WCCA Today (Updated - 4/26/2008 - 4:30 pm cst)

Whoopers Arriving in Canada Early

Brian Johns, Wildlife Biologist, Canadian Wildlife Service reports that, “A large low pressure system moved into Alberta and Saskatchewan on April 18 that brought varying amounts of snow to the southern prairies. The unfavorable migrating conditions put the whooping cranes on the ground where they were reported by many observers. Winds are out of the west today but the skies are clearing, so crane migration will resume any day. The following reports have come in across southern Saskatchewan in the last week:

DATE                 # BIRDS     LOCATION

Ap. 5                           4               Saskatoon
Ap. 10                         2               Waseca
Ap. 12                         2               Delaronde Lake
Ap. 15                         3               St. Denis
Ap. 18                         3               McLean
Ap. 18                         3               Last Mountain Lake
Ap. 18-19                   3               Meadow Lake
Ap. 18-20                   2               Leoville
Ap. 19                         2               St. Victor
Ap. 19                         8               Dummer
Ap. 19                         2               Debden
Ap. 20                         2               Moose Jaw
Ap. 20                         3               Lockwood
Ap. 20                         7               Colonsay
Ap. 21                         2               Tessier
Ap. 21                         2:1             Saskatoon

Recovery Strategy (Canada)
 

After a public consultation period, the Recovery Strategy for the Whooping Crane in Canada was posted on the Species At Risk Public Registry in November 2007 (http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/plans/showDocument_e.cfm?id=966).

In it is described some of the first Critical Habitat for an endangered species ever identified in Canada. The critical habitat identified to date is protected under both the National Parks Act and the Species at Risk Act and includes the habitat of over 95% of the breeding birds. Further study and consultations are currently underway to identify and protect additional critical breeding habitat for future expansion of the population. In addition, staging habitat in Saskatchewan is being evaluated for its potential for critical habitat designation.

Brian Johns
Wildlife Biologist
Canadian Wildlife Service
115 Perimeter Road
Saskatoon, Sask.
S7N 0X4

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Double good news on a Monday morning!

The Lobstick family with twin chicks was sighted on their refuge territory at 4:30 PM on Sunday, October 28^th by tour boat captain Tommy Moore.  They are the first known juveniles to arrive at Aransas this fall and were the only two-chick family  sighted in Saskatchewan earlier this fall.

The sighting brings the whooping crane total currently known to be at Aransas to 21 adults + 2 chicks = 23 total.

Tom Stehn

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FLORIDA'S NON-MIGRATORY WHOOPING CRANES

Sad News From Florida – Non-Migratory Flock

Marty Folks, Florida Whooping Crane biologist reports that, “The pair of whooping cranes located by Lake Kissimmee lost their second chick last week. We currently do not have any active nests. It is early enough we may see a few more nest attempts.”

Just two weeks ago, Marty had reported that, “The pair near Lake Kissimmee continues to raise their remaining chick. They’ve moved away from the lake into their traditional territory, thereby decreasing the threat of human disturbance. Big rains last weekend put some water back into the marshes of their territory.”  Unfortunately, the last of the pair of young whoopers hatched recently is now dead. Even though the chick was taken to a safer place and rains increased the water acreage, mother nature had another design. 

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(Previous Report Below)

3rd Report for the 2008 Breeding Season: 4/2008

Good News and Bad News for Florida’s Non-migratory Whooper Flock

Marty Folks, Florida’s whooping crane project leader sent a report on two nesting events in Florida’s non-migratory flock, Marty reports that, ‘The pair of whooping cranes near Lake Kissimmee continues to raise their chick. They’ve moved away from the lake into their traditional territory, thereby decreasing the threat of human disturbance. Big rains last weekend put some water back into the marshes of their territory.” 

In addition, Marty sent some bad news. He reports that, “Our 2^nd nest, the one in Leesburg, was successful.  The pair hatched 2 chicks by Saturday morning. However, Tuesday morning before daylight, people living by the pond heard a commotion and the whoopers calling. After daylight, the whooper pair was seen without chicks. They spent a lot of time flying over the area. Kathy visited the site and went by boat out to the nest. The nest was floating over deep water (>4 feet deep) and could have easily been accessed by an alligator or otter. The nest showed no evidence to assist in determining what happened to the chicks.

