Texas Coastal Bend Landscape Conservation Design

INTRODUCTION

The Coastal Bend is well known for its prominent place in the American wildlife conservation movement. In 1941, when only 14 whooping cranes survived in the wild, the bird became emblematic for all endangered and threatened species, and Aransas became a focal point of the national and worldwide effort to rescue the species from extinction. As populations have grown, the areas surrounding the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge have become equally important from a conservation perspective. The Texas Coastal Bend area has a long history of cooperative conservation. Recently, a multi-partner coalition purchased the 17,351- acre Powderhorn Ranch along the Texas coast in Calhoun County; one of the largest remaining undisturbed tracts of native coastal prairie habitat left in Texas and likely one of the largest single conservation projects in the . Recognizing the great opportunity to invest Gulf restoration funds to benefit oil-impacted, at- risk, and threatened and endangered species and their habitats in the Texas Coastal Bend, Partners have developed a science based landscape level approach to collaborative strategic habitat conservation in this area to serve as a blueprint for coordinated cooperative conservation efforts of agencies, organizations, landowners and other stakeholders.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this Landscape Conservation Design (LCD) is to provide a shared strategy on current and future landscape conservation focus that may be used to align conservation efforts across the Texas Coastal Bend in response to stressors such as climate change, including sea level rise and development and land/water use practices. The process includes use of interdisciplinary science to identify priorities and coordinated adaptation strategies that protect biodiversity in the Coastal Bend and disseminating this plan to all who are interested. In addition, the LCD products are useful for guiding CCPs (Comprehensive Conservation Plans) and LPPs (Land Protection Plans) of the NWRS.

LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION DESIGN As defined by the “guidance on landscape conservation design memo signed 10-03- 2016, “Landscape Conservation Designs (LCDs) describe shared, cross-jurisdictional visions for meeting conservation objectives. LCDs evaluate drivers that have created the current patterns on the landscape and that affect potential future landscape patterns. LCDs use a partnership-driven, science-based planning process that (1) assesses the current and projected landscape condition; (2) identifies desired landscape characteristics through the integration of quantifiable biological, cultural, social, and physical resource objectives; (3) analyzes the landscape's ability to achieve desired resource objectives under a variety of scenarios and/or limiting factors; and (4) provides landscape-scale management, mitigation, and monitoring strategies to achieve resource objectives. This information will inform a description of a desired future condition for identified landscape features, processes, or resources and a suite of management strategies developed with partners to achieve the desired future condition. Understanding historic and current environmental drivers will inform and guide management plans to achieve conservation goals for targeted features or resources or for a specific area under a bureau's jurisdiction. LCDs inform the development of each partner’s site-specific management plans (and NEPA documents) and actions within the landscape of the LCD to deliver conservation activities, attain desired resource objectives, sustain ecosystem function/processes, and achieve the missions, mandates, and goals of partner agencies/organization.” The science that informs the Texas Coastal Bend LCD is included in this document and is described as the Scientific Foundation for the Landscape Conservation Design in the Texas Coastal Bend.

GULF OF MEXICO Funding from oil spill penalties offers an unprecedented opportunity to address complex Gulf ecosystem issues and to make strategic investments in the ecological challenges of tomorrow. In addition to recovering species directly damaged by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, these funds can simultaneously secure habitat for At-Risk species in the Gulf region, can protect conservation corridors and buffers that support wildlife, water supplies, and communities, and can help the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service implement its science-based strategic habitat conservation goals.

Over a two-year period (2011-2013), the National Wildlife Refuge Association (Refuge Association) worked with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS/Service) on an assessment of ecologically significant estuaries and watersheds in the Gulf Coast region, with emphasis on landscapes where national wildlife refuges and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service programs play a central role (Putting the Vision for a Healthy Gulf of Mexico Watershed into Action through Collaborative Community- Driven Conservation NWRA 2015). Based on this assessment of important habitats for gulf-wide rare species, the integrity of these habitats, partnerships and opportunities, a greenprint of the Gulf coast was developed. The Texas Coastal Bend area was one of the areas recommended for further collaborative strategic habitat conservation efforts.

COASTAL BEND CONSERVATION PARTNERS Partners have continued to work together to design this Coastal Bend Landscape Conservation Design to further focus cooperative conservation efforts in the Coastal Bend area. United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department(TPWD), Texas Coastal Program, Gulf Coast Joint Venture, Partner’s for Wildlife, Texas Nature Conservancy, Natural Resources and Conservation Service (NRCS), Trust for Public Lands, The Conservation Fund, Bay Foundation, Guadalupe Blanco River Authority (GRBA), Guadalupe-Blanco River Trust, The National Wildlife Refuge Association and The International Crane Foundation initiated and/or participated in the development of The Texas Coastal Bend LCD to identify priority habitats for conservation of focal species of fish and wildlife in the area that will be most resilient to changes occurring such as increasing development and sea level rise. The Texas Coastal Bend LCD has been developed to serve as a focus for strategic coordinated cooperative conservation efforts.

TEXAS COASTAL BEND

The Texas Coastal Bend area contains interests of a combination of Federal and State agencies, non-government organizations, landowners, stakeholders and others. There are approximately 403, 241 acres of protected lands in the Coastal Bend and many organizations involved in landscape conservation. However, many of these protected areas contain habitats that are not valuable to whooping cranes and similar salt marsh obligate species.

There are many threats to coastal habitats in the Texas Coastal Bend including invasive animal and plant species, coastal erosion, human development, and climate change (CWS and USF&WS, 2005). Invasive plant species may change the physical structure and composition of habitat. Invasive animal species such as feral hogs can also alter the vegetation community and enhance erosion. Coastal erosion contributes directly to loss of salt marsh. Areas with the highest erosion are often adjacent to high traffic shipping routes such as the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (Evans and Waring, 1993; Evans and Stehn, 1997). The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and other shipping routes also bring chemicals in close proximity to important habitat, increasing the potential for toxic spills that could cause direct mortality of whooping cranes, loss of food resources, and changes to vegetation communities (Robertson, 1993). Increasing oil and gas development further increases the potential for both offshore and land-based spills. Increasing industrial and residential development may cause direct loss of habitat and often increases the frequency of human disturbance. Human disturbance is an indirect threat to whooping crane habitat, potentially leading to abandonment of useable habitat. Climate change increases salt marsh habitat loss via sea-level rise and may have indirect impacts associated with extended periods of drought and increasing storm frequency (Chavez-Ramirez and Wehjte, 2012). Sea-level rise and subsidence in coastal salt marsh is expected to cause loss of wintering habitat converting coastal salt marshes to open water habitats and adjacent coastal prairies and palustrine marshes to coastal salt marshes. Drought periods alter crane habitat in multiple ways such as decreasing freshwater inflows which reduce food sources and alter plant communities in coastal salt marshes (TPWD 1993; NWF 2004).

Freshwater inflows are also reduced from increased water use upstream from municipalities and agriculture. This alters flow patterns, reduces sediment supply for salt marshes, and increases channelization. Further hydrological alterations occur from increased ditching, creation of roads, and other man-made changes to natural elevation contours.

BACKGROUND

Description of the Texas Coastal Bend LCD Area

The area included in the Texas Coastal Bend LCD includes at least part of four of the seven major estuary systems of the Texas Gulf Coast stretching from Corpus Christie to Galveston Bay (Figure 1). Matagorda, Aransas, Corpus Christi, and Upper Laguna Madre are shallow and biologically productive estuaries. Although connected, the estuaries are biogeographically distinct and increase in salinity from north to south. The Laguna Madre is unusual in being only one of five hypersaline lagoon systems in the world and the only such system in North America. The Coastal Bend is bounded on its eastern edge by a series of barrier islands, including the world's longest - Padre Island. The area included in the Texas Coastal Bend LCD includes part of 12 counties: Matagorda, Aransas, Wharton, Jackson, Victoria, Calhoun, Refugio, San Patricio, Nueces, Goliad, and Bee. Figure 1. Boundary of Texas Coastal Bend Landscape Conservation Design.

