ESTUARIES 2: Protecting estuaries details ahead on 
Passport to Texas ... 
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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Most of us never think about estuaries and wetlands -- 
and that needs to change.

"Texas has lost more than half of its wetlands along the 
coast; the nation as a whole has lost more than three-
quarters of its wetlands."

Dave Buzan, team leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife's 
Coastal Studies Team, says we lose valuable resources 
when we lose our estuaries and wetlands.

"Estuaries have wetlands that act like giant sponges. 
They soak up floodwaters and help those floodwaters 
to be released slowly. They capture excess nutrients, 
chemical pollutants that are carried in that floodwater, 
and they convert those to food that goes to feed the 
microscopic animals that begin the food chain for the 
estuary."

Because we live on the land, and what we do on the land 
eventually impacts estuaries, we all have a role to play in 
protecting them.
 
"One of the major impacts we're seeing in Texas is due to 
poor development practices that are destroying wetlands 
or cutting wetlands off from their water source. One of 
the things we can do is encourage development practices 
that incorporate wetlands in those developments in ways 
that protect the wetlands and also increase the value of 
the development."

That's our show ... made possible by a grant from the 
Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program ... 

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