- 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 & Wildlife... - People just love Caddo Lake, and we're involved in a desperate fight to save it from this most aggressive plant in the world.

- Look right here!

- One of the most amazing aspects of Government Canyon is we have some beautiful overlooks.

- Come on around, come on around, come on around!

Our focus is bringing more people into the outdoors.

Not every kid has a dad that took them fishing.

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

[water sloshing] [eerie music] - TIM BISTER: People just love Caddo Lake.

Caddo Lake gets in your blood.

It's like a prehistoric environment with the Bald Cypress trees and the Spanish Moss hanging down.

It's beautiful and people love it.

When it's under attack like this, it really alarms people.

This is a wetland of international significance.

And we're involved in a desperate fight to save it from this most aggressive plant in the world.

[eerie music] - Giant salvinia is a threat to Caddo Lake.

[boat engine starts] I'm Tim Bister, and I'm a fisheries biologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Caddo Lake is known as the only natural lake in Texas.

So it is one of our gems that we really want to be able to protect.

Giant salvinia is a floating aquatic fern from South America.

It grows very rapidly.

It can actually double in size in four to seven days.

Giant salvinia first showed up in Caddo Lake in 2006, on the Louisiana side, at one of the boat ramps.

[boat engine roaring] The worst year that we've had, there was about 6,000 acres of giant salvinia covering the Texas side of Caddo Lake.

That's about half of the water that we have.

There were areas that were so completely covered by giant salvinia and the plants growing on top of the salvinia mats, that it looked like dry land.

The main river channel that travels through Caddo Lake was completely covered by giant salvinia.

There were many areas that you couldn't get a boat through.

There were lots of people that were very concerned about the lake.

And it was a year that growth was so bad, it just really wasn't a lot that could be done.

[boat engine revs] - JOHN: You can see where they've sprayed.

There's lots of dead.

Dead is good.

I'm Jonathan Dyson.

I'm an Aquatic Invasive Species Biologist.

This is an area where we sprayed.

State contractors had come in here and done some herbicide treatments on this, and it really pushed the salvinia back.

And then we're using a combination of both the systemic herbicide that will circulate throughout the plant, as well as a contact herbicide that just burns wherever it touches.

It's still slowly, slowly dying, falling out.

What green plant is alive, our contractors are coming in and spraying.

[engine revs up] - TIM: The best strategy for invasive species management is using an integrated approach.

Using as many tools in your toolbox to control a situation.

- We've been using a combination of herbicides here recently with great success in the management of the species, and being able to maintain the open water.

In addition to that, we've been trying for well over a decade now, of using bio-control.

The giant salvinia weevil.

It's a species-specific weevil, just feeds on giant salvinia and can control it.

We've seen control out here in several places.

Parks and Wildlife raises and releases their own weevils, but we really need a lot of people doing that.

And here recently, the Caddo Bio Control Alliance has stepped up in releasing large numbers of weevils to help with this control.

- We are in Uncertain, Texas at Caddo Lake.

And what we are doing is raising giant salvinia weevils to control the giant salvinia plant.

The invasive aquatic plant, that is trying to take over Caddo Lake.

We wanted to build this greenhouse, mass produce these weevils, and get them out onto the water in large numbers, as we can.

We're Weevil Ranchers.

These are the tanks where we grow the giant salvinia.

We introduced the weevils onto the salvinia here in a controlled environment.

We raise them.

And when the population gets to the right level, we actually take the salvinia from here, put it into totes, go out to where the giant salvinia is, and release these weevils into the environment.

It's hot, hard work.

This greenhouse, in the summertime, is extremely hot.

And Texas summers, you know, the temperature gets up over 100 degrees.

It takes people who really love the environment, who love the lake, and love the area, to give so much time, and work, and effort, and sweat to protect the lake.

- Morning!

How y'all doin'?

- All these are going on the pontoon, right?

- JOHN: A lot of those people are the local people that live and utilize the lake out here.

They care because they live out here.

They're out here every day, and this is their home.

They pour their heart and soul into managing this salvinia in the lake to keep it from taking over.

- Oh, it's beautiful.

And the water...

Since the grass has died, the water's perfect all over the lake to fish.

It's a great place.

It's a magical lake.