This region is part of the Gulf Coast and Plain, which are characterized by gently sloping plains. There are 4 major rivers (Colorado, Guadalupe, San Antonio and Nueces), few natural lakes, and two reservoirs (Lake Corpus Christi and Choke Canyon Reservoir) in the region. The natural vegetation is a mixture of coastal prairie and mesquite chaparral savanna. Land use is largely devoted to rangeland (61% ), with cropland and pastureland (27%) and other mixed uses (12%). The region is semi-arid with a subtropical climate (average annual rainfall varies from 25 to 38 inches, and is highly variable from year to year). Summers are hot and humid, while winters are generally mild with occasional freezes. Hurricanes and tropical storms periodically affect the region.

Predominant estuarine and island habitats within the Texas Coastal Bend LCD area include: Open Bay, Hard Substrates (jetties, groins, etc.), Oyster Reefs, Seagrass Meadows, Coastal Marshes, Tidal Flats, Barrier Islands, and Gulf Beaches. The Open Bay and Seagrass Meadow habitats have the largest number of species. Oyster Reefs also have many associated species.

The area is at the crossroads of species from east and west, as well as from north and south. Rappole and Blacklock (1985) note this area of Texas is the richest bird country in North America north of the tropics. The great diversity of species encountered in the area is also due to the wide array of land and aquatic habitat types: arid chaparral, lush riparian forests, oak savannas, oxbow lakes and swales, river deltas, coastal marshes and ponds, oyster reefs, open bay bottoms, barrier islands, jetties and other hard substrates, and sandy beaches.

METHODS

The process to develop the Texas Coastal Bend LCD is a partner-driven, multi- stakeholder, collaborative effort grounded in landscape ecology and conservation biology that results in a science-based, spatially-explicit product that identifies targets of interest to partners, articulates measurable objectives; assesses current and projected landscape patterns and processes; and identifies a desired future condition, conservation and development trade-offs, and implementation strategies.

The Texas Coastal Bend LCD adopts the strategic habitat conservation approach focused on species conservation and the concept of focal or surrogate species.

Selection of the focal/surrogate species is the starting point of a process that includes identifying spatially explicit priority habitats for each selected species, identifying threats to these priority habitats and assessing these threats or probable causes of recognized trends and the likely affects of these on populations of species and their habitats. A team of biologists from 19 government (State and Federal) and non- government organizations selected a group of focal species for entire Gulf Coast. This process is identified in the attached Scientific Foundation for Conservation Design in the Coastal Bend. The team also focused on a single species model using whooping cranes, a predominant and charismatic species found in this geography. This model incorporated projected land use effects such as future urban or suburban development, agricultural conversion or intensification, and, loss or gain of habitats due to sea level rise and other climate changes using data from Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) and remote sensing elevation data and information on land cover and land use to model future conditions of priority habitats under several sea level rise scenarios. This allow us to incorporate spatially explicit biological outcomes considering land use changes and projected sea level rise on habitat for focus species and the many others that use these habitats. The threat assessment assists in determining which current priority habitats will remain viable in the future and where future habitats may occur. This information will assist in developing appropriate conservation strategies into the future to mitigate sea level rise and other climate change effects, as well as the other stressors.

