- 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... - The watershed protection plan is basically a guidebook for how to fix the bay.

- Palmetto State Park is a little piece of heaven here in central Texas.

- Working on keeping the bears wild.

Keeping them out of towns, keeping them out of trash, keeping them in their native range.

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

♪ ♪ [gentle music] - MIKE WETZ: Baffin Bay is just this iconic Texas bay system, really well known for its fishery.

- ETHAN WETZ: Everyone should care about Baffin, whether they're an angler or not, simply because it's a really unique system.

- Looks cloudy here.

- ETHAN: Recently, we've had some tussles with water quality issues.

Things that are happening way upstream, where you wanna keep an eye on.

- LUCERO BARRAZA: Studies have identified it as being an incubator for the brown tide.

- ETHAN: The water quality issues, we don't want to have spillover into the rest of the upper Laguna Madre.

- LUCERO: Everything's intertwined.

- JAMES CLEMENT: Taking care of the land is taking care of the water.

[gentle music] - LUCERO: You see what's being directly impacted, which is the fish, the sea grass beds, the bird community.

- MIKE: If you care about the Laguna Madre and the wild Texas coast in general, we have to address the water quality issues in Baffin Bay.

[dramatic music] The mission of the Heart Research Institute is to study the Gulf of Mexico and address problems.

[boat engine revs] [upbeat music] We're here because we're trying to document water quality conditions in Baffin Bay.

[dramatic music] We've been working with the community for the past 10 years to understand what the water quality problems are and now to find solutions to those water quality problems.

Today, we were out sampling a lot of different indicators that tell us how healthy the water quality is.

So today we're making measurements of salinity.

- DOMINIC BURCH: I'll drop it in the water.

- MIKE: How much dissolved oxygen there is, how salty the bay is, and how good a habitat it is for fish and sea grass.

- DOMINIC BURCH: Temperature 30.6, dissolved oxygen percent, 80.4.

- MIKE: We're looking at things like the amount of algae in the water.

We will drop instruments like a secchi disc, looks like an Oreo cookie, and that tells us how much light is making it down to the bottom for the seagrass beds.

[dramatic music] - DOMINIC BURCH: Disappears about right there.

- MIKE: Forty centimeters for secchi.

And one of the issues we have here in Baffin Bay is too much algae growing in the water so the light doesn't get down far enough for the sea grass at times and then we have seagrass die-offs.

[dramatic music] - MIKE: From long time anglers, we've heard a lot of great anecdotal information about what the bay used to be like.

You used to have crystal clear water.

You know, you used to be able to drop a lure in the water and you could see it almost down to the bottom.

- ANGLER: There he is.

- MIKE: The fishery was just incredible for its trophy trout.

And then sometime in the '80s, the switch kind of flipped.

- MAN: Okay, let's start water collection.

[water sloshing] - MIKE: The water samples that we collect and all that data that we're getting, it helps us to really understand when and where we're having water quality issues.

And that's really important 'cause then that helps us to hone in on where we need to address those issues.

- DOMINIC: We are here on Laguna Salada, and we're gonna do additional water testing here.

- LUCERO BARRAZA: Awesome, thank you.

- Good luck out there, Lucero.

- LUCERO: All right, see you in a bit.

I have two sites that I sample out of out here and then one in Baffin Bay.

[dramatic music] There's a specific phytoplankton species known as the Texas brown tide.

Studies have identified this certain section in this tributary as being an incubator for this species.

The brown tide is a ecosystem disruptive species, so it causes a lot of ecological effects, bad for the environment.

I'm collecting water samples so that we can process the water, analyze the nutrients, and also determine the phytoplankton composition.

- DOMINIC: There's a lot of phytoplankton in the water that can be harmful to the environment and the humans around it.

And we want to be able to hopefully catch these instances before they become a much larger issue.

- LUCERO: It's just, you know, me and the kayak.

Depending on the weather, it can be harsh 'cause it is, you know, humid and hot out here.

[sighs] So tired.

