- 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 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.

Funding also provided by Academy Sports and Outdoors.

Helping hunters, anglers, and outdoor enthusiasts of all ages get outside.

Out here, fun can't lose.

[theme music] - ANNOUNCER: Coming up on Texas Parks & Wildlife... - We have over 650 different species of birds that fly through Texas.

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

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

- Yeah, there we go!

- When we gather around something we caught, that's a really cool feeling.

- Came out so good!

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

♪ ♪ [upbeat music] - We are celebrating the Big Sit and that is part of the Great Texas Birding Classic.

[birds chirping] It's essentially just a big tailgate for birders.

[birds chirping] Just getting together and trying to spot as many birds as possible within our 50 foot circle over at the Woodland Bird Blind.

I absolutely love birding.

There's so many species that we get to see throughout the year here.

You know, we have over 650 different species of birds that fly through Texas.

We have quite a few that like to stop over here and breathe.

[birds chirping] - So the Great Birding Classic is an event held all across Texas and groups get together to do a bird count.

[birds chirping] I love to be outdoors and I love to get other people interested in being outdoors.

That's a prize bird over there.

That's the male painted bunting.

the colorful one that's on the feeder.

That's an immature male painted bunting.

[birds chirping] I always remember their call from when I was a little kid.

My parents would have their windows open in the springtime and you could hear them singing.

So when I hear them singing in the spring, that's what it reminds me of when I was a kid.

[chuckles] It's just nice to get out and talk to people and share knowledge and get them more interested in nature itself.

They're pretty good.

[camera clicking] - SUANNE: Birding is a great hobby.

If you just look out your window at your house and you have birds out there and you enjoy them, then you're a birder.

It's a very accessible hobby.

[birds chirping] - Pretty well a lifetime birder.

Just out here 'cause I love watching birds and contributing to citizen science.

Just out here trying to see all the birds we can see and how many of them there are.

[camera clicking] - Been birding for a few years now.

My mom got me into it, so I've been hooked since then.

I was able to see a blue-headed vireo on the tree up here and got a picture of it so I got to identify that and I made the board.

- Well we still need that swallow we keep saying.

- So we have a nesting pair of zone-tails over at Honey Creek.

- Yeah.

- Everyone seems to be having a great time.

We're still keeping our fingers crossed that we'll get some more species.

Oh, just saw another lesser goldfinch.

[birds chirping] You are kind of novice birders?

- KATHRYN: Yeah, I'd say so.

Yeah.

- So I would recommend kind of hanging out inside the bird blind for a little bit.

- KATHRYN: Okay.

- Just so you can get some identification practice.

- Of course.

- 'Cause we have skills of all level here.

- You don't have to be an expert.

You're gonna learn as you go.

I mean, I've been birding for six years and I feel like I know very little some days.

I have fun with it.

I enjoy it.

- I got into birding this season, I'd say.

I realize that obviously migration time is a perfect time to get into it.

Was excited to maybe see birds that I haven't seen before.

It's really fun and I'm glad that there are people here that know a lot more than we do to explain some of the birds that maybe we don't know too much about.

- Oh.

- Bunting's back.

- Bunting, yeah.

- We have some folks kind of spread out, but the goal is within a 50 foot circle.

Anything you can spot.

We have one main identifier, Ms.

Lucy.

She is the one in the green shirt over there.

But we have our board going.

If you spot something that we don't already have, just be like, "Hey, we spotted something," and here, they kind of come to you.

[birds chirping] - KATHRYN: It's just about being willing to learn and listen.

It is definitely a quiet adventure, so it's good to just take time to listen to nature around you and start to pick up the different calls that birds have.

[birds chirping] - SUANNE: It's relaxing.

It gets me out in nature.

It makes me realize, you know, that there's a lot more to the world than you know, the four walls that I am in most of the time.

You don't have to be an expert.

You just have to get out there and have fun.

[upbeat 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.

[upbeat music] - NARRATOR: To celebrate 40 years of our television series, we are taking a trip back in time to look at some of our earliest episodes.

[upbeat music] [film reel clicking] [machinery whirring] [machinery clanking] [hammering] [machinery clanking] - In 1867, Lucian Smith actually received the first patent on barbed wire.

Which, this is a replica of the first patented wire.

None of this wire was ever found.

