Texas Wildlife - Bright Future for Texas Oysters - August 2021

MAGAZINE OF THE TEXAS WILDLIFE ASSOCIATION

Bright Future for

Texas Oysters

AUGUST 2021

TEXAS WILDLIFE

PRESIDENT'S REMARKS SARAH BIEDENHARN

Texas Wildlife Association Mission Statement Serving Texas wildlife and its habitat, while protecting property rights, hunting heritage, and the conservation efforts of those who value and steward wildlife resources.

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ugust…we meet again. Dust, heat and supplemental feed come to mind for me. This month is hard on all Texas creatures from bobwhites to black bears, but possibly even more so on private landowners.

Whether you’re raising livestock or taking care of wildlife, it’s stressful to know that grass, browse and often water are in short supply. The long days are busy with filling feeders, checking on water troughs and praying for rain.

But August is also a time for new beginnings. I am both honored and thrilled to begin my two-year term as your Texas Wildlife Association President. My perspective and passion for private land stewardship and conservation has been greatly impacted by TWA and its members. From attending the TWA convention every summer to participating in a Buckskin Brigade camp, TWA’s programs influenced my passion for preserving our great hunting heritage and provided an avenue to collaborate and work with like-minded land managers and outdoorsmen on conservation efforts that benefit all Texans.

The beginning of the school year is also swiftly approaching which means it’s time for our Conservation Legacy programs to shift into high gear. TWA does a lot of valuable work, but its efforts to educate young people on the importance of wildlife conservation and the role private landowners play in that conservation has resonated with me from a very young age.

I grew up with many friends that did not “get it.” They had no connection to the land whatsoever and, until I attended a Brigade Camp, I found it very difficult to explain it in a way that made sense to them.

I am incredibly grateful to the many of you willing and eager to volunteer your time and open your gates and checkbooks to ensure the long-term success of these programs. I have seen first-hand the passion behind these programs and am quite humbled to be part of it.

As you head back out to the 100-plus degree heat, I’ll leave you with this scary question: While the definition of “urban” has evolved over time, the U.S. has been categorized as more urban than rural for at least the last 100 years. In 2050, when the U.S. population is expected to be close to 90 percent urban, how many of those people will be more than one generation removed from the land?

Thanks for all you do to support TWA and protect Texas’s wildlife, habitat and the hardworking stewards of both.

OFFICERS Sarah Biedenharn, President, San Antonio Jonathan Letz, Vice President, Comfort Dr. Louis Harveson, Second Vice President for Programs, Alpine Nyle Maxwell, Treasurer, Georgetown For a complete list of TWA Directors, go to www.texas-wildlife.org

PROFESSIONAL STAFF/CONTRACT ASSOCIATES Administration & Operation David Brimager, Interim Chief Executive Officer Quita Hill, Director of Finance and Operations Cynthia Moncrief, Office Administrator

Outreach & Member Services Kristin Parma, Membership Coordinator Mimi Sams, Engagement Coordinator

Conservation Legacy and Hunting Heritage Programs Kassi Scheffer-Geeslin, Director of Youth Education Elanor Dean, Education Program Specialist Gwen Eishen, L.A.N.D.S. Educator Adrienne Paquette, L.A.N.D.S. Educator Elisa Velador, L.A.N.D.S. Educator Ali Kuehn, L.A.N.D.S. Educator Brittani Dafft, L.A.N.D.S. Educator & CL Program Assistant Marla Wolf, Curriculum Writer Iliana Peña, Director of Conservation Programs Courtney Brittain, Website Consultant COL(R) Chris Mitchell, Texas Youth Hunting Program Director Bryan Jones, TYHP Field Operations Coordinator Bob Barnette, TYHP Field Operations Coordinator Briana Nicklow, TYHP Field Operations Coordinator Kim Hodges, TYHP Program Coordinator Sherry Herrington, TYHP Administrative Assistant Kara Starr, Texas Big Game Awards Program Coordinator

Advocacy Joey Park, Legislative Program Coordinator

Texas Wildlife Association

TEXAS WILDLIFE is published monthly by the Texas Wildlife Association, 6644 FM 1102, New Braunfels, TX 78132. E-mail address: twa@texas-wildlife.org. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Texas Wildlife Association, 6644 FM 1102, New Braunfels, TX 78132. The Texas Wildlife Association (TWA) was organized in 1985 for the purpose of serving as an advocate for the benefit of wildlife and for the rights of wildlife managers, landowners and hunters in educational, scientific, political, regulatory and legislative arenas. TEXAS WILDLIFE is the official TWA publication and has widespread circulation throughout Texas and the United States. All rights reserved. No parts of these magazines may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without express written permission from the publisher. Copyrighted 2021 Texas Wildlife Association. Views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the Texas Wildlife Association. Similarities between the name Texas Wildlife Association and those of advertisers or state agencies are coincidental, and do not indicate mutual affiliation, unless clearly noted. TWA reserves the right to refuse advertising.

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AUGUST 2021

6644 FM 1102 New Braunfels, TX 78132 www.texas-wildlife.org (210) 826-2904 FAX (210) 826-4933 (800) 839-9453 (TEX-WILD)

Texas Wildlife

MAGAZINE OF THE TEXAS WILDLIFE ASSOCIATION

AUGUST VOLUME 37

H

8 Bright Future for Texas Oysters

NUMBER 4

H

2021

28 Plant Profile

by NATE SKINNER

Smooth Cordgrass

by ERIC GRAHMANN and STEVEN GOERTZ

16 Hunting Heritage

30 Predator Control and Quail

Thanks To Our 2021 TBGA Sponsors

by DAVID BRIMAGER

by DALE ROLLINS, PH.D.

18 TWAF

36 Upstream Actions Have Downstream Effects

2020 Texas Outdoorsman of the Year

by MEG GUERRA

Water Quality Concerns and Solutions for Baffin Bay

20 Conservation Legacy

by NATE SKINNER

Get to Know the Conservation Educators of Conservation Legacy

42 The River Otter

by RUSSELL A. GRAVES

22 Members In Action

46 Ecosystem Services

Meet TWA President Sarah Biedenharn

New Frontiers in Land-Based Resources

by KRISTIN PARMA

by LORIE A. WOODWARD

24 Caesar Kleberg News

54 Outdoor Traditions

The Charismatic Reddish Egret

Gone Fishing

by BART M. BALLARD

by SALLIE LEWIS

26 Noble News And Views Grazing Animals

by JOSH GASKAMP and MEREDITH ELLIS Photo by Jerod Foster for The Nature Conservancy

Magazine Staff

MAGAZINE OF THE TEXAS WILDLIFE ASSOCIATION

AUGUST 2021

On the Cover From thriving oyster restoration to new oyster mariculture opportunities, the future of oysters looks bright. Read more about oyster conservation efforts in Nate Skinner’s article, starting on page 8.

MAGAZINE CORPS David Brimager, Interim Executive Editor

Photo courtesy of Emma Clarkson/TPWD

Kim Rothe, Consulting Publications Coordinator/Editor Lorie A. Woodward, Special Projects Editor Publication Printers Corp., Printing, Denver, CO

Bright Future for

Texas Oysters

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TEXAS WILDLIFE

MEETINGS AND EVENTS

FOR INFORMATION ON HUNTING SEASONS, call the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department at (800) 792-1112, consult the 2020-2021 Texas Parks and Wildlife Outdoor Annual, or visit the TPWD website at tpwd.state.tx.us.

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

AUGUST 27 Women of the Woods– Forestry and Wildlife Management in Texas, Virtual Workshop, 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. For more information and to registration visit https://www.texas-wildlife.org/ program-areas/category/adulteducation.

SEPTEMBER 4 TYHP Huntmaster Training & Refresher Course 2021, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., Pleasant Hill and Rocky Community Center, Hye, TX. For more information and to register, visit https://www.texas-wildlife. org/resources/events/tyhphuntmaster-training-2021-hye.

OCTOBER 7 Fort Worth James Green Wildlife & Conservation Initiative, Auction and Dinner. For more information and to register, visit https://twafoundation. org/james-green-wildlifeconservation-initiative-2021/.

AUGUST 28 Small Acreage Big Opportunity Workshop, Indian Lodge, Davis Mountains State Park, Fort Davis, TX. For more information and to register, visit https://www.texaswildlife.org/program-areas/smallacreage-big-opportunity.

SEPTEMBER 17-18 TYHP Huntmaster Training 2021, Mason Mountain Wildlife Management Area, Mason, TX. For more information and to register, visit https://www.texas-wildlife. org/resources/events/tyhphuntmaster-training-2021-mason2.

SEPTEMBER 25 Small Acreage Big Opportunity Workshop, Nacogdoches, TX. For more information and to register, visit https://www.texas-wildlife.org/ program-areas/small-acreagebig-opportunity.

OCTOBER 21-24 Texas Master Naturalist 2021 Annual Meeting, Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Marriott Irving, TX. For more information or to register, visit https://txmn.tamu.edu/eventscalendar/texas-master-naturalist2021-annual-meeting/.

OCTOBER 30 Small Acreage Big Opportunity Workshop, Allen, TX. For more information and to register, visit https://www.texas-wildlife.org/ program-areas/small-acreagebig-opportunity.

TEXAS WILDLIFE

V I RT UA L M E E T I N G S A N D E V E N T S G U I D E VISIT THE PROGRAM PAGES ONLINE at www.texas-wildlife.org/program-areas/category/youth for specifics and registration information.

YOUTH DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMS: • Youth Videoconferences are live interactive presentations featuring Texas wildlife species. Offered throughout the semester, classes connect via videoconference equipment or Zoom.

• On-demand Webinars are recorded interactive presentations about natural resources and wildlife conservation topics and are available anytime on the TWA website.

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CONSERVATION LEGACY TEACHER WORKSHOPS: • (Virtual) Teacher Workshops are scheduled for the summer. Workshops are offered at no cost and participation in the 3-hour live Zoom meeting and completion of self-directed work earns participants 6 hours of CPE credit. Schedule and registration are found online at www.texas-wildlife.org/ program-areas/teacher-workshops.

Critter Connections are now available in a read-along format. Recordings of past issues are available online and live broadcasts accompany each new issue. All recordings and scheduled live readings can be found online.

Photo by Jerod Foster for The Nature Conservancy

BRIGHT FUTURE FOR TEXAS OYSTERS

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AUGUST 2021

BRIGHT FUTURE FOR TEXAS OYSTERS Article by NATE SKINNER

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ysters are interesting creatures, and arguably one of the most unique mollusk species found within Texas estuarine waters. Although most originate as a single animal, they typically grow into consolidated reefs, providing habitat, refuge and food to a plethora of marine aquatic species.

According to Dr. Jennifer Pollack, the Texas A&M UniversityCorpus Christi Harte Research Institute Chair for Coastal Conservation and Restoration, one of the most important impacts that oysters have on our bay systems comes from the fact that they filter the water.

“Healthy oyster reefs contribute to the overall water quality of an estuary,” Pollack said. "Oysters are filter feeders. They use their gills to absorb oxygen, while consuming phytoplankton.

This process provides them sustenance, all the while, filtering the water. One oyster will filter up to 50 gallons of water per day.”

Oysters reefs also serve as barriers or buffers and protect adjacent shorelines and marshes from erosion. They typically concentrate prey species for inshore game fish, making the waters surrounding them popular fishing grounds among the recreational angling crowd.

