About Marshes

At 4,250 acres, this is the largest marsh-building project of its kind in America. Using dredged silt, sand, shell and clay, the BUG Plan begins its 50 year countdown at the end of 2004. The Gorini Marsh, Atkinson Marsh and Bolivar Marsh will help restore significant wetlands acreage lost over many decades.

What Are Marshes?

Wetlands, or marshes, are areas where a significant amount of water saturation in the soil determines how the soil will develop and what it will support. The saturation level affects the types of plants and animals that live in the soil and on its surface.

There are many varieties of wetlands – depending on the climate, topography, landscape and proximity to an open body of water. Galveston Bay has intertidal salt marshes, which are marshes dominated by plants that have adapted to the high level of salt in the environment. Similar wetlands can be found along the Gulf of Mexico and portions of the South Atlantic coastline.

Why Are Marshes Important?

Wetlands are an essential part of our ecosystem which:

  • Sustain wildlife by providing food, protection from predators, and spawning and nursery habitats for many fish and wildlife species
  • Improve water quality by filtering out pollutants, helping to produce high-quality fish populations
  • Prevent erosion by absorbing wave energy
  • Form buffer zones during storms that help protect lands from flooding, and
  • Provide recreational activities including hiking, hunting, fishing, and bird and wildlife observation.

The Texas Coastal Wetlands report estimates that 80% of commercial and recreational coastal fisheries in the United States rely on wetlands as spawning areas, nurseries and food sources. More than 95% of marine species in Texas bays and the Gulf of Mexico depend on wetlands at least some time in their life cycles.

Wetland Loss in the United States

Wetlands are quickly diminishing in the United States. A 1991 report by Dahl and Johnson for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Status and Trends of Wetlands in the Continuous United States, Mid-1970s to Mid-1980s) estimated that half of the 221 million acres of wetlands that existed in the lower 48 states at the time of European settlement have been lost, and an additional 290,000 acres continue to be lost each year.

A report produced jointly by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, (Texas Coastal Wetlands: Status and Trends, Mid-1950s to Early 1990s) revealed that since the 1950s an estimated 800,000 acres of the state’s coastal wetlands have disappeared. Salt-water marshes declined in size by almost 70% during the same period.

Wetland Disappearance in Galveston Bay

Wetland loss is distressing not only to the environment and wildlife, but also to humans. Galveston Bay supports a variety of habitats such as tidal wetlands, open-bay waters, oyster reefs, seagrasses, salt flats, high marshes and rookery islands. In turn, these habitats support a wide range of fish and wildlife species, as well as human commerce and recreational activities. In fact, the bay’s commercial fisheries landings in 2000 exceeded 14.5 million pounds, worth about $26.8 million. The total economical impact to the area from the commercial fishing industry is in excess of $80 million.

Coastal wetland loss in Texas is a continuing concern because of the essential roles that wetlands perform. Wetland loss in the Galveston Bay system is greater than in many other areas of the state. Alarmingly, an estimated 35,000 acres, or 21%, of wetlands have been lost in Galveston Bay between the 1950s and the 1980s. (White, W.A., T.A. Trembly, E.G. Wermund and L.R. Handley, 1993. Trends and Status of Wetland and Aquatic Habitats in the Galveston Bay System, Texas).

The substantial wetland disappearance in the Galveston Bay system may have contributed to chronic declines in blue crabs and white shrimp and declines in estuarine-dependent bird species such as tricolored herons, snowy egrets, black skimmers, roseate spoonbills, and great egrets (Shipley and Kiesling, 1994).

Wetland loss in the Galveston Bay system can be attributed to many causes, including sediment diversion, saltwater intrusion, subsidence, dredging, stream channelization and filling, erosion and hydrologic alteration (White et al., 1993). Erosion, primarily from winds and waves associated with tropical storms and cold fronts, poses a significant threat to the marshes and adjacent habitats of the Galveston Bay system. In addition, regional subsidence of approximately one to two feet between 1906 and 1987 (White et al., 1993) has rendered the marsh systems more vulnerable to erosion during winter, as well as during tropical storms.

The Solution: Create More

Efforts such as the Houston-Galveston Navigation Channels Project are working to combat the destruction of wetlands and restore some of the acres that have been lost. By creating 4,250 acres of marsh, the Port of Houston Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are not only replacing a significant amount of lost marsh in Galveston Bay, they’re also learning much about this dynamic ecosystem, including the best ways for propagation, conservation and prevention of further wetland loss.

Wetlands of Galveston Bay System Fact Sheet