I'm more driven by trying to make a change and that starts off with learning about our environment and the science that we're doing back at HRI.

[bubbling] [dramatic music] - MIKE: Water samples that we bring back, we analyze for a lot of different chemicals, as well as looking at the types of algae that are down there in the water.

- NATASHA: This is a piece of a serpulid reef found throughout Baffin Bay and it's one of the few places in the world that we find reefs like this.

Although serpulid worms build the reefs, other fauna live on the reefs, feed upon the reefs, breed within the reefs.

You can look at one small couple of centimeter piece of reef and find just thousands and thousands of other creatures.

They place such an important role in the bay in general because of just how much life they support there.

What it looks like is that the reefs are shrinking and degrading, so we need to get a better grasp on the current extent of those reefs and how to move forward with restoring them.

[inspirational music] [boat engine revs] - My name's Ethan Getz.

I'm the ecosystem leader for the Upper Laguna Madre Team, part of the Coastal Fisheries Division of Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Our task is to do the routine monitoring of our bays to keep track of fisheries.

So we collect fisheries data to get a gauge of all the different species that are out there and what anglers like to catch.

So we've got our bag seine here.

We stretch it out 50 feet.

We wanna make sure we're doing it the exact same way so that all the data's comparable through time.

Are you ready?

- JASON: Good to go, Ethan.

- ETHAN: All right, let's do it.

Bag seines, that helps us get data on juvenile fishes and some bait fish species.

Let's see what we've got in here.

Oh, we've got juvenile black drum here.

Just a little guy, but he'll grow up to be a lot bigger.

Got a mullet, snapping shrimp.

Little blue crab Length is going to be 55, okay.

All right, what other species do we have?

And then the bay trawls, we conduct those in a little bit deeper water.

- JASON: All right, net deployed.

- ETHAN: We'll go for 10 minutes, dragging that along the bottom and we'll see what we catch.

We're picking up a lot of shrimp and other bait fish.

Our monitoring program have been around a long, long time.

We can see whether populations are on the increase or decrease and with that data we make regulation changes.

Had some issues with nutrient runoffs into the bay.

- JASON: One is 272.

- ETHAN: In general, the fish population still seem to be really healthy despite some of those issues, but it's the things we really want to keep an eye on to make sure the sustainability of Baffin is kept in check.

- MIKE: What we've learned about the causes of the water quality degradation, it essentially goes back to things that we're doing on the lands around the bay.

There's been a lot of really sophisticated source tracking lately looking at pollution sources and surprisingly there's a big contribution from sewage, so failing wastewater treatment plants and septic tanks, but we also see contributions from ag, as well as storm water runoff.

This is a million-and-half-acre watershed.

A lot of people don't recognize that what they do on their land will affect the bay.

[dramatic music] - JAMES: We are in the middle of Kleberg County.

My wife grew up down here, but we really wanted to raise our family down here.

It's beautiful.

We're in ranching.

We are in the business of making money on beef, but we also want to use the cattle to create the best habitat.

We're gonna be here for a long time and we can't do something that's gonna have a short-term benefit.

We're building back these grasses, then you're gonna filter out any of the impurities that might flow into that water from a highway or from any kind of urbanization that might trickle its way through your property.

Because as it flows off of our land, it's going to make its way into the bay and into those public waters.

Ranchers, farmers, we're the first line of defense.

Cleaning that water as it moves out to those bigger bodies of water.

[dramatic music] - MIKE: We've started to figure out what some of the challenges are, so we have pulled together a group of community members, it's called the Baffin Bay Stakeholder Group.

We started off in 2018 with about 10 people in a room, and we have close to 300 community members on that stakeholder group now.

Our hope for bringing Baffin back is that it starts to turn back time and brings Baffin back to the way it used to be 20, 30, 40 years ago.

The Watershed protection plan is basically a guidebook for how to fix the bay.

- JAMES: Taking care of the land is taking care of the water.

- ETHAN: We feel lucky to be able to work here and at least look after the fisheries.