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(Previous Report Below)

2nd Report for the 2008 Breeding Season:

Marty Folks, Florida's Whooping Crane Biologists reports that their monitoring team has been busy this season. Marty advised that, "With the aid of constant video surveillance we determined that a nest we were observing on Lake Kissimmee was not subject to human disturbance and therefore it was not necessary to close the area. The nest successfully hatched 2 chicks by 3/21/08. That day, while the parents were 30m from the nest with one of the chicks, crows took the other chick off the nest and ate it. The parents continue to tend the one chick in the vicinity of the nest."

In addition, Marty reported that, "A second pair of Whoopers (the one in Leesburg) began incubating 3/5/08 on the same small “lake” they used last year. We are using video surveillance to collect data at the nest. And  a third pair built a platform but has not yet laid. If they do, it will be the third nest on a “lake” this year. Marsh water levels are still very low to non-existent."
   
Marty added that, "We have hired a replacement for Jeannette Parker. Tim Dellinger starts today. Tim has extensive background with birds and did his master’s on wood thrushes in West Virginia. Most of his experience is from Florida, where he worked with swallow-tailed kites, short-tailed hawks, and caracaras. Once Tim is oriented, I look forward to begin catching up on projects I have fallen behind on."

The Whooping Crane Conservation wishes the Florida whooper team and the non-migratory population of whooping cranes the best.

 

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WHOOPER UPDATE FOR ARANSAS NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE AREA
 

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(Previous Article Below)

Photo of  the 41 days old chick hatched in Florida by Whooping Cranes in the non-migratory flock. Photo by Steve Baynes.

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July 29, 2007
State law will set flow standards for river systems
Environmental groups back bid to protect bays' salinity balance

By THOMAS KOROSEC
Copyright © 2007 Houston Chronicle

PORT O'CONNOR — Fed by heavy rains in the Hill Country, San Antonio Bay is flooded this summer with freshwater.

Just last fall, though, the story was drought, which crimped the Guadalupe River's flow into this critter-rich bay estuary system 75 miles up the coast from Corpus Christi.

"Droughts and flood are natural for the bay," Norman Boyd, a biologist for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, explained as dolphin frolicked behind him in the wake of a barge.

"The gene pool has been pulled through these conditions for thousands of years," he said. "What you don't want to do is take so much water from the river that we change the averages that much."

The challenge in managing Texas' rivers, Boyd said, is to avoid turning natural droughts into frequent, protracted events that change the mix of salt and fresh waters in the bay. That could decimate an ecosystem teeming with crabs, oysters, shrimp, fish and aquatic birds, including the endangered whooping crane.

A bill aimed at maintaining these so-called environmental flows was signed into law last month. It's being praised by environmental groups as a groundbreaking step toward preserving the health and productivity of Texas waters.

Historically in Texas, water not tapped by cities, industries and farms and left to run to the Gulf of Mexico has been considered "wasted."

Laying to rest that notion, the law will set up environmental flow standards for every river system in the state. They will be set through a public process that includes scientific study and input from water authorities, cities, businesses, environmental groups — everyone with a stake in the rivers.

It begins the process of ensuring that water is protected for environmental needs, although that outcome is not ultimately guaranteed.

"One of the big things we have accomplished is having the state acknowledge this as a priority, not just an after-the-fact consideration," said Myron Hess, an attorney in the National Wildlife Federation's Austin office.

The state, he noted, has gone through nearly a decade of long-range water planning with only scant mention in its most recent 50-year plan of leaving water flowing in its waterways.

'More controversial'

The concept of leaving water in rivers for the environment has been hotly contested and, in recent years, a matter for the courts.

Through a compromise that was signed off on by the state's major water suppliers, the chemical industry and other business groups, the new law sets up a process to inform decisions about river flows with the best available science.

In rivers that are not already overtaxed by existing water rights, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is directed to set aside for the environment some or all of the water not already dedicated to drinking water suppliers, agriculture, industrial plants and the like.

"Some people remember how we would find a good dam site and you went ahead and built it," said Dean Robbins, assistant general manager of the Texas Water Conservation Association, which represents the state's major water supply systems. "Water is much more controversial now than it's ever been."

Robbins said the rulemaking process set out in the law — in which the TCEQ will set the standards after hearing from scientists and interest groups — is a reasonable compromise for water suppliers because it will provide some certainty about flow limits in rivers across the state.

"It sets up a stakeholder-driven process that allows stakeholders to look at the science and make some recommendations to TCEQ on how they are going to go about setting aside water," he said.

By all accounts, much of the science behind the matter is in sharp dispute given the complexity of marine and river ecosystems, and that, too, is a subject the new law attempts to resolve.