Isn't it, Leah?

[laughing] - JOHN: I think the future of Caddo is bright.

I think a lot of people are going to be able to enjoy the lake like they always did, like the good old days they talked about.

It's extremely brittle, but something was eating on it.

But we are seeing evidence of either a moth larva, or the weevil damage itself.

- TIM: It is frustrating having an invasive species that just won't go away, knowing that no matter what we do, we're never going to get rid of the giant salvinia at Caddo Lake.

But I do have the hope that our efforts are going to help continue to keep boaters having the ability to get around the lake, to have anglers still have their places that they like to fish.

Native plants will come back.

Fish will be able to use more of the lake.

Ducks will have open water to land on.

It's all tied together.

[birds chirping] [eerie music] ♪ ♪ - GEORGE POVEROMO: It's big bull red fish around the Galveston, Texas jetties on this week's World of Saltwater Fishing.

I'll be with Willard Franklin III aboard his tricked out Mako 234 and we'll be bringing in the big ones.

- WILLARD: As a young man, if someone told me you will be featured, not just a back-filler on a major fishing show, I'd say you crazy.

That's how we do it.

[funky music] I grew up in the 60s in Houston, Texas.

You know, Saturday mornings growing up was watching cartoons and fishing.

As I got older, the cartoons went away and I was looking for the fishing shows, but I never saw a fisherman of color, that looked like people who grew up around me.

♪ ♪ - All right, now we got to find our top-secret fishing spot.

Got my passion for the outdoors from my dad.

I was the one at three years old that went out to catch his bait.

He turned his small little piggies that I was good at catching into big red fish, big drum, big sting rays.

That's what got me started.

Saltwater crabs, oh my goodness.

Drum love crab, just like me, I love me some crab too.

Oh, my goodness.

Grandma would be mad at me if she saw me fishing with these things.

Look at that.

Yum yum yum yum.

There hasn't been a month gone by that I haven't gone out fishing in over 50 years.

So, I've learned a lot and I like to share it.

All right.

[School bell ringing] We're over here at Kate Bell.

We getting ready to set up for our outdoor activities, outdoor education.

We can take the backyard bass to there.

After I did my first television show, I enjoyed it.

I had an opportunity to showcase the outdoors.

Come on around, come on around, come on around, come on around.

So, I was able to educate thousands of kids in HISD.

This is a great eating fish.

It's called a bull red fish.

I put together a great team of volunteers to go out.

We went out educating the public, and the more I did it, the more I enjoyed doing it.

And, we just kept growing from there.

- VOLUNTEER: All right sister, let her rip.

- WILLARD: Wow!

That was your first cast ever?

- Good job!

- WILLARD: It went halfway down the parking lot!

- VOLUNTEER: Yeah, it did!

[upbeat music] - WILLARD: We out here at the Trinity National Wildlife Refuge, and we've taking some kids fishing.

Right now, we have an alligator watching all of us.

Keeping us in line.

And then we looking forward to catching some freshwater fish.

What's your name?

- Anderson.

- All right.

Can you hold that?

Ok, that's our bait.

Our focus in, is bringing more people into the outdoors.

Not every kid that I meet has a dad that took them fishing or a grandparent or a grandmother or something.

We work really hard promoting the outdoors to the next generation.

Keep an eye, I can see fish moving around already.

I was just surprised how well they took to it.

How they needed it.

A lot of these kids I meet never touched a rod and reel, never held one.

Ok, hold that.

It's a whole world literally out there that the kids are just not exposed to.

And, then let the thumb go.

How about that?

High five.

To young people learning about the outdoors, if they don't have an enjoyable experience, they're not gonna wanna do it again.

My reward is watching people faces when I either put them on their biggest fish ever or educating our young people on how to cast a rod and reel.

And, once that line takes off and goes 30, 40, 50 feet, you get to see teeth.

Their eyes light up and even the ones that had a, a bad attitude from being out there, it changed them for that time.

Wow!

Look at that.

Great job!

[Reel spinning] Oh, my goodness.

Watch this.

A couple more drags in.

That's it!

That's how it's done!

Woo!

That's a 38-inch bull red fish all day long.

I'm gonna keep doing it as long as I can.

