Infrastructure

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Infrastructure – Parks and Recreation

The Gulf Coast region is home to several state parks and historic sites that showcase its scenic beauty and cultural heritage. The state park with the most significant economic impact in 2006 was Galveston Island State Park, which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ike in September 2008 and closed to the public for several months as a result. The park has been partially restored and reopened to day visitors in March 2009, with both Bayside and Beachside camping areas opened in July. The region’s park receiving the largest number of visitors in fiscal 2008 is the San Jacinto Battlefield/Battleship Texas Complex (Exhibit 36).

In addition to these parks, the region has several state wildlife management areas (WMAs). Most are primitive, lacking facilities and drinking water, and are primarily dedicated to wetland and ecosystem preservation along with hunting. Birdwatchers, however, are likely to be familiar with some of the areas, such as the Candy Cain Abshier WMA and Mad Island WMA, due to their location on major migratory pathways. The Gulf Coast region is also home to numerous county and local parks. Houston in particular has many well-known parks, including Hermann Park, Buffalo Bayou Park and Sam Houston Park, the city’s first.⁴¹

The Sam Houston National Forest, about 50 miles north of Houston, is one of four in Texas. Evidence of human occupation in the forest dates back 12,000 years.

Exhibit 36

Economic Impact of State Parks, Gulf Coast Region

Name	Number of Visitors FY 2008	2006 Total Economic Impact on Sales	2006 Spending by Visitors
Stephen F. Austin State Park	39,331	$1,411,721	$667,974
Brazos Bend State Park	187,540	$2,116,078	$797,215
Galveston Island State Park	176,854	$7,354,412	$4,729,620
Battleship Texas/San Jacinto Complex	231,662	$4,517,213	$1,793,917
Sheldon Lake State Park and Environmental Learning Center	51,312	n/a	n/a
Davis Hill State Park (Site closed pending development)	0	0	0
Huntsville State Park	143,936	$2,436,257	$1,308,735

Note: Economic data were not available for Sheldon Lake State Park.
Sources: Texas A&M University and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The Sam Houston National Forest, about 50 miles north of Houston, is one of four in Texas. Evidence of human occupation in the forest dates back 12,000 years. The forest was previously home to Atakapan-speaking groups who were displaced by European settlers; a number of archeological sites in the forest are off-limits to visitors. The forest is managed under the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960, which authorizes the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to maintain natural surface resources in national forests in the most sustainable, ecologically viable way possible.

The forest offers several recreation opportunities, including the 128-mile Lone Star Hiking Trail, a portion of which follows the banks of Lake Conroe and heads west toward the Little Lake Creek Wilderness area. The forest also includes three developed campgrounds, some featuring full-service hook-ups, picnicking units and bike trails. Boating and fishing activities are also allowed in the forest.

Houston Wilderness

For many people, Harris County and its surrounding areas may not seem synonymous with wildlife, parkland and outdoor recreation, but one local nonprofit organization is working to change that. Houston Wilderness was founded in 2002 to serve as an umbrella organization for groups working toward environmental protection and open-space preservation in a 24-county region surrounding greater Houston.

One of the organization’s primary goals is the creation of a continuous greenbelt that will one day surround the city of Houston. Once complete, the greenbelt will offer hiking, biking, kayaking and other recreational opportunities for outdoor enthusiasts.

Local officials, business leaders and other citizens have come to recognize that the bayous and beaches of the Gulf Coast region are a potential hub for ecotourism. For this reason, Houston Wilderness is organizing efforts to protect open space in the fast-growing Gulf Coast region. The organization is also active in public schools, working to instill a sense of appreciation and stewardship toward the natural environment. One of the organization’s primary goals is to ensure that all of the area’s students have participated in at least one school-sponsored outdoor educational experience by the time they have completed seventh grade.⁴³

The forest allows hunting, with deer as the most popular game animal. It also provides excellent habitat for endangered bald eagles, which are often sighted in the winter. Other endangered species found in the forest include the red-cockaded woodpecker, with its distinctive large white cheek patches.

Natural resource management is a key component of the forest’s continued development. When the federal government purchased the land in 1934, much of it was undeveloped, with many areas denuded by logging. Today, the federal government maintains the forest under a sustainable-yield principle so that it will continue to produce timber to meet future needs. The forest also benefits from a fire management system that not only prevents and suppresses potential fires but also initiates controlled burns preventing the dangerous accumulation of tinder.

Some private entities maintain mineral rights within the forest as part of the federal government’s original purchase agreement. These entities can extract minerals including energy resources from the area.⁴²

In 1990, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation purchased and established the 207-acre Candy Cain Abshier Wildlife Management Area in Chambers County, along Galveston Bay and Trinity Bay. Candy Cain Abshier WMA is a mix of coastal plains, live oak stands and freshwater ponds that attract diverse wildlife, named in honor of Catherine “Candy” Cain Abshier, a former employee of Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Candy Cain Abshier WMA is best known as a popular stopover spot for migrating birds. Each August through November the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory sponsors the popular hawk watch. While birds of prey are annual visitors, it is not uncommon to see hummingbirds, swallows and flocks of wood storks. Thousands of migrating birds in the spring and fall make the Candy Cain Abshier WMA a popular stop along the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail.⁴⁴

Recreational Lakes and Reservoirs

Only two of the Gulf Coast region’s water-supply reservoirs, Lakes Conroe and Houston, are also used for recreation purposes; many of the reservoirs are privately owned by industry or power companies. Lakes in two of the region’s state parks offer fishing opportunities (Exhibit 37).

Exhibit 37

Gulf Coast Region, Recreational Lakes and Reservoirs

Name	Location	Size	Maximum Depth
Lake Conroe	7 miles northwest of Conroe	20,118.0 acres	72 feet
Lake Houston	15 miles northeast of Houston	11,854.0 acres	45 feet
Lake Raven	Huntsville State Park in Walker County	203.5 acres	28 feet
Sheldon Lake	Carpenter Bayou on the edge of Houston	1,230.0 acres	10 feet

Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Hunting and Fishing

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) sold more than 554,000 licenses to hunters and fishermen in the Gulf Coast region in 2008. These sales generated in excess of $17 million in revenue, all of which went to a dedicated state fund supporting the conservation and management of the state’s fish and wildlife.⁴⁵

Every county in the region offers legal hunting of some sort, and several offer hunting year-round (Exhibit 38).

The Gulf Coast region also features freshwater fishing opportunities in its rivers and lakes. Common species in the region include bass, crappie, catfish and sunfish.

Exhibit 38

Applicable Hunting Regulations, Gulf Coast Region

Animal	Season
White-tailed Deer	Open season lasts from November 7 until January 3. Most counties in the region also have a special youth-only late season in January. Archery season lasts from October 3 until November 6. A special youth-only season occurs from October 31 until November 1.
Pheasant	Chambers and Liberty counties have open season from October 31 – February 28. Bag limit 3 cocks, possession limit 6 cocks.
Squirrel	In Chambers, Galveston, Harris, Liberty Montgomery and Walker counties, squirrel season is open October 1 – February 7 and May 1-31, with a daily limit of 10. In the rest of the region’s counties, squirrel season is open year-round with no limit.
Turkey	Spring Season is April 1-30, 2010. Austin, Chambers, Galveston, Harris and Waller counties have no turkey hunting; Colorado County’s spring season is for Rio Grande birds, the remaining counties have Eastern turkey hunting, all limited to one gobbler.
Quail	Open season lasts from October 31 until February 28. Daily bag limit: 15; possession limit: 45.
Dove	The season for dove is as follows: Central Zone: September 1 – October 25 and December 26 – January 9. South Zone: September 18 – November 3 and December 26 – January 17.

Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Matagorda Bay Nature Park

Matagorda Bay at the mouth of the Colorado River is a prime area for enjoying the beauty and bounty of nature, whether by fishing, bird-watching, hiking or camping on the beach. All these activities and more can be pursued at the 1,600-acre Matagorda Bay Nature Park.

Situated between Matagorda Bay and East Matagorda Bay, the park is adjacent to the county’s Jetty Park and near the Mad Island Marsh Preserve and Mad Island Wildlife Management Area. All of these locations are included in the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail and are considered some of the best birding destinations in the nation.

