TPWD maps highlight Donley Co. locations

Local tourism boosters are welcoming the issuance of a new map from the Texas Parks & Wildlife (TPWD) which features Donley County.

The map is part of the new Panhandle Plains Wildlife Trail opening this month and features 97 different parks, ranches, and other locales where motorists can discover the best places to see wildlife and get back to nature. Road signs will go up this fall to help drivers find sites on the trail.

“We have been working on this for three years,” said Clarendon Economic Development Director Dee Dee Autry. “This will be a great opportunity for ranches to diversify and for local nature and birding tour operators.”

True to the Lone Star tradition of all-things big, the new driving trail runs through 60 Texas counties stretching from just south of Abilene up through the Rolling Plains and Panhandle to the Oklahoma border.

It’s the second of four driving trails developed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and local communities with funding from the Texas Department of Transportation, all modeled upon the success of the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, which was done in the late 1990s.

“When the maps on the coastal trail came out, tourism increased by 13 percent,” Autry said.

The Panhandle Plains trail is organized into 13 loops, which provide travel itineraries for those who want to check out a particular region. Unlike the coastal birding trail, which was largely fashioned around public parks and refuges, the new trail features 29 private properties, from small bed and breakfasts to large ranches offering many activities.

“An outstanding feature of the Panhandle Plains Wildlife Trail is the awesome private ranches that are now open to guests,” said Linda Campbell, TPWD nature tourism coordinator.

“We’ve got more private ranches on this trail because of the limited number of public lands in this part of the state. These are some of the state’s best-kept secrets-places few people have ever seen before that are now opening to serve nature-based recreationists.”

Donley County has six of the eight locations on the Salt Fork Loop. Those attractions include Lake Greenbelt, the Bar H Dude Ranch, the James Pinkney Rodgers Bird Sanctuary, the Taylor Lakes wildlife area, Coyote Ridge Ranch, and the Finch Ranch.

The back of the 35”x33” full-color map gives precise directions to each location and details what native flora and fauna can be found there.

Texas was the first state in the nation to build wildlife viewing driving trails that provide economic incentives for landowners and communities to conserve habitats while providing recreational opportunities for the traveling public.

The Panhandle Plains and Heart of Texas Wildlife Trails were funded with $948,480 in grants approved by the Texas Transportation Commission. The Panhandle Plains trail was also supported by a $25,000 grant from The CH Foundation of Lubbock.

Local and regional groups that helped gather information for the maps were the Clarendon EDC, the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce, Donley County Tourism Development, Texas Prairie Rivers, and the Panhandle Tourism & Marketing Council.

Autry said TPWD will have 500,000 of the maps printed and distributed to Texas travel and visitor centers around the state. The CEDC office in the Newhouse Building has a few of the maps available now, and more are expected to arrive soon. Otherwise, TPWD’s wildlife trail maps may be purchased for $3 each by calling toll-free (888) 900-2577.