We know that's so valuable to so many people.

It gives us a lot of pride to be a part of keeping Baffin in the best shape possible.

- LUCERO: It makes me appreciate Baffin Bay, but also the communities that are directly impacted.

- MIKE: This is gonna be a long term program working with the cities and counties to address their wastewater infrastructure.

Bringing resources to landowners to fix their septic tanks, for example.

We're working with the community to start implementing those solutions.

Education, I think is key.

[dramatic music] [gentle music] [birds chirping] - Palmetto State Park is a little piece of heaven here in central Texas, home of the Palmettos.

[bird chirps] But we're just far enough from the larger metropolitan areas so we don't get overcrowded.

We offer kayaking, fishing, camping... but it's also a CCC historic site, so we have several structures that were built during the 1930s.

This park is quite small.

It's only a little under 300 acres, unlike any location that you would see in this area.

[gentle music] - Everything about this park is just awesome-- the big tall trees, the palmettos, the wildlife.

It's a little armadillo right there, right by the campsite.

I just can't say enough about the park.

It's just a nice place to come.

- CHILD: Come on!

[water splashing] - Palmetto State Park is this little gem.

Absolutely beautiful morning for being out here.

- NATHAN: The trails at Palmetto State Park are very accessible.

It's something that we're very proud of.

We have trails that have crushed granite, and the topography is very slight, so not a whole lot of ups and downs.

- This park offers almost seven miles of easy, accessible trails.

They're nice and shaded.

It's easy for me to push it, but they can also run around too, so they'll run along the stroller and enjoy time just being outside in nature and learning about what the park has to offer.

What do you see, baby?

- Butterfly.

- A butterfly?

- CHILD: Behind the tree.

- RAZZI: For people who don't get to spend as much time in nature, it's a good day trip.

- The anolis might be out right now, and as you're walking along, you're seeing all this beautiful greenery.

You're seeing the water, and then all of a sudden the pileated woodpecker calls and it sounds like a wild jungle bird.

[woodpecker chirping] And during the spring and fall when we get the migration, it's so exciting.

Oh, who is that?

Up above us.

They are fun.

They are beautiful.

We have a summer camp.

We teach kids about nature.

I love watching the kids explore.

- CHILD: Imagine seeing this in your backyard.

- Let's take this guy here.

You can see by the teeth whether that animal is a herbivore or a carnivore.

We can see holes in here.

And this one looks like he started to make him a nest cavity.

If you know what you're looking for, you can always find some things that let you know, this animal has been here.

But you gotta use your eyes, and you gotta be looking and you gotta be aware of what's going on around you too.

- Look what I found.

- What'd you find?

Oh, very good.

You wanna come see the lizard?

There he goes.

Remember we talked about him yesterday?

Alright, let's walk along some more.

Y'all see if you can find some good stuff.

There you go.

- CHILD: Can I look at him with the magnifying glass?

- Yeah.

That's cool.

- ELAINE: Here's this awesome little park that a lot of people don't know about, and more people need to find out about Palmetto.

[birds singing] [mellow music] - NARRATOR: Down in Terlingua, DB's BBQ sure draws a crowd.

When a special visitor became a regular, they knew they had to do something about it.

- Come in to the restaurant in the mornings, and we'd see it was a mess.

Something was, you know, piddling with the dumpsters, but we didn't actually know what animal it was, you know?

And eventually, we caught him red-handed.

[bags rustling] Communicated with the waste management company, and we got 'em to get us some bear-proof dumpsters out here.

And since we've got those, we hadn't had any problem.

[bear grunts] - NARRATOR: Once common across Texas, black bears were extricated from the state by the 1950s.

Today, sightings are on the rise, signaling that the deserts of West Texas may once again be bear country.

[gentle music] [birds singing] Just north of DB's BBQ, residents of Terlingua Ranch are also learning to live with bears.

- We've had multiple bears here to Terlingua Ranch.

One in particular was a female, and she was coming around a lot.

