of them, that's the idea.

- NARRATOR: It's Christy's job to come up with the plan for those tires.

- Maybe we'll have fangs!

What would be a cool fort that my kid would like to play on, that other kids would like to play on, that ties in with Parks and Wildlife with our conservation mission.

Let's do a rattlesnake.

How could we make a rattlesnake, and then let's do a fort that uses as little new materials as possible.

The head element's going to be interesting too, because it will be the one element that kind of rises off the ground.

- NARRATOR: A challenging twist is that the fort has to be temporary.

- We want to find a home for this, so we need it to be easy to disassemble and reassemble.

So the design has to reflect that.

Five foot ten and one half.

[saw whirs] How are you going to build a circular wood deck?

- VOLUNTEER: Perfect!

- CHRISTY: With volunteers, and not very complicated tools, quickly.

We came up with the idea of doing it as like a pie.

You got everything, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Nice!

[drill whirs] - Whoa.

- ANNALISE: Trying to do 15 today, that would be ideal.

It is pretty hard to puncture a tire when you are trying to puncture it!

Whew!

It's definitely hurting my hand, my hands a little tired.

- NARRATOR: Not to worry, week two brings reinforcements.

- CHRISTY: So, this is the first day with American Youthworks on site!

- VOLUNTEER: Yeah, that's good!

- MEAGAN: Let's get this tire party started.

- CHRISTY: Get it started!

[drill whirs] They have a lot of energy and a lot of strength.

They are doing things like we were like ugh, and they were like bsht, bsht, bsht!

- ANDREW KUCERA: All righty, that's a lot of work putting that bolt through there!

- CHRISTY: We're very encouraged that things are going to go quickly, and they are pretty enthusiastic about it.

- NARRATOR: The team keeps the snake together.

- I don't know if this is tight enough!

- NARRATOR: By upcycling old climbing rope.

- KELLY WEST: Yeah, so usually like climbing rope kinda has a life limit to it!

- CJ: People get creative with it!

Looks pretty nice!

- MEAGAN: CJ, you want some reps I'm getting kind of tired!

- CJ: Yeah sure!

- MEAGAN: It's been a lot of like think and go on your feet which is really cool!

- CHRISTY: We told them, we have it 80% figured out but if you guys have some bright ideas about how to do things differently or better, like we are all ears.

- MEAGAN: Oh no, no, no!

I probably need to come over here!

I think it's super exciting to see a space being created for kids to like enjoy outside, you don't know what they're school situation is like, so may not have that playground accessibility, but then having like this access space here!

Makes me super happy!

[upbeat music] [wind] - ANNALISE: We're getting there, we're getting closer!

[laughter] We're kind of creating a rattle with recycled water bottles and some recycled glass.

And that's why I really like this rattle tail, it's 100% upcycled.

[laughing] - ANDEE: We are in the home stretch, just a few more days until opening night.

Final touches of drilling down the deck and then we're going to seal it so that it stays nice and shiny for all the kids who are going to be running on it!

One, two!

We've had quite a few folks volunteer and help us out!

- CHRISTY: Can you see it, yeah!

- ANDEE: So snaky!

- CHRISTY: Yeah team!

I'm super happy right now, it totally is working!

- Oh, we just need the head, worse case, we'll just use these as eyeballs.

- NARRATOR: As other forts wrap up, there is growing concern here.

They are still missing their centerpiece.

- Right now, it just kinda looks like a worm.

But once it has a head, it's gonna look like a snake!

- I think it's gonna get here without issue, but that is the last piece that we're waiting on.

[metal door clanging] - NARRATOR: Eric Vitela's up against the clock.

- ERIK VITELA: This is when I think the magic happens.

- NARRATOR: He's got a day to get all the metal parts of the snake cut and ready to go.

- ERIK: We're going to actually bend it in strategic spots to contour the tires.

[energetic music] Each one of these will be staggered like so, and then we're going to have the body of the snake go a little bit higher.

There's no doubt there going to be out there crawling on it, ya know, treating this thing as if it was a live snake and letting their imagination run wild!

