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LAKE MINERAL WELLS STATE PARK & TRAILWAY
Learning program aims to get families outdoors
By Galen Scott

Lone Star News Group

Luther Standing Bear, Chief of the Oglala, Lakota once said, “Man’s heart away from nature becomes hard.” The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department doesn’t want that to happen.

In an attempt to encourage more people to visit wild places, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has created a kind of outdoor classroom where educators teach a variety of basic outdoor skills.

The program, called “Texas Outdoor Family,” is gaining popularity at parks across Texas, especially in areas near urban centers where children routinely reach maturity without having spent a night outside in a natural environment.

Participants are taught to properly build (and extinguish) a fire, how to cook outside and a variety of other activities, depending on the current season and park facilities.

Several families are already signed up to participate at Mineral Wells State Park on May 9-10, according to David Owens, an assistant superintendent at the park.

“The parks department put this program together because some parents nowadays are not experienced campers and are reluctant to take their kids outdoors because they don’t know what to do,” Owens said. “We want to give these people an outdoor experience where we provide just about everything and they can have that without worry.”

According to the TPWD Web site, the Mineral Wells event will include workshops covering fishing, kayaking, geocaching, GPS, natural crafts and outdoor cooking.

The Mineral Wells program can accommodate between 10 and 16 families, and will take place at either the Live Oak or Plateau campground, both of which are equipped with water and electricity, Owens said.

More than a dozen parks across the state are scheduling workshops as part of the year-round program. One event, in Georgetown, Texas, was sponsored by local businesses and was able to offer other activities, including archery, air rifle, fly-fishing and rapelling.

Since it was started in 2008, Texas Outdoor Family has reportedly become so popular, the parks department was forced to limit the number of times one family could participate to three per year, because the same families were signing up to return over and over, preventing others from attending.

Anyone interested in participating in a Texas Outdoor Family event is encouraged to register at least five days in advance by calling (512) 389-8903.

For more information, visit the TPWD’s Web site at TPWD: Outdoor Learning.