After being closed for more than three months due to a massive wildfire that burned much of the park, Bastrop State Park will reopen today (Friday, Dec. 2). Campers, picnickers and hikers are being welcomed back to the park in what is being called a "soft opening."

Texas Parks and Wildlife fire-fighting personnel were continuing with clean up work at Bastrop State Park Thursday, having saved almost all the historic Depression-era structures on the 6,000-acre park just east of fire-ravaged Bastrop.

Outdoor Channel, America's Leader in Outdoor TV, today announced the launch of the network on Charter systems in Texas, effective immediately. Outdoor Channel will be available in the Fort Worth, Park Cities, Denton, Duncanville, Rockwall and Spring, Texas systems, giving Charter subscribers access to the sights, sounds and thrills of the network's genre leading programming.

The Boone and Crockett Club is now receiving four times more trophy entries than 30 years ago, and Theodore Roosevelt's great, great grandson says hunters who reach this apex are notable beneficiaries of historic conservation successes. Further, the TR descendant says trophy record holders are perfectly positioned to help keep hunters at the forefront of America's resurging conservation movement.

The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) is pleased to announce the recipients of the association's 2010 National Awards. These awards are presented annually to deserving individuals and agencies to honor their efforts-both professional and personal-in the field of parks and recreation.

The FLW American Fishing Series is headed to Toledo Bend June 17-19 for the third of three stops in the Texas Division series. As many as 300 pro and co-anglers will be competing for top awards of up to $25,000 plus a Ranger boat with an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard motor and up to $15,000, respectively.

Final Approach has signed on as a partner with DU to help sponsor the Ducks Unlimited Sporting Expo in Grapevine, Texas, May 28-30.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife biologist Wesley Brian Littrell, 32, of Athens, was killed last Friday afternoon in a tractor-related accident on the Gus Engeling Wildlife Management Area in northwest Anderson County. He leaves behind an unfinished legacy of habitat conservation.

Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation (CSF) President Jeff Crane, along with several members of the CSF Board of Directors, participated in last Friday's White House Conference on America's Great Outdoors.

More and more prominent big game conservation groups are formally endorsing Boone and Crockett scoring as their standard system for measuring North American big game trophies.