The current gusher despoiling the Gulf of Mexico has captured the attention of the world, and no aspect better illustrates the sickening impacts than the birds. Photographs of oiled birds litter the media, and discussions of effects on the coast usually include people and birds. No one can gaze at the grisly photos of brown pelicans completed immersed in toxic goo without feeling both compassion and fury.
No one knows this part of the world more intimately than we do, at least when it comes to the places where birds are to be seen along the Gulf. Since our inception in the early 1990s we have worked on numerous birding projects in the Gulf, including the development of the first birding trail in the world, the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail. The following is a list of the Gulf of Mexico birding projects we have been involved in, with links to the trails themselves and, in some cases, our reports and products as well.
Mexico
Laguna de Aves (Tamaulipas)
Mesoamerican Ecotourism Alliances (MEA)
RARE invited Ted Eubanks to aid in the original establishment of the Mesoamerian Ecotourism Alliance, or MEA. MEA includes representatives from the Yucatan, thus the connection to the Gulf. Meetings were held in Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. Through those meetings we met Jon Kohl, who works with Fermata on guide training. This photo, taken by Ted, is from the meeting in Lancetilla (Honduras).
Texas
Madge Lindsay of Texas Parks and Wildlife and Ted met while working on Governor Ann Richards’ nature tourism plan for Texas. After completing the plan the two of them began to plot ways to actually implement the recommendations (including brainstorming at the Watchable Wildlife conference in Corpus Christi in 1993). The result? The Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, the first in the world.
Nature Tourism in the Lone Star State
Here are the first three trails, in their order of development. The dedication of the first trail took place in Rockport, with Roger Tory Peterson as the guest of honor.
Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail (central coast)
Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail (upper coast)
Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail (lower coast)
British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Awards 2001
The success of the birding trails led to establishment of the World Birding Center and its partner sites in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) of Texas. The following is research that Fermata conducted as part of the feasibility study.
However, another article predated this research that should be mentioned. Earlier Ted, Dick Payne, and Paul Kerlinger published High Island: A Case Study in Avitourism (Birding 25: 415-420. Eubanks, T., P. Kerlinger and R. H. Payne, 1993), an article noteworthy in two aspects. First, this survey is among the first conducted in Texas regarding the economic impacts of birding. Second, in this article Ted coined the word “avitourism,” a word that has come into worldwide usage.
The following are but two of the studies that we completed for the World Birding Center and its member communities. We also completed strategies for Hidalgo, Weslaco (which ultimately led to the creation of the Llano Grande State Park), and Mission. Our economic feasibility study for the South Padre Island WBC resulted in a sizable ($ 1 million) grant from the Texas legislature.
World Birding Center
South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center
Fermata also worked with the Texas Coastal Bend to develop a birding initiative – Bird The Bend.
Fermata has also helped Galveston over the years. Here are a couple of the projects we have been involved in.
Ecotourism in Galveston Bay – – An Economic Opportunity
GINTC
Ted, along with his coauthors, compiled their decades of birding in two landmark publications. The following are the two books, published by Texas A&M University Press.
Birdlife of Houston, Galveston, and the Upper Texas Coast (Texas A&M Press) (Eubanks, Behrstock, and Weeks)
Finding Birds Along the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail (Texas A&M Press) (Eubanks, Behrstock, and Davidson)
Fermata organized an interpretive exhibit comprised of many of Ted’s bird photographs. The exhibit, Faces of Flight, showed in Galveston as well as Houston Hobby Airport. The interpretive panels that accompanied the exhibit informed the public about the habitats of the Texas coast and the need to protect them.
Fermata also created an interpretive sign for the Galveston Seawall, informing visitors about the birds in the area. During Hurricane Ike volunteers rescued the panel, and stored it until after the storm. Little remained atop that stretch of the seawall, and our sign surely would have been destroyed. It has been reinstalled, and is back to telling people about the incredible birds of the Gulf coast.