"When we talk about these issues we just end up in a huge fight over the science," said Hess, the environmental lawyer. "We hope this process gets us to something we can agree on today instead of just fighting to a standstill."

Texas' new law was crafted against the backdrop of a much more contentious push by several environmental groups around the state to ensure rivers are not pumped dry one day.

Legal battles

In 2000, the San Marcos River Foundation applied for a water rights permit allowing it to keep hundreds of millions of gallons flowing in the San Marcos and Guadalupe rivers. Four other groups followed suit with application for permits aimed at keeping water flowing into Galveston and Matagorda bays and Caddo Lake.

In the past, such water rights have only been granted for human use, such as supplying water to cities or crops. The environmental groups' aim was to get in line for this public resource before future developers tap the last drop.

In 2003, under strong pressure from water suppliers and developers, the TCEQ rejected the San Marcos group's application, saying the commission lacked authority to grant a permit for such a use.

The San Marcos foundation sued, won in a district court in Austin last year, and is now defending that decision in an appeal.

"We didn't see the state watching out for the river," said Dianne Wassenich, executive director of the San Marcos group, which paid a $52,000 application fee for its permit.

She said in droughts, the river gets down below 100 cubic feet of flow per second, "which is a pretty small stream."

Impact on wildlife

In the late 1990s, flows into the Guadalupe watershed were reduced so severely, she said, that the supply of blue crabs in San Antonio Bay dwindled, cutting the food supply to whooping cranes in the adjacent Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. She and federal wildlife officials attribute the death of 13 whooping cranes to that dry spell.

Although the nation's largest flock of whooping cranes — numbering 237 — has become emblematic of the inflows issue, freshwater flows into estuaries all along the Texas coast provide nutrients, sediments and the proper mix of salt and fresh water sustaining scores of species, from tiny worms and clams to juvenile redfish, biologists say.

Wassenich said she doubts the new inflows law can help the San Marcos River because much of its water is already spoken for by existing water permits.

Some of that capacity has gone unused, but it is being tapped in increasing amounts as the Hill Country draws new residents.

One developer near Martindale recently acquired unused water rights dating back nearly 100 years and is using it to build a high-end housing development around a newly impounded water-skiing lake, she said.

"There are so many old, unused permits on this river I think you could dry it several times if they were all used," she said.

"It's an arrangement that might help some rivers that still have a lot of unappropriated water left, like in East Texas. Our river is pretty close to overcapacity now, so there's not much left to set aside (for environmental flows)."

If her group prevails in court, however, it would give instream flows in the river priority over such proposals as an application for water from the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority.

The 10-county district based in Seguin is proposing to take water out of the Guadalupe at a point just above San Antonio Bay and pump it north to cities such as New Braunfels and San Marcos.

The project, expected to cost $793 million, is included in the state's most recent long-range water development plan, which was adopted in November.

Hess, with the National Wildlife Federation, said he and others who pushed for the new law support Wassenich in her fight.

But he said that even a victory for her group in the current lawsuit is not likely to force TCEQ to grant water rights to environmental groups against the wishes of the state's largest cities, water developers, industry, farmers and others.

Striking a balance

There are those, too, who wonder whether the new law can balance the need for freshwater for the environment against the powerful push of rising populations, new homes and businesses.

"When the water boys start talking about not having water for all the babies, it's hard to stand in the way," said Guy Jackson, an Anahuac attorney who represents a group of Galveston Bay oystermen. "You can fit everyone who's anyone in the oyster business into my office, which is about 20 by 20. How much clout do you think we'll have?"

Biologists consider oysters a "sentinel species," a general barometer of a bay's overall health. Immobile for much of their life cycle, they must live with the mix of fresh and salt water that comes their way.

'A harbinger of the future'

Beginning in November, Galveston Bay, the center of the state's $2 billion a year commercial and sports fishing industry, will be the first to go through the environmental flows study and rulemaking process under the new law, along with Sabine Lake.

Ken Kramer, director of the Sierra Club's Lone Star chapter, said instances in recent years where the Rio Grande and other rivers stopped flowing altogether make it clear the issue is not theoretical.

