Photo Gallery of Hurricane Damage to High Island Sanctuaries.
Photo Gallery from Initial Clean-up (9/15 - 9/17)

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Clean-up is far from complete but there are enough trails open in Boy Scout Woods and Smith Oaks for birding (thanks to the efforts of hard working volunteers who have been wonderful) and hazardous limbs have been removed from those trails. PLEASE STAY ON OPEN TRAILS if you can't find a favorite trail please don't go looking for it.

High Island Recovers from Hurricane Humberto

by Winnie Burkett, HAS Sanctuary Manager

Humberto really slammed High Island! Wednesday night Sept. 12, it was forecast only to be a small tropical storm that would come in on Galveston Island, but it quickly increased in intensity turning into a small hurricane. The hurricane turned right and gave High Island its all.

The damage was much worse for our High Island sanctuaries then Rita’s impact 2 years ago. The summer of 2005 was a dry one, and Rita brought little rain, so tree damage was mostly broken branches and split trees. In contrast, this summer has been very wet, and Humberto brought an additional 6-8 inches of rain which loosened the soil. Trees on High Island don’t have very deep roots due to a dense clay layer. The combination of rain and wind meant lots of downed trees.

Immediately after the storm, getting the sanctuaries reopened looked impossible, but Rita had taught us some important lessons so we knew what to do. We had learned that immediately after storms, Galveston County will pick up debris carried to the street, so we knew the quicker we took debris there the better. A tree company was immediately hired for the big technical work, and a call went out for volunteers. Saturday, Sept. 15, an amazing amount was accomplished in Boy Scout Woods. The main boardwalk loop was cleared and the street was piled high with debris that the county cleared away 3 times. Although much of the debris has been carried to the street, there are still large debris piles in the woods that are too remote to haul out. We tried to pile up as much as possible so birders can still find Swainson’s Warblers, Ovenbirds and thrushes in the spring. Another lesson that Rita taught us is that the piles decompose rapidly. If possible, we will haul some of the debris to open places and burn it this winter like we did after Rita.

Sunday and Monday volunteers worked on some of the additional trails in Boy Scout Woods and began on Smith Oaks. On a percentage basis Smith Oaks lost fewer trees then Boy Scout Woods but many large branches came down and there is a huge amount of debris. There is no way to haul debris to the street so many piles have been made for burning. Most likely much of the debris will stay in the woods. Several huge oaks are down across trails in Smith Oaks and we plan to just relocate those trails. It will take a while to evaluate the best way to do this. All trails should be open by spring.

Another important lesson Rita taught us is about replanting. Planting new trees and shrubs as quickly as possible is important to immediately begin re-growth, but the critical factor is to keep privet under control. Privet loves the extra sunlight and will grow 6 feet a year. This means it can quickly choke out newly installed plants. We tie brightly colored surveyors tape on the new plants to help us find them and try to keep the privet cut back. Some of us have "adopted" small portions of the sanctuaries for privet monitoring. This means spending a couple of hours a year cutting or pulling privet around new plants. If you would like to become a privet monitor, please let me know.

The most wonderful lesson of all is how quickly volunteers respond. The jobs looked impossible, yet our volunteers took them on and got them done. Working in the woods in September can be very uncomfortable yet they kept drinking water and worked on. Boy Scout Woods and Smith Oaks are open now because of the enthusiastic response from volunteers.

Clean-up volunteers September 15, 16 and 17 were: Peggy Boston, Ann Brinley, Marcie Brown, Tristan Ford, Laurie Foss, Joanna Friesen, Gerri Guerrant, Shielis Hargis, Joy Hester, Laura, Lanner and Addison Hobby, Paula Kennedy, John Krisher (sp?),Dwayne Litteer, Stennie Meadours, Scott, Terri and William Newsom, Gene Prejean, Jane Rierson, Pauline Singletary, Margaret Sloan, Charlie and Wanda Smith, Pam Smolen, Jerry Stanislaus, Mike Stelling, Aaron Stoley, Don Verser, Vicki Vroble, Mary Anne and Jaden Weber, and Jim Winn. We also had help from volunteers from the ALERT Academy of Big Sandy Texas, the Air Force National Guard, and the Mormon Helping Hands.

We greatly appreciate everyone’s concern. The sanctuaries will look very different. There are still lots of trees, and the trees we planted after Rita are doing well and growing fast. In Texas habitat repair happens rapidly, and the birds are ready to use what ever is available.