Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation (TPWF) is thrilled to be sponsoring the 2017 Wild Texas Film Tour that will be coming to 11 Texas cities in September and October. The tour will feature Texas wildlife, adventure, and conservation short films along with characters from the films, filmmakers, wildlife biologists and other experts.

“We hope this tour will shine a spotlight on Texas conservation issues, inspire viewers to engage in grassroots efforts, and increase support for local conservation organizations,” said filmmaker Ben Masters, who will host the tour. “If you are intrigued by Texas mountain lions, deer-hunting vegetarians, pronghorn revival, the health of Texas rivers or bison restoration, there’s a film you will enjoy.”

Besides TPWF, other sponsors include YETI, TPWF’s young professionals organization Stewards of the Wild, The Borderlands Research Institute, and King Land & Water. TPWF Stewards of the Wild chapters will be involved in the tour in several locations. The films will be screened in Amarillo, Austin, College Station, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Marfa, Midland and San Antonio.

Bracken Cave in central Texas is home to the largest group of mammals in the entire world. During the summer, the spectacle of 20 million bats leaving their roost to feed is utterly amazing. There are so many, they even show up on Doppler radar! The site is owned by Bat Conservation International (BCI), and they have been educating people about bats for almost 40 years. For this month’s podcast, we sat in on a conversation with Fran Hutchins, who manages Bracken Cave for BCI, and Jonah Evans, a mammologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Congratulations to the 34 graduates of the 61st Game Warden Academy! The cadets officially became Texas Game Wardens at a ceremony at the state capitol on August 1 and are now serving at duty stations across the state. They successfully completed an intensive training regimen of more than seven months at the Game Warden Training Center in Hamilton County. An additional seven state park peace officers also graduated and are stationed in parks across Texas. The graduates have diverse backgrounds, including eight military veterans and prior peace officers, coaches, Navy pilots, a West Point graduate and several with master’s degrees. Three of the new wardens are following in their fathers’ footsteps, continuing a family tradition of service to the people of Texas.