General

Upcoming events

Past Conventions

Past Conferences

Convention Conservation Projects

CONVENTION CONSERVATION PROJECTS

2001: Bolivar Flats

A Lesson in Addition-Houston Audubon Seeks To Expand Critical Galveston County Sanctuary

by Winnie Burkett

I fell in love with Bolivar Flats in 1992, when I started counting birds there for the International Shorebird Survey. (175 Marbled Godwits.) "Count shorebirds every ten days during migration" was the assignment, but I soon decided that as long as I was counting shorebirds, I might as well count everything else using the area, as well. (47 Reddish Egrets.) And counting birds during migration was so much fun that I wanted to find out what happened during the rest of the year. So I just kept counting. (97 Magnificent Frigatebirds.)

Bolivar Flats turned out to offer great birding year-round. Spring migration starts with the massing of Forster's and Common Terns (3800 Sterna Terns - when there are lots, they get tough to sort out) and Bonaparte's Gulls in March. April is dominated by avocets (10,000 avocets.) that congregate on the flats before their trip north, but many other species of shorebirds also stop. It is not unusual to find 30,000 shorebirds roosting together on the beach during an April high tide, so there is always a lot to look at. Generally, only a few hundred shorebirds summer on the flats, but the colonial waterbirds that breed on islands in Galveston Bay make up for the shortage. (521 Least Terns.) In July, as soon as tern and gull chicks fledge, their parents bring them to the flats and "park" them while the adults go out onto the Gulf of Mexico to feed. (8300 Royal Terns.) About an hour before sunset, a blizzard of adult birds starts pouring in to feed the young and spend the night. The noise of the chicks calling for dinner has to be heard to be believed. (150 Roseate Spoonbills.) In late July, the local breeders and summering birds are joined by southbound migrants; over 100,000 birds sometimes spend the night on Bolivar Flats. (68,000 Laughing Gulls.) Through the winter, thousands of shorebirds, gulls, terns, ducks, and raptors depend on the bounty of Bolivar Flats. So many birds, so much habitat! (White-tailed Hawk.)

Unique situation

Bolivar Flats is a complex of over a thousand acres of beach, mud flats, and salt marsh facing the Gulf of Mexico. (403 Sanderlings.) In Texas, mud flat/salt marsh systems are usually found in bays, but Bolivar Flats lies squarely on the open Gulf Coast shoreline. This unique setting reflects the origin of Bolivar Flats. In the late 1890s, the Army Corps of Engineers built two, five-mile-long jetties at the mouth of Galveston Bay to keep the ship channel into the bay from silting up. (1500 American White Pelicans.) The jetty on the north side of the channel interrupts the prevailing southbound long-shore current, making the current drop its sediment load. (630 Brown Pelicans.) Along the upper Texas coast, most of the sediments are clay, silt, and fine-grained sand, which can make some mighty sticky mud. (3000 dowitchers.) These sediments first created broad mud flats. Then, as they grew deeper year after year, marsh vegetation began to take hold at the upper edges of the flats.

Of course, the currents don't just move sediments: plant and animal material and trash are also carried by the long-shore current and stopped by the jetty. Decomposing plant material enriches the mud and furnishes a nutritious substrate for many kinds of worms and other invertebrates - food, that is, for shorebirds. (2100 Dunlin.) The salt marsh adjacent to the mud flats also adds still more nutrients and provides habitat for still more kinds of birds. (23 Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows.) The beach provides feeding and nesting habitat important to small plovers and Least Terns, as well as roosting habitat important to all coastal birds. (94 Wilson's Plovers.) Perhaps best of all, this productive complex continues to grow in the protective shadow of the jetty.

Unfortunately, Texas permits driving on most of its beaches, and as you can imagine, birds, mud, and vehicles don't always make a good combination. (150 Piping Plovers.) Not only do the vehicles disturb the birds, but often the mud sucks down the vehicles. (Half-submerged Ford.) In the early 1980s, Houston Audubon Society (HAS) members who were concerned about the impact of vehicles on birds and habitat approached county officials about eliminating vehicular access to the area most used by nesting and roosting birds. (Masked Booby.) In 1982, after many meetings and much opposition, Galveston County agreed to build a vehicular barrier on the beach to protect the birds and the fragile mud flat habitat. (47 American Oystercatchers.) The barrier was a help, but recognizing the ecological importance of the site, HAS resolved to provide as much protection as possible for this remarkable area - a challenging ambition for an Audubon chapter, and one that has led to the forging of constructive alliances with a wide range of other organizations.

Sanctuary origins

First, in 1992 HAS was able to obtain a lease from the Texas General Land Office to the portion of the Bolivar Flats that this agency controlled, enabling HAS to manage the area: and so Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary was born. (Curlew Sandpiper.) By then the vehicular barrier needed lengthening and strengthening, since Mother Nature and four-wheel-drive vehicles had taken a toll on it. To do this work, build an observation tower, and provide interpretive signage, HAS was able to get a grant from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), which was matched by funding from the Phillips Petroleum Company. (2280 Black Skimmers.) In 1993, the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Network recognized the importance of Bolivar Flats to 25 species of shorebirds by declaring it an "International Site," based on data showing that it supports at least 100,000 shorebirds annually, or fifteen percent of a species' flyway population. (18 Snowy Plovers.)

