Shelly Plante
Wednesday, March 9, 10:30 am.
Salon C
Join Shelly for an update on the current state of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Texas Paddling Trails and Great Texas Wildlife Trails programs, including how you can be a part of these statewide initiatives. Ms. Plante will discuss program successes, challenges, creative solutions, the importance of partnerships, examples of each kind of trail, steps to implementing a paddling trail, how to get on a wildlife trail, costs and funding, and more! There will be time for questions and discussion from the audience as well. This session will be full of great information on where we are, where we’re going, and, most importantly, how you can be involved!
Nature Tourism Manager ,
Texas Parks and Wildlife
Shelly Plante is the statewide Nature Tourism Manager in the Marketing Group of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. She has been with TPWD for nineteen years and her work is all about making life better outside! She oversees the Great Texas Wildlife Trail program (a series of nine driving trails throughout the state guiding visitors to local wildlife viewing attractions) and has been a coordinator for the annual Great Texas Birding Classic for the past 18 years, including overseeing the latest evolution of this program to a statewide event. Ms. Plante also coordinated and helped develop the Texas Paddling Trails Program that builds partnerships between local communities, other agencies, river authorities and Texas Parks and Wildlife sites while creating sustainable paddling tourism opportunities statewide. Shelly also works with private landowners on income diversification options through nature tourism and with communities on developing nature tourism programs within their region. In 2013 she added adjunct professor and lecturer at Texas State University to her schedule.
Plante received her Masters of Applied Geography with a focus on Nature and Heritage Tourism from Texas State University and has a B.A. in Plan II and Geography from the University of Texas at Austin.