"That's a harbinger of the future if we don't start allocating water now," he said. "This law moves the ball forward a little but there's a lot of work left to be done."

thomas.korosec@chron.com

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International Recovery Plan for Whooping Cranes

Tom Stehn, Whooping Crane Recovery Team chair has furnished the Whooping Crane Conservation Association a copy of the International Recovery Plan for Whooping Cranes. This in depth 163 page report documents Canadian and United States plans for the recovery of Grus Americana (whooping cranes). This important report explains the history of whooping crane management efforts and describes future plans and goals.  The report includes an executive summary which summarizes the document in five pages. Yet if you desire to read all 163 pages of details Click Here.
 

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Florida's Non-Migratory Whooping Crane Flock - Update

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Florida’s non-migratory Whooper flock having bad luck with nesting

According to Marty Folk, Florida Whooping Crane biologists, only one nest has been observed in the nonmigratory flock area. Marty reported that, “Our one nest was abandoned on 4 April. No eggs or shells were recovered from the platform. Video from the nest cam show that they were incubating until dark on the 3rd but were gone by morning. We have documented this before (nest abandoned in the dark) with video surveillance. Water levels have continued to drop. As water levels dropped, cattle traffic became heavy at times near the nest.”

The lack of adequate rain in the nonmigratory whooper habitat may be part of the problem. Folk advises that, “Yesterday's 0.75 inch of rain was the first significant (>0.5 inch) rain we've had since Christmas Day!” 

Everything in Nature is Tied Together

After we have been studying ecosystems for years, we learned that they were very complex. Nothing appears to live without being dependent on other things in the environment. So, it has been said that everything in nature is tied together. The Whooping Crane Conservation Association web page occasionally includes articles that shows how water resource uses affect Whooping Cranes. Springs in the Edwards Aquifer sometimes contribute 70% of the inflow reaching whooping crane critical habitat.  Thus, pumping issues in the Edwards Aquifer will affect whooping cranes. The following article provides another bit of interesting information on this subject.

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Don't renew Edwards aquifer water war

January 11, 2007 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.

BY KEN KRAMER

AUSTIN - Edwards aquifer management has been a complex and contentious issue for years. Those who survived the "water wars" of the 1990s have scars from court and state legislative battles over aquifer pumping, springflows, endangered species and Guadalupe River flows.

Many good things resulted from that turmoil. Sierra Club litigation over the impacts of aquifer pumping on Comal and San Marcos springs – endangered and threatened species habitat - served as a "wake-up call" for the Edwards region. That led to substantial progress on water conservation in San Antonio, adoption of more efficient irrigation practices by some agricultural producers, creation of the Edwards Aquifer Authority (EAA) and some diversification of water supplies.

All has not been perfect, but conservation, supplemental water supplies and management practices - along with some well-timed rainfall - have combined to avoid a major aquifer crisis in recent years while everyone grapples with assuring long-term aquifer protection and springflow maintenance.

But a smoldering issue remains due to an inconsistency in the law creating the EAA. Senate Bill 1477 called for a cap on aquifer pumping of 450,000 acre-feet a year - down to 400,000 acre-feet by the end of 2007 - but it set up criteria for the EAA to issue pumping permits that could result in as much as 549,000 acre-feet of annual water withdrawals. Now that the permitting process is complete and the 400,000 acre-foot deadline is months away, this inconsistency must be addressed.

S.B. 1477 authorizes the EAA to proportionately reduce the volume of all permitted withdrawals in order to meet the cap. The EAA also may acquire specific pumping rights for compensation. In addition, the EAA may raise the cap on pumping but only after a determination by its board that "additional supplies are available from the aquifer" and after "consultation with appropriate state and federal agencies."

Now, however, the EAA has decided to pursue state legislation to raise the cap 549,000 acre-feet per year without any finding that doing so is scientifically valid. The fact that the EAA board is seeking legislative action rather than raising the cap itself is a tacit admission that the increase is not scientifically justified.

The EAA has produced no in-depth analysis of why the alternatives of proportional reduction or acquisition of specific permits should not be pursued. This prevents a frank and open public discussion of these options.

That's unfortunate, because raising the cap on Edwards pumping - in the absence of any scientific justification that it can be done without harming springflows - solves nothing.

Raising the cap poses many potential problems - including the prospect that the Edwards region is more likely to be put into a critical management period quicker and more often if regular pumping increases to 549,000 acre-feet.

Moreover, springflows are likely to be reduced on an ongoing basis by such increased pumping. That has serious implications for maintaining robust habitats for endangered and threatened species (including whooping crane habitat on the coast), flows in the Guadalupe River, inflows to the San Antonio Bay system and thus economic enterprises in the Crossroads and Mid-Coastal Bend region.

