Linda Shead

9/29/ 01

People are drawn to water — for boating, for fishing, for nature appreciation, and for education. How important are these "non-water-consumptive" uses? Let’s take a look at a few.

While my focus will be on examples associated with Galveston Bay, they are just that — examples of uses that occur, with variations on the theme, wherever there are bodies of water with public access.

In 1993, a survey of bay area households indicated that 50,000 people used the bay for recreational boating,¹ with 98,000 pleasure boats registered in the 5 counties around the Bay. The numbers are likely much higher now with Clear Lake/Galveston Bay known as the "boating capital of Texas."² Recreational boating is not limited to sailboats and motor boats, either. Canoeing, and especially kayaking, are growing sectors. The Houston Canoe Club’s Southwest Canoe Rendezvous is the largest on-the-water canoe and kayak show in the U.S.

Once you start talking about fishing and boating, usage numbers climb, with a quarter million people using the bay for fishing and/or boating in 1993,³ and at least that many fishing licenses sold in the 5 counties in the year 2000.⁴ Fishing isn’t limited, of course, to those who own boats — fishing from jetties, wade fishing, pier fishing are also popular. Recreational fishing time in the Bay totaled 2 million hours in 1989.⁵ The economic impact of recreational fishing in the Bay was estimated at $364 million in 1986, which was about half the total for the state.⁶

Next, you add commercial fishing and oystering in the Bay, which have an impact in excess of another $200 million.⁷ Galveston Bay is the source of 1/3 of the state’s shrimp harvest, 1/4 of the crab catch, and 2/3 of the oyster crop.

There are many other "non-water-consumptive" uses of Galveston Bay for which little data area available, ranging from swimming to picnicking to skiing to hunting to nature tourism. The latter, nature tourism, has been documented as the fastest growing sector of the tourist industry. Birding around Galveston Bay is world class. Chambers County, with several noted birding destinations near or on the Bay, experienced a greater than 10-fold increase in tourism expenditures between 1975 and 1988,⁸ and that was before the county started emphasizing tourism and enhancing nature tourism opportunities.

Another little discussed benefit of Galveston Bay is the educational opportunity it provides: learning water quality testing techniques, studying the fauna that live there, providing ecosystem perspectives for the general public and state officials. The number of entities providing this sort of informal environmental education to reinforce and expand science learning is growing.

What’s the connection between these uses and the topic of the day?

Clearly, it’s how to maintain a healthy ecosystem that will continue to provide the values that support those uses. The Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council, in its shrimp management plan, notes that, "‘The weakest link in the life cycle chain is the estuarine phase of growth.’" The Council also noted that the critical factors in the decline of gulf shrimp habitat were "‘bulkheading that removes critical marsh-water and mangrove-water interfaces’ together with ‘alterations in freshwater discharge that create unfavorable salinity.’" ⁹

How then do we provide those freshwater inflows to maintain healthy ecosystems?

For many years, resource managers advocated reliance on the concept of the "public trust doctrine" — but it’s a somewhat vague policy and not well-tested in the courts here. Now, it is clear that we must be more pro-active — the pressures are intense, the stakes high.

The state water code does not recognize the environment as a "use" like municipal, industrial, and agricultural. While the Texas Water Development Board went a long way in promoting regional water planning, the Board’s guidelines for the new water plan leave no room for including environmental needs in their tables of supplies and demands. The Region H Water Planning Group followed the legislative mandate in Senate Bill 1, that environmental needs be considered, by adding foot notes to their plan.

Such recognition is critical. In fact, the Galveston Bay Foundation was able to initiate local discussion of Galveston Bay freshwater inflows when the City of Houston recognized Galveston Bay as "a freshwater demand center that has needs and priorities much like the other users." ¹⁰

Now we are at the stage of seeking solutions. At least one entity — the San Marcos River Foundation — has applied for water rights. The Galveston Bay Foundation is considering purchase of water rights. Even though these strategies follow the traditional methods of water rights allocations, their purposes are non-traditional, and consequently tend to generate anxiety or even outright antagonism from traditional water rights holders.

Somehow we need better institutional means to ensure that the water for the environment part of the equation is addressed and that it is definitely not people vs. the environment. We are all in this together.

Notes: