Stakeholders engage in identifying and mapping proposed sites in the San Antonio Bay area for habitat conservation, protection and restoration
Habitat Conservation/Restoration and Coastal Public Access Planning:
SABP has entered into a contract with the Coastal Bend Bays andEstuaries Program (CBBEP) for Phase 1 of a habitat conservation/restoration and coastal public access planning project for San Antonio Bay. In 2011, the Texas Coastal Management Program (CMP) approved an application, submitted by CBBEP on behalf of SABP, for funding to develop a habitat conservation and coastal public access plan for the San Antonio Bay system. This CMP grant to CBBEP amounts to $100,000 in project funding, and carries with it a local match requirement of $66,666. CBBEP and SABP have just signed a contract under which SABP will facilitate Phase 1 of this planning program. SABP is responsible for establishing and facilitating stakeholder work groups to guide the development of the habitat conservation and coastal public access plan. This work will be done in concert with the second phase of an EPA-funded project to develop an inventory of critical habitats and potential conservation measures in the San Antonio Bay System. (A copy of the project report for the first phase is available at: http://www.cbbep.org/publications/virtuallibrary/74.pdf)
Project Meeting Materials:
Meeting 1 — 4-17-12:
CMP Workplan SABP Presentation on CMP-funded habitat conserv & public access project 4-17-12
Tutorial on using Google Earth 6 to submit information on proposed sites for conservation, restoration and protection (Large PDF file – download in three parts:
Pages 1-14 from GE_6_Tutorial-6 Pages 15-20 from GE_6_Tutorial-6 Pages 21-37 from GE_6_Tutorial-6)
[Note: in Step 5, the tutorial instructs you to download the San Antonio Project Boundary File (SABP_Boundary.kmz); you may request a copy of this file from James Dodson]
Meeting 2 — 5-22-12:
Meeting Handouts: Map of Project Area List of Proposed Sites
Meeting 3 — 6-19-12:
Project Field Trip to San Antonio Bay — July 10, 2012: On Tuesday, July 10th, about 30 stakeholders loaded onto a coastal ecotour boat, the Skimmer, and departed from Seadrift on a 6-hour tour of the northern section of the San Antonio Bay system. The purpose was to look at “Conservation, Restoration and Protection Sites” in that portion of the bay system. While enjoying the great views that the Skimmer provided, participants also had the opportunity to hear from Liz Smith and Nikki Davis about the reasons each site had been put on the list of sites, and to discuss how SABP and other entities might promote ways to conserve/restore/protect these sites.
(Field trip photos to be posted soon)
Meeting 4 — 7-24-12: The project stakeholder work group met to review portions of the draft final report and to provide comment on the document content and formatting. Project investigators reported that a full draft final report will be submitted to the Project Manager at the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program by July 30, 2012, and then provided to stakeholder work group participants as soon as it has been reviewed at CBBEP. Comments from stakeholders will need to be submitted by August 15, 2012 so that the final report can be submitted by August 31, 2013.
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Development of Status and Trends Reports: San Antonio Bay Status and Trends Reports are being developed as part of the first steps in putting together a comprehensive management plan for the San Antonio Bay/Guadalupe Estuary System. A number of volunteers have been working over the past months to prepare and publish a series of Status and Trends Reports on key ecological, economic and recreational resource components of the San Antonio Bay/Guadalupe Estuary System. These reports will help focus efforts to fill data/information gaps, provide a basis for developing and recommending management actions and assist in prioritizing available financial resources. The Status and Trends Reports are targeted for completion by August 2012.
See the “Upcoming Meetings” page and the Calendar for more information on project meetings.