Download Summary_Conserving Texas Rivers Initiative

 Conserving Texas Rivers Initiative Project area with the geographic boundary of the Texas Hill Country identified in light green and the geographic boundaries of the focal watersheds of TPWD’s Conserving Texas Rivers Initiative identified in darker green (i.e., Llano, Blanco, and Pedernales river watersheds). “Conserving Texas Rivers Initiative”
Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation helps TPWD secure private funds that can be used to meet the required non-­‐federal cost-­‐share requirement for federal funds available to TPWD for conservation projects. Lack of non-­‐federal matching funds is a limiting factor in our ability to move conservation projects forward. The “Conserving Texas Rivers Initiative” is a public-­‐private partnership to conserve rivers and streams of Texas, linking private donations and public funding to conserve Texas rivers, with a current focus on rivers and streams of the Texas Hill Country.
Conserving Guadalupe Bass in Texas Hill Country Rivers and Streams, the current focus of the “Conserving Texas Rivers Initiative”
Guadalupe Bass are native to the clear, spring-­‐fed streams of the Texas Hill Country, where they support an expanding $74 million sport fishery; primarily fly fishers and/or kayak anglers. Hill Country streams are also home to 14 other endemic fishes found nowhere else in the world. Although most Hill Country streams remain relatively pristine and intact, all are threatened by development pressures (primarily development associated with the Austin-­‐San Antonio corridor, one of the fastest growing areas of the nation). Numerous studies have documented the linkages between development/urbanization and loss of native fishes and other aquatic resources, with as little as 5-­‐10% impervious cover in a watershed altering aquatic systems. Levels of impervious cover in most Hill Country watersheds are currently less than 5% (e.g., Pedernales River watershed = 2.4%). However, the Hill Country is expected to experience human population growth of 20% over the next 10 years, with subsets of the region expected to double over that timeframe.
To conserve Guadalupe Bass and other native flora and fauna of the Hill Country, TPWD and partners have shared best management practices for preserving natural watershed conditions, promoted awareness and stewardship of fish and wildlife habitats, helped leverage available resources (e.g., public and private funds), and provided planning assistance and financial incentives to implement local habitat conservation projects. These efforts have led to on-­‐the-­‐
ground habitat restoration, enhancement and preservation projects on more than 78,000 acres of ranch lands within watersheds of the Texas Hill Country, providing direct benefits to more than 100 miles of Hill Country rivers and streams. Ongoing projects focus on actions that restore riparian areas (invasives removal along the Llano and Nueces), reduce soil erosion and runoff, and improve water quality. Additionally, nearly one million genetically-­‐pure Guadalupe Bass have been stocked into the Llano river to genetically swamp the existing bass population that had hybridized with introduced, non-­‐native smallmouth bass. Through the initiative, a streamside conservation demonstration area is also being developed in the area that extends along a 4.5-­‐mile segment of the South Llano River between the South Llano River State Park and the Texas Tech University Llano River Field Station. The streamside conservation demonstration area will provide fishing, paddling, and hiking opportunities, promote sustainable public use of the river, and highlight restoration actions through educational kiosks placed along paddling and upland hiking trails. Native Black Bass Initiative (see map below)
Through a broader regional initiative known as the Native Black Bass Initiative, partners are working to implement these types of projects in rivers and streams throughout the southern US to benefit black basses and other native fish and wildlife populations. Rivers and streams of the southern United States contain more than 1,800 aquatic species, 500 of which are regionally endemic. At present, 34% of the fish species and 90% of the mussel species in peril nationwide are found in these systems. Declines in these imperiled species are due to many factors, including hydrologic alteration, degraded water quality, loss of instream and watershed connectivity, physical habitat degradation, and the negative effects of non-­‐indigenous species (e.g., predation on, competition with, and hybridization with native forms). In addition, this situation is exacerbated through human population growth, competing water demands, land use changes, and other interrelated issues. If unchecked, these issues will likely continue to contribute to the imperilment and loss of native species in the region. Of the nine described species and subspecies of black bass, six are endemic to the southern US: Guadalupe Bass Micropterus treculii, Shoal Bass M. cataractae, Redeye Bass M. coosae, Florida Bass M. salmoides floridanus, Alabama Bass M. henshalli, and Suwannee Bass M. notius. In addition, undescribed species and subspecies also exist and all are in need of conservation measures to prevent them from becoming imperiled. In an effort to focus and coordinate actions to support the long-­‐term persistence of endemic black bass populations, local, state, and federal agencies, universities, non-­‐governmental organizations, and corporations from across the region joined with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to form the Native Black Bass Initiative (NBBI). The NBBI provides regional conservation strategies, objectives and targets to restore and preserve functional processes in those watersheds that support natural habitat conditions and sustainable populations of endemic black bass and other native fishes of the region. Initial actions implemented through the NBBI focus on addressing the conservation needs of Guadalupe Bass in streams of the Edwards Plateau Ecoregion of Texas, Redeye Bass in the Savannah River watershed of Georgia and South Carolina, and Shoal Bass populations in the Apalachicola River watershed of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.