- 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 provided by the Toyota Tundra.

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

Adventure: it's what we share.

- NARRATOR: Coming up on Texas Parks and Wildlife... - I don't think a lot of people think about seeds as living creatures, but that's exactly what they are.

- Their vision was not Yellowstone or Yosemite, it was a park every 100 miles.

- Operation Game Thief is an example of when citizens help Texas Game Wardens protect our natural resources.

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

[gentle music] - I don't think a lot of people think about seeds as living creatures, but that's exactly what they are.

They encapsulate a future generation.

That seed enables that plant, that plant population to persist beyond just that individual.

Collecting and banking seed is important in the context of plant conservation because it essentially retains the genetic diversity of that population that you have collected from.

The banking of seed can allow for future research to be conducted on that particular species.

Banking that seed allows for a reintroduction of populations that are destroyed.

But if we have a backup of that population in the form of the seed, then we can reintroduce that population back into the wild at some later point.

- It's the reason my knees will never be the same.

I have old seed collector knees.

I'm Minnette Marr.

I am conservation botanist and research associate for Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

In most of Texas, the rate of development is just very rapid.

And even some of the plants that would have been very common here 50 years ago are becoming more and more uncommon.

Ideally, we would be able to preserve enough habitat to have robust populations of these species.

Sometimes that is just simply not possible.

It is possible that the only way we can save that species is to seed bank it, and hopefully restore the habitat or find similar habitat where the species can be grown out.

These seeds look good.

One of the species that was a target for me was Malvastrum Aurantiacum or commonly known as Wright's false mallow.

That had been mentioned as a common species in the area about 80 years earlier.

And when we started looking for that, we simply could not find it.

So this species occurs in just a portion of Texas, three of the ecoregions: Texas Blackland Prairie, the Edwards Plateau, the Western Gulf Coastal Plain.

In some years, those three regions experience really dry times.

Most of the wildflowers will just go dormant.

But the Wright's false mallow is one of the few species that is producing pollen in the driest time of the year, and so for those solitary bees that are collecting pollen, that can make a difference for them.

So it was really important to me if we could get that species and make it available for restoration purposes.

Looks good.

If every group that is interested in native plants, whether it's a garden club or a butterfly club, if each one of them would take one species and make a seed collection this year to share with the members in their group and their local schools, we could make sure that many species that are endemic don't end up being species of greatest conservation need.

[camera clicks] - ANNA: The more we know about rare and common species in the state of Texas or in our own counties, the better prepared we can be to conserve and protect these species.

[bee buzzes] - DISPATCHER: Two males taking undersized snook in a white Ford.

- GAME WARDEN: How's it goin', game warden.

Did you catch any fish?

- ANGLER: Yeah.

- GAME WARDEN: Okay.

Can you get out so I can check your license and fish?

What'd y'all catch?

- This particular game warden did an excellent job.

You know, he responded to the Operation Game Thief call that he was provided by dispatch.

These individuals were actually taking fish that were undersized and oversized.

- GAME WARDEN: You know the limit on snook, right?

Y'all caught shrimp here?

- ANGLER: Yeah, there were a lot last night.

- GAME WARDEN: It's illegal to catch shrimp.

All this is a nursery.

You can't be catching shrimp.

- ANGLER: Oh, really?

- GAME WARDEN: Yeah.

- ANGLER: All right, we'll leave all that.

- GAME WARDEN: You got these oysters, too?

- ANGLER: Yeah.

- GAME WARDEN: Okay, it's illegal to get oysters right now, this is a closed area.

[birds squawking] - KEVIN: So, it's very important as an angler when you're out there fishing that you know the bag limits and the size limits.

- GAME WARDEN: Yeah, this one's a little too big.

[water splashing] - And the reason we have these regulations is obviously to protect the sustainability of these resources.

- GAME WARDEN: Is that all the fish y'all have?

- ANGLER: Yeah.

- GAME WARDEN: Nothing else?

Nothing else, nothing in the vehicle, nothing?

Okay.

No other fish?

- ANGLER: That's it.

- GAME WARDEN: Nothin' in the truck?

Look inside real quick.

- KEVIN: And the cherry on top was the fact that they had a oversized speckled trout concealed in the vehicle that they tried to hide from the game warden.

- GAME WARDEN: Y'all think this is my first day or what, man?

Come on.

I asked is there any more fish.

Watch you grab it.

[handcuffs clicking] I know you grab a fish.

I saw you.

You committed a crime.

And when you grabbed that fish and put it back in there, that's why y'all were detained.

You obviously have a oversized snook, over the limit of snook.

Undersized snook, oversized trout, and then oysters, too.

It's a restricted area.

[dramatic music] [siren sounding] - KEVIN: You know, there's 550 game wardens in the state, 254 counties.

We can't be everywhere.

Operation Game Thief is an example of when citizens help Texas game wardens protect our natural resources.

- GAME WARDEN: Looks like you had a pretty good morning.

- HUNTER: Yes, sir.

- KEVIN: If you're out in the field and you see someone out there committing a violation, whether it's hunting, fishing, or boating, please contact Operation Game Thief.