This is a replica that was made off of a United States patent book.

And this is a very unusual piece.

It looks like something you'd go fishing with.

So, this is this is one of the first.

[seagulls squawking] - SID: I grew up loving the outdoors.

Being out in the water is definitely my happy place.

Feeling the sun on your face and the salt in the air.

Making my way down to the dock, I finally feel like I'm in my element.

Finally relax a little bit, and catching fish is just icing on the cake from there.

- DAVID: All right, showtime, Sid.

[boat motor revs] [motor running] I'm going to take you up into this bay... - SID: Okay.

- ...where we got a little bit more salinity.

Try targeting some reds and flounder.

Hopefully we'll get a couple for you for dinner.

- Nice, all right, let's do it.

- Ready to roll?

- Yeah.

[seagulls squawking] You think we should, maybe hit up the shoreline right here?

- DAVID: Yeah.

If we're going to catch redfish, it's going to be up and down the rocks.

[upbeat music] - SID: What you looking for, Buddy?

I know you want to see a fish.

I'm going to do my best.

♪ ♪ Fish on.

- DAVID: You got it?

- Yep.

You got a net, David?

I can't wait.

Oh!

- DAVID: Yeah, there we go.

- SID: Oh, my God.

That's a good fish.

- DAVID: This is the fight we've been waiting for.

Come home to Mama.

There we go.

- SID: Whoa.

Finny!

He's happy.

- DAVID: Go, Sid, woo!

That's a good fish right there.

♪ ♪ - [cheers] Right at 28.

Good job, Sid.

[both laugh] All right.

Got you a little something for supper.

I'm going to grab a couple of pics.

♪ ♪ Think you're inviting him over for dinner, huh?

- SID: Yeah.

♪ ♪ - DAVID: All right, Sid.

What are you going to do when the lights turn on?

Ready to roll?

- SID: Yeah.

Man, what a great day.

♪ ♪ [boat motor faintly running] We always find a way to come back home to Mom's.

Catch something, bring it back, and do a lot of cooking and eating with the family.

- I love to cook.

I even grow my own vegetables to cook.

So I enjoy them a lot, you know?

And I try to teach my girl what I cook every day.

And I like to have family meals.

I like to sit down as the family, and have dinner together every night if I can.

- Learning how to prepare this stuff, I mean it's a bonding experience with your family.

Definitely not as good a cook as my mom, but I try and you'll see that she's amazing at what she does.

It makes us all happy.

- The fish that I'm going to make today for her, she'll say, Mom, I want a spring roll.

Spring roll is really good for summertime.

So when I'm going to cook it I'm going to make glass noodles with all the vegetables.

I stir fry all that.

[sizzling] The secret to cooking fish is, you have to use a lot of spice.

People that can't stand the fish smell, they can enjoy it more.

[chuckles] [food sizzling] Done.

And then when she bring in the fish from the grill, she bring it in and I just stir fry all that and then I cover with the fish.

We are ready to go.

It's a good piece of fish.

- SID: A very good piece of fish right there.

It's just how I was raised, you know?

To learn how to put food on the table and share it with my family, and that way we can all gather.

I have a huge family and lots of friends.

When we gather around something we caught, that's a really cool feeling.

So good, huh?

You get to share something.

And you get to share these stories and the experiences, and you get back out there and you do it again.

It came out so good.

- You're welcome.

[gentle music] - SID: Food definitely always tastes better at Mom's house.

♪ ♪ [waves splashing] [birds and 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] - NARRATOR: Next time on Texas Parks & Wildlife... - Captures are awesome.

They're definitely an adrenaline rush and really really cool from a science perspective.

- Well, I don't know how many really I currently have.

I know it's a lot.

I've got over 300 total records.

- He was just a super humble guy and had a huge impact and I think he would be shocked but he'd be really grateful and honored.

- NARRATOR: That's next time on Texas Parks & Wildlife.

[wind blowing] [wind blowing] [bats chirping] [bats chirping] [bats chirping] [bats chirping] [bats chirping] [bats chirping] [bats chirping] [bats chirping] [bats chirping] [bats chirping] [bats chirping] [bats chirping] [bats chirping] - 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 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.

Funding also provided by Academy Sports and Outdoors.

Helping hunters, anglers, and outdoor enthusiasts of all ages get outside.

Out here, fun can't lose.