Islands
Evia Island Bird Habitat Galveston, Texas, United States
Evia Island is a beneficial use of dredged material project completed in 2001 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Galveston District (SWG). Since the 1980s, Galveston Bay has lost over half its salt marsh habitat and most of its natural nesting islands due to subsidence, erosion, and development. The project site offered a large placement area for sediment excavated by a dredge during general maintenance of federal channels. Strategic placement of sediment within a confined barrier created 2,800 acres of marsh and a six-acre mixture of scrub shrub and wetland habitats. Evia Island now provides a manageable, controllable, and protected environment for rare and endangered coastal birds. This project is a prime example of using local ecosystems, natural processes, and nature-based features to engineer with and complement nature. Evia Island is now managed and maintained by Houston Audubon (HA).
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