Delehide Cove
This project will
protect and
restore wetland habitats of the Texas Gulf coast and of the Galveston Bay estuarine ecosystem.
Delehide
Cove wetlands and adjacent habitats, including tidal flats, uplands, and
palustrine emergent marshes, are part of the Galveston Bay system on the upper
Texas coast. The project site is on the south shoreline of West
Bay, adjacent to and just east of Galveston Island State Park.
The objective of this project is to protect 391 acres of estuarine marsh, 3 acres of palustrine marsh, and 177 acres of tidal flats in the Delehide Cove, Eckert's Bayou, and Starvation Cove. The entire bay shoreline of Galveston Island has experienced significant erosion. Fifty acres of wetland vegetation and one acre of seagrass will be restored.
This project will protect and restore wetland and seagrass habitat for waterfowl and for important commercial and recreational fish species. A secondary benefit of the wetland restoration project will be trapping of suspended sediments and pollutants by the vegetation and conversion of potentially toxic hydrocarbons from vessel spills to less harmful forms of biochemical processes.
Aerial Photo of Delehide Cove taken February 16, 2004