Coastal Projects

Region/County: Coast Wide

Recipient: Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin

Summary: The Texas High School Coastal Monitoring Program (THSCMP) engages people who live along the coast in the study of their natural environment. High school students, teachers, and scientists work together to gain a better understanding of dune and beach dynamics on the Texas coast. Students and teachers learned how to measure the topography, map the vegetation line and shoreline, and observe weather and wave conditions. By participating in a research project, the students obtained an enhanced science education.

Region/County: Cameron

Recipient: South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center

Summary: South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center installed twenty-three interpretive signs along the boardwalk that extends from the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center to the South Padre Island Convention and Tourism Center. These sign panels provide educational information about South Texas island habitat (beaches, dunes, saltwater and freshwater marshes, intertidal flats), plant and animal life, the Laguna Madre, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Region/County: Coast Wide

Recipient: Texas Engineering Experiment Station

Summary: By simulating storm surges hitting a representative portion of the Texas coast, Texas Engineering Experiment Station provided an improved understanding of hurricane surge generation along the Texas coast, a simplified method for estimating surge as a function of hurricane size and strength and geographic location where it comes ashore, and an assessment of the value of coastal natural resources in protecting against storm surges.

Region/County: Lower Coast

Recipient: Texas A&M University at Galveston

Summary: Texas A&M University at Galveston will continue mapping of the bay bottom of Copano Bay to identify and delineate oyster reefs and other bottom features.

Region/County: Upper Coast

Recipient: Texas A&M University at Galveston

Summary: Texas A&M University at Galveston will focused specifically on the effects of nutrient and sediment loads as a component of freshwater inflows to Galveston Bay.

Region/County: Aransas

Recipient: Aransas County Navigation District #1

Summary: Aransas County Navigation District #1 completed tasks associated with the second of three phases to develop a stormwater management plan and to investigate and implement necessary stormwater best management practices (BMPs) for Cove Harbor and the adjacent marshlands and marsh habitat areas.

Region/County: Coast Wide

Recipient: Texas A&M University, Sea Grant College Program

Summary: This project pools the resources of the state's academic and research institutions to more fully understand the parameters of the CMP, to consider the most pressing issues of coastal managers, and to develop a strategic plan for fostering sound research with applications to issues of concern.

Region/County: Coast Wide

Recipient: Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi

Summary: Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi will expand upon the CHRGIS infrastructure developed during Cycle 8 by populating the website with habitat restoration projects. The expansion of CHRGIS is an example of a research-based management system that supports the investment of both the community and state in coastal habitat restoration and management.

Region/County: Lower Coast

Recipient: Valley Proud Environmental Council

Summary: This project utilizes multiple programs to combat beach litter, to raise awareness, and to educate the public about the environmental and legal consequences of littering. Litter threatens natural resources and is dangerous to marine life and local wildlife. It leads to expensive clean-up costs and causes unattractive and unhealthy shorelines. As an ongoing project, many changes have occurred over the last few years. Captain Crab and his friends have begun visiting approximately 26,000 fourth-grade students at over 200 elementary schools throughout the four-county region.

Region/County: Upper Coast

Recipient: Galveston Bay Foundation

Summary: The Galveston Bay Foundation sponsored Bay Day. This event called attention to and celebrated Galveston Bay by providing fun activities for all ages, increasing public awareness of the bay’s value, resources, and diversity of uses.

Region/County: Coast Wide

Recipient: Texas A&M University at Galveston

Summary: Texas A&M University at Galveston purchased a swath bathymetry system to be used on various Coastal Management Program, Coastal Erosion Prevention and Response Act, Coastal Impact Assistance Program projects as well as others requiring swath bathymetry. In addition, it was used as a research tool for the Texas Coastal Geology Lab for investigations into key geological systems along the Texas coast.

Region/County: Cameron

Recipient: Texas AgriLife Extension Service

Summary: The overall objective of this project is to implement components of an integrated farm management program to educate agricultural and turfgrass producers about laws and regulations and on how to better manage their land through safe use of crop protection chemicals, nutrients and irrigation and in doing so, reduce the potential for nonpoint source pollution

Region/County: Coast Wide

Recipient: Texas A&M University

Summary: Texas A&M University's Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center (HARC) will proceed with the third phase of a five phase strategy to evaluate numerous issues related to the vulnerability of coastal areas to natural hazards.

Region/County: Cameron

Recipient: Texas A&M University Corpus Corpus Christi

Summary: The Harte Research Institute will develop a geohazards map of South Padre Island. The map will delineate critical environments and features (e.g. wetlands, dunes, and washover channels) that protect against and/or are vulnerable to certain geological processes or geohazards, such as hurricanes and sea level rise.

Region/County: Brazoria

Recipient: City of Clute

Summary: The City of Clute will develop a comprehensive plan to protect and enhance the natural areas within and immediately surrounding the city from the outgrowth of commercial, industrial, and residential development.

Region/County: Upper Coast

Recipient: Armand Bayou Nature Center

Summary: Armand Bayou Nature Center will address three facets of wetlands habitat loss: Marsh Restoration (by employing an innovative process using California bulrush (Shoenoplectus californicus); Prairie Restoration (with the propagation of native prairie grasses); and Prairie Management (by employing the use of prescribed burning, mowing, reintroduction of important plant species, spot removal or treatment of invasive species and monitoring to manage these restored wetland prairies).

Region/County: Lower Coast

Recipient: Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program, Inc

Summary: The Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program (CBBEP) will implement the first phase of marsh restoration by raising bottom elevation to support low-marsh communities, designing channels for adequate circulation through the raised areas, and planting appropriate vegetation.

Region/County: Calhoun

Recipient: City of Port Lavaca

Summary: The City of Port Lavaca will construct approximately 100 linear feet of new public fishing pier to continue closing the gap between the landward end of the Port Lavaca Causeway Fishing Pier and the pier section that was isolated by a fire in 2003.

Region/County: Aransas

Recipient: City of Rockport

Summary: The City will acquire approximately 20-acres of undisturbed Live Oak/Red Bay habitat with a 3-acre fresh water pond located to the west and to the south of the Memorial Park property line.

Region/County: Lower Coast

Recipient: Nueces River Authority

Summary: The Nueces River Authority will acquire approximately 185 acres of sensitive land adjacent to Oso Creek in Nueces County and within a coastal natural resource area. This tract of land will become part of a larger project to create the Coastal Bend Regional Park.