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TEXAS'S COASTAL RESOURCES
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Source: Texas General Land Office, EnviroNomics (Winter 1993)
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The Texas Gulf Coast, stretching for 367 miles from Orange County to Cameron County, is one of the most
ecologically diverse and active regions of the state. Its environmental resources are also threatened. Environmental resources include dunes, beaches, marshes, coastal wetlands, coastal prairies, bays, estuaries and the world's longest barrier island, tidal flats, irrigated agriculture, and semiarid rangeland. The region provides feeding, breeding, and nesting habitats
for a wide variety of water birds, fish, and wildlife.
Recognition that our nation's coastal resources are being affected by vigorous economic and population
activity has spurred national and state legislation for the past twenty-five years. Federal action began in 1972 when Congress passed the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act in response to reports on coastal pollution and gulf and bay erosion. With this act, the
federal government established a program to encourage coastal states and territories to develop land-use plans, called "coastal management plans" that
would protect coastal resources, including wetlands, dunes, and barrier islands, and would maintain public access to beaches. The State of Texas has also implemented
activities for keeping Texas beaches clean of trash.
The 18 counties adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico are also home to approximately 4.5 million people, and the population is
expected to increase by 1.2 million people by the year 2005.* In 1995, Texas ranked fourth nationally in coastal
residential construction; third nationally in coastal retail, office, and industrial building construction; and fifth nationally in coastal hotel and recreational building construction.*
The Texas coastal region is famed for its documented 487 bird species, including wintering shorebirds, migratory
waterfowl, songbirds, and raptors. More than 75,000 people visit Aransas National Wildlife Refuge each year, and the
Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge hosts 48,000 birders each year. In 1996 the TPWD and the Texas Department
of Transportation developed a 500-mile marked trail featuring directions and tips on best times to spot certain birds.
Counties along the Coastal Birding Trail also hold special birding events, particularly in the winter and spring of each
year. According to the GLO in 1993 coastal tourism generated about $5.4 billion and accounted for 25 percent of the
state's travel industry. Most coastal travel occurs in Harris, Nueces, Cameron, and Galveston counties. The Coastal
Bend area, which includes Nueces, Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties, welcomes more than 9 million visitors each year, bringing $400 million to the local economies.* The Texas coast also appeals to approximately 850,000
saltwater sport fishers annually; their direct expenditures in 1996 amounted to $887 million and supported approximately 24,802 jobs.* The coastal region's economic activity also naturally includes commercial fishing, which in
1996 had a total economic impact coastwide at the wholesale commercial level of approximately $550 million.* The
increase of population, business activity, and tourism along the Texas coast has placed increased pressures on the natural resources of the area.
Data compiled by the World Resources Institute in 1995 show that roughly half of the world's coasts, including their
fertile ecosystems and aquatic life, are threatened significantly by development-related activities.* According to the
institute "The majority of the world's known marine species reside within near shore zones or depend on coastal
habitats for part of their life cycles. And most of the world's marine fish catch is taken from coastal zones."* The
threats to coastal systems include habitat destruction, sewage and industrial pollution, and the introduction of exotic
species. The not-for-profit Washington, D.C.-based Coast Alliance reports that areas around Galveston Bay and the
Lower Laguna Madre led all other coastal regions in the United States in the amount of fertilizer applied to agricultural lands.* Pesticides, fertilizers, and eroded soil can all be potentially harmful to marine systems. Runoff from urban
areas also threatens fish, wildlife, and water quality.
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