Report wildlife crimes.

And if the individual is convicted of the violation that you reported, you could receive up to a $1,000 reward to help us protect those natural resources for future generations.

[intense music] - NARRATOR: The diversity of Texas State Parks is breathtaking.

From the Cypress swamps of Caddo Lake to the Piney Forest of East Texas to the wide expanse of the high desert to the rugged mountains of Big Bend, the diversity is unparalleled by any other state.

- I mean, we have beautiful landscapes.

I mean, you think of the biggies like Palo Duro, like Davis Mountains, Indian Lodge at Davis Mountains or Caddo Lake.

I mean, those are spectacular spots.

- I think the terrain in Texas is as diverse as its people.

- NARRATOR: Texas State Parks have been established so long that we feel as though they were always here just waiting for us to enjoy.

But the preservation of these wild spaces was not always a certainty.

Before the parks could become a reality, it would take the spirit of a national movement, the efforts of hundreds of men and women, and one of the worst economic disasters in national history to create the state parks as we know them.

All these forces would be brought together by the dogged persistence of a quiet attorney from Waco, whose detractors claimed had never fired a gun or baited a hook in his life.

- [man quoting Neff] "A parks system would afford a place where people might go and forget the anxiety and strife and vexation of life's daily grind," Governor Pat Neff, 1923.

[classic music] [car engine revving] - NARRATOR: In the early part of the 20th century, Texas had no tourist infrastructure.

Without hotels, restaurants, and gas stations, motorists simply camped out wherever they stopped at the end of the day.

Governor Pat Neff saw an opportunity.

His vision was to create a series of wayside stations, building campgrounds for Texans who, like himself, loved to travel by automobile.

[classic music] - Their vision was not Yellowstone or Yosemite or Glacier or anything like that.

It was small stops along roads where people could rest, picnic, maybe camp.

- NARRATOR: In 1923, Governor Neff persuaded the legislature to create the State Parks Board.

There were to be six members, two journalists, three women, and a South Texas rancher, all unpaid.

Neff and the newly appointed parks board crusaded across the state in an effort to promote his wayside park idea and to solicit donations of land.

Following the wishes of his mother, Isabella, Neff and his family set an example by donating a small pecan grove along the Leon River.

The small tract of land would eventually grow to become Mother Neff State Park.

- Pat Neff wanted a park every hundred miles, he said.

- NARRATOR: Neff reported that in the course of one year, he and the parks board traveled over 8,000 miles and received in donations 52 tracts of land.

- The deal, I think, the state parks board would make with communities was that if they would donate a park, land for a park, then the state would provide both whatever infrastructure was required for the site, but also manage it.

And I'm certain that the people in those communities saw those early state parks as both amenities, but also economic generators for the community.

- NARRATOR: To develop these donations into usable parks, he asked the state legislature for $50,000, which he did not get.

- The legislature, imagine, they don't know what parks are.

It's coming from a new mandate?

Another something else we have to fund?

- NARRATOR: But the State Parks Board was undaunted.

For the next decade, they would continue to campaign for land and donations, but with little progress.

No one could have predicted that the nation's Great Depression would have a silver lining for Texas State Parks.

[bell chiming] The stock market crash of 1929 threw the country into economic chaos.

With millions of people unemployed, the country needed hope.

They found their hope in Franklin D. Roosevelt and the CCC, the Civilian Conservation Corps.

- The kinds of infrastructure that we now associate with state parks began with construction by the CCC.

- The CCC really started the backbone that gave us the structure and platform of our modern state park system.

- The Interior Department, through the National Park Service, brought the expertise and a large part of the funding.

- NARRATOR: Governor Ma Ferguson granted the Parks Board a sum of $25,000.

It was the first time they had received any funding at all.

The State Parks Board was delighted.

For 10 years, they had carried the dream of a state parks system, mostly at their own expense.

Now, because of state funding and because of the labor of the CCC, that dream was becoming a reality.

[birds chirping] [gentle music] - When you go to Palmetto State Park and you see the refectory, when you see the walkways, when you see the culverts and the footbridges, that's all CCC.

[gentle music] - And they did a fantastic job with the design and construction of a lot of their buildings and those are historical features now, and a lot of them are still around because of the craftsmanship that the men of the CCC showed.

- The arrival of the CCC was a godsend to the establishment of what we now know as a state park system.

[gentle music] [explosions] - FDR: Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.

- NARRATOR: With the United States' entry into the war, everything changed.

- The funding ceased, even though FDR wanted to make the Civilian Conservation Corps a permanent agency, Congress declined.

- NARRATOR: Men, money, and machines were all dedicated to the war effort.

But the parks continued to see use.

- Troops were allowed to do maneuvers at parks, so it wasn't as if people fled and parks were empty during World War II.

The parks were being used even though there was gas rationing.

That just meant that people, Texans, could not go far.

And so they would go to state parks.

- NARRATOR: Texas State Parks were seeing increasing numbers of visitors each year, but state funding was still sparse.

[classic music] - There was a little bit of movement with money from concessionaires, for example, and some increased funding.