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BRIGHT FUTURE FOR TEXAS OYSTERS

Photo by Jerod Foster for The Nature Conservancy

Pollack said that oysters have long been a bioindicator for changes in freshwater inflows and salinities within Texas bays.

“There are measurable traits and attributes among oyster reefs that reveal how salinities are being impacted,” Pollack said.

“These include the average size of harvested oysters, as well as mortality rates and the overall health of specific oyster reefs.”

Pollack said that one of the largest effects that high salinity conditions have on oysters is the increased threat of predators.

This typically takes place during drought periods when freshwater inflows into estuaries are very minimal.

“As salinities within an estuary become similar to those found in the Gulf, populations of predators that harm oysters may increase,” Pollack said. “The two main species that threaten oysters are the blue crab and oyster drill.”

The oyster drill is a snail that uses its tongue, or radula, to drill a hole through an oyster’s shell. This enables it to feed upon the bivalve.

“Spat, or juvenile oysters, are typically the most susceptible to predators,” Pollack said. “Their shells are oftentimes much weaker than those of an adult oyster.”

Another threat that oysters face when salinities are high is disease.

“The most common disease found in mature oysters is Dermo,” Pollack said. “It is caused by the protozoan parasite, Perkinsus marinus, and is characterized by the degradation of oyster tissues.

Dermo results in massive mortality among oyster populations.”

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Oysters can contract Dermo from other oysters.

“Perkinsus marinus is transferred into the water column when oysters that were already contaminated with the parasite die from Dermo and decompose,” Pollack said. “Live oysters then become stricken with the disease by ingesting Perkinsus marinus while they are filtering the water. Feces from the parasite in the water column can also cause Dermo among oyster populations.”

Pollack said that Perkinsus marinus thrives in warm, super saline waters. Oyster populations rely on ample freshwater inflows to dilute estuarine water salinity and keep it at levels inhospitable to the disease-causing parasite.

The ideal salinity range for oysters along the Texas coast is somewhere between 10-25 ppt. Pollack said that oysters will undergo osmotic and physical stresses when they experience the extreme ends of the salinity spectrum.

“This becomes especially true when periods of extreme low salinities are experienced,” Pollack said. “Oysters are capable of withstanding short pulses of intense, freshwater inflows; however, they will clam-up, or shut completely, when salinities plunge too rapidly. The problem with this is, that during warm conditions, oysters can only stay shut for short periods of time or they will not survive.”

Oysters have a much faster metabolism in warm water than they do in cold water. They feed more often during the warmer periods of the year by filtering the water that is available.

BRIGHT FUTURE FOR TEXAS OYSTERS

toward replanting the material instead of replanting it themselves. This fee is calculated by multiplying the market cost by 30 percent of the volume of oysters that the entity or individual purchased, during the previous license year.

Since the passage of House Bill 51, approximately 40 acres of oyster reef have been restored with over 22,000 cubic yards of cultch.

Photo courtesy of Galveston Bay Foundation

Oysters spawn when water temperatures rise above about 68°F. Spawning continues in intervals, throughout the summer months.

Fertilization occurs in open water, and the egg soon develops into a microscopic, free-swimming larvae. This stage lasts about three weeks.

“Chemical cues given off by bacteria and algae growing on hard surfaces appear to trigger the free-swimming larvae to change shape into a small oyster, about the size of a grain of pepper called a spat,” Pollack said. “Spat will attach themselves to many types of hard material or cultch, but they prefer the shells of other mollusks or oysters. Oysters can reach sexual maturity in as little as four weeks after attachment.”

THE TEXAS WILD OYSTER FISHERY According to the Team Leader for the TPWD Habitat Assessment Team Emma Clarkson, Texas coastal bays are home to approximately 79,000 acres of wild oyster reefs. Of these 79,000 acres, about 76,000 are located within the Aransas, San Antonio, Matagorda and Galveston Bay systems where oysters are commercially harvested.

“In 2020, we had 18 wild oyster dealers and 468 licensed and permitted oyster fishing vessels,” Clarkson said.

In 2019, the ex-vessel value for the wild oyster fishery was approximately $33

million, including both public oyster reefs and private oyster leases. Approximately 5.2 million pounds of oyster meat weight was harvested by the commercial fishery in 2019. The 20-year long term average is approximately $19 million per year for the ex-vessel value, and about 4.6 million pounds of oyster meat weight harvested per year.

The 2020-2021 commercial oyster season was open November 1, 2020 April 30, 2021. This did not include private leases with TPWD permits, where there is no closed season. During open season, oysters could be harvested Monday through Friday from sunrise to 3:30 p.m.

The current bag limit for commercial oyster harvests is 30 sacks per day. Each sack must weigh no more than 110 pounds, including dead oyster shell and the sack.

In 2017, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 51, which has helped to preserve the future of our wild oyster fishery. The bill requires entities and purchasers within the commercial oyster industry to replant oyster cultch equivalent to 30 percent of the total amount of oysters that they purchased by volume during the previous license year into areas approved by TPWD. This can be in the form of oyster shells or other TPWD-approved oyster cultch material.

These commercial entities can also choose to pay TPWD a fee that will go

OYSTER RESTORATION EFFORTS Oyster restoration projects, as well as plans for future projects, are underway in a variety of locations and bay systems along the Texas coast. These projects have been the effort of a variety of agencies and organizations in partnership with TPWD, and their purpose enhancing the wild oyster fishery across Texas bays, ultimately preserving its future.

According to the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) Advocacy Director Shane Bonnot, an oyster habitat expansion project was recently completed back in November of 2020 in the southwest portion of Sabine Lake. Funds for this project were provided by the CCA Building Conservation Trust and Harvey Fisheries Disaster Relief funds.

This expansion project included 3,706 cubic yards of oyster cultch in the form of limestone, which produced 926 new mounds of substrate that were strategically placed in relation to already existing oyster reef expansion material. The project's goal was adding a bunch of small patch reefs near natural, existing oyster reefs and previously deployed cultch from prior oyster habitat expansion efforts.

Bonnot said that historically, most oyster cultch has been deployed in a manner in which it was sheeted or spread out evenly and flat across the bay floor.

“TPWD and CCA both agree that the mounding technique utilized in the project mimics the structure of a more natural oyster reef,” said Bonnot. “The mounds were all placed within a rock’s throw of each other."

It is anticipated the checkerboard design will promote tremendous expansion of the existing reef in the southwestern (Continued on page 13)

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BRIGHT FUTURE FOR TEXAS OYSTERS

OYSTER REEF RESTORATION Photos courtesy of Galveston Bay Foundation

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BRIGHT FUTURE FOR TEXAS OYSTERS

portion of Sabine Lake." Sampling since this cultch was deployed in November is already showing that oyster spat are attaching to the new material.

TPWD Coastal Ecologist Bill Rodney said that TPWD recently partnered with The Nature Conservancy and the Galveston Bay Foundation, to complete the Galveston Bay Sustainable Oyster Restoration Project located in Galveston Bay's upper portion.

“This project included a combination of fishable reefs that are available to commercial oyster fishermen, and one sanctuary reef that is not fishable by commercial vessels,” Rodney said.

The reef is about 15 acres in size and is composed of large cultch material. The project's goal is for the reef to become a home for large mature oysters to spawn, ultimately creating a hub for larval production, which will then supplement and further enhance the surrounding, harvestable reefs. The reef is positioned in a way that the predominant direction of tidal flows will distribute oyster larvae to the smaller reefs that surround it.

Rodney said, "Essentially, the should become a larvae factory and will help sustain and replenish the reefs around it, as mature oysters are harvested from them."

According to the Galveston Bay Foundation Habitat Restoration Manager Haille Leija, there is also oyster restoration work taking place in various locales along Galveston Bay in the form of oyster shell recycling.

“The Galveston Bay Foundation’s Oyster Shell Recycling Program focuses on returning shucked oyster shells collected from local restaurants back into Galveston Bay to create new oyster habitat, and to prevent erosion along shorelines,” Leija said. “The program is rapidly growing, and we are getting more and more interest and participation from area restaurants.”

Leija said that the Galveston Bay Foundation is also working with volunteers that own or live on waterfront properties along Galveston Bay to build and grow their own oyster garden using recycled oyster shells.

The volunteers, recruited from the communities surrounding Galveston Bay, are educated on oyster biology, usually during a hands-on workshop.

They then take some recycled oyster shells home and hang them from their bulkhead, dock or pier in the water using a mariculture-type bag or cage during the spawning season.

"The hope is that these oyster gardens grow and thrive, attracting new oyster larvae that is floating around in the water," Leija said. "At the end of the spawning season, we collect the gardens and deploy them at oyster restoration project sites that we have been working on to further enhance their productivity.”

In Aransas Bay, Pollack said that a recently completed TPWD oyster restoration project is already showing signs of growth. This project, designed

Oyster shell recycling site near Texas City. (Photo courtesy of Galveston Bay Foundation)

by TPWD's Emma Clarkson involved developing a reef that was built into many mounds about 1.5 meters tall, surrounded by flats consisting of several inches of cultch placed on the bay bottom.

“The idea is that the tall mounds are more resilient to fishing activity and storm damage, and thus provide longterm habitat for oysters to grow, thrive and produce larvae that will replenish the surrounding reefs,” Clarkson said.

“It’s very similar to the project that took place in upper Galveston Bay,” Pollack said. “We’ve never seen reef growth and expansion take place at this rate. The density of the new growth is impressive, and it’s all taken place in less than a year.”

In the last decade, TPWD has restored over 500 acres of oyster reef in Texas.

OYSTER MARICULTURE IN TEXAS Oyster mariculture in Texas was created under the Texas Parks and Wildlife Code Chapter 75, by House Bill 1300 from the 86th Legislative Session.

It was passed on May 24, 2019, and was later championed by TWA member and Senator Lois Kolkhorst. The bill mandated that the new program be adopted by August 31, 2020. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission adopted the program on May 21, 2020, opening the door for Texans to begin farming oysters within our coastal bays.

According to Clarkson several agencies are involved in the oyster mariculture program, including the General Land Office (because oyster farmers will have to lease the bay bottom that they want to use for their farm from them), the Army Corps of Engineers (because oyster farming involves some sort of discharge), the TCEQ, and the Texas Department of Agriculture.

“We really had to work on figuring out the permitting process with the involvement of all of these agencies,” Clarkson said. “A lot of folks look at the program and initially think that TPWD made the permitting process so lengthy and difficult, but it is really just a result of the way the code is written. All of these agencies have jurisdiction over the key (Continued on page 15)

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BRIGHT FUTURE FOR TEXAS OYSTERS

OYSTER GARDENING Photos courtesy of Galveston Bay Foundation

OYSTER FARMING Photos by Emma Clarkson/TPWD

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New oyster growth. (Photo courtesy of Galveston Bay Foundation)

components necessary to build an oyster farm, an oyster nursery or an oyster hatchery.”

Clarkson said that TPWD did make an effort to work with the other agencies to find out what applicants will need to do in order to get the necessary permits to begin practicing oyster mariculture.

“Although we cannot supply all of the permits, we can definitely assist and point folks that want to participate in the program in the right direction,” Clarkson said.

The oyster mariculture program is designed to satisfy the demand of the growing half shell market for oysters. While this market may not directly compete with the wild caught oyster fishery, it may serve to help take some pressure off our wild, natural oyster reefs.

