From most people's point of view, a barrier beach is a paradox: appealing to visit but appalling to live on. An enjoyable day's excursion requires shade, dark glasses, sunblock, drinking water, food, and, of course, a shower afterward. Take all those amenities away and consider existing alone on the island fulltime, even during hurricanes.
When Wayne and Martha McAlister moved to Matagorda Island, a wildlife refuge off the central Texas coast, they anticipated staying perhaps five years. But sent to take up duties with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wayne McAlister fell under the...

Louisiana's Atchafalaya River Basin is one of the most dynamic and critical environments in the country. It sustains the nation's last cypress-tupelo wetland and provides a habitat for many species of animals. Endowed with natural gas and oil fields, the basin also supports a large commercial fisheries industry. Perhaps most crucial, it remains a primary component of the plan to control the Mississippi River and relieve flooding in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and other communities in the lower river valley. The continuing health of the basin is a reflection not of nature, but of the work of the...

Galveston Bay is the recreational center of the Texas coast--a fishing, boating, and birdwatching playground for the almost four million people who live on or near it. A shallow estuary of about 350,000 acres, the bay supports a rich assortment of wildlife and a commercial fishery that pulls millions of pounds of crabs, shrimp, and oysters from the water each year. Gateway to the Port of Houston, Galveston Bay is also a major corridor for huge volumes of international shipping and is home to the nation's largest petrochemical manufacturing complex.
How can such divergent and apparently...

Galveston Bay is the recreational center of the Texas coast--a fishing, boating and birdwatching playground for the almost four million people who live on or near it. A shallow estuary of about 350,000 acres, the bay supports a rich assortment of wildlife and a commercial fishery that pulls millions of pounds of crabs, shrimp, and oysters from the water each year. Gateway to the Port of Houston, Galveston Bay is also a major corridor for huge volumes of international shipping and is home to the nation's largest petrochemical manufacturing complex. How can such divergent and apparently...

In the last thirty years, the Upper Texas Coast has become a "must go" destination for birders around the globe. This book will serve as an essential companion to the customary field guide and pair of binoculars for all visitors to Houston, High Island, Galveston, Freeport, or any of the area's other exciting birding spots. It also places the birdlife of the region, a seven-county area with a larger bird list than forty-three states, into historical and ecological contexts.

Authors Eubanks, Behrstock, and Weeks--all recognized authorities on the migrant and resident birds of this...

With strong personal and professional ties to the Gulf of Mexico, marine geologist John B. Anderson has spent two decades studying the Texas coastline and continental shelf. In this book, he answers fundamental, frequently asked questions about the coast--how it evolved; how it operates; how natural processes affect it and why it is ever changing; and, finally, how human development can be managed to help preserve it. The book provides an amply illustrated look at ocean waves and currents, beach formation and erosion, barrier island evolution, hurricanes, and sea level changes. With an...

Since the late 1830s, the natural harbor at the mouth of South Texas' Nueces River has been a center of regional maritime trade. But by the early 1900s, a storm of political wrangling, cronyism, and corruption was threatening to scuttle the city's efforts toward securing a dependable deep water port to attract international commerce to Corpus Christi. On September 14, 1919, a massive hurricane struck the bay, burying the downtown area under ten feet of debris and killing as many as one thousand people. The storm left millions of dollars of damage in its wake. The citizens of Corpus Christi,...