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Find out why some Texas skies are looking starrier. Every Texan lives near bats, one of the most ecologically, economically important - and threatened - wildlife species worldwide. Native Texas prairies preserve diversity and slow rainwater runoff but they’ve dwindled down to a few small patches. Carter Smith highlights TPWD successes of 2014 and what lies ahead in the new year. Read what El Paso has to offer visitors. Houston’s Terry Hershey proved that one woman can make a difference in urban conservation. Learn what anglers support with fish stamp revenue. McKinney Falls is open for visitors after the 2013 Halloween flood. Read about wolf snails, editing your digital images and how to predict the weather the old-fashioned way.
Feature Articles
State parks embrace measures to protect dark skies at night.
 By Rob McCorkle
There’s a meteoric movement in Texas to hit the dimmer switch on manmade illumination that obscures night skies across much of our state.
Texas state parks remain among the few public places where the starry heavens can still be viewed in all their glory with minimal intrusion of artificial light. An ambitious dark skies initiative launched a couple of years ago has begun to bear stellar fruit. Read more.
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Pest-eating flyers face an uncertain future.
 By Amy Price
Most of us have seen bats silhouetted against night skies over backyards
and fields, winging through the “Friday night lights” of football stadiums,
etched in moonlight during a meteor shower over Palo Duro Canyon State Park or
steadily climbing like smoke during a sunset emergence. Though we may recognize
the iconic dips and spins of bats in flight, much of the magic of bats is a
mystery to even the biggest fans of Texas wildlife. Read more.
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Texas has lost most of its prairie, but pockets of grassland are preserving diversity.
 Story & Photos by Russell A. Graves
Less than 24 hours ago, rain fell on the prairie. A spring thunderstorm, spawned just a few miles southeast of here, rumbled its way toward Oklahoma. Along the way the storm dropped about 2 inches of rain on the patchwork of prairie, wooded draws and cultivated farmland in western Lamar County. Before the sun even rises, Tridens Prairie is already waking up. Read more.
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