“Farmed oysters will be boutique quality, meaning they will be consistent in shape and visually appealing, compared to what you would find on a natural, wild oyster reef,” Clarkson said.

“They will have a deeper, cupped shell, and will be perfect for restaurants serving oysters on the half shell.”

Brad Lomax, owner of Water Street Oyster Bar in Corpus Christi, has been working with Clarkson throughout the permitting process to become the first oyster farmer in Texas.

He has received the first-ever conditional oyster mariculture permit from TPWD and is now working with the other agencies involved to obtain the rest of the permits necessary to move forward with his oyster farming endeavor.

“Clarkson and TPWD have been great to work with throughout this entire process,” Lomax said.

Lomax’s oyster farm will be located in Copano Bay, about 1,000 feet offshore from Swan Lake. It consists of 8 acres of

water, with depths varying from 7-10 feet. The farm’s shorebased headquarters will be stationed about a mile away as a crow flies on the shoreline of Port Bay. “What oysters do for the marine environment is extremely important for our estuaries,” Lomax said. “I believe that oyster mariculture will be able to take significant pressure off of our wild reefs over the next ten years. I really want to see this new industry grow and thrive.”

TWA Legislative Program Coordinator Joey Park said that from the governmental and regulatory side of things, it is important that the oyster mariculture program continues to evolve in a way that allows others to get into the industry.

“We don’t need it to be too difficult and too expensive to where we are not able to see other Texans willing to take advantage of this mariculture opportunity,” Park said. “At the end of the day, this program can develop a new thriving market and industry within our state, and at the same time, remove some pressure from our natural, wild oyster reefs that are essential to our estuaries.”

Sen. Kolkhorst said that oyster mariculture provides a sustainable way to produce Texas Gulf Coast oysters.

“I am proud of the work we have done to support commercial oyster mariculture in Texas, and I am delighted to continue working on legislation to further help commercial oyster mariculture with Chairman Todd Hunter,” Kolkhorst said.

The future of oysters in Texas looks pretty bright.

From thriving oyster restoration to new oyster mariculture opportunities, it will be exciting to see how things continue to evolve for our coastal oyster reefs, both wild and farmed.

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Thanks To Our 2021 TBGA Sponsors Article by DAVID BRIMAGER

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n behalf of the Texas Wildlife Association and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, thank you to the 2021 official sponsors of the Texas Big Game Awards (TBGA).

More than just a big buck contest, this program salutes the efforts of private land managers and hunters because trophy big game is first and foremost an indicator of our ecosystems' health.

We are proud of what we accomplished this past hunting season; and, with the support of our sponsors, we were able to recognize more than 200 first harvest entries, 120 youth division entries, more than 800 scored entries and more than 200 landowners.

The continued support of our sponsors helps us promote ethical hunting, wildlife and habitat management in Texas.

Thanks again to all the TBGA sponsors!

THANK YOU TO OUR STATEWIDE SPONSORS

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THANKS TO OUR 2021 TBGA SPONSORS

THANK YOU TO OUR TEXAS REGIONAL SPONSORS

Title Sponsor of the Landowner Category Title Sponsor of the Typical Whitetail Category

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TEXAS WIL DLIFE ASSOCIATION FOUNDATION

Gary Farmer Article by MEG GUERRA Photos by JUSTIN WALLACE

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2020 Outdoorsman of the Year Gary Farmer and family with Governor Greg Abbott.

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n Wednesday, March 31, 2021, Gary Farmer was finally honored as the 2020 Texas Outdoorsman of the Year, after the event had been postponed due to the pandemic.

Previous Outdoorsmen Steve C. Lewis and Richard Hill served as event chairs and gathered more than 230 friends and family, including Governor Greg Abbott, to celebrate Farmer’s contributions to the outdoors, conservation and his well-known reputation as an outstanding and entertaining sportsman. It was evening to celebrate!

Farmer is a pillar in the Austin community. His leadership and vision for development in and around the Austin area, as well as his philanthropic endeavors have earned him accolades across the city and the state. Farmer is President of Heritage Title Company of Austin, Inc., a commercially oriented title insurance agency operating throughout the major markets of Texas.

He has been in the title insurance business since 1985. During Farmer’s tenure, Heritage has been recognized for its excellence in the commercial title insurance arena as it has grown to be among the largest independently owned title agencies in Texas. Farmer and his wife Susan are graduates of The University

TEXAS WIL DLIFE ASSOCIATION FOUNDATION

2020 Outdoorsman of the Year Gary Farmer, 2019 Outdoorsman of the Year Richard Hill and Congressman Roger Williams.

of Texas. They have three daughters and four grandchildren and are members of Tarrytown United Methodist Church.

Farmer got involved with the Texas Wildlife Association as a Life Member in 1993 and since then, he and wife Susan have generously supported TWA programs and are especially passionate about the Texas Youth Hunting Program.

Farmer stated that getting kids out of the city and into the outdoors to experience their first hunt is so important, as it exposes these children and their guardians to the importance of land and wildlife conservation, creating future generations who will protect and nurture our natural resources.

During the event, Farmer committed to support the Texas Outdoorsman of the Year for the next 10 years! A tremendous thank you to Susan and Gary for their generous support and for continuing to share their passion for hunting and land stewardship with Texas youth.

Congratulations, Gary Farmer, for being inducted into the distinguished Texas Outdoorsmen. It was a memorable evening full of fellowship and fun as we toasted to a very deserving honoree.

HISTORY OF THE OUTDOORSMAN

Honoree Gary Farmer and Governor Greg Abbott.

Honoree Gary Farmer receiving the Outdoorsman knife from Past Outdoorsmen.

In 1959, the Anglers Club of San Antonio began a tradition of honoring individuals who demonstrate superior outdoorsman skills and exhibit an equal dedication to giving back to conservation and/or hunting heritage in Texas. In 2006, the former Outdoorsmen decided to rename the honor as Texas Outdoorsman of the Year expanding the program to include outstanding sportsmen from across the entire state. When making the award, the selection committee places 50 percent on the candidate’s outdoors skills and 50 percent on the candidate’s contributions to conservation and/or hunting heritage in Texas.

In conjunction with the name change and the expansion, the role of the host and benefactor was undertaken by TWAF, which supports TWA’s education programs.

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Get to Know the Conservation Educators of Conservation Legacy

T

he Conservation Educators bring wildlife, water, land, conservation and stewardship to the classroom, helping spark the excitement of students and teachers alike. Each has a passion for natural resource education, a distinct instructional style and continuous desire to learn more so they can continue to engage with those they teach.

Several days a week, the educators are in the classroom incorporating Texas wildlife into science classrooms via the Wildlife by Design Program. During the summer, classroom

GWEN EISHEN Conservation Educator geishen@texas-wildlife.org Collin, Dallas, Ellis and Johnson Counties BEEN WITH TWA SINCE: January 2018

teachers become the students and take part in daylong workshops hosted by the educators, leaving with lessons and resources for the upcoming school year.

Learn about your local TWA Educator—put a face to the name—let them know about a local school they should visit!

This month, meet the educators from Dallas/Fort Worth, West Texas and the Rio Grande Valley. Last month, the educators from the Greater Houston area were featured.

WHAT INFLUENCED ME TO BECOME ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS: My dad raised us all to garden, to recycle or reuse materials as often as we could.

Once I understood the issues facing our planet and the environment, being more conscious of my carbon footprint became a bigger part of my life.

FAVORITE TEXAS SPECIES: American Black Bear. Coolest fact I know is that their diet is so rich in plants that we could use their scat for repopulating native species.

IF I WASN'T A TWA CONSERVATION EDUCATOR, I WOULD BE… A wildlife rescue and rehabilitator.

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CONSERVATION EDUCATORS OF CONSERVATION LEGACY

BRITTANI DAFFT Conservation Educator bdafft@texas-wildlife.org Andrews, Brewster, Crane, Culberson, Ector, Glasscock, Howard, Jeff Davis, Loving, Martin, Midland, Pecos, Presidio, Reagan, Reeves, Terrell, Upton, Ward and Winkler Counties BEEN WITH TWA SINCE: September 2020

A CHILDHOOD MEMORY WITH NATURE: At about age 9, my brother and I found a creek and decided to ride the current and see where it took us. The creek split and luckily, we took the right way as it looped back around and fed us upstream. It was a fun adventure but, looking back, who knows where we would have ended up if we had gone left.

FAVORITE TEXAS SPECIES: One of my favorite Texas animals is the Mountain Lion. I have a deep respect for our apex predators. They are often misunderstood and undervalued. A cool fact about them: They are considered an umbrella species. Managing for and protecting their habitat indirectly protects many valuable native species.

IF I WASN'T A TWA CONSERVATION EDUCATOR, I WOULD BE… Doing something related to land and wildlife management—possibly running a wildlife rescue sanctuary.

ELISA VELADOR,Conservation Educator evelador@texas-wildlife.org Cameron, Hidalgo, Kenedy, Starr and Willacy Counties BEEN WITH TWA SINCE: June 2014

FAVORITE CL TEACHING MOMENT: I really feel good when a teacher tells me that his or her students were talking about one of my presentations for days and days after. I also like it when a student tells me that they want to do what I do. I inspire them, and they inspire me; always a win, win!

FAVORITE TEXAS SPECIES: The elusive, endangered ocelot is my favorite Texas animal. A cool fact about ocelots is that they can climb straight down a tree trunk while facing downward because they can turn their ankle joints around.

IF I WASN'T A TWA CONSERVATION EDUCATOR, I WOULD BE… A marine biologist.

WWW.TEXAS-WILDLIFE.ORG

21

T WA M E M B E R S I N A C T I O N

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Meet TWA President Sarah Biedenharn Article by KRISTIN PARMA Photo courtesy of SARAH BIEDENHARN

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ntroducing your newly-elected Texas Wildlife Association President Sarah Nunley Biedenharn.

Biedenharn has been a TWA member most of her life, participating in its programs and partnership programs during her youth. Preceding her term as President, she continued her activism by serving on multiple TWA committees including the Executive Committee, Conservation Legacy Committee, Membership Committee and as Co-Chair of the Convention Committee.

Biedenharn’s love of TWA’s mission reaches far back in her family history and upbringing on a cattle ranch in Sabinal, Texas.

“I’m pretty sure driving a pickup and shooting a gun were necessary skills before turning four years old in my family,” she said. “I am lucky to have grown up in a place where that was possible and very grateful for my parents who taught me not to take those things for granted.”

It’s evident she felt a part of the TWA community early on.

“I started attending the TWA convention at a young age and enjoyed attending several of the Texas Big Game Awards

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banquets each year as well,” Biedenharn said. “Even when I was little, I remember how special it felt to be in a room full of other people who valued the land as much as I did. As I got older and spent more time around kids who lived in cities, I quickly realized just how rare my perspective was.”

With an inspiring amount of TWA history in her pocket, you may be wondering how Biedenharn feels about becoming the association’s next president.

“Absolutely wild!” she said. “I’m excited to provide my perspective on conservation and natural resources issues facing our members having been personally impacted by TWA and am grateful for the opportunity to give back."

She continued, "I also feel incredibly lucky that I had the opportunity to serve under Tom Vandivier who led with integrity in every decision he made, big or small. His attention to detail and collaborative style were integral to TWA’s success despite unforeseen difficulties like COVID. I’m incredibly thankful for his leadership and mentorship these past couple of years.”

