- [Jay] Funding for this program was provided by.

- [Chrissy] The J.W.

Couch Foundation.

- [Jay] Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University, Kingsville.

- [Chrissy] Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi.

- [Jay] The Gulf of Mexico Trust.

- [Chrissy] Threshold Foundation.

- [Jay] Shield-Ayers Foundation.

- [Chrissy] Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation.

Gossamer Gear.

Cina Alexander Forgason.

Pam and Will Harte.

- [Jay] Helen Alexander.

Blair and Wade G. Chappell.

Claire Dewar.

Cheryl and Paul Drown.

Deborah and David McBride.

Myfe Moore.

Shirley and Dennis Rich and the Texas Water Foundation.

- [Chrissy] For more information and a complete list of funders, please visit ChasingTheTidesSeries.com (upbeat music) - [Jay] The Texas Coast.

- [Chrissy] From the Sabine River to the Rio Grande.

- [Jay] It's diverse.

- [Chrissy] It's industrial.

- [Jay] It's a buffer.

- [Chrissy] A gateway.

- [Jay] And it's rapidly changing.

- [Chrissy] We're going to show it to you as we walk every inch.

- [Jay] This is Chasing the Tide.

(energetic music) - [Chrissy] After leaving Galveston Island, we had some unfinished business we needed to take care of.

We skipped McFaddin Beach earlier in the walk because construction was going to keep our support crew from shadowing us as we walked.

- This is your one chance, you can't mess this up.

No.

- [Chrissy] But Ellis Pickett came to the rescue.

He called up his buddy Terry, who had a Polaris 4x4 and kindly agreed to help us out while we walked McFaddin.

The construction had been momentarily halted for some repair to a dredge that was pumping sand from a mile offshore.

(water bubbling) - [Jay Voiceover] The construction of dunes and beach was underway in some sections.

And of course, there was no one out there.

- [Jay] Oh, man.

Can you grab some of that rock for me?

- [Together] Whoa.

- Good eyes.

- [Jay] Now put it on your face.

- A mask?

(Jay laughing) - [Jay] The intention was to extend the beach out and add dunes to stabilize the shoreline and avoid the loss of adjacent wetlands to the Gulf of Mexico.

But what would happen after a few years?

- Generally speaking, that sand gets washed away pretty soon.

You're going to have to do it again.

But I think it's a good short-term solution, potentially, right?

So it's something that we've done historically over and over again.

And I don't have any objections to that from an environmental standpoint.

We are generally more concerned with the bay side than the beach side.

But we know they operate together.

And so that's a pretty standard practice.

(pensive music) - [Chrissy] McFaddin is in many ways a clue as to what the Ike Dike project would bring to the upper coast, extended beaches, a dune system, and of course, the ship channel gate.

All of which, in theory, preserves the coastline and makes it more robust.

But, is it something that would last?

Or are there alternatives we should consider?

(waves murmuring) - So in addition to the massive infrastructure projects that are contemplated, there's some ecosystem service restoration going on.

And that can take place at a large scale or a small scale.

We've got an example of it right behind me at our property in Kemah for the Galveston Bay Foundation, where we built what we call a living shoreline.

So we put a layer of rock across the mouth of our little cove, intended to stop the wave action from the Houston Ship Channel.

So the waves will trip over the rock and start to build land on the other side of the rock because the sediment in the water slows down and falls out.

And so we've been able to actually build a big marsh here behind our rock breakwater, which you can see perfectly here.

And so now for our property, we have multiple layers of protection.

We've got a rock breakwater, we've got our marsh, and then we've actually backfilled with a bulkhead to protect from erosion from much bigger storms.

So there's a lot of ways to do protection across Galveston Bay and the Texas coast.

But natural infrastructure should absolutely have a role in doing things like wetland restoration and oyster reef restoration and land conservation, allowing, you know, undeveloped land to absorb the floodwaters.

That's what we need more of for sure across the whole region.

(energetic upbeat music) - [Jay] After we conquered McFaddin, the next day we resumed our walk down at Surfside Beach.

This area is a favorite of Houston area surfers.

- [Chrissy] Surfside Beach is just outside Freeport, a large industrial community of around 60,000 located near the mouth of the Brazos River.

- [Jay] People were tracking our progress and came out to say hello.

- Tacos.

- Yeah, we got some tacos!

Thank you, that was so nice of you!