That's when I think I decided to call the Parks and Wildlife and talked to a biologist about it.

- Me too.

How are you?

- Good.

Good.

Came down and said he could help me with some issues concerning our bird feeder, and helped me electrify that.

- The wire's holding up pretty good.

- I tied it periodically, but it really is working good.

And keep the bear from destroying that all the time.

And also the dumpster.

He helped us with those.

It's made all the difference in the world.

That helps us live together with the bears.

They kind of figured out, all right, they're not gonna get a free meal.

- Yep.

And we're not trying... Working with people on keeping the bears wild, keeping 'em outta towns, keeping 'em outta trash, keeping them in their native range.

And it's been working really well.

- MARK: We're able to really live in harmony with 'em.

If we see a black bear walking through, we don't have a big problem with that.

And they're not destroying the dumpsters and not getting into the bird feeder.

And we think this has been a huge help.

I hope it continues down here.

- AUSTIN: Sounds good.

- MARK: The camaraderie and the cooperation between Parks and Wildlife and us locals that live here has been a big help.

I think it'll help the bear population in the long run.

- AUSTIN: The future looks bright for the bears, and for the people living here.

[gentle music] [wind blowing] [metal clanks] [upbeat music] - Today, we're looking at our venison processing facility.

We call it Casa Venado, which is, you know, in English, House of Deer.

So this is the hanging cooler.

As you can see, we can hold 100 to 150 deer hanging in here, so it looks like we're in for a good week.

[tub clanks] - NARRATOR: Casa Venado is a state-of-the-art processing plant with all the tools needed to clean, carve, and cool thousands of pounds of protein.

- DAYNA: We're very blessed to have this facility on our food bank campus.

- NARRATOR: The San Antonio Food Bank is the first in Texas to have their own deer processing facility.

- Protein is very hard to come by in food-banking in general.

And the thought was that there are so many deer here in the state of Texas that have to be taken down for conservation purposes.

So what better way to bring a good lean protein, give that to families in need.

- NARRATOR: To make all this happen, the food bank is partnering with Hunters for the Hungry, a statewide program that gives hunters an opportunity to donate venison to Texans in need.

[latch clanks] [door slides] - We are really blessed that we get to hunt in the state of Texas and we have our freezers full, and so we wanna make sure that we're helping other people be able to eat.

It gives hunters like us an opportunity to be able to provide people with deer, meat that they normally probably wouldn't get a chance to eat, and it's a great healthy food.

We're happy to provide it for the people in need.

It's a great way to help the hungry.

- DAYNA: In the back part of the building, that access is there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, allowing donors to come and drop off their wild game.

Just needs to be field dressed and legally tagged.

They have access to drop it off, you know, whenever it's convenient for them.

- We're gonna do a few cuts.

We're gonna put it right here.

- DAYNA: We don't just want it to be a processing facility.

We want it to be a learning facility.

From November through the end of March, we take volunteers in the afternoons.

- If you've never processed a deer, but you'd always wanted to learn, this is a great way to get some skills.

I think you benefit while you're benefiting others.

- So you want to keep a hold onto the hide.

- NARRATOR: So hunters, if you still have one more deer tag this season-- - ERIC: Take that opportunity to harvest an extra deer, field dress it, and then donate here at the San Antonio Food Bank so we can get that great lean protein to a family in need.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music] ♪ ♪ - Whoooo!

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [birds chirping] - NARRATOR: Next time on Texas Parks & Wildlife... - The sheep are moving a lot so we have to be tracking them constantly.

I see them.

Especially those ewes that are pregnant or with lambs.

- The mission of the design lab is to try to increase ecological literacy particularly the coastal environment.

- It's really fun to find out what they are and like, their habitats and what they do.

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

[water lapping] [birds calling] [water lapping] [birds calling] [wings flapping] [water lapping] [water lapping] [birds calling] [birds calling] [birds calling] [birds calling] [birds calling] [birds calling] [birds calling] [birds calling] - 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.