For
many years, the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge has been
instrumental in saving the whooping crane population. The
refuge was established when, in the 1940s, the population
of whoopers dropped to as few as 16. Gradually, the
numbers of whooping cranes has risen.
In
October and November 1995, 132 cranes arrived after
spending the summer months in their northern Canada
nesting grounds. The cranes leave the refuge in April.
The other crane native to North America, the sandhill,
also lives in the refuge during winter months, but the
two species occupy different habitats. Whoopers stay in
the marshy areas close to the gulf, while the sandhill
cranes prefer the grain fields of the open prairie
lands.
Aransas
covers 115,000 acres, and is located 85 miles north of
Corpus Christi, on Aransas Bay. In addition to whooping
cranes, the refuge is home to deer, javelinas,
armadillos, feral hogs, cougars, raccoons, bobcats, and
alligators. This is about the farthest west habitat of
this dominant amphibian.
A
16-mile trail loops through a portion of the refuge,
although the great majority of the area is closed to the
public and is totally devoted to wildlife preservation. A
visitor center is located at the north end of the
preserve. Picnic tables and restrooms are available, but
there are no camping facilities.
This
page also covers nearby Matagorda Island, also a wildlife
refuge and an equally wonderful place to visit.
How
to Get There
The
drive from Corpus Christi to the Aransas Refuge takes you
along the coastal plain, through an agricultural area
with small towns and occasional petrochemical plants.
From the downtown area of the city, take the causeway
route to Portland (U.S. Highway 181) and then turn onto
Texas Highway 35. This route will lead you west, along
the coast and the Intracoastal Waterway, beside Aransas
Pass, and through the small towns of Rockport and Fulton.
The highway then moves inland, skirting the north side of
the refuge. Turn south onto FM 774 and drive on this road
until you meet FM 2040. Turn right and drive to the
refuge entrance. If you're arriving from the Galveston
area, take Texas Highway 35 and turn onto FM 239, two
miles west of Tivoli. Drive along FM 239 until you get to
FM 2040. The refuge gate is seven miles from this
intersection, via FM 2040.
The
Refuge
The
refuge is composed of five units. The Main Unit occupies
Blackjack Peninsula, a 16-mile long piece of land between
St. Charles Bay and San Antonio Bay. The width of the
unit ranges from two to seven miles. This is the original
part of the refuge, the location of the visitor center,
and most of the public area. The Lamar Unit is a
7,500-acre stretch of grassland along the coast between
the west shore of St. Charles Bay and Highway 35. The
Lamar Unit is a separate 734-acre tract of live-oak
upland and salt marsh on the west shore of St. Charles
Bay, adjacent to Goose Island State Park at the tip of
the Lamar Peninsula. The Myrtle Foester Whitmire Unit
(the latest addition) is 22 miles north of Blackjack
Peninsula, on Powderhorn Lake. Together, these units
comprise 60,000 acres of varied habitat. The fourth part
of the refuge is located on Matagorda Island, the federal
lands on the island taken over from other federal
departments in 1971. This area has been combined with
state lands within the wildlife management area,
providing a total of 586,500 acres of barrier island
landscape&emdash;the entire island.
The
major public area of the reserve is the 5,000 acres at
the north end of Blackjack Peninsula, which is designated
a wildlife interpretive area. Most visitors come from the
two major urban areas in the region on weekends, making
weekdays a quiet, reflective time on this beautiful,
serene peninsula. Facilities in this interpretive area
include a headquarters office, the Wildlife Interpretive
Center, with an information desk, wildlife displays
including stuffed birds of the refuge, slide and film
presentations, and a bookstore. A boardwalk crosses the
nearby tidal flat, next to a 40-foot high observation
tower. Other high observation platforms are located at
Dagger Point and Heron Flats, and ground-level
observation decks are found at Hog and Jones lakes. A
picnic area is available, along with eight self-guided
nature trails, with scenic overlooks and stopping areas
for wildlife viewing and looking at the special habitats.
A loop driving tour leads along a 16-mile route with six
stopping places that have exhibit panels.
The
gates are open from sunrise to sunset, year-round. The
interpretive center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. except
Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. There is no entrance
fee, but visitors are required to register at the center,
or before and after open hours at a station outside the
center entrance. The remainder of the mainland areas are
not open to the public, but there is access to Matagorda
Island and we deal with this unit later in this chapter.
Hunting for deer and hogs is permitted each fall in the
Blackjack Unit, and fishing is permitted in designated
areas from mid-April to mid-October.
