Why Restore Coastal

 Wetlands in Galveston Bay?

Galveston Bay, the largest estuary in Texas and the seventh largest in the country, is home to a productive commercial fishing industry, 9,000 recreational boat slips, and the third largest trading port in the United States.  People using the Bay share its resources with an array of fish, shellfish, aquatic plants, migratory waterbirds, and threatened and endangered species who also call Galveston Bay home.

Although the Bay remains a productive estuary, 170 years of development pressures have destroyed or degraded much of Galveston Bay’s coastal wetland habitat. Since the 1950's alone, for example, more than 20% of Galveston Bay’s wetlands have disappeared. Filling, draining, dredging, disposing dredge material, bulkheading and shrimp trawling have destroyed or degraded intertidal and subtidal wetlands. Pumping ground water for industrial, commercial and residential uses has also contributed substantially to wetland loss, causing overlying land to sink at alarming rates – more than ten feet in some areas. As land subsided, subtidal and intertidal vegetation was inundated by deep water, and wetland vegetation was replaced by less valuable open water habitat.

The loss and degradation of coastal wetlands in Galveston Bay threatens commercial and sports  fishing in Galveston Bay, for nearly all marine fish and shellfish rely on coastal wetlands for at least part of their life  cycle. Likewise,  lost wetlands negatively impact migratory shorebirds, wading birds and waterfowl that depend on marshes for feeding, breeding or wintering habitat. In addition, shorelines lacking natural protective vegetation are far more vulnerable to hurricane storm surges, winter storms and large ship wakes which can all pound shorelines, threatening shoreline developments, reducing water clarity and reducing primary productivity in the Bay.

In areas dramatically impacted by land subsidence, groundwater can no longer be extracted, so in the most threatened areas, the land is no longer sinking at a rapid pace. However, where wetlands had already disappeared, habitat remains relatively unproductive for fish and wildlife.  Now, large stretches of shoreline remain vulnerable to potentially catastrophic shoreline erosion, water turbidity remains high, primary productivity in the Bay declines, and wetland loss continues.

Maintaining Galveston Bay’s Economic Benefit in Texas, fish and wildlife resources, and aesthetic qualities depends on re-establishing and restoring its wetlands. The Habitat Conservation Blueprint: A Plan to Restore the Habitats and Heritage of Galveston Bay, completed in 1998 by a consortium of federal and state agencies and conservation groups, identifies 170 specific restoration projects and commits partners to work collaboratively to restore 24,000 acres of Galveston Bay’s coastal emergent marshes and seagrass meadows by the year 2010.

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