Bleach Clean Up

Photo of South Padre Island after Spring Break

“Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children’s children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.”

― Theodore Roosevelt

Recap of Spring Break:

Last month I focused on the effects of spring break in the costal region of South Texas. I was devastated to see the amounts of trash that were left behind after the heavy influx of spring breakers took over South Padre Island. This image captured only a ams all frame of the total damage left behind during this college holiday. I am all up for some fun, but not if it means  destroying the natural resources the Gulf of Mexico has provided us with. After speaking to some locals this past weekend I have come to realize two things: 1. Not everyone is looking to cause harm to the environment and 2. There are things being done to combat these kinds of actions, we just need to enforce them.

After moving out of my apartment this past weekend, I was granted a day at the beach to unwind after having to move all my stuff 350 miles. The one hour drive to SPI (the short version of South Padre Island) went by extremely fast ( comparing it to the five hour drive I had to do the day before to get home). The weather was nice, not too humid and the sun’s rays were not as violent as they had been the last couple of days. I walked up and down and beach access and realized that the beach was surprisingly clean. I was really ashamed to assume that the beach would still be a junk yard after spring break the month before, but that was not the case. The ocean was still and I was felt good about being able to walk into the water and not feel like I was walking into a bath of chemical waste.

After spending the early afternoon at the beach I decided to go into my favorite local restaurant, Dirty Al’s. Ever since reading articles on ecotourism and the leakage that happens when large cooperation enter local economies, I have become more conscious of where I spend my money.

“Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.”

― Gary Snyder

Beach Clean Up:

What was really interesting about this particular outing is that ran across a newspaper clipping asking people to volunteer at the seasonal adopt a beach event that had occurred the day before. The Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach program is an “all-volunteer effort to remove trash from Texas’ shores. Coastal cleanups are held three times each year and the program’s success is due to the hard work of volunteers, including local coordinators who work many unpaid hours publicizing the cleanups in coastal communities”(The Texas General Land Office). According to this organization, that weekend alone, the volunteers had collected about nine tons of trash along the beach and county parks in Cameron County. This event brought hundreds of people to clean the beach. I was delighted to see such event happening at SPI, but not pleased to know that this was something that occurred ever so often. Unfortunately, I had missed the event so I did not know exactly where the clean up had occurred. I asked the waiter and he said it had happened in the norther part of the beach (where spring breakers left most of their trash) which was also the areas where I had spent most of the afternoon in. According to a local news source, the volunteers had collected 9 tons of trash that day . Since I had only wanted this adventure to be a one day trip, I knew I needed to hurry up if I wanted to see how the other areas were left. Jim Lowenstein is a South Padre Island resident, he regularly volunteers with clean up efforts, A resident from the area, Jim Lowenstein, when asked about the beach clean up said, ”Well [we] have seen a little bit more of the trash, the human trash, not the trash coming from the ocean. There’s a little bit more trash and I think it’s responsible for everybody to pick up their own trash as they come to visit the beach.” I think Jim is right, I was there first hand and experienced the disaster that tourists left behind. As the summer comes in I am afraid that this issue will become more predominant in the area.

Another thing I found out while talking to locals like Jim is that there was recently an energy company had agreed to move a planned South Texas natural gas facility to accommodate to endangered ocelots. I cold not believe it. Annova LNG is now working together with the Port of Brownsville and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service towards creating a wildlife corridor that would create a link between Boca Chica and the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. This would providing a safe passage for animals, especially threatened species in the area (Annova LNG slightly moving project to accommodate ocelots).After doing some research I found that wildlife corridors are “tracts of land or habitat that are linked and allow wildlife to travel from one location to another to find food, shelter, a mate and a place to raise their young”(U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). These corridors are especially important because they ensure genetic exchange between wildlife populations which, as we learned in class, contributes to the biodiversity of the area. As the human population is growing , wildlife is getting smaller and smaller which is why this initiative is so great. Urbanization, highways and agriculture are just some of the challenges that keep wildlife from dispersing and make them vulnerable to predators and many other dangers that threaten their existence.  Over all, wildlife corridors help wildlife travel to the places where they can find what they need in order for their species to thrive. 

In South Texas, approximately 95% of the habitat has been cleared and , as I had previously mentioned in other posts, it is one of the fastest growing areas in the United States.  

The Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge and its many partners have been working since 1979 to create a wildlife corridor along the Rio Grande from Falcon Dam to the Gulf of Mexico. Land that either has good habitat or connects to habitat is purchased for inclusion of the refuge from willing sellers. In addition to the refuge’s efforts, Texas Parks and Wildlife and many non profit organizations, private landowners and local communities are also focused on restoring, protecting and connecting habitat in South Texas.

– (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

These conservation efforts are setting a recent forfeiture generations in the Rio Grande Valley. Although this was not necessarily about South Padre Island, I think that because of geographical proximity it is a step in the right direction.

“We rich nations, for that is what we are, have an obligation not only to the poor nations, but to all the grandchildren of the world, rich and poor. We have not inherited this earth from our parents to do with it what we will. We have borrowed it from our children and we must be careful to use it in their interests as well as our own. Anyone who fails to recognize the basic validity of the proposition put in different ways by increasing numbers of writers, from Malthus to The Club of Rome, is either ignorant, a fool, or evil.”

― Moss Cass

http://www.fws.gov/refuge/Lower_Rio_Grande_Valley/resource_management/wildlife_corridor.html

http://www.bnd.com/news/business/article73959617.html

http://www.glo.texas.gov/the-glo/news/press-releases/2016/april/more-than-6700-volunteers-pick-up-110000-lbs-of-trash-from-texas-beaches-during-spring-adopt-a-beach-cleanup.html

http://www.glo.texas.gov/the-glo/news/press-releases/2016/april/more-than-6700-volunteers-pick-up-110000-lbs-of-trash-from-texas-beaches-during-spring-adopt-a-beach-cleanup.html

http://www.krgv.com/story/30838824/trash-piling-up-along-south-padre-island-coast

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