Refuge
Ecosystems
Much
of the reserve has been affected by the rising and
falling of the sea level over millions of years. About
100 million years ago, the refuge lands lay under the
ocean, with the shoreline 130 miles to the north, under
the Balcones Escarpment. The sea and gulf covered the
region until about 120,000 years ago, when intermittent
sea level changes revealed and then covered the region on
an intermittent basis. The ocean made its last retreat
18,000 years ago, but the landscape continued to change
for many thousand years after, with the shoreline holding
at its current place only 4,000 years ago. At this point,
the barrier islands were created by wave and wind action,
protecting the marshes. While the mainland units have
remained in a static state for 3,000 years, the islands
are constantly influenced by weather and the effects of
storms, and are ever changing. While hurricanes have less
effect on the Blackjack Peninsula, the most severe
cyclonic storms have affected parts of the area open to
the public including damaging several trails. However,
storms also provide benefits to the refuge environment,
flushing out brackish water, bringing more nutrients
including additional marine life to the bays, eventually
increasing the food supply in the inland areas.
There
are six major ecosystems at work in the mainland Aransas
Refuge. The Shell Ridge biotic zone is most easily found
along the Heron Flats trail. This is one of the
interpretive trails in the Blackjack Peninsula Unit, and
a brochure is available to provide keys to the ecology of
the trail. This area has a base of crushed oyster shells.
You'll find live oak dominating this habitat, with other
plants including tanglewood, Mexican buckeye, Texas
persimmon, and two types of hackberries (spiny and
netleaf). On the ground, you'll find many creeping vines,
such as trumpet creeper, mustang grape, Alamo pine,
pepper vine, milkweed vine, greenbriar, and pearl
milkweed, as well as poison ivy. Spanish moss, lichen,
and fungi are found on the oak trees.
The
Heron Trail continues over Cattail Slough, onto a ridge
covered with lime prickly ash, tanglewood and torchwood.
It's obvious that this is a more arid region, with its
plant population of mesquite and prickly pear cactus. In
the shellridge area that borders the bay, you'll find
more grassy than treed areas, as cordgrass works its way
up from the tidal flats and shoreline. Through this
grassy area are scattered mesquite and marsh elder trees,
plus Spanish daggers and snapdragon vine.
There
are significant freshwater area in the reserve, with
freshwater sloughs found along the Heron Flats and Rail
trails. Jones Lake and Hog Lake are in this area, plus a
temporary pond located on the Big Tree Trail, with a
second at the end of the Wood Duck Pond Trail. The
year-round water supply to some of these areas is chancy.
Walk along the Rail Trail, and you're sure to see water
in Thomas Slough, with a good chance of seeing
alligators. There are many temporary pools on the
peninsula, full in winter and waning by summer. While the
alligator is master of this freshwater habitat, you'll
also see Gulf Coast ribbon snakes, southern leopard
frogs, bullfrogs, and green frogs. This is an area
occupied by wading birds, including roseate spoonbills
and wood storks, plus rails and several varieties of
swimmers, including dabbling ducks, American coots,
common snipes, and common moorhens. You'll also encounter
belted kingfishers, red-winged blackbirds, great-tailed
grackles, and killdeer.
Early
in the day and at dusk, at the freshwater pools, you have
a good chance of observing the larger wildlife, including
deer, javalina, feral hogs, and raccoons.
The
salt marsh community is not as extensive as the tidal
flat biotic zone, although there is a thin strip of salt
marsh with cordgrass between the tidal flats and the
freshwater zones. You can see it from the observation
tower, an area of brackish water along San Antonio Bay.
At best, this community is only a few feet wide, and in
only a few patches is it extensive enough to accommodate
alligators, and marsh birds such as least bitterns and
clapper rails.
The
tidal flats are found along the edges of the refuge, seen
from the observation tower and other vantage points,
including the boardwalk that runs from the tower to the
bay, particularly Heron Flats. The major plants along the
flats are sea ox-eye, standing about two-feet high,
chargers, shoregrass, saltgrass, saltwort, glasswort,
common reed, and saltmarsh bullrush. Other plants in this
prolific zone are the groundsel, marsh fleabane, golden
and saline aster, saltmarsh morning glory, and sea
lavender, among others. Crabs crawl across the flats, as
do many insects including saltmarsh grasshoppers, tiger
beetles, wolf spiders, and snails. You may see raccoons
and feral hogs, although you have a better chance of
seeing their tracks, and several snakes inhabit the zone:
cottonmouth moccasins and gulf saltmarsh snake. The
extremely rare Texas diamondback terrapin is a resident
of the tidal flats.