As President she will continue to emphasize the value and importance of engaging the next generation in land stewardship.

Prior to her term as President, Biedenharn formed TWA’s first Junior Advisory Board, a small group of young professionals that will be immersed in the rich history and wide breadth of all the aspects of TWA’s mission by attending its events in addition to shadowing committee meetings, Conservation Legacy programs and Youth or Adult Mentored Hunts.

“The program will benefit TWA by developing future leaders and providing a forum for fresh perspectives and ideas,” she said. “My hope is that this program will continue on two-year cycles for many years to come.”

Biedenharn, along with her husband Tucker, resides in San Antonio where she works for a venture capital backed startup in the hotel industry. Family trips to places such as The Driskill in Austin and Hotel Paisano in Marfa began her fascination with hotels and curating memorable experiences for others.

“For me, it’s less about the location and more about the company, the activities and let’s face it—the food!” Biedenharn explained when asked about her favorite weekend getaway. “Early morning hunts followed by Dad’s recently perfected campfire biscuits or finishing up at the cleaning shed and heading in for Mom’s nachos, long conversations on an evening cruise and no cell service—all my favorite weekends have those ingredients.”

The importance of family is a recurring theme with Biedenharn, and we look forward to having her at the helm of TWA for the next two years.

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23

TEXAS WILDLIFE

CAESAR KLEBERG WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTE TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-KINGSVILLE

The Charismatic Reddish Egret Photo by Bart Ballard

Article by BART M. BALLARD, Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University-Kingsville

Reddish Egrets have two distinct color forms, a dark form with gray body and red head and neck, and one with all white plumage.

I

recall the first time I saw a Reddish Egret foraging in the shallow waters of the Laguna Madre. I was fascinated by its acrobatics as it chased small fish by running, jumping and flapping about. The array of foraging behaviors was quite different from the “sit and wait” behavior used by most wading birds. This charismatic nature is a distinguishing characteristic of the Reddish Egret in the field and one that I have come to admire over my years of studying them.

There are two color forms of the Reddish Egret that look quite different and in which the novice observer would assume to be two different species.

The more common dark form exhibits grayish plumage with a reddish head and neck, and a white form has entirely white plumage.

Both color forms can be distinguished from similar looking egrets by their pinkish bill with black tip and their very animated foraging behavior. The dark form is more common in northerly

portions of the species distribution, and the white form becomes more common throughout the Caribbean.

Although breeding pairs typically include a male and female of the same color form, we commonly see breeding pairs with both a dark color form and white color form.

Like many wading bird species, the Reddish Egret experienced a severe population decline because of unregulated harvest by plume hunters in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The ornamental feathers of wading birds used in their courtship displays (often called plumes) were sought to adorn women’s hats during that time.

By the early 1900s, the Reddish Egret was nearly extirpated from the United States. Although the species has partially recovered from the impacts of plume hunting, its population remains well below historic numbers.

Due to its rarity and complete reliance on coastal wetlands, the Reddish Egret has been designated as a threatened species by the state of Texas, a species of concern by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and endangered in Mexico. The Reddish Egret remains the rarest species of wading birds in North America, with a population of approximately 2,000 pairs.

Until recently, very little research had been conducted on the Reddish Egret and much of its ecology was unknown.

However, the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute

Sponsored by JOHN AND LAURIE SAUNDERS

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CAESAR KLEBERG WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

has invested considerably over the last 15 years to increase our knowledge of this understudied species to better inform conservation efforts. Along with collaborators from state and federal agencies, as well as non-government organizations, we have learned much about this species in a relatively short amount of time.

The Reddish Egret has a partial migration strategy, which means that a portion of the population is resident and remains near breeding areas throughout the year, while the remainder of the population migrates to more southerly wintering areas. Their partial migration strategy likely results from a decline in the amount of foraging habitat during winter due to changing water levels from seasonal tides. Also, some of the fish species they prey on become less abundant during winter. As a result, a portion of the population leaves to find areas where food is more abundant.

Our research shows that about 25 percent of the birds breeding in the Laguna Madre of Texas migrates to southerly wintering areas. We marked adult Reddish Egrets with automated tracking devices and monitored their movements across several years.

Most Reddish Egrets migrating from the Laguna Madre travel south along the Gulf Coast of Mexico and cross the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to winter on the Pacific Coast of Mexico in the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, as well as into the countries of Guatemala and El Salvador in Central America. This is a one-way trip of up to 1,400 miles.

Interestingly, migratory individuals show high philopatry to wintering sites; in other words they tend to return to the exact same location each winter. Several of our Reddish Egrets marked with tracking devices not only returned to the same coastal estuary on Mexico's Pacific Coast, but also to the same section of the coastline within the estuary.

Reddish Egrets cannot make the entire migratory trip from the Laguna Madre to wintering areas without stopping. Thus, they use stopover sites to rest and refuel so they are able to make the next leg of their migratory journey.

A stopover site's quality is critical for migratory individuals to obtain the energy needed to continue on with their journey. Also, the location of a specific stopover site along the migratory route influences its importance because some occur in areas where egrets are able to rest and feed following a long migratory flight.

We found that Reddish Egrets used several estuaries along the Gulf Coast of Mexico during both autumn and spring migrations. However, one site in particular was the only site used by all migratory individuals and proved to be the most important stopover site for Reddish Egrets during migration. Laguna San Andres is located north of Veracruz, Mexico and is a site we have identified as especially important to migratory Reddish Egrets. This lagoon was often the first stop after a long, overland flight from the Pacific Coast across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Our research of the Reddish Egret has covered all portions of the annual

cycle and has provided information about many previously unknown aspects of its ecology. We have documented the genetic structure of the Texas population, investigated the ecology and survival of juveniles following fledging, mapped their foraging habitat in the Laguna Madre, identified important migratory stopover sites, documented wintering areas of migratory individuals, and assessed factors influencing reproductive success for migratory individuals, to name a few. Together, this information provides a solid foundation to support conservation efforts for this charismatic species.

Recently, an international collaboration has formed to develop a concerted conservation strategy to help understand current threats to the Reddish Egret, integrate recent research findings into conservation actions and understand other types of information needed to effectively manage Reddish Egret populations.

WWW.TEXAS-WILDLIFE.ORG

25

TEXAS WILDLIFE

NOBLE RANCHER NOBLE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Grazing Animals

Instrumental in Developing Clean Water Through Healthy Soil Article by JOSH GASKAMP / Noble Research Institute wildlife and range consultant and MEREDITH ELLIS / rancher, G Bar C Ranch in North Texas Photos courtesy of MEREDITH ELLIS

C

lean water is closely tied to the health of our plant communities and soil resource, but a common misperception is that plants and soil can contribute to poor water quality.

In reality, plants and soil are not the problem. The impacts of improper management are revealed through changes/losses in plant communities and soil erosion.

Soil erosion, excessive runoff, overabundant aquatic plants and unwanted fish species are commonly blamed for muddy or turbid water bodies. While these factors are sometimes the cause of poor water quality, the more common underlying causes are mismanagement in the watershed and allowing livestock to have access to surface water interfaces. In fact, increased runoff and overabundant aquatic plants are symptoms of poor watershed management and an ineffective water cycle.

The agriculture industry often gets blamed for degraded ecological conditions of watersheds due to the lack of grazing

management and livestock placement. But have you ever considered how agriculture and, more specifically, livestock are key to the development of healthy soil, healthy plants and clean water?

There are six principles of soil health: • Know your context • Cover the soil • Minimize disturbance • Increase plant biodiversity • Maintain continuous living plants/roots • Integrate livestock One of the six principles of soil health is integrating livestock.

Wild grazing animals were an essential part of building soil, maintaining plant diversity and ensuring a functional water cycle in our rangelands long before us.

Certain conventional agricultural practices have diminished the soil’s capacity to function as it did before European settlement. But our soils can and are being rebuilt with management based on these six principles.

Unlike a recipe, we don’t just add livestock and expect the soil to improve over time. On the G Bar C Ranch, Meredith Ellis grazes each pasture depending not only on the cattle herd's nutritional requirements but on daily rotational decisions made with the help of the six principles of soil health.

In a cow-calf operation that must remain incredibly flexible, the one rigid guideline she imposes is to always abide by those principles. This includes knowing each grass type and ecological zone in which the cattle are grazing.

For example, in Meredith’s operation, grazing cool-season grasses off of coastal Bermuda in late spring allows cattle to deliver additional nutrients through manure and urine to invigorate the Bermuda. By removing the cool-season grasses, the cattle clear the way for sunlight to reach the Bermuda prompting it to grow more vigorously during its growing season in the warmer months.

Grazing of native pastures requires close observation as well.

During the early summer, cattle lightly graze adding nutrients

To learn more about how Noble Research Institute supports agricultural producers through research, education and direct consultation, visit www.noble.org.

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NOBLE RANCHER

and incorporating dead biomass into the soil. The cattle are not returned to the native pastures until the late fall when the native grasses have matured and formed seed heads, making the cattle’s role at this time of year one of interring seeds into the soil for the next growing season. Grazing in this manner is improves the health and resilience of the landscape in which the cattle are grazing.

The sixth principle teaches us to apply purposeful and adaptive grazing and that the soil and plants will respond.

We must manage timing, intensity, frequency and duration of grazing and make observations and adjustments along the way to build soil that grows healthy and diverse plant communities— and infiltrates water.

The following are five of our favorite concepts in grazing management: • Use the shortest possible grazing period • Use the highest animal density possible • Feed half of the standing forage to the soil • Overgrazing is a function of time, so allow grazed plants to completely recover • Be adaptive

We don’t know all of the roles livestock play in soil health, but we do know that they contribute to natural fertility and microbiology in the soil by spreading urine and feces; they trample and lay forage down on the soil to integrate organic matter; and they create a natural disturbance that stimulates plant diversity, growth and vigor.

Healthy soil infiltrates and holds more water, making it not only more resilient in drought but protecting the watershed from erosion in flood. Healthy soil acts as a sponge pulling water in rapidly. Groundwater infiltrated into healthy soil replenishes aquifers, allowing springs to flow again.

Ellis knows the role that a healthy plant community plays in water quality downstream. Thriving communities of native grasses reach deep into the soil, allowing for greater water holding capacity and making her land more drought resistant and resilient. In turn, any excess water emerging from hillsides seeps in and emerges crystal clear, eventually entering larger bodies of water downstream.

The G Bar C Ranch consists of 6 percent cropland used for grazing and the operation is going on its third year of planting warm-season cover crops specifically for soil health. In the scorching summer heat, these pastures now include a mix of several species shading the soil, preventing wind and water erosion, increasing water holding capacity and allowing for extra grazeable forage during that time. What was once bare ground during those months now acts as an additional water filter downstream on the operation while building upon the soil's health.

In properly grazed watersheds, trampled or standing plants continue to break apart water droplets from rainfall. This allows any water that does flow over the land to slow down and be filtered by abundant plants.

Because high stock density can be a problem near ponds, good managers often fence out ponds with the exception of a single access point. Livestock can drink, but not linger in and around water interfaces. This no-graze buffer allows any water flowing over the land to be adequately filtered by plants before reaching the pond.

Previous generations of conventional ranchers managed livestock and associated watersheds as a commodity. Their cattle could turn a finite amount of grass that the land produced each year into beef, but productivity and profit fell over time.

