Goat Island Restoration Celebrated in Texas

The Port of Houston Authority (PHA) recently hosted a Goat Island restoration celebration at the Baytown Nature Center. The island, once an important recreational part of Baytown, was the victim of subsidence. The 200-acre Goat Island will be located in Crystal Bay, one quarter mile from the Nature Center.

Restoration of the island is the result of an innovative effort to use dredged materials from the Houston Galveston Navigation Channel by the Beneficial Uses Group (BUG), a coalition of local, State, and Federal government agencies formed in 1990. Members of BUG include NRCS, Port of Houston Authority, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Marine Fisheries Service, Texas General Land Office, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Port and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are involved in a precedent setting project to create more than 4,200 acres of marshland.

Work has already begun on the restoration with the construction of containment dikes. Roughly 300,000 tons of rock were used for the dikes. Four million cubic yards of dredged material will be used to restore the island. Two pods, connected by a breakwater, will be constructed. The north pod will be 80 acres in size. The south pod will consist of 130 acres. Restoration is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.

Goat Island will serve as a habitat for wildlife, including numerous fish and bird species. The island will act as a barrier between the channel and shoreline. It will also shelter the Burnet and Crystal Bays residential areas of Baytown from ship wakes and natural wave action, thus protecting existing wetlands (and homes) on the shores of these bays.

Story courtesy of Port of Houston Authority. Image courtesy of the Houston Chronicle.