Perhaps the biggest negative of raising the cap without scientific justification is that it would reinstitute the "us" versus "them" approach in the Edwards region. It pits pumpers against almost everyone else, and it puts their interests above all others.

There was a time for fighting over the Edwards. What is needed now, however, is a scientifically based management system balancing all competing water interests - one resulting from an active and open dialogue among those interests.

Some possibilities in that regard are emerging, but a legislatively imposed increase in the Edwards pumping cap at this time will undermine those possibilities and may well throw us all back into a battle that no one really wants to fight again. It's time to move forward, not backward.

Ken Kramer is the director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, P.O. Box 1931, Austin 78767-1931 or e-mail lonestar.chapter@sierraclub.org.

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WCCA Aids SMRF in Effort to Conserve Water Essential for Whooping Cranes

The San Marcos River Foundation received a grant this summer for $7,000 from the Whooping Crane Conservation Association  (WCCA).  The WCCA grant was then matched with a donation of $3,500 from an individual for the SMRF Water Right Project. These funds assisted SMRF through a tough spot this summer, providing a much needed boost for legal fees and other expenses involved in carrying on this effort to preserve the San Marcos River and flow from other rivers to the estuaries at the Gulf Coast where the whooping cranes winter.

The Water Right Project, which celebrated its 6th anniversary in July 2006, has required SMRF to invest most of its funds since the Water Right Project began.  SMRF applied in 2000 for a water right to make sure that rivers and bays are protected with an amount of water dedicated to instream flow and freshwater inflows.  Texas is experiencing a mad dash for water, and many groups, individuals and foundations have assisted with funding for the SMRF project.

SMRF was buoyed, so to speak, by the ruling that came out earlier in 2006 from the District Court in Austin, Texas.  The ruling was in SMRF's favor, saying that the state agency that grants water rights did indeed treat SMRF's application incorrectly (by denying the application without a hearing).  But of course that agency has appealed now to a higher court. 

SMRF has also appealed another point in the case, to stay on the legal course for this water right project, and to remain involved through the appeals process. The point was one that the judge in the District Court did not address fully in her ruling.

This summer the case took a sudden but interesting twist when a random administrative assignment was done by the courts to even out caseloads around the state.  The appeal was moved to Corpus Christi, a Gulf Coast city.  SMRF's opposition immediately filed motions to move the case back to Austin in central Texas.  SMRF's attorneys opposed those motions and said Corpus Christi was just fine, as assigned by the court system.  No decision has yet come forth on this issue.  

A stack of appeal briefs and responses have been filed by all sides and now the case awaits a court date.  SMRF expects to hear the date any day now.  WCCA's grant was used for legal fees to cover this appeal, and to continue extensive fundraising and grant writing by the only staff person for SMRF.  (For instance:  anyone shopping at a Randall's or Tom Thumb grocery store can get a discount card to give a percentage of all purchases to a charity.  SMRF's charity number is #1808.  Ask to be sure SMRF is listed in your state, at the main desk in the store of your choice.)

Meanwhile water issues continue to be the hottest news in Texas, because of drought.  Many wells are going dry in central Texas, and water pumping rights are selling for ever-higher amounts.  San Antonio, the largest city on the watershed that feeds the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) bays, is using its considerable influence to modify various water plans, as well as modifying regulations governing an aquifer in central Texas.  These modifications are not keeping in mind the needs of wildlife and coastal ecosystems.

San Antonio is also trying to keep water rates much, much cheaper for its residents than surrounding towns, and to accomplish this, they plan to take more water from the aquifer under their city.  Sadly, this aquifer is also the one that provides springflow that has historically been the river base flow and essential to the coastal bays and estuaries of ANWR during dry periods.

The Texas Legislature is considering major water legislation this coming session, starting in January 2007.  Committees appointed to study water issues will be coming out with reports by December.  So far, Texas is committed to studying water issues but not acting on what is learned from these studies. 

To end on a cheerier note, the El Nino weather patterns are expected to break the drought in central Texas soon, and bring more rain to the parched area.  Thank goodness a small coastal strip around ANWR did not suffer the same drought this year that central Texas did---the coast has had good rains, keeping the marshes from becoming too saline as springflows from central Texas diminished steadily. 

