Chester Smith, 8/8/1921 - 6/26/2011

During the Spring Workday on February 25, 2012, the Audubon Bird Sanctuary known as “Sundown Island” was renamed to Chester Island in honor of Warden Chester Smith who passed away in 2011. In addition, a memorial “Brown Pelican Monument” honoring Chester was installed overlooking the tractor shed—the operations hub on the island.

Chester served as the island’s warden for twenty-five years from 1986 until his death in 2011. When he began his work as warden, there were fewer than ten pairs of endangered Brown Pelicans nesting on this Matagorda Bay dredge-filled island. Due to his efforts and those of his loyal volunteers—the 2011 annual census found nearly 2,029 breeding pairs of pelicans.

The Brown Pelican was removed from the Endangered Species List in 2009. Chester Island is one of a group of island sanctuaries along the Texas Coast established by Audubon in 1923. In partnership with the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program, the Houston Audubon Society and community volunteers, the Audubon wardens work to protect nesting birds by controlling fire ants and other predators, planting shrubs and trees to improve habitat, battling shoreline erosion, and educating the public.

After his death, friends and family donated money to help continue his work on Chester Island. Chester’s son-in-law, Tim Wilkinson is the island’s new Warden. He and his wife Peggy have spent more than a decade assisting Chester and working with volunteers on this coastal sanctuary.

A video filmed by Texas Parks and Wildlife over a two-year period (2004-2006) was recently re-posted on YouTube in Chester’s honor.

A new website will be designed for Chester Island (coming soon). You can access the current site by going either to chesterisland.org or sundownisland.org.