Fermata aided The Conservation Fund in the establishment and organization of the Texas Pineywoods Experience. This intiative generally focuses on the woodlands and rivers of East Texas, but it does extend south to Beaumont, Port Arthur, and the Gulf. Andy Jones and the TCF staff have been instrumental in the recent establishment of the Neches River NWR (against withering opposition from Dallas and the water boards), and the expansion of the Big Thicket National Preserve.
Slightly to the west, Fermata completed a study of the nature tourism market along the Trinity River. The river flows south from Dallas to Galveston Bay. Our results are available here.
Trinity River Site Inventory
Trinity River Market Study
Trinity River Recommendations
Two additional Texas coastal projects are still in their nascence. Bird and Bayou is focused on the birds and bayou system of Houston. Buffalo Bayou, where Houston began, flows into Galveston Bay. We are also hopeful that we can get Tides to Tall Timbers off the ground as well. This initiative will connect the Galveston region to the Texas Pineywoods Experience.
Louisiana
Inspired by Texas, Louisiana followed with a series of birding trails of their own. The state engaged Fermata to develop the trail, beginning with the coast. America’s Wetland adopted that trail, and it has become the America’s Wetland Birding Trail. Fermata then completed the remainder of the state.
Louisiana Birding Trails
America’s Wetland Birding Trail
The Mississippi River Birding Trail
The Mississippi River Birding Trail (now known as the Great River Birding Trail) is a highway trail connecting prime birding sites along the Upper Mississippi River. The upper GRBT is a project of the Minnesota office of the National Audubon Society, as well as a number of partners from Minnesota and the adjacent states of Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri. The coalition contracted with Fermata Inc. to conduct a seminar to give purpose and direction to the project.
The Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program also contracted with Fermata Inc. to conduct an introductory workshop on creating a Louisiana Coastal Birding Trail.
Mississippi and Alabama
Mississippi and Alabama developed their coastal trails around the same time as Louisiana. In Alabama, Fermata aided in the creation of the North Alabama Birding Trail. Mississippi is part of Audubon’s Great River Birding Trail which extends from Minnesota to the Gulf. Ted spoke in Mississippi at a Governor’s rural development conference to aid in the development of their birding trail (as he also did in Minnesota to help in the Great River Birding Trail).
Great River Birding Trail
Coastal Alabama Birding Trail
Florida
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has developed a series of spectacular birding trails along their coasts. Staff from Florida met with Fermata early in the project, and we were happy to provide tips on how its done. Ted Eubanks also traveled to Florida and spoke at their annual ecotourism conference about developing birding trails.
Should the oil catch the Loop Current and head up the Atlantic Coast, we have important experiences and projects to share as well. Virgina developed their birding and wildlife trails on the heels of Texas. Representatives from Virginia visited Texas to see how the trails worked, and soon hired Fermata to help develop the trails in their state. These trails, a project of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, became the first birding trails to encompass an entire state. Of particular interest is the initial trail developed along the coast.
Fermata also worked with the New Jersey Department of Fish, Game, and Wildlife to assess the value of wildlife viewing in Delaware Bay. This study aided the state in better understanding the risks of over harvesting horseshoe crabs and the subsequent decline in red knots. Our report can be downloaded here.
Ted also met with representatives on the Delmarva Peninsula about birding trails on a number of occasions. Jeff Gordon and others have developed a wonderful series of birding trails in Delaware.
Pennsylvania has no Atlantic coastline, unless you consider (as we do) the Chesapeake Bay simply to be an extension of the Susquehanna River. Fermata is currently completing a Conservation Landscape Initiative (CLI) for PA DCNR for the Lower Susquehanna. The final report should be available soon.
Finally, if the oil somehow wanders as far north as Maine, we have been there as well. Fermata assisted the state in developing an implementation plan for nature tourism, including coastal Down East. Here is a link to our recommendations.
We pray that our efforts along both the Gulf and Atlantic coasts aid the public in understanding what is at risk. These are rich, complex, diverse ecosystems that are under assault. As Theodore Roosevelt said, “The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased; and not impaired in value.” Each American generation must embrace that responsibility. Will we accept ours?