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The population of Texas is increasing and is expected to continue growing for decades to come. With one in three Texans living along the Gulf Coast, the State’s bays and estuaries face a challenging future.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife issued a comprehensive report in 2005 called “Texas Coastal Ecosystems….past, present and future”. It looks at the various conditions that have and will affect the area. In the Galveston Bay area population growth an economic development have and will continue to affect the area waterways.
Woody Woodrow is Director of the Coastal Habitat Program for Coastal Fisheries for Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Woodrow calls it the “tragedy of the commons.” Common resources are things like waterways and wildlife.
This report is designed to make people aware of the choices they have to make. Those decisions can have a serious economic impact on the area. The wide variety of birds that live and pass through the Texas coast draws with them thousands of bird watchers who spend tens of millions of dollars.
The choices we make about our ecosystems also affects the public money we spend. Woody Woodrow cites what’s happening in Florida as an example.