University of Houston Coastal Center (La Marque, Texas)

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The following article is from the September 6, 2000 University of Houston Daily Cougar newspaper, and was loacted in researching the location of Camp Wallace, a WW-II Coast Artillery base of the US Army. Per the article, the original roads and other "infrastructure" of the original camp can still be seen in this satellite photo. The polygon enclosing this section of land encompasses approximately 925 acres as stated in the article. These boundaries are of course assumed, but are probably fairly accurate.

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Pollution Solution
UH's Coastal Center, on native prairie land, is host to scores of research and educational projects

By Tom Carpenter
Daily Cougar Staff

Thundering herds of buffalo once migrated from the Texas high plains to the Gulf of Mexico to spend their winters grazing on the lush coastal grasses.

Like the buffalo, the Texas coastal prairies were brought to the edge of extinction by man's quest to control the land.

Less than .5 percent of the original coastal prairie exists today. Most of the land has been converted into rice farms and ranches for grazing cattle.

The University of Houston Coastal Center, located west of La Marque and encompassing 925 acres on the north side of State Highway 6 and west of FM 2004, performs a dual mission, according to Glenn Aumann, the director of the Environmental Institute of Houston and the Houston Coastal Center.

"The University of Houston has made a commitment to the Coastal Center to support the long-term research required for solutions to environmental problems," Aumann said.


Photo courtesy of Glenn Aumann



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Glenn Aumann has been the director of the Coastal Center, near La Marque, since he came to UH in 1965.
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"We also use the seeds from indigenous prairie plants in an effort to recover coastal prairie along the Texas coast."

Last year, the site provided 2,500 pounds of seed to the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge's restoration effort, enough to seed 100 acres of coastal prairie.

"It's a very slow, long-term project," Aumann said. "All of the research projects taking place here require a minimum of three years of data because of the weather."

The land originally belonged to the United States government. During World War II, the 1,603 acre tract was used as a military base. Camp Wallace was home to 16,000 soldiers and hundreds of German prisoners of war. The complete infrastructure of the base -- sewer systems, roads and building foundations -- still exists on the property.

"You can imagine what that did to the prairie. The soldiers brought in many invasive species of plants, primarily tallow trees and crepe myrtle that, if left alone, will completely take over the land. Once a tallow forest is established, nothing can survive under its canopy," Aumann said.

The Coastal Center serves as a site for field and laboratory studies that can't be performed on the main campus due to security, acreage or time requirements.

The University acquired the property in 1960 to provide a second campus for the UH system.

When ground was broken on the Clear Lake campus in the early '70s, the University redesignated the coastal property as an environmental research field station.

Aumann arrived on campus in 1965 with a Ph.D. in ecology and animal behavior from the University of Wisconsin. He was hired to put a freshman biology course on television.

"The University had just gotten the property. It was natural that they quickly showed it to me. Let's say I was available at the time that there was a need," Aumann said.

Educational activities at the Coastal Center have been funded by more than 20 federal and state agencies, including NASA and the National Science Foundation.

Texas Air Quality 2000, primarily funded by the University of Texas, has established a wind profiler on the property. The study is designed to improve our understanding of the chemical and physical processes at work in air pollutant formation and distribution along coastal and eastern Texas.

Every few seconds the profiler emits a combination radar-sonar beam into the atmosphere to measure air pollutants. Every three hours the profiler releases a weather balloon to gather additional data.

"This research project should have real bearing on the air pollution abatement measures that will be going into effect in the near future to help clean up Houston's air," Aumann said.

Evan Siemann, of Rice University, has established a site on the property for studying the invasion of the native prairie by alien plant species, primarily the Chinese tallow tree.

"Invasive species occupy a lot of biologists' time today throughout the United States," Aumann said. "In less than 20 years, young tallow trees will grow into a tallow forest that kills all other vegetation. It forms a canopy that blocks the sunlight."

Some on-going projects at the Coastal Center include: the study of ecological interactions of the imported fire ant; prairie maintenance and restoration; groundwater contamination and hazardous waste containment research; and Project Prairie Bird.

Project Prairie Bird, a privately and publicly funded research project in its second year, investigates prairie birds, particularly the Henslow's Sparrow, a species that winters in the Houston area. As the grasslands go, so do the birds.

"We have about 200 acres of the finest native prairie you'll find along the Gulf Coast, from Florida to Texas. It's the best, most diverse coastal prairie in the states," Aumann said. "It's a real treasure. It's been the same way for almost 20,000 years. It serves as a critical seed source for restoring the coastal prairies as well as an area to study the habits of migratory birds."

Aumann says that almost 100 people per year ask permission to study the prairie. "The pure aesthetics of it is worth a lot. It's amazing -- when things disappear people get interested in it."

According to the Coastal Center's annual report, between 1973 and 1988, graduate education associated with the Center resulted in 40 Master of Science theses, 24 Doctoral dissertations and 290 publications in books and reference journals.

Graduate student Jennie Brixey is compiling a herbarium collection that contains detailed information on the native prairie vegetation.

"That's very important for prairie restoration projects," Aumann said.

Water wells have been carefully hand dug down to 30 feet in two locations for monitoring pollution from the Galveston County landfill, adjacent to the Coastal Center's western border.

R.M. Capuano, Professor of Geology at UH, drops tracer dyes in one well and takes measurements in the other well to learn if the landfill is leaking pollutants. According to Aumann, the clay soil effectively seals the source of pollution.

In addition to discovering that no pollution has entered the Coastal Center land, Capuano learned that crawdads move up and down as much as 18 feet with the varying water table.

"That's a good reason not to drink well water from the underground table. The crawdads dig vertical tunnels down to the water, openings that allow all types of pollutants to enter the water," Aumann said.

According to the Coastal Center's annual report, "During the 1999-2000 academic year 14 faculty, 26 graduate students, one post-doctoral, and 15 visiting researchers used the Coastal Center and its resources for their research or as a base for research along the coast and in the estuaries."

Two full-time caretakers perform routine maintenance on the buildings, equipment and fence lines. The caretakers are also responsible for security and traffic control.

"We get a lot of intruders. Mostly kids on all-terrain vehicles carrying pliers to snip the fence so they can race down the old roads. Nothing irritates a researcher more than to have a bunch of kids messing with their research, so the security is very important," Aumann said.

The Coastal Center is home to a large number of mammals, according to Aumann.

"We've got two pair of bobcats that have three or four cubs every year. There's about a dozen coyotes that feed on the cotton rats and harvest mice, and in the winter we have about 150-200 turkey vultures that sleep here and eat at the landfill during the day.

"Feed them and they will come," Aumann added. "Spring and fall bird migrants use the land extensively."

The incredibly diverse fauna and flora of this tiny one and a half square mile section of land form the perfect laboratory to study current problems with air and water pollution.


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