Today, ranchers are wanting to be more regenerative and profitable. Successful ranchers are using livestock as a tool to improve soil and ranch productivity for years to come while providing public benefits through biodiversity, clean air and clean water.

Ellis sees her role as a rancher as one that responds to her changing environment and uses her cattle as a tool to invigorate the land. The cattle on her ranch are constantly moving through 58 pastures, mimicking the bison that grazed these historic prairies for millennia. The land, as a result, benefits because of the presence of ruminant animals, not in spite of them, and is a key factor in maintaining the health of the ecosystem in which they co-evolved.

The all-encompassing benefit of abiding by the six principles of soil health, as seen on the G Bar C Ranch, is that the land is resilient and able to withstand ever-increasing climate events such as drought and flood, adding to the health of not only the cattle but of the landscape.

WWW.TEXAS-WILDLIFE.ORG

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TEXAS WILDLIFE

PLANT PROFILE

Smooth Cordgrass A Smooth Operator

Article by ERIC GRAHMANN and STEVEN GOERTZ Photos by STEVEN GOERTZ

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round the perimeters of Texas' bays and estuaries, smooth cordgrass is one smooth ecological operator. Arguably, no plant species holds a more important role in providing wildlife habitat and stabilizing Texas’ saltwater shorelines.

Also called saltwater cordgrass or saltmarsh grass, Spartina alterniflora is a perennial that spreads via thick yellowish/ white rhizomes, lateral underground stems rooting at intervals, through the mud. The stems and leaves are smooth, and the leaves terminate in a spiny point.

The importance of this grass for intertidal wildlife is huge, as it provides food and cover for a wide variety of species. These include algae and detritusconsuming invertebrates such as snails, shrimp and crabs and larger species such as King and Clapper Rails. Cordgrass colonies are incredibly important fish nurseries, harboring juvenile southern flounder, red drum and Atlantic croaker, among many others.

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Every seasoned backwater angler has witnessed red drum slowly prodding the nooks and crannies of the outer periphery of smooth cordgrass colonies for prey. It’s an indicator species to the brackish marsh many migratory and non-migratory wildlife species rely on. The leaves are seasonally/ occasionally eaten by gritty coastal cattle and nilgai.

No plant does more to protect bayside shorelines and adjoining terrestrial plant communities. This species is often the first (and sometimes the only) line of defense in softening the effects of waves generated via wind and wake.

Smooth cordgrass is simply invaluable in maintaining the shoreline integrity of Texas bays, making it a tremendous ecological operator.

Oh, and economics! Think of the numerous coastal properties protected from erosion by this species. Its value to coastal Texans is simply tremendous.

Smooth sailing!

PREDATOR CONTROL AND QUAIL Article and photos by DALE ROLLINS, Ph.D. Ziploc® bag for an eat-and-run lifestyle, and multiple breeding attempts afford a quail with an array of tools to help it stay afloat in a sea of predators.

“A quail’s life is full of tests.

Many critters break up their nests, Possums, skunks, raccoons too.

It’s enough to make a bobwhite blue.” ~Bobwhite Brigade cadence IS THERE A PLACE FOR PREDATOR CONTROL IN QUAIL MANAGEMENT? Ask many quail managers and hunters and they’ll proclaim, “Of course!” Ask a wildlife professional, and they’ll likely counter with an antiphonal echo of “habitat, habitat, habitat.”

Ask me and I’ll espouse my Texas Tech Theory of Relativity, “It depends!”

Predation as a selection pressure has shaped most everything we know and love about quail: their anatomy, their behavior and their ecology. We appreciate many of these adaptations such as covey formation and thunderous flushes honed over many generations of coping with predators which endear quail to our hearts. Their cryptic plumage, their crop, which acts like a

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THE PLAYING FIELD Indeed, a quail can hold its own in a fair fight, but is today’s playing field level? I argue it is not—in today’s landscape we’re asking a bobwhite to fight with one wing tied behind its back.

Currently our quail are mired in a “predator pit,” and it’s beginning to take a toll.

At a statewide quail symposium in 1999, I participated in a point-counterpoint argument on “Is there a Place for Predator Control in Quail Management?” I presented the point argument “Yes” while my colleague Dr. Nova Silvy presented the counterpoint argument “No”. Some of the points I made in that presentation are included herein and likely have become even more challenging for quail in the past 20 years.

Our radio-marked bobwhites at Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch (RPQRR), and at our translocation sites in Erath and Kent counties really felt the brunt of predation this past spring— indeed a veritable “death March.” We sustained losses of 30 or more birds at each site from talon or fang.

I’d like to think that when vegetation begins to green up in mid-March that a quail has survived its annual winter gauntlet.

But their trials inevitably continue—and often escalate—as they exercise their spring rituals of dispersal and “bob-whiting” takes place. When nesting season begins about May 1 the challenge of laying a clutch of 15 eggs and incubating them for 23 days without disturbance from various “mesomammals,” snakes and feral hogs becomes a daunting task.

A PERFECT STORM FOR PREDATORS Here’s the “perfect storm” that has brewed over the past three years for those of us in West Texas: • Drought has reigned (pun intended) for the past three years. Thankfully, many of us received good rains during May which has laid a foundation of good nesting cover.

• Rangeland habitats going into May west of the 98th meridian looked mostly pitiful; if you’ve had any cattle, it was probably too many for the quail’s concerns because it resulted in a lack of nesting cover. When I use the Softball Habitat Evaluation Technique, I say you should NOT be able to see a softball from pitching distance which is 46 feet away…in many areas of West Texas, you could still see it if it was shot from a Howitzer. This sad scenario extended throughout most of the Rolling Plains and farther westward. Most of the Scaled Quail range missed the May rains and is still mired in drought.

P R E DAT O R C O N T R O L A N D Q UA I L

• Seed supplies of western ragweed, a principal seed for bobwhites, were in short supply last November at least at RPQRR; the more time a quail spends foraging, the more vulnerable it is to predation.

• Some areas in the landscape matrix such as RPQRR will have suitable nesting cover, but those areas will also attract various predators. (We believe this is one of our biggest obstacles at our Erath County site).

• Predator communities and landscapes have changed over the past 50 years. The increases in some mesomammal (raccoon) populations and feral hogs are inarguable.

Various mechanisms operating on the back forty to promote such increases include 1) demise of the fur market in the mid-1980s, 2) increased supplemental feeding of deer, 3) increasingly fragmented habitats, and 4) a proliferation of farm ponds on the landscape. Raise your hand if you’re guilty of one or more of these.

• Documentation of such longitudinal changes in predator communities include A.S. Jackson’s predator control efforts in Wise County in the early 1950s relative to more recent efforts. Jackson removed 574 potential predators of quail from a 3,000-acre study site over a 13-month period.

Of particular note, only 11 raccoons (2 percent of the predators removed) were trapped during his study.

Fifty years later, E. Lyons with Angelo State University removed 21-40 raccoons from two study sites, each 600 acres in size, during only 30-day trapping efforts in adjacent Parker County during 1999 and 2000.In other words, Lyons removed about three times more raccoons than Jackson did on study sites 20 percent the size of Jackson's sites, and with only 10 percent of the trapping effort.

Also, consider our Erath County Quail Restoration Initiative site of 2,300 acres. Over a 25-month period (February 2019 – May 1), ranch staff removed 321 raccoons, 118 striped skunks, 42 coyotes and 19 bobcats.

Sobering results for a translocated quail.

• Population trends of some quail-threat raptors such as Cooper’s Hawk, have increased steadily since the 1960s.

Factors responsible for the increase of various avian predators of quail are unknown, but could include the dissipation of organochlorine insecticides, increased law enforcement and educational efforts on raptor conservation.

Accipiters are generally considered the most efficient quail predator, and Stoddard characterized Cooper's Hawks as “the outstanding natural enemy of the bobwhite.”

• Supplemental feeding for deer has increased substantially (incredibly?) over the past 40 years. Nontarget species like raccoons and feral hogs consume much of that feed and likely demonstrate a “flushing effect” or increased ovulation rate and likely increased survival of their offspring.

All of these contribute to quail seeking to escape the “predator pit” which can suppress their abundance, especially when quail are at low densities. When predator– prey dynamics operate according to the predator pit hypothesis, the short‐term control of predators may allow

the prey species to achieve permanently higher densities, even when predator control is subsequently relaxed. In this situation, predator control may be a more cost‐effective conservation solution than habitat management, owing to the shorter time period over which it is required.

SO, WHAT CAN WE DO? • Adopt an “Integrated Pest Management Approach,” the philosophy used for pest control in crop production, as you contemplate predation management. Accordingly, use indirect control in the form of habitat management as your first line of defense via brush management and rest from grazing.

• Identify and protect your most quail-friendly species of brush such as lotebush and hackberry during brush control efforts. “Appreciate” pricklypear as mechanical protection from some nest predators.

• Embrace species diversity of vegetation and small mammals as a buffer against predation on quail.

• Manipulate stands of common broomweed with seasonal burning.

• Ponder whether coyotes act as “beneficials” when they prey on various smaller mesomammals like raccoons and skunks. Coyotes also restrict where raccoons occur across the landscape, especially for females and their kittens.

• Implement lethal control alternatives in a targeted fashion.

Monitor trends of mesomammals via camera-trapping, helicopter counts (for coyotes) and weekly roadside counts for raptors.

• Monitor “cause-specific mortality” for bobwhites across all seasons.

• Implement aerial gunning or corral trapping for feral hogs as needed.

• Monitor water sources and feeders with game cameras to provide intelligence as to species presence/abundance (raccoons) then respond in a timely and appropriate fashion.

• Implement bobcat trapping with cage-traps baited with a live rooster (special traps like this are available).

WWW.TEXAS-WILDLIFE.ORG

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3,000± Acres Maverick County - Game-fenced, minutes to Carrizo Springs or Eagle Pass, game managed 11 years, giant Golden Triangle deer!! 7 tanks, paved access, camp compound with electricity, water, 4 RV hookups, great all round place, ready-to-go hunting, fishing, cattle, executive blinds, feeders, and miles of Senderos and quail strips! No oil field traffic or production! Priced to sell!

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Photo by Nate Skinner The future of Baffin Bay’s trophy fishery relies on the improvement of the estuary’s overall water quality in regards to the current nutrient problem.

UPSTREAM ACTIONS HAVE DOWNSTREAM EFFECTS Water Quality Concerns and Solutions for Baffin Bay Article by NATE SKINNER

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or decades, Baffin Bay has maintained a legendary status in terms of Texas’ trophy fish-producing estuaries among the Texas coastal angling crowd. Located approximately 50 miles south of Corpus Christi, the bay plays an integral role as a key component of the renowned Laguna Madre ecosystem.

Known for its tremendous commercial and recreational fishing opportunities, Baffin Bay is often visited by Texans pursuing world-class game fish, such as spotted sea trout and red drum, as well as black drum and other inshore fish species.

Over the years it has become a bucket list destination for any inshore sport fishing fanatic on the Gulf coast.

In addition to angling opportunities, Baffin’s breathtaking views provide a glimpse of what’s left of wild Texas. The South

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Texas terrain that lines the bay’s shorelines is undeveloped and often laden with wildlife. The area is a true paradise for any sportsman, nature lover and outdoor enthusiast.

Over the last decade, algal blooms, seagrass die-offs and fish kills have elevated concern in regard to the iconic locale’s water quality. These unfortunate occurrences have resulted from the waters within Baffin Bay becoming oversaturated with nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous causing algal overgrowth and reduced oxygen levels, a process known as eutrophication.

Brown tide events have also been a regular occurrence within Baffin Bay since the 1990s, causing more reason for concern for the system’s water quality.

Longtime locals began to take notice of the negative effects these processes and events were having on Baffin Bay, as well as

U P S T R E A M AC T I O N S H AV E D OW N S T R E A M E F F E C T S

the recent overall deterioration of the coastal ecosystem. Many voiced that these issues and symptoms now present within the bay were unprecedented when compared to conditions seen in previous decades especially prior to the 1980s.

Photo by David J. Sikes

BAFFIN BAY VOLUNTEER WATER QUALITY STUDY In 2013, Dr. Michael Wetz, the Chair for Coastal Ecosystem Processes at the Harte Research Institute, began conducting a water quality monitoring study on Baffin Bay. This in-depth analysis was an ongoing, working project through 2019. It included the partnering efforts of fellow researchers from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC), as well as efforts from volunteers within the communities surrounding Baffin Bay. “We knew that it was going to take a stakeholder type, team effort to overcome and fix the problems that Baffin Bay was facing,” Wetz said. “There was not a standard water quality sampling criteria that we could follow that would really help us pinpoint what the issues were. Understanding this, we decided to recruit citizens to aid our efforts.”

According to Wetz, the water quality study's goal was determining when and where the symptoms of water quality deterioration were the most severe, throughout Baffin Bay. Data from the first four years of sampling indicated that chlorophyll levels, which contribute to algal overgrowth, exceeded limits set by the state in Baffin Bay for the majority of the time.

“These high chlorophyll levels were also somewhat responsible for reduced oxygen levels in the bay,” Wetz said.

Wetz said that the study revealed unique qualities about Baffin Bay when compared to many other Gulf Coast and East Coast estuaries.

“Unlike other systems where these eutrophication or hypoxic events occur mainly in the summer, it seems that they can happen year-round in Baffin Bay,” Wetz said.

As the water quality monitoring study was conducted, it relied on a group of about 15 volunteers, including business and private property owners, recreational anglers and other parties invested in Baffin Bay's future. This group of volunteers collected samples and reported data to TAMUCC researchers.

“These volunteers played a crucial role in the study,” Wetz said. “Their efforts helped us obtain the data we needed to really figure out what was going on.”

The TAMUCC research group took over the sampling process for the water quality study in 2017, and the volunteer citizens became part of a stakeholder group that contributes to planning processes and remains invested in the overall health of Baffin Bay. Members of this Baffin Bay stakeholder group include fishermen, landowners, volunteers, concerned citizens, Texas Sea Grant College Program staff, local government and others.

Their goal is to increase awareness of issues around the bay and propose solutions to these issues.

Overall, Wetz said that the Baffin Bay water quality study proved that Baffin Bay is being affected by nutrient pollution.

“Nitrogen is probably making the largest impact, as far as this nutrient pollution is concerned,” Wetz said. “The nitrogen comes into the system and drives the algal blooms.

Eventually the algal blooms decay, and that triggers low oxygen conditions.”

As far as brown tide events within Baffin Bay are concerned, Wetz said that the data from the study points strongly to these occurrences being an effect of the nutrient pollution as well.

This beautiful photo of Baffin Bay’s north shore with the Kenedy Memorial Foundation Ranch in the background was taken from the front porch of a floating cabin.

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Photo by Nate Skinner

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Baffin Bay has a reputation as a world-class destination for anglers targeting trophy spotted sea trout. Collective efforts made by TPWD, community volunteers, stakeholder groups, government entities and many others will hopefully ensure that the estuary maintains this reputation for many decades to come.

SOURCES OF NUTRIENT POLLUTION AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS According to Wetz, there is currently a study underway that should be completed in about a year, that is focusing on pinpointing the origins of the nutrients that are being introduced into Baffin Bay. “There was some data from a study that became available within the last year that pointed towards sewage as one of the main sources of nutrients,” Wetz said. “This data did not have a clear indication of whether the nutrients were coming from septic systems or from municipal wastewater plants.”

Wetz said that there are known issues with the wastewater plants surrounding the Baffin Bay area.

“Most of these are just not in good shape,” Wetz said. “The Nueces River Authority is currently working with these wastewater plants to bring their technology and infrastructure up to speed in order to eliminate nutrient pollution caused by their operations.”

Wetz said that agriculture also has some role in contributing to the nutrient pollution.

“We haven’t quite figured out how much agricultural practices are contributing to the pollution at this time, but ongoing studies over the next year should shed a lot of light on this subject,” Wetz said. “The land management is excellent in some areas, while it needs improvement in others.”

Wetz suggests that good land stewardship practices upstream can help mitigate the nutrient pollution in Baffin Bay. These include, but are not limited to, rotational grazing, planned grazing, protecting and preserving riparian areas, incorporating

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the use of native vegetation, and limiting the amount of bare soil on a property.

“When the land is managed properly, the soil should actually treat and clean the water as it flows downstream towards the bay,” Wetz said.

The Petronila Creek watershed has also proven to be a source of nutrient deposition into Baffin Bay. This was revealed by a nutrient sampling study conducted by the Nueces River Authority in partnership with the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program.

“There is a plan in place to build a constructive wetland on some private property along the tail end of Petronila Creek, right before it enters the bay,” Wetz said. “This project would actually pull water from Petronila Creek and run it through the constructive wetland, cleaning it up and improving its quality, prior to its arrival into the bay. This project would also have a dual environmental benefit, as it would create habitat for shorebirds, waterfowl and other wildlife.”

THE BAFFIN BAY DYNAMIC When it comes to handling the nutrient pollution that is currently taking place in Baffin Bay, the system is faced with a unique dynamic.

“The system is very poorly flushed,” Wetz said. “It lacks the freshwater inflows from a major river system, and it does not receive any direct exchange from the Gulf of Mexico through a pass. Therefore, once nutrients are deposited into the system, it is very difficult to get them out. They simply build up and cycle through the processes that cause negative impacts, over and over again.”

Photo by Nate Skinner

U P S T R E A M AC T I O N S H AV E D OW N S T R E A M E F F E C T S

Quality redfish are just one of the many inshore species that attract anglers to Baffin Bay.

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bay from wastewater plants, as well as the water flowing down from Petronila Creek, creates the perfect storm for the ongoing cycle of nutrient deposition into Baffin Bay that is the catalyst for the issues the system is facing.”

MOVING FORWARD The Texas Sea Grant College Program is spearheading the Baffin Bay Early Phase Watershed Planning project which is working in part with the Baffin Bay Stakeholder Group to provide the opportunity for local members of the communities surrounding Baffin Bay to help ensure the sound future of the bay system. Project team member, Ashley Bennis, a Planning Specialist for Texas Sea Grant, said that the project's goal is to expand upon Wetz’s water quality study that was conducted from 2013-2019 and to work with the community on solving the nutrient pollution issues that are currently negatively impacting on Baffin Bay. “We are working to educate the community about what is currently taking place within the bay system, and we Photo by David J. Sikes

According to Wetz, the lack of direct, significant freshwater inflows from a major river into Baffin Bay affects the type of nutrients that the system receives.

“Baffin receives mostly organic nutrients,” Wetz said. “These types of nutrients tend to favor the enhancement of harmful algal blooms, such as those that cause brown tide events.

Organic nutrients cause the growth of things that we don’t really want to see in Baffin Bay. We are currently working to figure out where exactly these organic nutrients are coming from and how we can prevent them in the future.”

Even though Baffin Bay lacks downstream flows from the watershed of a major river, it is still affected from freshwater runoff after major precipitation and flooding events. This runoff is ultimately delivering the nutrients into the estuary.

“Yes, the South Texas region does endure long, dry periods without rain,” Wetz said. “However, it seems that every year we do experience some significant precipitation events, just like we saw back in May. The runoff caused by flooding events like this, combined with the constant flow of wastewater flowing into the

Anglers enjoy great catches year-round in Baffin Bay.

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are also reaching out and asking the general public what their thoughts are on both, sources of the pollution and practical solutions,” Bennis said. “The locals really do care about Baffin Bay and its future, and we want to get their input on the issues at hand.”

Texas Sea Grant Natural Resources Specialist and project team member Morgen Ayers said that through their communication with the local community and the feedback that they have received, they have identified six focus areas as concerns and potential solutions for the nutrient pollution.

“These six focus areas include: wastewater and septic mitigation, riparian and habitat restoration, fishery sustainability, general community outreach and education on watersheds and downstream flows, land use and operations, and wildlife,” Ayers said.

“This information came from both in-person workshops and surveys.”

The government has also played a role in moving forward with coming up with solutions to the nutrient pollution problems in Baffin Bay. Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales sits on the Baffin Bay Stakeholder Group.

She said that the federal and state government, as well as Kleberg County and other agencies, are all committed to the same goal of preserving the future of Baffin Bay. “Never before have counties joined hands to understand their watershed issues,” Canales said. “This is historic— and it shows just how much we all care about our coastal resources.”

There is not a single source, person or entity to point the finger at when it comes to the water quality issues that Baffin Bay is currently facing. It is a hurdle that all users of the resource, both upstream and downstream, must collectively work together to overcome.

“The actions taken by people upstream do in fact have an impact on the coast,” Wetz said. “I don’t think people fully understand that sometimes.”

Wetz said that he is cautiously encouraged about the future of Baffin Bay.

“There are so many people and agencies that care about Baffin Bay, and the level of participation from both the community and our stakeholder groups has been incredible,” Wetz said.

One thing that Wetz said is important to keep in mind is that Baffin Bay is also seeing a long-term trend of increasing average water temperatures during the summertime.

“This does three things to the system,” Wetz said. “It decreases the amount of oxygen that the water is capable of holding, it increases the algae

growth, and it also increases the rate of nutrient cycling within the water. That’s why we’ve definitely got to get a handle on this nutrient pollution problem now, in order to avoid a possible snowball effect that could be absolutely detrimental to the bay.”

Only time will tell the true future for Baffin Bay. No matter what, it seems that Texans are ready to do whatever is necessary to improve and protect the health and beauty of their treasured Baffin Bay.

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THE RIVER OTTER Article and photos by RUSSELL A. GRAVES

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loating down Bois d’Arc Creek in Fannin County, Texas, the water is comforting. With a hue somewhere between topaz and turquoise, the liquid flowing through this creek takes its color from the hard clay subsoil that's been stubbornly eroded over time.

The creek channel proper is wide and open with no discernible flow save for a slight crease that’s created where water flows around an occasional limb that's penetrated the surface. Along the margins, button brush and ash trees compete for space.

The canoe slides quietly through the water. I'm helming the bow while my brother steers from the stern. We’ve paddled cooperatively enough where we don't need to communicate with one another to understand our ultimate intent, so we sit in silence and listen to the smattering of natural sounds emanating around us.

Soon, it's not a sound but a smell that catches my attention.

It's musky and rich and beyond what I could readily recognize.

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THE RIVER OTTER

I turn and ask my brother if he smells the same and he answers in the negative.

The smell gets stronger, and I ascertain the direction from which it wafts: a low growing bush that's choked with greenbriar.

Driving the canoe just feet from the bush and peering intently inside, I see movement and then I hear a warning sound.