Matagorda Bay Nature Park has two miles of riverfront as well as a couple of miles of beach bordering its acres of dunes and marshes. The park offers RV hookup sites along with sites for tent camping. There are trails with shaded wildlife viewing spots, four free public fishing piers and a group pavilion. The park has no entrance fees (though there is a charge for RV camping) and is open year-round, providing a wonderful home base from which to explore other nearby natural attractions. The park is within the 15-mile-wide area of the Christmas Bird Count circle, which hosts an Audubon Society one-day birding extravaganza.⁴⁷

Matagorda Christmas Bird Count

Every year for the last 110 years, bird watchers in numerous locations have spent a day from December 14 to January 5 on routes through a 15-mile diameter circular spot, counting every bird they can see. Since 1993, one of the best places to participate in the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is in Matagorda County.

The CBC began on Christmas Day in 1900, as an alternative to a competitive holiday hunt in which teams tried to bag the biggest pile of birds in a day. The first CBC had 25 counts in locations mostly in the northeastern U.S. that arrived at a total of 90 different species. Today, CBCs take place in more than 2,000 circles from Canada to Colombia, with tens of thousands of birders taking to the outdoors armed with binoculars – and determination.

The Matagorda CBC circle includes areas that are part of the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, including the Mad Island State Wildlife Management Area, the Clive Runnels Family Mad Island Marsh Preserve and the Matagorda Bay Nature Park. These world-class bird-watching locations on a major migratory path have put the Matagorda County CBC in the top five for North American species counts every year since 1993.⁴⁸

Matagorda Island

PHOTO: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Endnotes

All links were valid at the time of publication. Changes to web sites not maintained by the office of the Texas Comptroller may not be reflected in the links below.

⁴¹ Texas Coalition for Conservation, The Economic Contributions of Texas State Parks in FY 2006, by John L. Crompton and Juddson Culpepper (Austin, Texas, December 2006) pp. 38, 56, 63, 100, 104, http://texascoa.org/documents/200612_EconomicContributionsTexasStateParks.pdf (consultant’s report); e-mail communication from Lacie Russell, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, October 13, 2009 with Excel spreadsheet; Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, “Find a WMA: Ordered by County,” http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/hunt/wma/find_a_wma/list/?option=county; and Buffalo Bayou Partnership, “Parks,” http://www.buffalobayou.org/parks.html. (Last visited January 27, 2010.)
⁴² U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, “Sam Houston National Forest,” http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/texas/recreation/sam_houston/samhouston_gen_info.shtml; and “Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960 [As Amended through December 31, 1996, P.L. 104-333],” pp. 10-3, 10-4, http://www.fs.fed.us/emc/nfma/includes/musya60.pdf. (Last visited January 21, 2010.)
⁴³ Houston Wilderness, “FAQs,” http://www.houstonwilderness.org/default.asp?Mode=DirectoryDisplay&id=74; “Goals and Objectives,” http://www.houstonwilderness.org/default.asp?Mode=DirectoryDisplay&id=99. (Last visited January 21, 2010.)
⁴⁴ Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, “Candy Cain Abshier WMA Wildlife Viewing,” http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/hunt/wma/find_a_wma/list/?id=36&activity=wildlifeViewing, (Last visited February 17, 2010.)
⁴⁵ E-mail communication from Tom Spatz, Intergovernmental Affairs Division, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, October 14, 2009, with Excel spreadsheet.
⁴⁷ Lower Colorado River Authority, “Your Nearby Getaways: Matagorda Bay Nature Park,” http://www.lcra.org/parks/developed_parks/matagorda.html. (Last visited January 21, 2010.)
⁴⁸ National Audubon Society, “Christmas Bird Count: History,” http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/history.html; Geoffrey S. LeBaron, “The 108th Christmas Bird Count,” American Birds (Volume 62, 2007-2008), pp. 3-5, http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/pdf/AB_108_1-9.pdf; Nature Conservancy, “Texas: A Mad Island Marsh Christmas Bird Count,” http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/texas/science/art23501.html; and Matagorda Tourism, “Matagorda County – Mad Island Marsh Christmas Bird Count: 15 December 2008,” http://www.matagordatourism.com/Mad_Island/cbc.pdf. (Last visited January 21, 2010.)