A conservation program entering its third year of Bird City Texas recognitions has a noticeable void in its list of designees: Rio Grande Valley communities.

Statewide, so far only seven cities comprise the small covey of communities that have met the criteria of the fledgling program sponsored by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Audubon Texas.

However, as the Valley emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, program organizers hope municipal leaders here pick up the call to get certified as a Bird City Texas community — working potentially to protect not only birds, but also a significant portion of the Valley’s economy built upon ecotourism.

“Green spaces are actually appealing. So if we want to bring new folks into this part of Texas, what better way to lure them than with healthy parks and healthy diverse wildlife,” said Yvette Stewart, Bird City Texas coordinator with Audubon Texas.

Stewart, who lives in La Feria, recommends local communities seriously consider the Bird City Texas certification and make environmental conservation part of the region’s population growth strategies.

“We have to incorporate these green spaces into our future planning, and what better time to do it than now,” Stewart said. “As we are coming out of the pandemic, we have an opportunity to press the reset button, to reprioritize nature and creating healthy spaces for us, animals and wildlife.”

Bird City Texas first called for applicants in August 2019, challenging cities to bring bird conservation efforts into city limits — where people live, work and play — with the reward of a three-year designation marking such destinations as Bird City Texas communities.

An eastern screech-owl roosts in the upper branches of a tree Wednesday, June 23, 2021, outside a home on Russell Drive in Brownsville. (Denise Cathey/The Brownsville Herald)

A goal of the program is to recruit the power of municipalities and residents to halt a staggering loss of birds in Texas and beyond.

“(North America) has lost approximately 30 percent of its birds in the last couple of decades,” Stewart said.

“Grassland species are often the most impacted,” Stewart said. “Because where we want to develop, whether that’s farmland for our agriculture or that’s flat ground for our housing, is where the (grassland) birds need to be.”

Simply put, a lot of birding habitat is impacted as communities grow and cities expand, Stewart explained, raising the need for a program that works with cities to implement programs and conservation strategies where humans choose to form communities.

“Development is not going to stop,” Stewart said. “We need to be making plans for both green spaces and healthy development. If you look at Brownsville, you know Elon Musk is trying to promote the area down here and trying to bring in huge partners and even change the way we function down here.

“That’s going to be a problem if you do not make an effort to maintain green spaces and you do not think of wildlife as being valuable, and you do not make plans to incorporate that into the longevity of your community, it gets overlooked.”

The benefits of green spaces are not limited to birds, she said, but also include psychological benefits for a community’s residents who can connect with nature.

Despite the current lack of local Bird City Texas titles, the Rio Grande Valley has heard the program’s call. Three Valley cities had started applications in either 2019 or 2020: Brownsville, McAllen and Weslaco.

However, “the application process is rigorous,” Stewart said, and in some cases Texas cities had been forced to halt their application process to deal with more immediate threats to community health during the rise of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.

The program’s first designations went to Bastrop, Dallas, Houston and Port Aransas in January 2020.

This past January, Galveston, San Antonio and Surfside Beach also added the Bird City Texas title as a feather in their caps. Those finishers came from a pool of eight completed applications from a field of 14 cities that had started applications in 2020.

As concern over the pandemic ebbs, however, municipal leaders have an opportunity to reset their focus on environmental improvements and conservation efforts, including applying to the Bird City Texas program, Stewart said.

There would be a value for such a designation — and environmental focus — for every community in the Valley, according to Sue Griffin, chair of the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, an annual week-long birding event based in Harlingen that spreads its wings to cities and birding sites across the Valley.

“I think the presence of birds is an indication of a healthy community,” Griffin said.

An egret stalks the grass for prey Wednesday, June 23, 2021, at a roosting area in the palm grove inside Dean Porter Park in Brownsville. (Denise Cathey/The Brownsville Herald)

As evidenced by the RGV Birding Festival’s nearly three decades of success, the Valley is already nationally renown as a birding destination, with its series of nature parks, refuges and birding centers. Griffin estimates the annual weeklong festival pumps millions of dollars into Harlingen’s economy every fall.

However, in the spring months across the Valley, she estimates the impact of ecotourism would be much larger.

“There are multiple tour companies that offer tours for birders,” Griffin said. “All of those tour companies use professional guides, they rent cars, they stay in our hotels, and most of those plan at least two or three trips to the Valley every year.

“That’s not during the birding festival time — that’s throughout the year, particularly during in the spring when we’re having migration.”

For others, a healthy environment is also an indicator of healthy economic prospects.

“The impact of birdwatching in our communities does drive our opportunities when it comes to supporting small business owners and when it comes to attracting tourists to our region,” said Sergio Contreras, president and CEO of RGV Partnership.

