Baytown Nature Center - Planning and Development

Planning and Development

In 1994, the Brownwood Marsh Restoration Project’s master plan, which had been prepared by Crouch Environmental Services and The SWA Group, was approved by a Project Review Group consisting of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and the Texas General Land Office.

In late 1994, work on the 450-acre (1.8 km2) Brownwood Marsh Restoration Project got underway. First, work crews sealed the inlets into nearby Scott Bay so that they could temporarily pump the water out of the property. Then, workers removed the remaining roads, houses, and utilities from the site. Afterwards, they graded the property and dug three 60-foot (18 m)-wide channels through the property. Once work was complete, these channels were used to re-flood the site and provide good crosscurrent flows to encourage natural restoration activity and feed the returning wetlands wildlife. The channels also provided the necessary tidal exchange (with its nutrient-rich, oxygenated waters) to help create important “edge” habitats for crustaceans, fish, and birds.

In their grading operations, the crews also transformed two elevated areas, which included hundreds of mature trees, into islands and created four new small freshwater ponds. These freshwater ponds and the planting of Live oaks, as well as beneficial bottomland shrubs and trees like red maple and green ash, were designed to lure a wide variety of migrant and indigenous birds, reptiles, and small mammals to the site.

For the Baytown Nature Center’s watery edges and its inland areas, Crouch Environmental Services and The SWA Group selected flora with high value for wildlife, like nesting areas and food. They also specified plant species like Smooth cordgrass, Sedge, Wiregrass, and Live oaks that already thrived in this coastal area.

As early as Fall 1995, with just one phase of construction largely completed, deer, fish, crustaceans, and 275 bird species had already appeared in the new wetlands, including two endangered species: the Osprey, a fish-eating hawk, and the majestic three-foot-tall Wood stork.