HURRICANES AND WETLANDS: Resiliency after the storm ... 
we'll explain on Passport to Texas
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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Late September Hurricane Rita ravaged the Texas coast. 
Powerful winds turned homes into rubble, knocked out 
power, uprooted trees, and laid waste to coastal wetlands.

"The impact of Rita went from Matagorda all the way, of course, 
into Louisiana."

Dr. Larry McKinney is Director of Coastal Fisheries at 
Texas Parks and Wildlife. Wetlands act as buffers against 
forces like Rita. In September McKinney got a bird's eye 
view of the damage during a fly over; the gulf, he said, 
penetrated the shoreline deep into the back marshes.

"And those back marshes are mostly fresh and brackish. So 
when you get that high salinity in there, you're going to get 
some losses; death of the marsh itself. And then, when you lose 
parts of the marsh, you begin to get into erosion issues, and 
that type of thing."

Marshes or wetlands are ecologically sensitive areas that 
serve as critical habitat for fish and wildlife. Rita's impact 
could have been much worse, said McKinney. Even so, it is 
significant, and will take time to come back.

"These areas are kind of like our natural infrastructure. We talk 
about the infrastructure of the power and the roads, and all 
those type things that we're all dependent upon ... well, the 
plants and animals in our natural world have an infrastructure 
as well, and it's those wetlands. so, they're going to have to try 
to get along until that infrastructure comes back."

Log onto the Texas Parks and Wildlife Web site for more 
information on how wetlands benefit man and beast.

That's our show for today ... made possible by a grant 
from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program ... 
For Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia Nasti.