Bahia Grande Restoration Project

 The Bahia Grande is part of the Laguna Atascosa NWR in south Texas. Located between Brownsville and Port Isabel the Bahia Grande was once a 20,000 acre coastal wetland ecosystem. Up until the early 1900s this ecosystem supported a variety of wildlife including fish, crustaceans, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects. In 1872 a railroad line was built to connect Brownsville and Port Isabel. This was the start of the death of the Bahia Grande. In 1936 a shipping channel to Brownsville was constructed which further restricted the tidal flow into the Bahia Grande. In 1951 State Highway 48 was built which completely isolated the Bahia Grande from the Laguna Madre. With no tidal flow the water began to evaporate turning this wonderful wetland ecosystem into a barren dust bowl. The Bahia Grande no longer supported much life and winds whipping across spread clay dust into the neighboring towns.

In 1999 the US fish and Wildlife Service acquired almost 22,000 acres of land in and around the Bahia Grande and began a project to restore the land back into the wetland habitat that it used to be. A series of channels have been dug to flood the area and provide it access to a consistent tidal flow. The main channel is 225 feet wide, 2400 feet long, and 9 feet deep. It stretches to the Brownsville Shipping Channel to provide tidal access to the Laguna Madre and Gulf waters. Several smaller channels have also been dug to assist in the restoration including a channel in the northern portion designed to catch freshwater run off to help with problems with too much salt. Even though they have been at it for almost 12 years this project is far from over. It usually takes much longer to fix nature then it does for man to destroy it. However progress has been made. Wildlife has begun to return to the area. As we drove through we saw brown and white pelican, shorebirds, oystercatchers, gulls (like the laughing gull in the first pic), osprey, herons, and egrets (like the reddish egret above). Since these birds were feeding hat means that there is also probably fish and other water creatures present also.

Bahia Grande

On our way to the airport on the final day of our Texas trip we passed by the Carl Gayman Bahia Grande Restoration Channel. The Bahia Grande was once a large salt water lagoon located at the south east tip of Texas. This lagoon consisted of numerous habitats, such as tidal flats, mangrove marshes and sea grass shallows, that formed a type of tidal nursery where young fish, shrimp and crabs, and other marine life could find protection while they grew.
In the 1930's the Brownsville Ship Channel was created. This 15 mile long channel connects the port of Brownsville to the ocean. Because the port is inland it is better protected from hurricanes and tropical storms. Unfortunately when they were dredging the channel they piled most of the dredged materials, mostly rock, mud and sand, on the side of the channel. This acted as a sort of damn cutting off the Bahia Grande from the waters of the Laguna Madre.

With any regenerating supply of water, the only water coming from occasional rain storms, the land dried up. As the remaining water evaporated it left the salt behind which killed off the vegetation. Over the decades the area became a baron dust bowl, with dust blowing into the neighboring communities.

The Bahia Grande eventually came under the domain of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and it is now a part of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. The Fish and Wildlife Service along with other state, local and private groups have begun a plan to try and restore the Bahia Grande. Channels like this one have been dug from the ship channel out into the Bahia Grande. This is the pilot channel and it is 60 feet wide by 2,300 feet long. It is named for the Carl "Joe" Gayman who was a Brownsville Navigational District commissioner who dug a small channel in 1983 in an attempt to flood the Bahia, but was forced by court order to close the channel a few weeks after it had been dug.

Since much of the the Bahia Grande's 10,000 acres is below sea level the hope is that the channels will provide enough fresh sea water to revive it and return it back to its original form. Already marine life has begun to take hold again which has brought many birds back to the area. Dusty arid soil has been renewed and native vegetation has begun to grow in areas that are not flooded.

We stopped mostly because I spotted brown and white pelicans together in the water. I have seen both types of pelicans but I had never seen them together like this so I found it interesting. However I was really surprised when I found a pair of American oystercatcher near the shore on my way back to the car. From a distance I at first thought that they were just another pair of laughing gulls but when I saw that bright orange bill I knew that I was looking at another lifer.