[energetic music] - CHRISTY: All the pieces are on there.

It looks really good!

Look at that it's going to step, step, step, step.

It's pretty cool!

- ERIK: Yeah, here's the fangs!

- CHRISTY: Beautiful!

- ANDEE: Oh my god it is heavy!

- CHRISTY: Woohoo.

Oh this is exciting!

- ERIK: Oh man, it's awesome!

I'm blown away!

I had no idea of the magnitude of size.

Ya know having done something so tangible and so much fun.

Gives you the warm fuzzies.

- So, these are just handholds!

I care about this, I care about who's going to use it, I care about how it gets put together, I care about what it's made of!

[laughing] - CHRISTY: So that when people come out here and enjoy it, they will like feel that love and joy popping out!

- CHRISTY: Hold on, no because, it's not going up!

- ANDEE: Oh, and then the eyes go up there!

Yeah, I got it!

Tomorrow's opening, so we're going to keep working as long as we've got some light.

I think we'll sleep a lot better if we put in a few more hours tonight and try to get it as best done as possible.

[upbeat music] - ANDEE: Opening day!

We're here!

We did it!

- CHRISTY: And I really love how it's snaking through the trees!

- ANDEE: Uh, huh!

- We are no longer rattled, wha wha, because it's happening, it's real, the kids are on it, they're playing.

There we go!

He's going up!

They're doing things which we did not expect which is what we kind of hoped for.

- ANDEE: Oh, he does it just fine!

- CHRISTY: He did it no problem!

- ANDEE: It's super cool!

- DAD: It's a rattle for a rattlesnake!

- CHRISTY: So there's all this discovery I think in ours at these different scales!

Oh, it's just, it's great!

Kids are happier, healthier and smarter when they spend time outside.

Um, we know that from research!

- Hi!

- ANDEE: So, this provides an opportunity for kids to be outside and get happier, healthier and smarter!

- CHRISTY: This is just the pure essence of what's great about being outdoors!

It is creating a place where people can just take a moment outside to enjoy themselves and really get in touch with that inner place where we all are playful.

The more we can create opportunities where people get in touch with that, then the better, the better it's all going to be!

[light wind] [motor revving] [upbeat music] - This park is kind of special to me.

Me growing up here as a kid, it's always been a part of my life.

The alligator's kind of the mascot of this beautiful park.

The main thing is just monitoring the nest.

It gives you a way to gauge the health of the population here in the park.

You'll kinda look and you'll start seeing a trail where she's coming back and forth, kind of tending that nest.

I just know... - NARRATOR: Barry Eversole is the longest serving Game Warden with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and his son, Cord, is a biologist with Stephen F. Austin University.

Together, these two gator guardians are going on the ultimate egg hunt.

They are here to study the nesting habits of the American alligator.

[frogs chirping] [mud squishes] - It's nice to get out of the office, for one.

So I spend a lot of time, you know, analyzing data and writing and, you know, doing office type stuff.

So that's probably the number one thing is, it's a chance to be outside and actually interact with the things that, you know, that I teach about, that I spend so much time studying and writing about.

[alligators chirping] I took an interest in not only alligators, but reptiles and wildlife kind of in general as a kid.

So I always knew I wanted to be a biologist.

Grew up here just a few minutes from the park.

So alligators were kind of just a normal part of life growing up having, you know, my dad is a Game Warden, and he was always dealing with some of the nuisance alligator calls as part of his day-to-day.

And, you know, it's always kind of cool.

It's like, oh, that's my dad.

- BARRY: I'd go catch an alligator, I'd stop by the house, show the kid.

Then he started volunteering out here at the park and everything else, and then ends up into grad school and decides his research project's gonna be based on alligators.

It was just kind of a natural fit.

[frogs and insects chirping] When he starts messing with that nest, he's got to concentrate.

He's got his head down in that nest and he can't look around.

So that's kind of what my job is, to be to the lookout and make sure that that female doesn't sneak up on him and you don't let your guard down.