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Crisis in Texas

The Whooping Crane Conservation Association is including this article on our web page to inform our viewers about the growing water crisis in Texas. As most of you know, The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the coast of Texas is the winter habitat for Whoopers.  River water inflows onto Aransas Refuge are essential for the survival of the cranes.  With the growing water shortages and increasing human population, the threat to Aransas Refuge is clear.  We must continue to work with those organizations that are leading the struggle to ensure that ample water continues to flow to Aransas. If we fail in our efforts, the last wild flock of Whooping Cranes may not survive. Our Association has provided funding to help in the struggle.  We must do more.  If you can, we ask you to make a special earmarked donation to the Whooping Crane Conservation Association to be used for fighting the battle to ensure ample water for Aransas Refuge.

THANKS.                                                      

Chester McConnell, WCCA web page editor      

Full Story in PDF format Click here.

Full Story in Word format Click here.

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FIRST WILD-HATCHED

WHOOPING CRANE CHICKS IN THE REINTRODUCED EASTERN MIGRATORY  POPULATION!!  WELCOME W1-06 and W2-06:

Richard Urbanek, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biologist has sent an amazing story for whooping crane interests. On 22 June behavior of whooping crane pair nos. 11-02/17-02 in their nest marsh east of the east dike of East Rynearson Pool, Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, Wisconsin indicated that their eggs had hatched. They had begun incubation on 23 May.

Hatching of two chicks was confirmed today (photos). The whooping crane parents were hatched from eggs in an incubator. They learned to migrate from Wisconsin to Florida following an ultralight plane. Now, these amazing birds have learned the process of building a nest in the wild,and laying and hatching their eggs. We trust that their parenting skills will continue and raise the two new hatchlings to adults.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!! And congratulations to Operation Migration and the entire Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership.

Pictured Below are the new chicks with their parents:
(Click on Picture for Larger View)

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International Whooping Crane Recovery Team announces New Members

I am pleased to welcome the two newest members to the International Whooping Crane Recovery Team; Marty Folk and Dr. Felipe Chavez-Ramirez.

Marty is with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and Felipe is with the Platte River Whooping Crane Habitat Trust. Both are very experienced whooping crane biologists. They are taking the place of former U.S. Team members Steve Nesbitt and Julie Langenberg, D.V.M.

The International Team is made up of 5 persons representing Canada and 5 representing the U.S.

Canada: Brian Johns, Stuart Macmillan, Sandie Black, Anne Riemer, Deborah Johnson
U.S. : Tom Stehn, John French, George Archibald, Marty Folk, Felipe Chavez-Ramirez.

Our next team meeting is scheduled for Lafayette, Louisiana the week of January 29th or February 5th, 2007 depending on logistical arrangements.

Tom Stehn, Whooping Crane Coordinator
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Aransas NWR
P.O. Box 100
Austwell, TX 77950
(361) 286-3559 Ext. 221
fax (361) 286-3722
E:mail: tom_stehn@fws.gov
 

Environmental groups trying to buy water rights win court ruling

Judge orders they be given same consideration as cities, businesses

By DINA CAPPIELLO
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Feb. 7, 2006, 11:52PM

Environmental groups seeking to purchase water rights to keep Texas' streams and rivers flowing in the face of increasing demand will be given the same consideration as cities and businesses, a judge in Austin ruled Tuesday.

The decision compels the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to consider granting water rights that preserve "environmental flows," water needed by the state's bays, fish and other wildlife. The agency had previously denied four applications by environmental groups, saying it did not have the authority to issue a water right to conserve water.

Thinking of the future

"This is a major step forward for us. This is the only way that our rivers and bays and estuaries will be there for future generations," said Dianne Wassenich, executive director of the San Marcos River Foundation, the first group to apply in 2000. Its application, which would have secured 1.3 million acre-feet of water a year for the Guadalupe and San Marcos rivers, was rejected in March 2003. An acre-foot of water is equal to 325,000 gallons.

The other applications, which were filed in 2002, were aimed at conserving water for Galveston Bay, the Trinity, Colorado and Lavaca rivers and Caddo Lake. Together, the proposals sought more than 12 million acre-feet per year.

Questions arose in 2003

In 2003, questions started to arise about whether a system set up to dole out publicly owned water for consumption could be used for preservation.

In February 2003, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst wrote to the TCEQ saying that it should delay consideration of permits seeking water for environmental purposes because it was unclear whether the state could do so under the law.

However, state District Judge Suzanne Covington said Tuesday the law was clear.

