News

Thank you, HPPR members! Your pledges of support have gone to keep great HPPR and NPR programming on the air throughout the High Plains. Your support during our mini-drive has helped HPPR to raise $16,045 towards quality news, music and entertainment.

Members are the most vital resource for HPPR. We truly depend on and appreciate the involvement of our members, and couldn’t make public radio available without you.

In an area of the country that is often thought to be lacking in autumn color, we can provide splashes of bright contrasts if we put some thought into landscaping plans.

So far we’ve raised $15,755 towards our goal of $26,000! Have you gotten on board with your pledge of support?      

When you enter your pledge of support, you’ll be entered to win 2 American Airlines tickets to anywhere in the continental United States, Mexico and Canada. A contribution isn’t required to enter the drawing, however, it is a great way to show you support local and NPR programming on HPPR.

Thanks to  generous gifts from our members, we'll be matching EVERY pledge made today during Morning Edition, up to $2,000. Click here to pledge now!

This means that when you call us at 800-678-7444 or go to our secure pledge page , your gift will be matched dollar for dollar! HPPR and its members are challenging all listeners to do what they can to make this challenge successful.

Our annual look back at the past gardening year brings some disappointments directly linked to a hard weather year. 

Our mini-drive is almost over and we're giving one lucky listener two round-trip tickets to anywhere American Airlines flies in the continental United States, Mexico or Canada!  Click here to pledge and/or enter the drawing.

Both hosts of High Plains Outdoors, Larry and Luke, relish spending time in the wide, untamed spaces hunting and fishing, but for these two men, it's not simply about a successful hunt, it's about cooking what you bring into camp.

Weekend trips were my father’s favorite way to unwind.  One of his favorite getaways was a  ranch east of San Diego along the Mexican border.  Semi-arid and craggy, it’s mystique appealed to me as well.  It was a relief to escape the crowded Los Angeles basin to this uncomplicated ranch nestled amidst sage-dotted hills.  The land’s sparse vegetation and up-thrust boulders made it difficult for man or beast to inhabit. 

No doubt about it -- wise water use is a critical issue for the planet, and especially for those of us who live in the plains states of the U.S. 

This week on Playa Country, prescribed burning. Oklahoma State University's Dept. of Natural Resource Ecology & Management is researching effects of limited prescribed burning or "patch burning" to create a mosaic of patches across the landscape.

Early research findings indicate better forage grasses and increased biodiversity. Listen to Playa Country on HPPR Tuesday's at 6:44 pm central.

Like death and taxes, I count on box elder beetles invading every year.  These nuisances creep into every crack and crevice of our house, silently multiplying until nowhere is sacred.  I have even had them fall off a showerhead while I shampooed my hair.
Unfortunately, I don’t know much about these creatures other than that they show up like a bad penny every fall. They squeeze through airtight windows, out of electrical sockets, and under door jambs like Mongol hordes.  What lures them, I don’t know.

Each year about this time, thousands of sea gulls converge on Lake Texoma, situated on the Texas/Oklahoma border and striper fishing becomes red hot. 

A full history of the Oslo Settlement is provided in the article below.

Oslo on the Texas High Plains
Peter L. Petersen (Volume 28: Page 138)

HPPR thanks the Norwegian-American Historical Society for permission to post this article.  A grant from the West Texas State University committee on organized research assisted in its preparation.

Tune to HPPR for continuous election coverage on its FM stations and web stream from 7pm-2am CT.  Coverage may extend past 2am if the presidential race remains undecided.  

Weather in Kansas often leaves a person feeling a little schizophrenic.  If it confuses me, what does it do to vegetation and animals that live outside?  At this moment, our climate is causing some abnormal buffalo grass behavior.

We would like to thank all those who made time to pledge their support during the Feed your Radio, Feed a Family Fund Drive. No matter whether you called, mailed or went on to hppr.org to make your pledge, you've made a difference on the high plains.  

The Feed your Radio, Feed a Family Fund Drive raised over $60,000 for HPPR, and thanks to our generous sponsors,  5.7% of every dollar pledged to HPPR was also matched to local food banks. Those food banks were able to take that 5.7% and translate it into 17,500+ meals to high plains residents.

We'll continue our visit at the High Plains Food Bank in Amarillo by doing a walk-through of the garden with Cara Young. 

Driving cattle from Texas to the north became complicated when homesteaders refused to allow herds to cross their land.  Quarantine laws were passed to protect herds from tick fever carried by Texas cattle.  

This week on Playa Country, we begin a three part series on grazing. Much of Playa Country has been in a two-year drought, and parts of the region are in exceptional drought. How do ranchers and range managers plan and operate and protect their grasslands under these conditions? A strategic plan is essential. Playa Country airs on Tuesday's at 6:44 pm during All Things Considered.

KTDH, 89.3 FM is now on the air providing public radio service for the first time to Dalhart, TX and surrounding Dallam and Hartley counties of the northwest Texas panhandle.  HPPR thanks and congratulates everyone in the Dalhart community who has made this station possible, especially  Scot and Sylvia Renick, Jim McDaniel and Sherry Hanshew, Gerald Burney and Dean Graham.  We look forward to serving everyone in the Dalhart community for years to come. 

Leaves changing colors and a sudden nip in the air proclaim autumn’s arrival more forcefully than any date on a calendar can..  With that change comes an ancient song.  Like steps on the porch announcing a visitor, this tune is the sound of summer’s exit and fall’s approach. Vernal musicians herald ice storms and frosts that destroy lingering tomatoes and late summer blooms.

The High Plains offers some of the best upland bird hunting in the country.  Larry and Luke discuss everything from dove to grouse hunting in today’s show.