[insects buzzing] - So once we find kind of where they are, then you can just kind of gently pull back the vegetation, and you do have to be really careful with the eggs.

That's about the average size of an alligator egg.

I've seen some, a little bigger, a little bit smaller.

My guess is that these are probably high quality eggs.

Here at Brazos Bend, the clutch size on average is about 30.

- BARRY: There's some of them that are cracked.

- CORD: Within the next couple of weeks, they're gonna be hatching.

[upbeat music] - NARRATOR: Once they've collected the eggs, they'll incubate them using the same methods as the female American alligator, compost.

[upbeat music] - You don't wanna rush 'em.

The mulch is going through that decaying process.

It's hot, it's humid.

We're creating, we're falsely creating the nest, the environment in the nest is what's happening.

All the visitors out at the park really like seeing the hatchling alligators.

They can see them up close, and they can use them as an educational tool.

- MONSTE: Working with the hatchlings is a really special and unique experience.

Being able to help take care of them for the year, year and a half that they stay with us, it's really rewarding.

In here I have the two hatchling alligators that we're gonna be releasing today.

They're ready to go back out into the wild.

Whenever I put him down, you're probably gonna hear him chirping a lot.

That's a call for distress for their mother.

[hatchling chirping] They've just been moved from a tank that they've been in for about a year to this whole new environment.

[hatchling chirping] - CORD: The thing that's really, I think, kind of kept my interest in alligators is that what I do on a day-to-day allows me to go out in the field with my dad.

- BARRY: I'm very proud of him.

As a father, to be able to work with his son in this type of environment is a rarity, and I feel fortunate to work with him in all the stuff we've done over the years.

Not very many people get to do what I get to do.

[gentle music] Celebrating a century of Texas State Parks.

[gentle music] ♪ ♪ - Buescher State Park's just a really special place to be because people like to come here to relax, you know, we're not real hectic and busy like a lot of other parks you might find, it's nice and serene and quiet.

[gentle music] Here at Buescher we have a 30-acre lake, and it's a really great size to bring the family and put in a canoe or kayak- we have those available too if you'd like.

[gentle music] - Last year I caught 24-inch bass here.

About two o-clock, young bass active, and around four o-clock, big bass active.

Oh, he caught a fish over there.

Yeah, baby catfish.

- JAMIE: These cabins are really great because it allows you to come out and have that natural experience with nature.

- KID: Quack, quack!

- You see some ducks down there.

- JAMIE: So you can uh, have all the comforts of home while enjoying that we have to offer.

- Feathers!!!

- And they've got feathers on em!

Yeah, we woke up this morning and looked out, and we didn't even know the water was here.

We looked out and this was all up high, and, it's gorgeous!

[footsteps] - Buescher State Park has an eight-mile hiking trail, starts out in the post oak woodland, which is an area that consists mostly of hardwood trees.

[pileated woodpecker calls] You have beautiful fall color, and then it makes a big loop and goes up into the lost pines ecosystem.

- HIKER: That's a beautiful view from here.

- ZAINA: Yeah, it's a great place to watch for birds!

- BIKER: Turning!

- JAMIE: We have a scenic park road One C that connects Bastrop State Park to Buescher State Park, and we have local cyclists who come out and enjoy taking that ride because it's a beautiful stretch of road with some nice challenging hills.

- It's about 12 miles long in between the two parks, so if you make a round trip, you've got 24 miles that you've cycled.

So it's a very good workout, very intense.

[gentle music] - JAMIE: There's a lot of people who've never come and discovered us here.

We're this hidden gem that people just don't know about, so I would encourage everybody to come out and see what we have to offer.

It's a really nice peaceful place.

[gentle music] - MONTSE: It turns into what looks like a little brown banana.

And that's what this is.

Our job as interpreters is to educate the public and build stewards for outdoor places like this.

- Traditionally it's a lot of live in-person connection, face-to-face.

- At that point I was running about 220 programs for about, about 14,000 people a year at the park.