There has been significant interest in the conservation values of the geography of this area. Here is a list of planning efforts and initiatives that have occurred in this geography:

FEDERAL PLANS

x Aransas National Wildlife Refuge Complex Comprehensive Conservation Plan and Environmental Assessment. x U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2013 Comprehensive Conservation Plan, Texas Mid- coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex September 2013 x U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2013 Land Protection Plan, Austin's Woods, San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge, 2013 x International Recovery Plan for the Whooping Crane, Third Revision (2007) x Northern Aplomado Falcon Recovery Plan (1990) x Piping Plover Plan (2009) x Attwater’s Prairie Chicken Recovery Plan, Second Revision (2010) x North American Waterfowl Management Plan- Gulf Coast Joint Venture- Mid-Coast Initiative and Laguna Madre Areas x U.S Shorebird Conservation Plan x Fall Habitat Objectives for Priority Gulf Coast Shorebird Species Using Managed Wetlands and Grasslands (2012) x North American Waterbird Conservation Plan x Gulf Coast Joint Venture Planning for the Reddish Egret (2009) x Little Blue Heron Plan (2016) x North American Bird Conservation Initiative x Partners in Flight Bird Conservation Plan Gulf Coast Prairie Bird Conservation Area#37 (2008) x U.S. Ocean Action Plan (2004) x Marine Protected Areas (2000) x Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve System (2006) x Vision for a Healthy Gulf of Mexico Watershed

STATE PLANS AND INITIATIVES

x Texas Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy x Seagrass Conservation Plan for Texas (1999) x Land and Water Resources Conservation and Recreation Plan (2010) x Texas Wetlands Conservation Plan (1997) x A Strategic Plan for Texas Parks and Wildlife 2003-2007

OTHER PLANS

x A Thousand Whoopers, The Nature Conservancy x A Land Conservation Vision for the Gulf of Mexico Region: An Overview, Land Trust Alliance (2014). x Strategy for Restoring the Gulf of Mexico, Recommendations to the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force (2011) x Seize the Moment: Priorities, Projects and Recommendations for Restoring the Gulf of Mexico, The Nature Conservancy (2013). x Putting the Vision for a Healthy Gulf of Mexico Watershed into Action- Through Collaborative Community-Driven Conservation, The National Wildlife Refuges Association. x Gulf of Mexico Initiative GoMI, NRCS (2011). x Protecting the Gulf Coast, The Trust for Public Lands x Prime Prairie and Wetland Habitat for Whooping Cranes Wintering in Texas, The Guadalupe Blanco River Trust (2015). x Welder Flats Coastal Preserve x Employing the Conservation Design Approach on Sea-Level Rise Impacts on Coastal Avian Habitats along the Coast, International Crane Foundation (2014). x Winter Range Whooping Crane Strategic Plan #1521, (2016)

LITERATURE CITED

Canadian Wildlife Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2007. International recovery plan for the whooping crane. 3rd. Revision. Ottawa: Recovery of Nationally Endangered Wildlife (RENEW), and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 162pp.

Chavez-Ramirez, F. and W. Wehtje, 2012. Potential Impact of climate change scenarios on Whooping Crane life history. Wetlands 32:-11-20.

Evans, DE. and Thomas V. Stehn. 1997. Use of dredged material to construct winter whooping crane habitat. Proceedings of the Seventh North American Crane Workshop. 7:67-71.

National Wildlife Federation. 2004. Bays in peril: a forecast for freshwater inflows to Texas estuaries. Austin, Teas. 44 pp. Rappole, J. H. and G. W. Blacklock. 1985. Birds of Texas Coastal Bend: Abundance and Distribution. Texas A&M University Press. College Station, Texas.

Robertson, S.M., T.W. Schultz, L.R. Gamble, and T.C. Maurer. 1991. Contaminants Investigation of Aransas dredge spoil islands, Texas, 1988-1989. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Report, Region 2 Contaminants Division, Corpus Christi Field Office, Texas. 29 pp.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. 1998. Freshwater inflow recommendations for the Guadalupe Estuary of Texas. Coastal Studies Technical Report No. 98- 1. Austin, Texas. 61 pp. + figs.