- [Jay Voiceover] We were entering territory that Ellis knew well and had places he wanted to show us.

- I first started surfing at Surfside Beach, I discovered that in 1966.

Went down there.

It was 110 miles from my house, but there's really good waves there.

They were better than Galveston and better than Bolivar.

It was well worth the drive because the beach was wide.

There were places where the beach from the dunes to the water was over 260 feet of sandy beach.

Now there is no beach at Surfside.

- Those are the A frames.

- [Ellis] Those are the A frames.

- [Jay] There were six- - In this picture in 1973, there were six of them there.

So if we looked at this picture today, those houses would not be seen.

They're gone.

- [Chrissy Voiceover] The city is home to about 650 people, and it seemed like a lot of them knew we were coming.

(people chattering) This community has seen severe erosion in its shoreline, to the extent that some front row houses, and the lots that they stood on, are now in the Gulf.

- [Jay] And we were walking on the main street, but there was no beach at all.

- And before, there had been these lots, which were about 150 feet deep, and then 260 feet of sandy beach, and then the Gulf of Mexico.

But today, there is nothing but water all the way up to the road.

The reason for that is because there's more wave action at Surfside Beach.

The reason for more wave action is 'cause it's deeper there.

One of the reasons it's deeper there is because the ship channel jetty is out there.

That creates some scour in there.

And when the storm waves come in and they'll hit the revetment in front of Jetty Park, or now on Beach Drive, they rebound with more force and speed and drag more sand away in storm events.

And it may go out there.

It may never return to the beach.

And when this was built in the '60s, that was the level of the sand all along Beach Drive.

That guy is 6 feet 2.

So that much has gone away.

That's why you need beach nourishment.

Then you can rebuild.

The problem with beach nourishment is it's always going to wash away.

- What do you say to people that think that that might just be a waste of money?

If you're going to put sand on the beaches, and then it's just going to wash away every three or four years, what's- - Oh, yeah, I mean, we're talking millions of taxpayer dollars over and over and over.

Okay, but you're looking at the big picture now.

We're looking at the coast.

We're looking at a whole lot of tourism.

We're looking at a whole lot of property that needs to be protected out there.

What happens is it's just like your house.

You mow your yard.

It's going to grow back.

You paint your house.

It's going to fade.

But we're talking about not your house.

We're talking about the community.

We're talking about the industry.

We're talking about the recreation.

We're talking about the fishing access.

We're talking about the coast.

(pensive music) - [Jay Voiceover] Dunes are very low or nonexistent at Surfside Beach, and residents bolster the shoreline every year with donated Christmas trees.

Houses sit at the water's edge encroaching on the public beach easement.

Residents were eager to show us what the coast was doing to their homes.

- So you were saying that the sand should be at the tops of these- - The top of the blocks right here?

- [Jay] Yeah, here.

- That's the level of the sand.

Actual sand level.

Look out, it's level all the way across, all the way to the outside blocks.

Add two more houses out there.

There was two more houses.

So this distance right here was still another 200 yards of beach out there.

- Yeah.

And this is in a nine-year period?

Or a little bit more?

- (indistinct) 20 year.

- 20-year period.

That you've lost a couple hundred yards of beach.

- Yes.

But like in the past three years, we've probably lost two foot of sand.

- Wow.

- And then at certain times, it'll put back another 18 inches.

Comes and goes.

- And to protect your stretch of beach, you said you built some dunes back here.

- Yeah.

And after the storms, we dig this out of the streets and build this up.

Try to keep the water from coming in as much as we can.

If we know there's going to be a storm, we bring trackers and fill this part in as well.

To try to keep it, because, it's strange to know this, but we're on the higher land than the island.

So if the water goes over this hill, they're three foot lower than us in the center of the island.

So it's a big bowl.

They flood.

- [Jay] Beachfront owners whose homes are being lost to erosion have hopes that the General Land Office will either compensate them for their losses or come to the rescue with a beach nourishment plan that will save their properties.

- One Saturday, on one day of the month, one weekend a month, the city might be (indistinct).

- [Chrissy] Surfside Beach is a lovely little community, and we were sad to move on.

To get further down the coast, we had to cross the Freeport Ship Channel and walk Quintana Beach.

- [Jay] The Freeport Ship Channel is actually the original mouth of the Brazos River, but was dammed in 1929 to avoid sediment buildup at Brazos Port.

