Port Aransas Debuts Long Awaited Nature Preserve...

PORT ARANSAS — This island community is home to winged, four legged and tourist wildlife 12 months out of the year. The debut of 1,217-acre Port Aransas Nature Preserve at Charlie’s Pasture is a chance for all of them to get closer to each other.

“It’s a chance for people to walk into nature,” said Joan Holt, the University of Texas Marine Science Institute’s director of fisheries and mariculture who helped develop the birding sites in the preserve. “People of any age and ability can get a view of an area not a lot of people could get to before. I think it will be used a lot for enjoying nature and sunsets and, of course, bird watching.”

Port Aransas started the process in 2002 of developing the property, leased from the Texas General Land Office, to provide the sort of amenities visitors and residents were asking for including birding sites, kayak access, fishing and hiking, said Charlie Zahn, Port Aransas park and recreation board chairman.

Two miles of crushed granite trails and boardwalk now wind through the terrain providing visitors with a bird’s-eye view of habitat that is home to a variety of species including alligators, birds, opossums, raccoons, squirrels, jack rabbits, feral hogs and endangered sea turtles. The boardwalk ends on Salt Island.

“Salt Island was an area identified as a really neat habitat,” said Port Aransas parks and recreation director Gary Mysorski. “It’s an upland land mass out in wetlands. A lot of this area is tidal flats. So we have a two story observation tower on Salt Island.”

There also are picnic areas and covered seating sites. And the preserve’s shoreline is a prime fishing spot and recreational area.

A concrete bike path runs from Port Aransas Community Park, where the city owned pool is located, to the preserve’s pavilion which is at the end of Port Street. No vehicles are allowed into the preserve and recently installed low fencing prevents such traffic.

The second phase of the project will add another 1.25 miles to the existing trail system branching off State Highway 361 and providing a link to the city’s Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center.

The second phase still is in the planning stage, but is expected to be complete late next year, Zahn said.

“Port Aransas is a tourist community and today in Texas nature tourism is the fastest growing segment,” Zahn said. “The opening of the nature preserve in conjunction with our other parks will make Port Aransas one of the premier birding locations in the whole state.”

Nature Preserve

THE LAND: The city leased 1,086 acres of the property from the Texas General Land Office for $5,500 a year, for 30 years. There are lease extensions built into the contract. The city has since acquired another 127 acres.

THE FUNDING: Money for design and construction came from $2.2 million in certificates of obligation issued in 2007, which are being paid back with a half-cent sales tax. About $340,000 in federal grants also was used.

Source: City of Port Aransas

Courtesy of The Corpus Christi Caller-Times