As drought conditions across the Lone Star State continue, nature and wildlife institutions are doing their part to adapt and educate their communities.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, over 85 percent of Texas is reported to be in at least abnormally dry conditions and over 75 percent is currently in some level of drought.
A recent state analysis showed that communities will need to spend $174 billion in the next 50 years to avoid a severe water crisis.
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Texas, a nonprofit environmental organization, has protected one million acres in the state from efforts spread across national parks. nature preserves, and working with landowners to safeguard landscapes.
TNC in Texas collaborated with traveling Texan Chet Garner, host of the award-winning PBS travel show “The Daytripper,” to create a three-episode series about the value of statewide landscapes.
"For 16 years, I've been day tripping around Texas, telling the stories of small towns and our beautiful outdoor spots," Garner said. "And to be able to get a little more gritty and boots-on-the-ground, and to see some of the work the Nature Conservancy is doing at some places that aren't necessarily publicly accessible, was like, oh, this is awesome!"
The series, Making of a Million: Daytripping with TNC Texas spotlights several places the conservancy has protected, highlighting why freshwater and grassland conservation are critical for the state’s future.
"We don't realize that the water decisions we make at our homes and like in our lives, very much affect those populations," he said. "People at The Nature Conservancy, Texas Parks and Wildlife, how much they feel like they're climbing, you know, uphill all the time and fighting to keep those populations healthy and strong."
As drought conditions continue across the state, Texas Project Manager for TNC in Texas Sonia Najera said a visual change in vegetation is noticeable.
"Vegetation communities are stressed throughout the state," she said. "As we're working in habitat management and restoration, we are seeing a loss of productivity; and when I say productivity, I’m meaning like seed production."
Drought conditions affect the land and the sea, but Garner and Najera said you can’t leave out the sky.
"One thing I learned at the Mad Island Marsh specifically, was how dramatic and quickly the changes have been to the giant flocks of migrating birds," Garner said. "And there's some reasons, maybe other than drought, but they're not coming back to Texas in near the numbers. Sonya, it was 90 percent down, or something like that."
"Yeah, some of these populations are being short stocked, you know, with the change in weather patterns," Najera said. "Also, you know, again, some of our wetlands are just, are just not wet anymore, and so we have to adapt. We have to adapt to these changes.
According to Gladys Porter Zoo Curator of Education Sergio Garcia, the Brownsville zoo has even noticed an assortment of local birds like ducks dropping in more often, due to shrinking water sources in the Rio Grande Valley.
"Animals do behave differently when the atmospheric pressure changes, in particular, flamingos and other waterfowl, if it hasn't rained, they're not going to feel the need to lay eggs, so we will have less throughout the season if it doesn't rain on a timely basis, or if it doesn't rain at all," he said.
About 1,600 animals turn to flora, like banana trees, for nourishment and enhancement. When the zoo started to see drought affect its foliage, they invested in a rain harvesting system that can collect up to 120,000 gallons of water on an annual basis.
Garcia says the water is not so much for animal survival, but for their well-being.
"You're thinking, if it doesn't rain, how do you collect water? Well, it's able to collect enough water from the little bit of rain and condensation that collects on the roof," he said. "So it's a great way to be able to conserve the rain water we do get."
In a similar way, in Corpus Christi — where the city is months away from a water emergency declaration — Texas State Aquarium President and CEO Jesse Gilbert said they work with what they have.
"We have the ability to recycle all of our sea water as well," he said. "We can kind of bypass a lot of the different uses that you might typically see in a water system. So cleaning the filters, we can actually clean the filters with seawater. We can recapture that now dirty water and recycle it. So we can practice a pretty good water conservation just on a daily operation."
As institutions do their part to promote conservation, they remind Texas residents that they can too. It’s a big state, but even small actions can make a splash.