The new mouth empties out a few miles to the west of Bryan Beach.

The reason why Surfside and Quintana, and in many communities near rivers that enter the Gulf, have disappearing coastlines has a lot to do with dams up river and what happens when the sediment they transport exits into the Gulf.

- [Chrissy] When water comes down the river, it carries sediment with it.

Texas has dammed up almost every river flowing to the Gulf of Mexico.

This limits the amount of sediment, and the nutrients they carry, from flowing downstream.

When the water exits to the Gulf, ship channels force sediment that would have otherwise been deposited on the shoreline further out into the ocean.

- [Jay] Not only that, if a river passage is hardened and extended with a jetty, it traps sediment as ocean currents move water parallel to the shoreline.

Cutting off that natural flow of sand means beaches aren't replenished and the shoreline retreats.

This area experiences some of the highest erosion rates on the Texas Gulf Coast, losing up to 32 feet of beach per year.

- [Chrissy] We were lucky enough to get a ride across the Brazos from Jamal, a local angler.

(gentle music) - [Jay Voiceover] On the other side of the river, we got some much-needed calories in the form of Shipley's donuts.

- [Chrissy Voiceover] And after that, we took a minute to FaceTime with the girls.

- Say hi.

(Jay laughs) Say hello.

- [Chrissy Voiceover] And then it was time to go, but not before someone stole part of my donut.

- Come on.

Well, now I have to take a half of one.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - [Jay] We made our way down to Sargent.

(upbeat music continues) (waves murmuring) As the sun set, members of the Sargent 4x4 rescue and recovery group met us to make sure we made it safely down the beach.

- Okay, this right over here is Sargent.

- Yeah.

- On this side, it's.

(upbeat music continues) - [Chrissy] The next day, we got a ride across Mitchell's Cut from Freddy.

He had been following our journey on social media and asked if we needed a lift to Matagorda Beach.

(upbeat music continues) Where Ellis was waiting for us and shadowed us down the coastline.

- Right now, we're driving towards the south on Matagorda Beach.

We're probably about halfway between Sargent Beach and Matagorda.

The sand is really deep in places.

It was really rough getting in here.

And we should be meeting up with Chrissy and Jay in a while.

They are ahead of us on the beach.

It's a very dynamic system out here.

The beach moves.

The sand moves.

But the net effect is the continuous line of natural vegetation is moving inland.

An old saying in Texas is, if you want a front row beach house, buy one on the second row.

Enjoy it a few years.

Sell it.

Let someone else suffer the loss.

Buy one on the second row for less money.

Repeat three times, and that third beach house is free.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) Hasta luego!

- See you down the coast.

(upbeat music continues) - [Jay] Once we crossed the Colorado River, we made our way onto Matagorda Peninsula, where there are only two full-time residents.

There's no running water or electricity, and not a lot of vehicular traffic either.

It's very wild.

We were lucky enough to meet the two full-time residents, Ed and Chantal.

Like so many folks we met along the walk, they were as kind and welcoming as they could be to us.

(all laughing) - We'll get Pickle to bring you out of DVD.

- There you go.

- [Chrissy] Oh, yeah.

VHS?

- VHS.

Listen, listen to her.

VHS.

Well, we haven't been advanced that far yet.

Maybe one day in the future, we'll be able to get one of those.

(waves murmuring) - [Chrissy] Hey, Pickle.

- [Jay Voiceover] Unfortunately, as we were setting off to Matagorda Island, I lost my GoPro.

- [Person] Oh, no.

What was that?

- [Jay] It was my GoPro.

- [Chrissy] Jay.

Come on.

You can do it.

- [Jay Voiceover] The GoPro was lost to the sea.

- [Pickle] But hey, the current's running this way too.

- [Jay Voiceover] Now, how was I going to irritate, I mean, document Chrissy?

- [Chrissy] Oh, man.

- [Jay] Our ship captain ferrying us over to Matagorda Island was Pickle Raguson, who's been fishing and guiding around here for decades.

- [Chrissy Voiceover] Matagorda Island is a unique place on the Texas coast.

It's the traditional homeland of the Karankawa people.

And during World War II, it was used as a training facility, a bombing and gunnery range.

Today, it's a wildlife refuge managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Remnants of the military use remain, as does the lighthouse, first built in 1852 to guide ships through Pass Cavallo.