In 1996, a "For Sale" sign on a tract of land adjacent to the Bolivar Flats marshes presented another opportunity for aggressive action and constructive partnerships. (Breeding Northern Harriers.) This tract supports many birds, and although much of it consists of wetlands, scary visions of convenience stores or who knew what being built on the uplands worried many a birder. (400 Dickcissels.) What could be done? The most direct answer seemed to be for HAS to purchase the land. It was a huge project for our organization, but HAS decided to follow through on its commitment to give Bolivar Flats as much protection as possible.

So we went to work. (753 Black-bellied Plovers.) In December 1997, with the help of Ray Johnson of The Nature Conservancy of Texas (TNCT); a grant from the Texas General Land Office's Coastal Management Program; the Conservation Cash Grand Prize awarded to HAS by "The Wildbirders," winners of Texas Parks and Wildlife's Great Texas Birding Classic; and many, many hours of work and generous donations from HAS members and friends, HAS purchased 171 additional acres of wetlands, beach, and uplands for Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary. (Black Noddy and no convenience stores.)

In 1996, other good things were also happening. (353 White Ibises.) Louis Tyra approached TNCT about donating a 4/7 undivided interest in 550 acres of wet coastal prairie on the Bolivar Peninsula. TNCT took one look at the map of the property and called HAS: Mr. Tyra's wet coastal prairie was right across the street from and drained into the property HAS was purchasing. Thus, only a few weeks after HAS purchased the 171-acre tract, Louis Tyra gave HAS his holdings, rife with shorebirds and ducks (it is usually where the area's first Mottled Duck chicks show up each year). And Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary grew again. (Sooty Tern.)

Then, in mid-1998, HAS was presented with the latest, greatest opportunity to increase protection for Bolivar Flats: the availability of a 615-acre tract important to the continued productivity of Bolivar Flats, including most of the exceptional salt marsh adjacent to those wonderful mud flats, one mile of Gulf-front beach, and over 100 acres of coastal prairie that has been degraded by overgrazing and the invasion of exotic plants. (159 Neotropic Cormorants.) Continuing HAS's commitment to protect Bolivar Flats, the HAS board decided to purchase the property. But this has turned out to be our most challenging project to date. First of all, the property is involved in a bankruptcy and must be purchased from the bankruptcy court. Second, we must raise a substantial amount of money - more, in fact, than we have ever raised for any one project: $743,000! (112 Savannah Sparrows.)

This may seem like a lot of money to purchase a tract that is more than half wetland, but the unprecedented scale of the project means that HAS needs to look past the initial purchase price and include mangement oals in its financial planning. (two Lesser Black-backed Gulls.) HAS currently uses the income generated by admission to our High Island sanctuaries to manage our 1669-acre sanctuary system. But this massive addition to Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary will greatly increase expenditures for management. (120 Wilson's Phalaropes.) Once purchased, the property will require a longer, stronger barrier to keep vehicles out of the salt marsh, where they are damaging fragile habitat and disturbing nesting and roosting birds. (15 Clapper Rails.) We will also need funds to restore the degraded prairie so that it can provide quality habitat for migrant and resident grassland birds. And once such improvements are made, we will need support ongoing mangement activity such as mowing and fence repairs. (325 Lesser Yellowlegs.)

Adding to the challenge is the fact that HAS doesn't even employ a fund-raiser! As a result, many people in our organization have had to pitch in to locate partners and sources of funding. (Kelp Gull.) Once again, Ray Johnson from TNCT has had great advice, and our friends in the USFWS have also helped. We should be able to get a federal grant to pay for part of the purchase, but we must match that with non-government funds. (Black Rail.) HAS members and friends are living up to their tradition of generosity, but as you can imagine for such an undertaking, we will need all the help we can get.

I have to tell you that there are some who think it is crazy for an Audubon chapter to be buying so much land: "There should be someone else to do that. How about the state or federal government? The Nature Conservancy?" But these other organizations and agencies are already stretched to the limit. Texas Parks and Wildlife doesn't have much acquisition money, and TNCT and the USFWS refuge folks are working on as many projects as they can. (six Whimbrels.) Texas has very little public land at present, and there is much that needs protecting. Given that HAS now has a long history of protecting Bolivar Flats for birds and birders, we have emerged as the organization that can and should protect this special place. (Yellow Rail.)

As birders, we often know little about the ownership of the places that are important to us. Then suddenly those places are gone and it is too late to do anything. We all need to investigate the ownership of our favorite birding spots, and if they are not protected, we need to find ways to get them protected. Sometimes all it takes is bringing the area to the attention of state, federal, or local land protection organizations. But sometimes it is an Audubon chapter, a bird club, or an individual that must act. Houston Audubon and its partners have a long history of making Bolivar Flats add up. We hope our success will inspire other organizations to act boldly, giving birders a chance to assume some of the responsibility for ensuring the future of birds and birding.

Bird numbers are taken from the author's census data and the reports of others, and are a sample of what may be seen at Bolivar Flats. Winnie Burkett is the Sanctuary Manager for Houston Audubon. HAS will welcome your help with this project, either directly or through the ABA Convention Conservation Grant. You can contact HAS at 440 Wilchester, Houston, TX, 77079. You can get more information about the project by calling (713) 932-1639 ext. 14, visiting the HAS web site, or emailing the author

Report published in Winging It, March 2001