"My ruling that the commission has jurisdiction ... includes a finding that Texas law does contemplate appropriation of water rights for instream uses and to protect inflows into bays and estuaries," she wrote in a letter to attorneys on both sides. The TCEQ said Tuesday that it was considering whether to appeal.            dina.cappiello@chron.com

WCCA note: The Whooping Crane Conservation Association has been assisting the San Marcos River Foundation in this instream water rights issue for several years. Maintaining instream flows into the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge wetland ecosystem is absolutely essential to the existence of the only wild whooping cranes flock in the world. Therefore, WCCA celebrates this most important legal victory with the Foundation. Yet we can not let our guard down. Commercial and government interest will do everything in their power to reverse the court’s decision or use other political means to use all the scarce water from the rivers.

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Corpus Christi Caller-Times

December 4, 2003

Water needs for man and nature need to be balanced.

Ruling by Texas Legislature shoots down private organization's attempts at conservation

The Texas Legislature recently rejected the notion of private organizations buying river water to set aside for conservation, at least until after a commission studies how best to balance the water needs of man and nature.

Some people fear that Texas rivers could be sucked dry before resolution comes at the end of next year. Unfortunately, this is not that far fetched because lawmakers did not impose the same water-rights moratorium on municipalities, agriculture and industry. Attempts already have been made to purchase much of the remaining available water in parts the state by the City of Houston and others.

This decision is unfair at best, and possibly environmentally irresponsible.

If you don't think this could affect you, then consider what a healthy bay system means to you personally and to our community at large. Without sufficient freshwater inflows, fishing as we know it is at risk.

This legislative decision represents retroactive lawmaking based on the fact that the change was proposed specifically to block permit applications that existed when water rights would have been available to anyone willing to pay. They changed the rules.

The organizations that applied for water-rights permits were working within the system when, collectively, they applied for some 12 million acre feet of water from various rivers. Members within these groups were attempting, in part, to guarantee the flow of lifeblood into their respective estuaries as God intended and nature requires. Recreational flow also was part of their motivation, but this does not diminish their conservation goals.

And while they may have fallen short of this goal, they made a strong point that state water policies favor cities and businesses to the possible detriment of bays and estuaries. This is a tradition that should be broken. A commission is being formed to study these issues and attempt to balance the needs of a growing metropolitan population against those of coastal communities, coastal fisheries and estuaries.

Public meetings will convene and I'll post a schedule as soon as it's available.

The governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the Texas House will decide who sits on this 15-member commission. Members will represent river authorities, environmental groups including the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), elected officials and related state agencies such as Texas Parks & Wildlife and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

You might recall my praising the San Marcos River Foundation in a previous column for its attempt to buy 1.115 million acre feet of water to help keep rafting afloat along and that river system alive, along with the estuaries it feeds. This amount was not arbitrary. It's the amount biologists determined is necessary to maintain the health of that particular river and estuary system.

The SMRF application was among the ones dismissed. The other applications for water permits were filed by the Caddo Lake Institute, the Galveston Bay Conservation and Preservation Association, the Galveston Bay Foundation and the Matagorda Bay Foundation. These efforts mostly represent noble and novel attempts to preserve coastal wetlands, bays, plants, animals and humans that depend on them.

Historically water rights are issued only to developers, businesses, farmers and thirsty communities, which want to share in a supply diminished by an increasing number of manmade reservoirs and pipelines siphoning our rivers and aquifers. And more are proposed.

Nobody knows how much stress a particular bay system can take before it collapses or before it is irreparably altered, but we've seen it happen in other countries. It seems many Texans are too willing to test our bays to the brink of peril. The trouble is, recovery from this point is not assured.

Those who would gamble with our natural resources believe that man's needs for tap water are in competition with nature's needs. I reject this notion. These needs are one in the same and should never be considered mutually exclusive.

The real fight pits wasteful practices against reasonable conservation. Desalinization plants could provide some relief and I hope they do.

But meanwhile, it's ludicrous to think that river water flowing into the bays is wasted. If you want to witness waste, then look no farther than your St. Augustine lawn, landscapes and gardens with non-native plants, running faucets while brushing teeth, shaving or any of the other choices we make to spill more than we should.

Somehow, the burden of proof has fallen on the champions of nature to prove that estuaries need freshwater rather than on those who might destroy it to prove they do not.

Every river in the world flows into the sea. What more proof do we need?

