Joy of Whooping Cranes’ Return Lessens

SEADRIFT — Estimates that a record 250-plus endangered whooping cranes are expected to begin their annual autumn migration to the Texas coast usually would be cause for celebration among backers of the big birds.

Instead, there’s worry that the fragile-yet-thriving flock could start running out of room as massive development forges ahead on parts of the Central Texas coast that builders had ignored until now.

"The current flock of cranes still has ample room to cohabitate," said Allan Strand, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s field supervisor for ecological services in South Texas. "What we’re concerned about with development is … if habitat is lost to the point it will circumvent recovery efforts."

The battlefield has become a proposed housing development on the east side of San Antonio Bay, just south of Seadrift. Specifically, whooper advocates are balking at a permit application filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by Seadrift Ranch Partners Ltd.

In it, developer Bill Ball seeks to build "two marinas, associated inland canals and access channels to provide recreational boat access for a 700-acre waterfront residential community."

More than 600 people signed a petition opposing the development. Environmentalists are asking that it be denied unless there’s an unbiased study of potential impacts on the cranes.

"The whooping crane population is simply too vulnerable to approve this application without a thorough independent and scientific review of environmental impacts," the Audubon Society wrote in a "sample letter" offered to supporters to pass on to the Corps of Engineers during a public comment period, which drew more than 10,000 responses before ending Aug. 31.

Ball has until Oct. 19 to respond, although he can request an extension, Corps spokeswoman Kimberley Benavides said.

The project would involve dredging to give residents’ boats access to the nearby Victoria Barge Canal, which cuts through shallow San Antonio Bay. Ball said 300 square feet of wetlands, equivalent to a large master bedroom, would be affected.

"We’ve been very intent to make absolutely sure our project has zero negative impact on whooping cranes and, in fact, will enhance their habitat," said Ball, who plans to build several bird-friendly freshwater ponds on the premises.

Local opposition Ball notes that the "100 or so" acres of critical habitat near Mosquito Point that are at the heart of the debate are near the barge canal — a commercial waterway into Victoria County — and a dredge spoil easement operated by the Corps of Engineers.

That’s no solace to locals like C.J. Garriott, a librarian and publisher of a small monthly newspaper in Seadrift. Like many in this fishing village, she’s concerned about what Falcon Point Ranch and several other upscale developments on the drawing board will do to the region’s sleepy charm.

Garriott is also worried that the whooper eventually could get boxed in if builders turn too much pasture and wilderness into designer homes, streets and canals.

"As the group gets bigger, it needs more area," she said. "We can’t afford to lose any."

The flock indeed is growing. According to an Aug. 15 report, there were 236 cranes and a record 84 chicks hatched at Wood Buffalo National Park in northwestern Canada, where they nest in the spring and summer.

Barring severe loss of life during the 2,500-mile migration this fall to nearly 23,000 acres of wetlands at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and nearby marshes, the record population in Texas should surpass 250.

Strand said it’s not clear where whoopers, who pair up and stake out large tracts of wetlands to themselves, will go once their numbers climb past 500.

Numbers fell to 16 The Texan-Canadian flock is the largest, although as of Aug. 15 there were about 41 nonmigratory whoopers in Florida and another 83 that move between Florida and Wisconsin. Nearly 150 whooping cranes are in captivity in 11 North American wildlife centers and zoos, including eight at the San Antonio Zoo.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt set aside the first section of the Aransas refuge in 1937, but the whoopers’ numbers bottomed out around 16 the following decade. The flock has rebounded over the years and especially lately: Only 132 wintered at Aransas as late as 2001, when the Corps finished a $20 million erosion control program to preserve and expand wetlands along the 31-mile stretch of coast the whoopers prefer.

Strand — who says Ball has been cooperative with the federal process — said the issue goes beyond the 100 acres. It’s about how all development will be managed in a region that’s increasingly being shared by people and wildlife.

"Believe me, I’m a capitalist and I’m a developer and I’m going to make a profit here," Ball said. "I think, long term, there’s more profit in doing things right and protecting the environment than there is by taking shortcuts and not doing those things."

mark.babineck@chron.com