With an area equal to one twelfth of the entire United States, Texas is able to support a level of biodiversity that is second only to California. It has the highest number of bird species and the second highest number of plants and mammals in the US. That level of diversity, combined with the 22 major river basins, nine major bays estuaries, and 367 miles of coastline on the Gulf of Mexico, helps to explain why the state is also home to 51 wildlife areas and 80 state parks, as well as more than 2 million hunters and anglers. All of this natural resource-based activity is also an essential part of the Texas economy and one of the many reasons habitat conservation is so important to its overall health. By building and maintaining partnerships – with local and state agencies, private landowners, and organizations like SARP – the state wildlife action plan seeks to conserve Texas’ rich diversity of wildlife and habitats.

Texas State Wildlife Action Plan
 
Learn more about conservation in Texas here and here.

SARP Contact:  Dave Terre, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Key Focus Area:

AQUATIC NUISANCE SPECIES (ANS)
TEXAS ANS Management Project
Current Status of ANS Management Plan: Under final revisions.
SARP ANS Contact: Earl Chilton, Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept.
For more information: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/exotic/
SARP ANS Coordinator: Marilyn Barrett-O’Leary

Program Activity:

SOUTHEASTERN INSTREAM FLOW NETWORK (SIFN)
Texas Instream Flow Project
Current Instream Flow Policy: Water is managed at the regional level in Texas.  State statute, TX Water Code 11.147, requires that water use permits (water rights) include measures protective of instream flows and freshwater inflows to bays and estuaries. Over the past few years, three acts of the state legislature defined that requirement in detail. Implementation has been established through the Texas Instream Flow Program and the Texas Bays and Estuaries Program. The Instream Flow Program focuses on the environmental needs of inland rivers while the Bays and Estuaries Program concentrates on the beneficial freshwater flowing from rivers and coastal basins into bays and estuaries. Both programs are based upon defined assessment methodologies developed through scientific analyses. One of these, the Texas Hydrologic Assessment Tool, analyzes hydrologic, water quality and geological data in a GIS framework. The agencies cooperatively responsible for these two programs are the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and the Texas Water Development Board.

SIFN State Team participant organizations (under development):

• Texas Parks & Wildlife Department
• Environmental Institute of Houston
• The Nature Conservancy

SARP Contact:  Kevin Mayes, River Assessment Team Leader, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
SIFN Coordinator:  Mary Davis

Instream Flow Updates:

1. Using a multidisciplinary approach defined by the Texas Instream Flow Program, scientists are developing a flow regime composed of several flow components for specific river systems. Research is underway on several rivers and reservoirs in the state. The goal is to develop an integrated flow regime that specifies subsistence and base flows, high flow pulses, and overbank flow components. Projects are described at http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/InstreamFlows/index.html
2. Mayes is sharing the Texas Hydrologic Assessment tool with all SIFN teams.