King Fisher Beach could soon have more room to relax and play on as the result of a grant the Texas General Land Office allocated to Calhoun County.
The $36,000 grant is among $730,000 that the state agency recently allocated for six projects in Calhoun, Matagorda and Jackson counties through the Cycle 26 of the and the .
Calhoun County Precinct 4 Commissioner Gary Reese said the grant will be used to purchase land adjacent to the park but negotiations with property owners are still underway. The purpose of the project is to enhance beach access and erosion protection, according to a news release from the .
鈥淲e hope that when we get it completed, we鈥檒l be able to expand that front beach by purchasing the property and be able to put more amenities down there for the public to enjoy,鈥 Reese said.
Other projects in the region are focused on enhancing bird habitat in the Matagorda Bay system, land conservation, research of the nutrition load input in Lavaca Bay and mapping of optimal locations for oyster aquaculture in Matagorda Bay.
Brown pelicans, laughing gulls, oystercatchers, egrets and other birds flourish on Chester Island. The island was at one time reported to be 200 acres, but has eroded over time.
The was allocated $145,535 to cover more than half the costs of the design and permitting required for a new bird rookery island the nonprofit plans to build at the mouth of Carancahua Bay in Calhoun County.
The 3 to 10 acres of new bird habitat will be located between Carancahua and Matagorda bays, closer to the Schicke Point side of the mouth than Redfish Lake, said Romey Swanson, director of conservation strategy for .
鈥淲e鈥檝e invested money ourselves in sort of the feasibility and early engineering of the project,鈥 he said. 鈥淭his takes it from where it鈥檚 at now to fully designed, fully feasible and fully permitted. It鈥檒l be completely shovel ready at the end of the funding expenditure.鈥
Swanson said the project is part of Audubon鈥檚 efforts to build or restore sites in Matagorda Bay that strengthen the resiliency of bird habitat for the region, and to armor those sites so they are durable and long-lasting.
鈥淲hat we鈥檙e really looking at is how we distribute these very important breeding sites within the bay system so not all of our eggs are in one basket,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hese birds are concentrated in incredible density on small footprints to produce all of the babies and all of the chicks that spread across the entirety of the coast, so although this is a small area, it is so critically important.鈥
Located near the entrance to the Matagorda Ship Channel, Chester Island has severe erosion issues but still managers to support upwards of 25,000 breeding pairs of birds each year. The hope is to expand habitat so the island is not so heavily relied upon and birds have more areas to utilize within the bay system, Swanson said.
鈥淭hat is the most important breeding island in all of the central Texas coast,鈥 he said. 鈥淲hat if something like a hurricane or an oil spill or something happens to impact that one site? You鈥檝e lost about 90% of your breeding birds for the entirety of Matagorda Bay.鈥
In other bird conservation efforts, the was also allocated $12,000 to restore a segment of Bill Days Reef to create a viable nesting site for American Oystercatchers.
Located in Espiritu Santo Bay near Port O鈥機onnor, the site will be elevated with bagged oyster shell and shell hash to protect nests from wash over during high tides, according to a news release from the General Land Office.
Matagorda
The was allocated about $370,000 to acquire a pristine track of about 1,000 acres known as Dog Island on the north shoreline of Matagorda Bay.
The land was cut off from the mainland when the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway was constructed. The foundation plans to add infrastructure on the island to support wildlife viewing, education, research and paddle sports, said Bill Balboa, executive director of the Matagorda Bay Foundation.
received about $100,000 in funding to create a map of habitats favorable for oyster farming, which was legalized in Texas in 2019.
Favorable habitats will be defined in terms of substrate and surface-groundwater discharge in Matagorda Bay, and the study will complement and inform aquaculture site-selection tools to enhance aquaculture efforts, according to the General Land Office.
Texas A&M AgriLife鈥檚 Texas Water Resources Institute received $66,000 towards a $110,000-project aimed at creating a centralized nutrient input repository that models surface-water nutrient loads entering Lavaca Bay.
The data will be used to improve understanding of the linkage between nutrient inputs and bay ecosystems that could be extended to other Texas estuaries, according to the General Land Office.
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