Natural History of Texas: Our Pineywoods – Sea Camp's New Programs and New Partners

In the Summer 2011, Texas A&M at Galveston’s Sea Camp program hosts approximately a dozen 12 - 14 year-olds to explore our state’s natural history venturing, camping and angling through the Pineywoods of East Texas including a visit to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, angling for lunker largemouth bass, white and black crappie, and blue, channel and flathead catfish in numerous East Texas lakes, canoe trips down the Neches River’s Davy Crockett Paddling Trail and Village Creek, and explore the rich heritage of East Texas at the Spindletop Boomtown Museum and Diboll’s History Center. Aspects of freshwater fishes and their ecology, water quality and watershed management will be discussed in the field, and presented in camp workbooks. Among our intended destinations for the Pineywoods camp are Lake Fork, Toledo Bend, Lake Livingston and the only natural lake in Texas - Caddo Lake. Partners in the delivery of camp curriculum include Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the Army Corps of Engineers and numerous fishing guides and paddling outfitters. Primary objectives of this new program are the education of campers in the natural resources of Texas and angling conservation ethic, enhancement of their eco-literacy and environmental awareness, and demonstration of the connectivity of our riverine ecosystems with the Gulf of Mexico. The intent of our Natural History of Texas program is to offer an annual program focused on the state’s major river drainages proceeding from east to west. The Sabine and Neches River drainages and their pineywoods represent Chapter 1.