TPWD News Digest for July 16-22, 2010

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TPWD News Digest for July 16-22, 2010


July 22, 2010

· Dove, Teal Seasons Set
AUSTIN ­ The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service SRC (Service Regulation Committee) has approved the 2010-2011 Texas dove season, including a 70-day season and 15-bird daily bag statewide, and a 16-day early teal season.

July 20, 2010

· Liberty, Texas, Student Wins Top Honors in State-Fish Art Contest
ATHENS­Anh Thu Do of Liberty is the 2010 winner of the Art of Conservation Stamp Award in the 12th annual Wildlife Forever State-Fish Art Contest, it was announced Saturday at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, site of this year’s contest expo.

July 19, 2010

· Nominations Sought for Leopold Conservation Award, Lone Star Land Steward Awards
The $10,000 Leopold award is the statewide accolade within the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Lone Star Land Steward Award Program, which also recognizes land stewards in 10 different ecological regions and in corporate, co-operative and special categories. The awards recognize Texas ranchers and other landowners who demonstrate outstanding, sustainable management of natural resources.

· Lifetime License Winner Happy His Luck Hadn’t Run Out
AUSTIN – Daniel Hidalgo won $1,000 in Las Vegas many years ago and hadn’t won anything since. So when he went to his local Big 5 Sporting Goods store in Midland to buy a fishing license and saw a display advertising Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Lifetime License Drawing, the last thing he thought was that his single entry would win.



All TPWD News Releases are available online: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/newsmedia/releases/



News Briefs



Buffalo Soldiers Encamped at Institute of Texas Cultures

This weekend’s opening of an exhibit on the frontier-era Buffalo Soldiers at San Antonio’s Institute of Texan Cultures will feature an encampment of the historic African-American military unit in the Back 40 outdoor learning area. The encampment coincides with the institute’s opening of the “Buffalo Soldiers: Discovering Heritage on the Texas Frontier” exhibit that runs through Jan. 3, 2011. More than 40 costumed Texas frontier interpreters, including Buffalo Soldiers, frontier merchants and pioneer families, will offer a realistic look at frontier life in Texas. The exhibit focuses on the Ninth Cavalry, which formed in New Orleans and moved to San Antonio in 1867 before being dispatched to Fort Concho, Fort Davis and other Texas frontier forts.



$5 million in funding for migratory bird habitat projects in Texas

Texas landowners have until Aug. 1 to apply for grants to help fund migratory bird habitat projects on their land through the Natural Resources Conservation Service Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative. NRCS in Texas originally received $750,000 for the initiative, but due to landowner interest, an additional $5 million in funding has been made available to landowners through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP). To date Texas has received 98 applications for the initiative bringing the number of potentially impacted acres of land in Texas to 34,000. More information is available online at http://www.tx.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/mbhi/index.html.