CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS: Reestablishing wetlands for 
wildlife and humans ... details are ahead on Passport to 
Texas
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PTT from TPWD and the Wildlife Restoration Program

As the human population has grown, wetlands have been 
filled in to make way for development.

Fortunately, we're beginning to see a trend toward 
reestablishing this wildlife habitat. A good example of 
this can be seen in north Texas at the Richland Creek 
WMA, where through a collaborative effort, new wetlands 
were created.
 
One of the things that we do to improve wildlife habitat, is take 
historically drained wetlands and we go in and rebuild levies 
using existing roadways and natural contours of land to create 
these wetland areas ... to try and restore some of these wetlands 
that are very important wildlife habitats. :22

Jeffery Gunnels is a wildlife biologist with the Richland 
Creek WMA. Besides providing habitat, wetlands also act 
as water filters -- and that's the function these three-year-
old wetlands serve.

When we partnered with the Tarrant Regional Water District to 
build these raw water treatment wetlands, where they're going 
to filter water through wetlands, we constructed the initial 
phase of 250 acres of wetlands. But over the course of the next 
ten to fifteen years, they're going to construct up to a total of 
22-hundred acres of wetlands. :18

Learn more about the importance of wetlands when you 
log onto the Texas Parks and Wildlife Web site.

The Wildlife Restoration Program supports our program 
and provides funding for wetland conservation through 
the Private Lands Enhancement Program.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia Nasti.