- NARRATOR: But the parks continued to be severely understaffed.

Acquisition of new land for parks had reached a standstill.

But in the early 1950s, nature would play a role in giving the parks a boost.

Some say it began as early as 1947.

Gradually lower rainfall, combined with record heat, thrust 75% of the state into drought conditions.

It would become known as the Drought of Record.

[wind whirring] - What we did after the Drought of Record, which was comparable to the Depression in terms of its adverse impact on the life in times of the state, was that we went out and we built about 200 reservoirs across the state during the '50s, and the '60s, and the '70s.

[explosion] Many of those reservoirs were also developed as recreation areas through the establishment of state parks.

And so the next major era was the establishment of state parks in places like Lake Ray Roberts and others across the state.

- NARRATOR: Although the State Parks Board had been around for 40 years, it still struggled with funding, was still under-staffed, and was described by then-Governor, John Connally, as being "sick to the point of dying."

To solve this, Connally merged the State Parks Board and the Game and Fish Commission.

On August 23rd, 1963, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department was officially created.

Connally then took on the task of solving the ever-present problem of funding.

- One of the things that John Connolly did as governor was to spearhead efforts to establish the only bond issue that Texans have ever passed for the purpose of purchasing and establishing state parks.

- NARRATOR: In addition, the State Legislature implemented a tax on cigarette sales which would go directly to the state parks.

- And that to me, ushered in what we know as the golden era.

- NARRATOR: Many of the state's most beloved parks were developed during this time.

Between 1963 and 1988, the department developed more than 70 parks and historical sites.

- This is Garner State Park, may I help you.

- NARRATOR: In the 1990s, technology began to play a significant role in management of the parks.

- Perhaps one of the major innovations that occurred during the 1990s in state parks that enhanced the ability of average citizens to use them is the establishment of the electronic reservation system.

- In the past, you show up at a park and we got as many people in as we could get in.

But what we discovered is that that can have a detrimental impact on the ecosystem.

So we really had to start to balance how many people that were coming to the park with preserving the natural habitat, but also preserving the visitor experience.

- NARRATOR: As Texans became more environmentally aware, the focus on land acquisition by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department also expanded.

- Up until the mid 70s, parks have been largely considered primarily for outdoor recreation.

And so we began in that time to acquire areas that were primarily set aside for their natural resources.

[waves lapping] - NARRATOR: Texas Parks and Wildlife continues its mission to acquire, develop, and preserve tracts of land throughout the state.

Several new parks are scheduled to open in the coming years.

One park on the cusp of opening is the wild and pristine Powderhorn Ranch.

- Well, I think Powderhorn is an important piece of our inventory for the state park system because it provides recreational opportunity in an ecosystem that we don't have very much of.

We're thinking about overnight camping.

- NARRATOR: Park planners will incorporate everything they have learned over the past 100 years to find the best balance of park access and habitat conservation.

- This coastal area is very beautiful and it provides a lot of habitat, a lot of natural resources that people will enjoy for a long time, so it's a great addition to add to the diversity of the landscapes that we have in the state park system in Texas.

[gentle music] - NARRATOR: Since the beginning, the State Parks of Texas have been the result of the hard work and dedication of the people who made them.

The parks continue to thrive because of individuals who are dedicated to the preservation and conservation of the natural and cultural resources of Texas.

- I guess there's probably no state as passionate as Texas about its identity, and a lot of that is rooted in our appreciation and protection of the places that formed our history.

- OFFICER: On my command.

Fire!

[cannon shot] - Texas is becoming a lot more urbanized, as a lot of states are.

So we're losing some valuable landscape, and not very much of Texas is public use.

So I think that speaks to the importance and the value of protecting these special gems that are state parks.

- NARRATOR: What began as Governor Pat Neff's idea for simple roadside campsites has grown to become a vital part of Texas culture.

If Pat Neff could see the parks today, what would he think?

- I think Governor Neff would first of all say, "Wow, how far have we come?"

And I think he'd be very proud of the state park system today compared to the one that he started, which was very ambitious and very visionary.

I think he'd be proud to see what his vision has become 100 years later.

[inspirational music] [wind blowing] [breeze whooshing] [upbeat music] [upbeat music] ♪ Hey ♪ [upbeat music] - Trails are awesome.

They're everything from fairly flat for people to just want to get out and enjoy nature.

[upbeat music] ♪ Hey ♪ And then we've got some more technical, difficult type trails.

[tires rolling] [trickling water] - I think one of the greatest parts of San Angelo is that you get several ecosystems that converge here.

You get a lot of green grasslands and at the same time, desert area of environment.

So I think that brings all sorts of different wildlife.

- You can go from flat cactus land out in the mesquite shrubbery flats, all the way up to rolling hills through loose gravel rock trail.

- This has got some of the best biking trails in Texas, I think.

Riding the bike gets you way out, away from just the parking lots.

Get to places where you don't hear any traffic.

Just the quiet and nature out here.

[wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [hooves thundering] [birds chirping] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] 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 provided by the Toyota Tundra.

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

Adventure: it's what we share.