The
higher ground, and the largest habitat in the area of the
Blackjack Peninsula is the ridge and swale biotic zone.
Sandy ridges run through this region, with troughs or
swales in between. The swales flood at times, with the
water staying up to a few weeks, providing enough
moisture for native grasses and some water-tolerant
perennials. On the ridges are found trees and shrubs,
including vast groves of live oaks, the predominant
vegetation of the reserve. The best way to observe the
plant systems in this zone is to take the refuge driving
tour. The live oaks are found in extremely dense thickets
as well as well-spaced groves. The oaks are interspersed
with the lower-growing red bays and laurel oaks.
The
ridge and swale zone is habitat for a wide variety of
wildlife, from deer, bobcat, cougar, jaguarundi,
cottontail rabbits, and feral hogs, to weasels, gray
foxes, and armadillos. Songbirds are here in great
numbers: mocking birds, cardinals, long-billed thrashers,
plus other birds including raptors (American kestrels and
red-tailed hawks). The grassland swales offer South
Texas' finest collection of native grasses. Bluestems are
abundant: big, seacoast, broomsedge, bushy, splitbeard,
and silver, among others. Other grasses not normally seen
together elsewhere include sprangletops, Indian grass,
switch grass, paspalums, dropseeds, and gulf muhly. The
wetter areas offer a home to California bullrushes,
cattails, palmettos (the dwarf species), sawgrass and
other sedges. Raptors, including harriers, soar overhead
while coyotes and bobwhite quail patrol the ground. And
myriad insects rattle and buzz deep in the thick
grass.
Matagorda
Island
The
barrier island is separated from the mainland by Esperitu
Santo and San Antonio bays. The land is owned by the
federal and state governments, and is operated as a
wildlife sanctuary by the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department. Only the southwestern tip of the island,
about 11,500 acres, is privately owned. The island is
about 5,000 years old, slightly older than most of the
other barrier islands in the gulf. There are slight signs
that the Karankawa came to the island, and it was visited
by Cabeza de Vaca, Robert Sueir de La Salle, and the
notorious Jean Lafitte. The island was heavily used, with
a lighthouse having been built in 1852 and with an air
base operating for awhile. Fort Esperanza was an early
Spanish fort that was destroyed and submerged by storms
of the 1800s and early 1900s.
The
headquarters of the park is on the mainland, in Port
O'Connor, where 16th Street meets the Intracoastal Canal.
The only access to the park is by boat. The Matagorda
Ferry transports 49 passengers at a time from Port
O'Connor, operating Thursday through Sunday. Private
boats may be taken to the island by the ferry and a
shuttle fee is charged for visitors who bring their own
boat. The island is situated 11 miles across the bay from
Port O'Connor.
Park
activities include camping, hiking, cycling, swimming and
other beach activities, bird watching, fishing, and
surfing. Camping facilities include a primitive area with
covered picnic tables on a two-mile stretch of gulf
beach, located 3.5 miles from the boat dock. This area is
one of several serviced by the park shuttle. Army Hole
Campground is on the bayside, close to the dock. This
more organized camping area has shaded picnic tables,
fire rings, pit toilets, and an outdoor cold shower. Two
group barracks are available, containing dormitories with
bunks and kitchen facilities. Both barracks can be
reserved for Friday or Saturday nights only.
For
those who wish to take their own boats across the bay to
the island, three boat ramps are conveniently located in
Port O'Connor. if you have a boat, you can easily access
the many miles of beaches. Hikers, walkers, and cyclists
will enjoy the paved and mowed pathways on the island.
There is no electricity, drinking water, telephone, nor a
concession on the island. A Texas Park Store is located
at the headquarters in Port O'Connor.
The
island environment includes those wide sandy beaches,
marshes, and dunes areas. Over 30 species of reptiles
live on the island, including the American alligator.
Nineteen species of snake are found here, including the
western coachwhip, western diamondback rattler, and the
speckled kingsnake. Like most barrier islands, Matagorda
has few mammals, except for white-tailed deer, coyote,
raccoon, badger, and the ever-present jackrabbit. The
most frequently seen amphibians are the leopard frog,
bullfrog, and Gulf Coast toad. The island is a refuge for
at least 19 threatened or endangered species, including
the whooping crane, brown pelican, peregrine falcon,
Ridley sea turtle, and horned lizard.
For
information on park facilities and ferry operations, call
the park office at ( 361) 389-8900. For campsite
reservations, call 800-792-1112. For information on the
refuge and its programs, call (361) 286-3559.