“Pffft, pffft…” The sound comes in rapid succession and then I see a single otter bolt from the brush, slide down the bank and disappear in the water. Then another one runs and slides and then, yet another.

I turn to my brother, dumbfounded. He and I grew up in these woods and until the winter of 2011, had never seen an otter. But here they are and we have them on video, no less.

So, for 30 minutes we float in one spot on the creek and watch. In all, we see eight otters and discover a midden on an island that's littered with fish bones and mussel shells. It is their feeding site.

When we get home, we search online and check the latest biological texts. Turns out, we'd documented otters in a place they weren't supposed to be.

Long extirpated to further south and eastern portions of the state, the particular otter clan that we'd photographed somehow made its way back to its original haunts and was re-populating once again.

nutrients contribute to algal blooms and impair drinkingwater quality. In contrast, changes in nitrogen concentrations in agricultural areas were small and inconsistent, and in agricultural areas, more sites had increases in phosphorus concentration than decreases. These results suggest that efforts to reduce nutrients in agricultural areas have not been as successful as in urban areas. The nitrogen species ammonium, however, decreased broadly across all land uses. Ammonium can be highly toxic to aquatic organisms and is associated with wastewater, manure and atmospheric deposition.

The broad reduction in ammonium concentrations indicates that efforts to reduce these sources of ammonium have largely been successful.”

From an anecdotal standpoint, at least, as the water quality in streams improved, fish species thrived, and the otter, who is sensitive to fish-born environmental toxins, began to expand its range into suitable habitats.

OTTERS AT A GLANCE In general, there are two types of otters in North America and they belong to the same family of animals that includes weasels and badgers. Besides the river otter, the sea otter is a larger cousin who lives in the northern Pacific Ocean.

THE DECLINE Considered an indicator species, the North American river otter is a species with few natural predators. First described in 1776 by German naturalist Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber, the North American river otter was once found in most riparian waterways and their tributaries across Texas and much of the United States. As the country settled from west to east, river otters began to decline.

Although no single cause seems to be the culprit, the consensus of the otter's decline is generally cited as habitat loss, deteriorating water quality and over-trapping. Records indicate that otters were being trapped and their pelts harvested by European settlers as early as the 1500s in North America.

As Texas and the rest of the United States became increasingly urbanized and industrialized, water quality waned. These three factors likely caused the decline in the species and by the mid20th century, river otters were relegated to habitat in extreme East Texas.

“Historically, otters were considered to be located in the eastern two-thirds of the state and up into portions of the Panhandle. Due to hunting and the fur market, by the 1960s, they were considered to be restricted only to the Neches and Trinity River basins,” wrote Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist Gary Calkins.

In the latter half of the 20th century, water quality began to improve. According to the United States Geological Survey, “Upgrades to wastewater treatment systems are likely responsible for the significant decrease in concentrations of the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus in urban streams.

Reductions in these nutrients are promising because

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THE RIVER OTTER

In appearance, the sea otter is similar to the river otter but the resemblance stops there. The sea otter is three times larger than its inland cousin. In size, the river otter grows from three to four feet in length and weighs from 10 to 30pounds as an adult with the male being slightly larger than the females.

On average a female gives birth to two or three fully furred pups that weigh about six ounces when born. They grow fast on their mother's milk and after being weaned in three months, they remain with their mother for the next year. In all, a river otter can live up to 15 years in the wild.

Recently while doing a biological survey of my property in Fannin County, I uncovered a midden of mussels and crayfish piled at the edge of a man-made berm that impounds a two-acre wetland. Investigating further, I found a couple of other pieces of otter evidence like their foul-smelling scat and tracks.

While the otter is at home in the water and can swim incredibly well and hold its breath for five minutes or more underwater, they can also negotiate well over land. As such, they often connect various habitats and use numerous bodies of water as they forage for food like fish, crawdads and amphibians.

Where land meets water, you'll see mud “slides” where the otter glides from land into the water. Around my wetland, I find numerous slides where they've been traveling from a creek to the marsh to feed on crawfish.

The river otter has a large tail and webbed feet, each of which gives them the ability to be agile swimmers and effective

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aquatic predators. While underwater, the otter can close their ears and nostrils to keep water out and can locate food by feel with their whiskers.

While Texas winters are relatively mild, the river otter has some of the densest furs per square inch that are found in animals and as such, was prized by furriers and trappers when the country was settled and into much of the 20th century. Now that the practice of commercial trapping has waned, and the overall water quality in Texas has largely improved, the river otter is primed for a comeback.

THE COMEBACK “Really, when we started this thing [the research], I sort of assumed that otters were pretty well just East Texas-centric, maybe in the Neches…Sabine River…Red River. That type of thing. But, man, the population that's in the Colorado River is way more than I had expected and a lot farther up the Colorado River than I ever expected, and then a lot farther up the Red [River] than I ever expected. [There are] just a lot more in general than I really thought there were out there just based on the number of people reporting stuff,” said Gary Calkins in a 2017 interview with the Passport to Texas radio segment.

Calkins has been making a map in regard to otter sightings in Texas, and the map's been steadily growing for the past 10 years or so. My brother’s and my initial report was the first to be made from Fannin County back in 2011; and, since then, scores of reports have been made from around here and other locations.

“Every sighting I get, I ask them [the public] to describe how the animal swam. I ask them if it made any vocalizations. Ask some questions about behavior—and better yet—can I get pictures or something. The only time I will count an animal to put it on this map, is if I am beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is an otter—based on vocalizations and the way it swam. I feel pretty comfortable that the map is representing otters and not mistaken identity.

"If it's something that I can't wrap my head around, that 'yeah, it's an otter,' then I won't put it on the map. I'll tell the people to keep looking and thank you. One of the things that I've done is that out of all the emails that I've received, I've made myself respond to every single one of them. So that people aren't sending something to a black hole; and I think that's why it's kept momentum on sightings,” reported Calkins to show host Cecilia Nasti.

Even crowd-sourced maps like iNaturalist show the expansion of the river otter from Victoria and nearby coastal regions all the way up to Iowa Park and as far west as Abilene. The question is, “Have otters always been there or is it just easier to document and report their existence with the proliferation of smartphones and their built-in cameras?” The answers are a bit unclear at the moment.

Either way, otter sightings are definitely on the increase and biologists like Calkins believe that conditions are ripe in Texas for their comeback. Anecdotal and scientific information both seem to confirm the data: The otters are back.

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Photo by Larry Ditto

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES New Frontiers in Land-Based Resources Article by LORIE A. WOODWARD

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nder the banner of ecosystem services, pioneers are exploring new frontiers in land-based resources.

“Initially ecosystem services were structured responses, usually in the form of offset credits, to regulations such as the Endangered Species Act or the Clean Water Act,” said Terry Anderson, founder and principal of Conservation Equity Partners based in Nacogdoches. “Today, the excitement is in the esoteric, amorphous, ever-changing frontier of it that includes carbon offsets and a host of other ecological 'products' encompassed by environmental, social and governance (ESG) mandates.”

With the impacts of less predictable and more extreme weather being felt around the globe, climate change has become a hot topic, literally and figuratively. Climate change, along with

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its attendant issues such as food insecurity, water shortages and potential civil unrest spurred by scarcity, often dominates the news cycle as well as discussions in the halls of academia, business, finance and government.

To wit, in late April, President Joe Biden announced a new target for the U.S. to achieve a 50-52 percent reduction from 2005 levels in economy-wide net greenhouse gas pollution by 2030. His stated long-term goal is a net-zero emissions economywide no later than 2050.

“With this deadline, President Biden created the dynamics of urgency,” said Chad Ellis, CEO of the Texas Agricultural Land Trust. “Small, scattered groups of people have been discussing ecosystem services markets for a couple of decades, but now forces are aligning to make them happen.”

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

“Social activism met social media and created a perfect storm that is altering the ecological and economic landscape,” said Anderson, noting CEP's niche is improving land's ecological productivity through hands-on management and capturing the increased value of that enhanced productivity. “From our perspective at CEP, it's an unprecedented time of challenges and opportunities.”

Throughout history, visionary entrepreneurs, who also happened to be wise and prudent, looked to the past to predict how their innovations would perform in the present and change the future. As 2021 reaches the halfway point, the old rules don't seem to apply.

“Everything we thought we knew and we believed is suddenly irrelevant,” Anderson said. “We can't look back and validate because the old data doesn't apply. We can only look forward and project.”

THE STATE OF RURAL TEXAS According to the U.S. Forest Service, ecosystem services are commonly defined as “benefits people obtain from ecosystems.”

While this definition is accurate, it assumes that people understand ecosystems and how they work.

Ellis, whose career has focused on agricultural research, outreach and advocacy, knows one can't assume any baseline understanding when it comes to land, management or Photo by Steve Nelle

As larger numbers of people begin to seriously grapple with the implications of rising temperatures and rising seas, the idea of ecosystem services, led by carbon sequestration, has moved from the shadows of scattered think tanks to the main stage in the mainstream.

Certain segments of society, including the millennials and Gen Z, are holding institutions accountable for their behavior and their claims. For instance, not long ago, fast-food chains could wrap their burgers—and their corporations—in feel-good green by simply announcing “our beef is 100 percent sustainable.”

Today consumers are demanding to know exactly what that promise means and how the business is delivering on it.

Corporations are scrambling for defensible, sound practices, so they can deliver straight answers backed with verifiable proof.

“Societal pressure is proving to be much more effective at changing behavior than government regulations,” Anderson said. “It's not a carrot. It's not a stick. It's steadily applied pressure.”

For instance, many universities, under pressure from their student bodies, are reconfiguring their vast foundation endowments, Anderson said. The universities are divesting their investments in oil and gas, coal, diamonds and other “natural resources,” which are characterized as “consumables” by the young change agents, and reinvesting in low-carbon energy and other technologies and practices perceived as sustainable.

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conservation. For clarity, he defines ecosystem services as “the goods and benefits provided by the land back to the public.”

Ellis, who has been working on developing ecosystem markets for the past seven years, is considered one of the elder statesmen in the rapidly emerging market space. Initially ecosystem services captured his imagination for two reasons.

“Having operable free markets starts incentivizing and paying for the ecological services that landowners have been providing for free for so long,” Ellis said. “By highlighting this value to the humanity as a whole, it makes the connection between working lands and life as we know it obvious.”

The Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, a four-year United Nations' assessment of the world's ecosystems, divides ecosystem services into four broad categories: • provisioning services or the provision of food, fresh water, fuel, fiber and other goods; • regulating services such as climate, water and disease regulation as well as pollination; • supporting services such as soil formation and nutrient cycling; and • cultural services such as educational, aesthetic and cultural heritage values as well as recreation and tourism.

As population, income and consumption levels increase, humans put more and more pressure on the natural environment to deliver these benefits. The 2005 Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, prepared by a group of more than 1,300 international experts, found that 60 percent of the ecosystem

Photo by Steve Nelle

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services assessed globally were either degraded or being used unsustainably. At that time, 70 percent of the regulating and cultural services were in decline.

“Every change in the ecosystem spurs an additional change in the quantity and quality of any given ecosystem service,” Ellis said. For example changes in climate can affect land cover and land use, and changes in land cover and land use will, in turn, affect climate variability.

“In Texas, we're losing open space land faster than any other state in the country,” Ellis said. “Every time we lose a piece of open working land, the pressure on the remaining open space working land to produce critical ecosystem services increases.”

