Opening Cedar Bayou
When you think about it Mother Nature takes her time and usually gets it right. It is hard to say how much time the Mother took to make this Gulf Bend area. But she came up with the barrier islands like San Jose and Matagorda Island in our immediate vicinity. Who knows how long that took: But she had sense enough to make them two short Islands.
Somewhere along the way mankind came into the picture. The first we know of were the Kawakawa Indians, then a Frenchman named LaSalle and his group. The Spaniards were busier down South in Mexico conquering those Indians who lived there. Then folks like us started drifting into the area.
Time is a funny thing when you think about it. Someone who was my current age when I was born was born before the civil war. Someone that age when he was born was born before the revolutionary war. Three lifetimes are longer than this country is old. All that time is a drop in the Mothers bucket to Mother Nature.
But she had that separation in the barrier island that helped the fish along with the birds like whooping cranes and blue crabs and other wild life prosper. Then along came man and modern technology, as the saying goes to fool with Mother Nature. We know that’s not nice.
The bad stuff started in 1979 with an big oil spill near Campeche bay. Yes they had big oil spills before the Exxon Valdez in 1989. That oil started up towards our barrier islands. That threatened all the good stuff that Cedar Bayou and Vinson Slough were doing for the wildlife. So the opening between the two was bulldozed shut. It probably staved a bigger disaster for fishermen, whoopers and other wild life lovers.
We have had a terrible time trying to get that opening back open. The net result has been a barrier island that is twice as long as the creatures prefer. Oh, we opened it a couple of times but silt and sand and other factors filled it back up.
Hopefully this third try will be the charm. It has been a long and expensive journey. There are several folks and organizations involved. The CCA, The Texas and U.S. wildlife organizations as well as Aransas County and untold other volunteers were involved.
The total costs are estimated at over 9 million dollars.
Coast and Harbor engineering designed a better opening system. The Army Corps of Engineers issued all the proper permits. RLB construction from Calhoun County was hired to do the opening work. The schedule was to complete it by October 15th and they opened the Cedar Bayou on September 25th.
There is still the problem of keeping it open. Several dollars have been pledged by volunteers and Aransas County. Probably the Cranes are Whooping and the spotted trout are creating their watermelon aroma; the sportsmen and maybe even Mother Nature are smiling.