I still have my foot on the gas promoting the outdoors to the next generation and looking forward to many more years of doing it.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [gentle music] - We are 35 miles north of Abilene, Texas on the Chimney Creek Ranch.

Good old prairie land.

G.R.

Davis, my great grandfather, bought the property in 1920, and here we are 100 years later.

- One of the things we wanted to do was develop the historical aspects of the ranch.

♪ ♪ - TED: It is a passion in our family for Texas history, and not only Texas history but also ranch heritage.

And we put it into action.

[windmill creaking] - HANK: We've actually restored Smith Station to what it looked like in 1858.

- TED: The Bud Matthews Switch is our train.

It actually was important to the ranchers around here because most every cow that was brought to market came through the Bud Matthews Switch.

[train rattles] - Wooo!

My dad and my grandfather leased Chimney Creek in 1957.

Sook, sook, sook, sook.

[cows mooing] - My great-grandfather had just died.

And so we were looking for somebody to run it.

Here we are 64 years later and the Waller family in its third generation is still on the property.

There was Charlie Waller, the granddad, Robert B. Waller, the dad, and now it's Robert C. Waller.

Sixty-four years!

We wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for them because they've been good stewards of the land.

- ROBERT: It's important, we have to take good care of the land, and the grass and stuff, because that's what we depend on to raise the cattle and everything and so do what we can to preserve it for people on down the road.

[fire crackling] [upbeat music] - Now Jesse, were you pleased with how this burn worked out?

- We're very pleased with the way it worked out.

So we've got a kind of a fresh start on this pasture.

The Paups definitely care about what they're doing out here.

They're very intentional.

They're very thoughtful.

They're taking the best advice that they can get to continually better the ranch.

- I know we've worked hard, we've worked hard to improve this ranch.

Ted and I don't take any money out of it.

We plow it back into improvements.

- JESSE: This is a riparian buffer.

- TED: We stopped any type of grazing on 120 acres.

- JESSE: Eleven years ago, this one was created and is fully established at this point.

- And so, we thought doing this would be extremely beneficial which we know it has.

- The idea in planting this switch grass here is to hold that soil in place and prevent erosion.

The neat thing about the riparian buffer is, they were willing to take land out of cattle production with the sole intent of conserving water, retaining the water that hit's the ground is very important.

[gentle music] - Chimney Creek is our legacy.

We want this legacy to continue as long as we possibly can.

- Our mother had a great quote.

She said, "God created the world in six days and on the seventh, he rested on the Chimney Creek Ranch."

[upbeat music] [upbeat music] - BIKER: I'm loving the flowers this time of year, it's beautiful.

- NIC: So Government Canyon is different from most parks, it's a natural area, it's a wilderness environment.

[upbeat music] And it's completely within the city of San Antonio, so you can come out inside the city and have a natural area experience that you can't get anywhere else.

[upbeat music] - Over 10,000 acres of our property is the back country.

[upbeat music] This is an area that will forever be left primitive, wild, and as natural as possible.

- NIC: As a state natural area, our primary focus is the resource.

We are here to protect the water quality and quantity of the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone.

Most people come out here for our 40 miles of hiking and biking trails.

These trails range from kind of flat, rolling savannah, all the way up into rugged hill country trails.

- SORUBH: Our first time here in the park.

- CHILD: I'm fast.

- It's a little bit rocky, but it's pretty flat.

She's walking too fast for me.

[Sorubh laughs] It's been great, very quiet, actually not too many people outside today.

- CHILD: Oh!

- SORUBH: If you keep quiet, you can really hear all the birds, you can hear nature.

It's just a wonderful place to be, you know?

[bird chirping] - HIKER: I think we're here.

- JOHN: One of the most amazing aspects of Government Canyon is we have some beautiful overlooks.

[bird chirping] - HIKER: The view is pretty from up here.

- JOHN: And you really ought to take the time to explore them.

There's the South Bluff Spurs Overlook.

There's the overlook on the cliffs above the dinosaur tracks.

- Look, there's three different sets.

- In the end, we have over 200 tracks in the upper trackway.

So this is one of the larger theropod tracks that we have.

We see the three toes clearly defined as well as the talon marks that would have come off of each toe.