Further, there have been increasingly more conversations about the value of green development and how development is guided by municipal ordinances, he added, citing how some cities, such as Brownsville, are currently reviewing ordinances with an eye toward forthcoming building code revisions.

“Understanding the impact that bird-watching tourism brings to our region, there are conscious efforts from developers and industries to ensure there is also that ability to have greenery around,” Contreras said. “COVID even brought more light to the benefits of what’s out there, the birding centers, state parks and along those lines.”

Unfortunately, no one precisely knows the full impact of ecotourism on the Valley’s economy in 2021. The best economic picture of the region’s ecotourism is still based on a frequently touted but now-decade-old research published by Texas A&M University in 2012. Sources continue to regularly cite that study when proclaiming ecotourism provides the Valley with an economic impact of approximately $432 million annually.

Yet, the study’s authors advised then that their estimates were conservative.

Since 2011, travel-related spending — including but not limited to ecotourism — has grown in Hidalgo and Cameron counties by about 124%, according to data from Dean Runyan Associates on the Travel Texas government website.

Further, the Texas A&M study did not include ecotourism spending by Valley residents who “were not considered in estimating the economic impact of nature tourism.” Although the study obtained estimates of locals’ spending on ecotourism, “These results could not be used to calculate the economic impact on nature tourism, which relies on money from outside the region,” the researchers said.

Residents questioned by the researchers reported spending about $347 a person on local nature tourism and another $131 outside the region during the peak of the ecotourism season in 2011.

“Residents likely spent less money on nature tourism outside the Valley because they have different tourism motivations than do nature tourists visiting the region,” the study said. “A strong local nature tourism industry may be capturing the interest of locals who would not otherwise be nature tourists. Some residents may have moved to the region, at least on a part-time basis, to take advantage of excellent nature tourism opportunities, thus reducing their desire to engage in nature tourism elsewhere.”

The presence of birds increases the region’s appeal to retirees, whether they choose to live here permanently or seasonally, said Kristi Collier, president of Welcome Home Rio Grande Valley, a resource for Winter Texans and retirees.

“Winter Texans bring an estimated $700 million to our local economy each season. It’s hard to say what percentage of that is a result of ecotourism, but there is no doubt that it does play a factor in South Texas as a retirement destination,” Collier said. “Our state parks, birding centers, and wildlife refuges are not only hosting our local community and birding enthusiasts but also provide a playground for our retirees who have an interest in or a desire to learn more about our local wildlife.”

A common moorhen shepherds its young through the water Wednesday, June 23, 2021, in Prax Orive Jr. Park in Brownsville. (Denise Cathey/The Brownsville Herald)

The economic picture, incomplete as it is, helps to support Audubon Texas’ calls to further protect birds within communities.

In Brownsville, the Bird City Texas designation is an obvious goal “that really takes advantage of who we are and promoting it,” said Dr. Rose Gowen, a Brownsville city commissioner, who cited the city’s other efforts to develop community gardens and hike-and-bike trails as being in line with birding conservation efforts.

“I do think that we need very much as a city to promote and educate more about the fact that we are a birding haven,” Gowen said, “because most kids and adults who are from here don’t appreciate the wealth of birds that we have.

“I don’t think I do either. I just know that we are a birding region, but specifically what that means or in comparison to other areas, I need to be educated as well.”

On Wednesday, Gowen confirmed that the city’s beautification committee was aware of the Bird City Texas designation and was committed to working with the city to pursue the title.

Texas cities have an opportunity through the end of the year to join the covey of communities already designated as Bird City Texas destinations.

This week, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Texas Audubon reopened the application process, allowing cities to again seek certification in the Bird City Texas program — and hopefully land the bird-friendly title. The application period closes in December.

Cities that achieve certification have applied and been vetted for their efforts to:

>> Enhance and restore habitats;

>> Increase native plant coverage for the benefit of birds and people;

>> Reduce population-level threats;

>> Increase public awareness of the benefits and challenges of bird conservation;

>> Promote environmental stewardship in Texas cities.

Certification is based on work in three categories, which encompass education and engagement; habitat management and improvement; and removing threats to birds.

The program’s criteria is designed to get communities to think beyond refuges or parks — and how to incorporate the full scope of a community — including private lands and ways to include residents.

“Communities that applied in the past that were not certified often relied too heavily on a single park,” Stewart said. “That does not encompass an entire community. It has to include a little bit of everyone. It has to be spread out across the boundaries of what you consider your community to be.”


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To learn more about the Bird City Texas program, visit here or watch below.