Hunting and Fishing Day in Texas and across the nation is slated for Sept. 27 and every outdoors person is encouraged to extend a natural invitation to family, friends, neighbors and co-workers to step outside and share the values and the fun of the outdoors.

The Texas Parks & Wildlife Expo continues to add new activities while sticking to a hands-on, expert-assisted formula that has made it the largest free event of its kind in the nation. Last year approximately 42,000 people visited Expo at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department headquarters in Austin.

The photographer-landowner team of Rolf Nussbaumer of New Braunfels and the Fennessey Ranch in Refugio County received the William Henry Jackson Award grand prize Saturday night for the 2008 Pro-Tour of Nature Photography: Coastal Bend of Texas. The photographer and ranch owners split $51,000, the top award out of a total of $160,000 in prize money.

While Texas hunters were dusting off shotguns and stocking up on ammunition in advance of the Sept. 1 dove season opener in most of Texas, a research team was out two days prior to the season collecting bird specimens for a research study on the effectiveness of various shotshells, including non-lead shot.

Late quail production due to dry and hot range conditions has set the stage for an average hunting season, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists.

The one-hour video documentary Texas the State of Flowing Water will air at 8 p.m. central time, Thursday, Feb. 12 on all Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations in Texas. It is the fourth in an award-winning series of water resource documentaries produced by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and broadcast in partnership with PBS stations.

Texas Game Warden Vance Wallace was recognized as the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies "Officer of the Year" today.