- So our campsites are designed with an impact area that encompasses the tent pad, the fire ring, the picnic table, all into one impact zone.

This is one of the hutches that you'll find at all of our campsites.

You can put your food in here, your food, your gear, anything you wanna keep protected from the wildlife and elements.

- MAN: Oh yeah.

- LESLIE: Those looking melty?

- CHILD: Oh yeah!

- They love to be outside.

We do tend to try to go camping at least, you know, three times a year.

So far, mainly the campsite set up, that it's set up a little more remote.

You don't have neighbors right next to you, but it's not a primitive walk-in that you have to really hike in.

So, perfect mix.

I've never seen a campsite like this.

[children chattering] [gentle upbeat music] - We are on the ranch road.

This is going to pretty much cut right through our Front Country Trail System.

[bird chirping] It's a bunch of Blackland Prairie Savannah.

There's the painted.

Yeah.

We have anything from small songbirds to large raptors, and anything in between.

- BIRDER: There's some Crested Caracaras, there's a pair of them.

- JESSICA: Uh, huh.

- BIRDER: Oh, they're cleaning themselves.

- JESSICA: Yeah, they're preening.

[camera clicks] But that's what makes Government Canyon so great.

- BIRDER: Oh here, right here, right here.

- JESSICA: Is because we do have that large diversity of birds out here.

- So the recharge zone for the Edwards Aquifer is a large component of what we're about here at Government Canyon, but it's not just recharge of the Aquifer.

I think you'll find that when you come out and walk our trails... - RUNNER: Morning.

- JOHN: Listen to the birds... [bird chirping] Look at the wild flowers, take in a gorgeous sunrise or sunset from one of our overviews, you'll find your own spirit and soul recharged.

[gentle music] - NARRATOR: This is a story about a dove and the guy who ate it and then blogged about it and ended up ruffling a few feathers.

But let's start from the beginning.

- My wife and I were at home watching TV when all of a sudden we heard a loud noise, sounded like something had hit the back of the house.

- NARRATOR: A dove had come calling.

- And so we believe that the dove hit like just somewhere right up here above the window, came out of the fig tree.

And next thing you know, bam.

- NARRATOR: So the food blogger did what came naturally.

- I cleaned and gutted it, and grilled it.

And then I ate it.

I took pictures of the entire process and I posted about it on my website.

- NARRATOR: He also posted it on the popular social networking site, Reddit.

- Had a little over 2,000 upvotes and 408 comments.

I was contacted by two or three different reporters.

- NARRATOR: And that's when things got a bit flighty.

- One of the reporters posted a not quite accurate story claiming that I was being investigated.

It turns out that that was not true in the least.

[phone ringing] - This is Tom Harvey.

Well I got a call from Ryan Adams where he basically said, "I want to make this right, am I in trouble?"

And we were as surprised as Ryan was to see news reports that said our state agency was investigating him.

That was not the case.

It is illegal to pick up dead animals on the side of the road, that could make you sick.

Also it poses a traffic hazard.

Also, if you see an animal behaving erratically flying into a house, it could be sick and eating it could make you sick.

So there are reasons for these rules.

- NARRATOR: And doves are migratory game birds with hunting regulations to protect the species.

Now that he knows to let laying doves lay, our food aficionado is ready to get his next dove the legal way.

- This entire experience has given me the push to finally get my license.

Local game is wonderful.

The flavor is, is fantastic.

And then on top of that, it's really fresh meat.

- I've been following food trends for the years and over the last five to 10 years, there's been a great increase in the interest in local food.

And it seems that more and more people are focusing on wild game as an opportunity to get really close to the food.

I mean you can't get much more local than that.

And here at Texas Parks and Wildlife, we are really excited to help people get started with hunting and cooking wild game.

- NARRATOR: To show there are no hard feelings, Adam stopped by agency headquarters with a peace offering, and it wasn't dove.

- Whoever had to deal with the fallout is really who I want to talk to.

- Very good, thank you so much.

- NARRATOR: And so it goes that the goals of the local food enthusiast and Texas Parks and Wildlife dovetail quite nicely.

[wind blows] [wind blows] [wind blows] [wind blows] [birds chirp] [birds chirp] [wind blows] [wind blows] [wind blows] [wind blows] 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.