As noted earlier, the most mature ecosystem services markets exist either in response to regulations such as the Endangered Species Act or Clean Water Act or as an economic incentive used to protect a landscape deemed essential such as the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone or the French watershed that feeds the supply springs for Perrier Vittel, one of the world's largest mineral water bottling companies.

Water markets based on supply and demand have also been functioning on a relatively small scale for some time. Because of the local nature of water supplies, the attendant water markets are fairly localized as well.

In these instances, the sellable goods and their value is relatively easy to define. Not every ecosystem service is as (Continued on page 50)

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

SNEARY RANCHES The Story of Early Adopters

Operating on 4,000 acres of coastal prairie and hardwood bottomland in Matagorda County, Loy Sneary adopts new ideas to adapt to the changing world—and sustain his family's ranch.

“About five years ago, my son Adam and I transitioned the ranch to adaptive, high-stock density grazing,” said Loy, who is also a former county judge and President/CEO of Gulf Coast Green Energy.

In order to accommodate their new grazing strategy, the father and son team invested about $100,000 in infrastructure including installing 12 miles of waterline with a riser every 800 feet –1,000 feet and easily movable electric fencing materials.

Ranch income is derived from a cow-calf operation, a 380acre commercial hay operation, and “below-market rate” hunting leases offered only to family friends. To stretch the infrastructure money, the Snearys applied for and received a USDA EQIP grant.

About a year later, Loy crossed paths with Jim Blackburn, a well-known, successful Houston-based environmental attorney, who he knew and respected. Blackburn told Loy about the concept for Soil Value Exchange, whereby ranchers would be paid to help naturally sequester carbon allowing Soil Value Exchange to sell carbon credits to corporate customers.

At the conversation's conclusion, Loy asked Blackburn to keep him in the loop. As the company developed, Loy served as an informal advisor representing the ranching perspective.

In 2017, Soil Value Exchange, whose partners include Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, launched and began offering contracts in 2020. (Soil Value Exchange has since merged with PastureMap and now operates as Grassroots Carbon Public Benefits LLC.) “We were the first ranch to sign up,” Loy said. “I knew the principles and trusted their integrity.”

In mid-April, the Snearys were rotating about 650 cows (includes both ranches) through 34-acre paddocks every day.

During peak growing season, they will move that same herd onto 13 acres every day.

The Snearys' intensive grazing efforts have begun paying dividends. Native grasses and forbs reestablished increasing vegetative diversity which in turn improved soil health and water infiltration. Carrying capacity increased to its current level of 4,800 lbs./acre – 5,200 lbs./acre depending on the season.

“It's a positive cycle of progress, all of which positively impacts our productivity and therefore our bottom line,” Loy said. “Of course, healthier soil, more moisture and vigorous, diverse plants increases the land's capacity to store carbon, which affects Grassroots Carbon's bottom line.”

When it comes to carbon markets, each company and each contract is different. Under the contract between Grassroots Carbon and the Snearys, the company doesn't dictate land management practices, but the Snearys have agreed to leave their land in livestock grazing for at least 10 years.

At the end of each year, the contract's term is automatically extended by one year, unless the Snearys choose to withdraw.

Withdrawal is not immediate. Instead, the family is obligated to leave the land in grazing for nine additional years from the date of cancellation to fulfill the 10-year agreement.

“In order to sell carbon offset credits, carbon banking companies need stable, long-term sources of carbon storage,” Loy said.

Once a contract is signed, Grassroots Carbon soil scientists take deep core samples throughout the ranch and calculate the amount of carbon in the soil. Five years later, they re-measure soil carbon.

Contracting ranchers are guaranteed a base rate. If the amount of carbon stored has increased since the first measurement, the ranchers are eligible for additional payments based on the carbon measured. The contract also has a provision to increase payments if the price of carbon increases in the marketplace.

For the system to work, Grassroots Carbon must have customers willing to buy offset carbon credits. If the credits go unsold, no payments are made.

The Grassroots Carbon team scheduled the first set of carbon samples in May on the Snearys' ranch. No money has changed hands, but Loy, like most true land stewards, is taking the long view.

“Over time, we're hoping that the market value of carbon credits increases, but for us it's the opportunity to get paid for doing the right thing and help cover the cost of conservation,” Loy said. “Plus, it's a private solution to an environmental problem without government regulations, which is, in my opinion, the best type of solution.”

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Photo by Larry Ditto

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

obvious or easy to value. The easier a product or good is to value, the more quickly a market may emerge.

As an example, Ellis compared setting up a system for rewarding biodiversity versus rewarding open space. Biodiversity and changes due to management can be measured on many dimensions using existing survey tools. Setting a value for open space, which provides the foundation for any ecosystem service, is not nearly as clear cut.

“The question on the table is: How do we do it [value ecosystem services]?” Ellis said. “And in the last year, there has been a surge in the number of people and startups trying to figure it out.”

Recognizing, evaluating and assigning an agreed upon value that is low enough that corporations and communities can pay it, but high enough to benefit the land stewards who are providing the ecosystems services from it is a challenge.

50 T E X A S W I L D L I F E

“Right now, ecosystem services such as clean air, water and biodiversity are like the MasterCard ads—they're literally priceless because they've never been assigned a value,” Ellis said. “Humans, by our nature, tend to take things that are free for granted.”

The first step is identifying a baseline value for discussions. TALT, led by Ellis, is partnering with the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute, led by Dr. Roel Lopez, to create the first estimate of the value of ecosystem services to Texans.

The groups are considering 13 different ecosystem services and anticipate releasing the information in late 2021.

“For the first time, we hope to be able to articulate the return on investment to the community as a whole, so that ultimately land stewards will enjoy a financial return on the time, energy and capital they invested in producing life-giving ecosystem services,” Ellis said.

AUGUST 2021

At the moment, carbon sequestration and its attendant carbon-offset markets, are getting the lion's share of attention, as “enviropreneurs” scramble to stake their claims. From Ellis' perspective, carbon markets are just a starting point.

“Land stewards and landscapes provide many benefits,” Ellis said. “To my way of thinking, the markets need to be structured so they can be 'stacked' and land stewards receive a financial return for all of their ecological products.”

Developing multiple income streams from enhanced ecological productivity is a cornerstone of CEP's business model. CEP Project Manager and Ecologist Tamara Wood offered the company's Mustang Creek project as an example of the company's unique suits-in-the-boardroom, boots-on-theground approach.

According to Wood, one of Mustang Creek's advantages is its location. The 1,600-acre property is located just 15 miles southwest of Fort Worth in Johnson County. Proximity to the state's fourth largest urban area creates a lot of opportunities for value that might be harder to monetize on more remote properties, she said.

“In ecosystem services, just like in any other industry, you have to have people who need what you have to sell,” Wood said.

As part of their overall strategy, CEP team members are conducting a stream restoration project to create regulatory offsets prompted by the Clean Water Act and restoring a two-mile stretch of intermittent stream for a mitigation bank.

CEP is also developing a regenerative grazing program to enhance and restore the remainder of the ranch to native prairie. And they're also letting their imaginations run wild.

“One component of the project is to provide corporate clients with solutions to their ESG mandates,” Wood said. “Being solution-oriented requires that we consider the broad spectrum of issues impacting natural resources in society today.”

The team is intrigued by the chance to use the land as a large-scale outdoor classroom for urban and suburban youths.

Opportunities range from improving

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

basic conservation literacy to increasing awareness in complex ecological services.

They are also exploring how their regenerative grazing program could help a corporate client define and achieve its sustainability goals.

“You have to ask questions to find answers, especially when a market space isn't defined,” Wood said. “Right now, there are literally no limits because there are no defined boundaries.”

A SEAT AT THE TABLE Ecosystem markets are expanding and morphing into new configurations at a mind-boggling speed. While landowners may be tempted to stay at the house until the dust clears, Ellis suggested landowners get engaged now.

“The framework for these markets is being put in place quickly,” Ellis said.

“If landowners want to ensure that the system will work for them, now is the time to claim a seat at the table and speak up.”

For instance, now is the time to make federal officials understand that the best solutions are private. Again, carbon is the topic de jour.

“Instead of buying up land, creating national parks with the thought of creating their own carbon banks, federal agencies ought to be buying carbon credits from private sources just as if the government was McDonald's or American Airlines,” Ellis said.

The emerging marketplaces are chaotic, and they likely won't offer second chances to get things right. In the bedlam, some companies may be selling snake oil along with ecosystem services. As a result, landowners not only need to be astute as they help create workable framework, but as they align themselves with partners.

The relationship and commitment will be long-term, generally measured in decades.

“Be patient. Think through your goals.

Establish your comfort zone. And ask the right questions to make sure the marketplace you engage in is the right one for you,” Ellis said.

Anderson added, “Don't enter into any agreement that you're not 100 percent comfortable with. Ecosystem services is going to be game changer in the long-run, so it pays to take a long view.”

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OUTDOOR TRADITIONS

Gone Fishing

Reflecting on the Joys of Angling Article and photo by SALLIE LEWIS

As a young girl, few places stirred my imagination more than The Tarpon Inn in Port Aransas. Still today, the lobby walls are papered with over 7,000 tarpon scales, which hang like dried, yellowed rose petals in tribute to the island’s once-plentiful “silver king” population.

Amidst these layered walls is a scale signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who on a 1937 excursion aboard a Farley boat caught a 77-pounder just beyond the jetties. Buried beneath these relics of history is another special scale, and one that is personal to me.

54 T E X A S W I L D L I F E

AUGUST 2021

Years ago, my great-grandmother, who I called “Nana,” caught a tarpon of epic proportions here. Over the years, we’ve kept the photograph of her and her storied catch framed in our home.

Today, I’m thankful for the many fishing experiences that have colored my own life, from summers in Rockport reeling in redfish to late nights gigging flounder, and long days fighting blue marlin off the shores of Zihuatanejo.

While fishing offers endless opportunities for excitement and adrenaline, it also presents a chance to slow down and connect with the spiritual world around us.

Tom Brokaw, the renowned journalist and author, once said, “If fishing is religion, fly fishing is high church.”

Last summer, on a trip to Laughlintown, Pennsylvania for my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary, I came to understand the weight of his words firsthand.

With fly rod in hand and waders on foot, I felt a closeness with God as my family spread out on the creek one morning. Sunlight shone through a cathedral of trees as if pouring through panes of colorful stained glass. From the forest floor, moss grew in a soft carpet while overhead, chartreuse butterflies winged their way towards the heavens.

As with life, fishing is a great teacher, and there are many lessons to be learned from the sport, like perseverance and patience. Despite snagging rocks and breaking lines that morning, there were endless moments of wonder that distracted me from my amateur angling skills.

After a few failed casts, I suddenly noticed a large shadow beneath the water. I cast again, watching the line drop and drift closer to the fish. With a pounding heart, I waited for the moment I sensed was coming—and set the hook.

It wasn’t until I began reeling that I noticed the sheer beauty of my catch. I can still see its scales shimmering silver and gold beneath the cool clear water, with flashes of red, bright pink and dark blue reflecting off the sun.

That day, my family and I caught and released countless trout, from rainbow and brown to tiger and brook varietals. Each was a gift, though the greatest joy was simply being in nature.

Standing in the folds of the forest, we were both together and alone, surrounded by nothing and everything all at once, fishing for meaning and wisdom in the wild.

Game on

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