Anyone that has been on the bay since the freeze has probably noticed that all the mangroves went from a beautiful lush green color to a dry, brown color. Are they dead? Will they come back? If they do how long will it take?
The mangroves have a unique root system that provides habitat for many marine organisms. More importantly, the root systems on the mangroves do an excellent job of preventing erosion on island shorelines. There were almost no mangroves in Espiritu Santo Bay when I went to work for the Port O’Connor TPWD Coastal Fisheries Office in 1992. Before February’s freeze, the mangroves were so thick on some of the islands in Espiritu Santo Bay that there was no way a person could walk across them. The east end of Grass Island is solid mangrove trees and roots. It drops off immediately to 12-24 inches of water depending on the tide height. There is no tapering sand edge. If the mangroves were not there, would we still have a Grass Island?
To get more information on the status of mangroves on the Texas Coast I contacted two researchers that have been funded by Texas Sea Grant in the past to study black mangroves in Texas, Dr. Anna Armitage from Texas A&M University-Galveston and Dr. Steve Pennings from the University of Houston. Both researchers traveled to Port Aransas at the end of March to assess the damage. They observed a 100% death of leaves. They were not able to determine if the mangrove trees were totally dead at that time, “if they are not totally dead, we should see signs of life within a month or two (late May)”. They did “observe lots of live propagules (mangrove seeds), and some had rooted, so even if the adult mangrove trees are all dead a new generation of mangroves will be there to grow up and recolonize the area”.
Hopefully, at least some of the adult mangroves will start to show signs of life by Memorial Day. If not, at least we know the juveniles are starting to recolonize the area. It took almost 30 years to go from almost no mangroves in the Port O’Connor area to being so thick on islands that you cannot walk through them. During that time, I am sure that they prevented a lot of erosion along our bay shorelines.
We all may need to give Mother Nature a helping hand for a while. Try to do what you can to reduce your boats wake when traveling near bay shorelines and make sure when operating your boat that you are not damaging any of the vegetation that is critical to the health of our bays and estuaries. Your kids and grandkids will thank you someday.
RJ Shelly
Calhoun County Coastal and Marine Resources Extension Agent
Texas Sea Grant | Texas A&M AgriLife Extension
