Passport to Texas

Cedar Hill State Park after the flood.

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A year ago this time, the majority of the state was in the throes of exceptional drought. That changed Memorial Day weekend 2015 when the skies opened up over Texas.

10- The official status from the US Drought Monitor is that Texas is about 92 percent drought-free right now, which we haven’t seen in many, many years.

And this is good news, says Cindy Loeffler, water resources branch chief at Texas Parks and Wildlife.

11- That’s not to say that every part of the state is completely drought free. If you go up into the Texas Panhandle, there are still some regions up there that would dearly love to have a bit of this rainfall.

For areas that received extreme rainfall, changes are evident, and biologists are optimistic about the short and long term affects.

20- Many of our reservoirs have been so low that you couldn’t even access via boat ramps to go fishing. And so now that situation has been improved. And then a lot of the terrestrial and wildlife biologists are very excited about–not only the conditions now–but going into the fall, for deer, white-tailed deer, mule
deer, migrating waterfowl–that kind of thing in the fall.

You won’t have to wait long to see those outcomes, as fall is right around the corner.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Lake Sommerville, Birch Creek

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After Texas’ 5-year drought, the rainfall Memorial Day weekend was like resetting nature’s clock…

04- When it comes to our thirsty ecosystems across the state.

Cindy Loeffler is water resources branch chief at Texas Parks and Wildlife.

08- The bays and estuaries, with their characteristic salinity levels, having a flush of fresh water–especially at this time of the year–is ideal.

That flush of fresh water will, in time, help improve the productivity of the bays, which serve as nurseries for many of our sport fish species. Yet, Loeffler says productivity could decrease before it rebounds.

10- We may see some setbacks, in terms of impacts to oysters–if the water is too fresh for too long. But long term, we’re very excited about what it means for our coastal estuaries.

Conditions across the landscape have improved, too.

20- One just needs to look out the window, or go outside, and just see how green everything is. All of the vegetation is just very healthy and thriving. Importantly, our pollen producing plants, nectar producing plants, important food sources for insects-butterflies, bees, birds-lots of critters we depend on in Texas.

What are the short and long term effects of this new water windfall?

02- That’s a really great question.

And we try to answer it tomorrow.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.