Outdoors writer David Sikes' column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 886-3616 or sikesd@caller.com

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San Marcos River Foundation continues struggle to protect Whooping Crane habitat

Wintering habitat for the last flock of wild Whooping Cranes is located on the Texas coast on, and near, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.  This critical habitat depends on fresh water inflows from rivers to mix with salt water from the Gulf of Mexico. This mixture results in conditions favorable to produce food for Whooping Cranes and aquatic life for other needs. Yet, due to increasing needs for water by the continuing growth of the human population, more and more water is being removed from the rivers. The situation has become serious. Ample fresh water must be allowed to flow into the estuaries to maintain healthy fish and shell fish populations. Many businesses depend on a productive fishery and tens of thousands of sports fishermen enjoy the resource.  Unfortunately, efforts to allow some of the fresh water to flow into the estuaries are experiencing problems from misguided politicians.

On March 19 this year, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) denied the San Marcos River Foundation’s (SMRF) instream flow application, saying they did not have authority to grant instream flow permits for protecting rivers and bays. TCEQ said they wanted to continue their past practice of "protecting rivers and bays with conditions (or restrictions during low flow periods) on permits to pump water out of Texas rivers".  They ignored the recommendations of their technical staff and attorneys in denying the SMRF permit.  Their staff had recommended the permit go to a hearing to work out the amount needed to be preserved in rivers, for bays.  Needless to say, if the TCEQ had been protecting the rivers and bays, SMRF would not have needed to apply for this permit to begin with!

This is just another step in the long process to protect instream flows on the Guadalupe.  SMRF attorneys immediately filed a request for a rehearing by the TCEQ Commissioners, a standard first option when a permit is denied.  TCEQ did not respond, which effectively denies the request. SMRF filed suit against TCEQ in Travis County District Court in Austin, where the State Capitol and TCEQ offices are located.  We will prove to the Court that the law is clear---our permit should be allowed to go to an administrative hearing to decide how much water should be granted and to hear the scientific basis for the need for adequate instream flow and freshwater inflow to San Antonio Bay.  There are other instream permits that have been granted in the past by TCEQ for wildlife, fish, recreation and preserving wetlands that we will bring forth in the Court case.  We are busy raising funds to pay legal fees for this step, and speaking to groups to explain what is going on and how important it is to join SMRF in this effort.

Meanwhile, the Texas Legislature passed a bill on the last day or two of the session in early June, to "study" the instream flow/freshwater inflows issue further, and decreed that no instream flow permits could be granted during the two year study period, until the next legislative session. And even worse, the bill continues to allow consumptive water right permits to be granted while the studying goes on. It remains to be seen exactly what kinds of interests are represented on the study commission.  Appointments will be made by elected officials like the Governor and Lt. Governor, with only one person designated to be from the resource protection interests, out of around 17 appointments.

SMRF believes that since our application was made three years ago, under the laws at that time, and since our lawsuit was filed regarding our application before the bill was introduced at the Legislature, this bill does not affect our case.  It may affect other applications to preserve other Texas rivers and bays that were not as far along in the process as ours when the bill was filed and passed.  We will all have to work together to make sure no Texas rivers and bays are damaged during this "study" period, and be very vigilant about new consumptive water right applications that might further damage Texas bays.

SMRF remains committed to protecting instream flows and freshwater inflows.  The Foundation has had great support from groups all over Texas and the United States. Dianne Wassenich, SMRF stated that  “We just have to look at the study commission as a good press opportunity to get the word out that we must protect our rivers and bays in Texas, right now, before it is too late, and make it clear to the public that it is NOT being done currently.  We were thrilled about the recent National Wildlife Federation poll that showed that Texans strongly want their rivers and bays to have adequate water, even if they have to be more efficient with water to accomplish that.  That poll is a real boost!   It helps to know the majority of Texans are firmly with us on this.” Don Henley of the Eagles came to the Capitol to a press conference about the poll, and spoke up for Texas rivers and bays in April.

There is a new July issue of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine devoted to Bays and Estuaries, with a beautifully photographed article on San Antonio Bay and the whooping cranes titled "The Whooper's Table".  It mentions that SMRF brought the water issue to the top of the water planning agenda in Texas, and goes into great detail about the cranes' food sources being tied to the health of the bay.  Tom Stehn, USFWS, was a source for the information in the article, and the writer Michael Berryhill did a terrific job.   Email:
magazine@tpwd.state.tx.us to get a copy.  Texas Parks and Wildlife has also just finished a documentary about water planning in Texas and the crisis facing Texas rivers and bays, "Will Texas Run Dry?" that was aired on Texas PBS stations in June and July.  SMRF is happy to see attention drawn to the issue of preserving water in our rivers for our bays.

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