- You're interacting with the audience, you're making it really personable.

And that really sticks to people.

[somber music] - JOEL: When COVID hit, we went overnight from in-person programs to no programs at all.

- So suddenly we had nothing to do.

And for me what that became it's, how do I bring my job back?

How can I continue to do that, connect to the audiences, continue to bring the park to our visitors.

[upbeat music] And then that kind of sparked that idea of videos.

- Hi, my name is David Heinicke and I'm a park volunteer here at Brazos Bend State Park.

- MONTSE: I got my phone, I got a microphone from Amazon, and I grabbed one of the volunteers and said, let's, let's do a program.

- Today, we're gonna do one of my favorite programs and that's the "Pond Life Program" out here.

So we're gonna go get some samples and we'll be back with you guys here in just a minute.

- MONTSE: And we did the program called "Pond Life Program" where we actually go out to the lakes with big nets, scoop a lot of stuff out of them, stick it on a table and saw this vegetation.

And we have a wet table and we dig through it with tweezers.

And we walk the audience through the whole process.

- DAVID: This is called a stink pot turtle or a musk turtle.

- MONTSE: And it became a big success.

- DAVID: Yellow stripes down the side of his neck.

[ding] - So then we were like, that was awesome.

Let's do it again.

So we did another program.

Hello everyone.

My name is Montse with Brazos Bend State Park.

- Hello everyone.

This is Park Ranger Jordan here at Galveston Island State Park.

- Hi everyone.

Ranger Sarah here.

- And then we were like, okay, this is working.

Let's do more.

- It's supposed to be windy.

- LOUISA: It's a pretty steep learning curve.

- JOEL: Oops, sorry dude.

- LOUISA: There's a lot of equipment involved.

- Grow by the inch.

And they- I didn't know how to edit.

I kinda made it up as they went along.

- JOEL: But ultimately, the outtakes turned out to be some of the coolest takes of my videos.

[guitar music] - By sitting... Really?

- MONTSE: And slowly but surely we adapted.

And Texas Parks and Wildlife kind of took in on it and was like, this is great, let's do more.

But once we started doing videos-- - JOHN: Lisa Jean, go ahead and take it from here.

- MONTSE: We said, let's work together.

And it increased the camaraderie between the parks.

Because then we were going to each other's parks.

- Hi, I'm Ranger John Herron from Huntsville State Park.

- I'm Ranger Sarah from Sheldon Lake State Park.

- And I'm Ranger Joel and we are here at the beautiful Lake Livingston State Park.

- Collaboration has just gone through the roof with distance learning.

- JOHN: I think our first collaboration was myself and Montse from Brazos Bend.

And we did a leave no trace video.

- You look a little over-prepared, don't you think?

He got me to act a little bit on there, to go hit him on the head with a stick, you know... - Owww!

- and laugh about it.

To just kinda have fun and relax with it.

- JOHN: Then we did a larger collaboration with Jordan from Galveston Island State Park when she was, when she was the interpreter there.

And Montse, Jordan, and myself, all did on kayaking.

- JOEL: The public's reaction to our videos was overwhelmingly positive.

We saw people start joining our programs locally and then it went worldwide to multiple countries.

- People loved it.

And it was the first time we got to see how our rangers were almost like celebrities.

And people wanted to meet them in person after seeing them virtually.

- JOEL: So I'm in like the local Walmart or the local grocery store and it's like people come up, Ranger Joel, how you doing?

I saw your video on primitive fires last week.

You know, the staff is melting out here, whoo!

- MONTSE: We are increasing the radius of where this mission for Parks and Wildlife goes.

It's no longer just in the parks and it's no longer only the people that happen to show up at the parks will know this mission and will know what we're doing.

Now, everyone does.

[guitar music] So video making has just really increased what we can do.

[laughing] [frogs and crickets chirp] [frogs and crickets chirp] [frogs and crickets chirp] [water lapping] [birds chirp, coyotes yipping] [birds chirp] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [crickets chirp] [crickets chirp] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] - NARRATOR: 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.