One of the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program’s (CBBEP) most unique projects to date is the Nueces Bay Island Habitat Restoration Project. The Texas General Land Office and the CBBEP partnered in this $1.5 million construction project that took over a year in planning and four months of construction to complete. This is the largest island in Nueces Bay that has become part of a solution for eroding islands and declining waterbird populations.

Extensive oyster shell dredging, which finally ended in the 1970’s, removed an estimated 24 million cubic yards of shell from Nueces Bay. Beginning in the 1980’s, as a direct result of the shell dredging, many important nesting islands in Nueces Bay started to disappear. Bird populations in the area have experienced a catastrophic decline.

Rookery islands in Nueces Bay have supported nesting birds such as Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, Reddish Egrets, Caspian Terns, and Black Skimmers. Biologists have discovered that this was a much-needed bird sanctuary that is attracting different species of colonial waterbirds. Early surveys of the new island recorded over 350 black skimmers, 60 gull-billed terns, and 2 least terns nesting on the restored habitat. Of particular importance are the black skimmers and least terns, both species are experiencing especially sharp declines according to the annual Texas Colonial Waterbird Census.

In 2003, biologists are looking to manage the island by planting native species of thorn scrub to attract wading birds like Reddish Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, and Great Blue Herons.