- [Chrissy] That was 96 steps.

- 96 steps.

We're at the top of the lighthouse.

- [Chrissy] You go first.

- Okay.

Let's see here.

- [Jay Voiceover] Today, Matagorda Island, like a lot of Texas barrier islands, is losing ground, literally, to erosion.

- What you see that's out about a half a mile from the shoreline here 20 years ago was a whole layer of dunes and prairie and beach, now really just a sliver.

We walked on it a little bit earlier.

(gentle pensive music) Felipe Prieto with the US Fish and Wildlife Service grew up near Corpus Christi and has lived most of his life near this part of the Texas coast.

- Over the years, the coast has changed because, well, I've been fortunate enough to see it.

And to be in one place allows one to do that.

But it's changed because, and here more rapidly, higher water levels, increasing number of storms in the Gulf.

They don't have to hit us.

They just have to raise the water levels like we have now.

The constant energy and lapping and the rate of loss has just increased from years ago.

Along the Aransas shoreline, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, the original reticulated matting, designed and engineered 30 years ago, didn't consider sea level rise.

So today, it's inadequate for those water levels, the current water levels.

On Matagorda, the bayside marshes, we have signage that we posted 15, 16 years ago that are in the water now.

Those lands have been lost to erosion.

- [Chrissy] Where we were dodging waves on the shore near the lighthouse, Felipe estimates that over the past few decades, Gulf waters have overtaken 3/8ths of a mile or more of the island.

(waves murmuring) - Climate change has come upon us much sooner than we anticipated.

And the effects are greater than we've anticipated.

So here we are caught basically behind the curve.

- [Jay] In the last couple of decades, the Gulf beach of Matagorda Island has lost nearly 700 acres, at an increasingly high rate, especially around the lighthouse.

(wind swooshing) (waves murmuring) - We've lost the beach there.

We've lost the dunes.

We've lost barrier flat.

We're eroding now into the barrier flat, the grassland.

The problem with that is it's unraveling.

Those energies never stop.

They're 24/7.

If we can stop it and get it going the other way to rebuild, replenish, then great, we restore Matagorda there.

But if we can at least slow it down, it's what we need to do.

Regardless of where we are, whether it's an oyster reef adjoining Matagorda Island or the island itself, they're both eroding at a rate that's not sustainable.

If we do nothing, we're going to lose.

Lose habitats, we're going to lose wildlife and fisheries, diminish virtually everything, all the ecosystem benefits of this place.

If we act, we at least maintain and hold on to some of these and kind of re-equalize in time.

Think about hurricanes.

Instead of having a barrier island to take the brunt of that force, now it impacts mainlands directly.

And so the impacts would be worse.

What's special to me is future generations, preserving it, protecting it.

That doesn't mean we can't use it, but it means having the essence of this coast, these coastlands for future generations.

This is what makes the Texas coast unique.

This is why I stay.

(chuckles) - [Chrissy] Matagorda Bay, like all of the bays and estuaries in Texas, is nourished by water that flows across and beneath nearly every one of the state's 170 million acres.

- [Jay] Along the way, water is diverted for many uses.

Upon reaching the coast, freshwater mixes with saltwater to create unique conditions for life.

- [Chrissy] The freshwater inflow from the river provides the estuary with nutrients and sediment.

It changes the salinity levels that allow species like oysters, seagrass, plankton, and shrimp to thrive.

This, in turn, provides habitat and food for species higher up the food chain, like redfish, crabs, and whooping cranes.

- [Jay] These brackish zones provide a crucial environment for the entire interconnected ecosystem, and they don't exist without barrier islands like Matagorda.

If we fail to protect places like this, we lose the marshes and bays that harbor these biodiversity hotspots, as well as the mainland they protect.

Matagorda Island is unusual in its lack of development and real inaccessibility.

- [Chrissy] The history and gradual return to nature was really interesting to see, and the danger posed by erosion was extreme and dramatic.

If much of the island is lost, then a few punches from a hurricane would put the lighthouse in real danger of being taken by the sea.

- [Jay] As we said goodbye to Matagorda, we made our way down to San Jose Island, an island entirely privately owned, but thanks to the Open Beaches Act, we could walk the coastline.

We'd have to cover 20 miles in under six hours to make the last ferry to Port Aransas.

- [Chrissy] A beach party, and more importantly, our three daughters, were waiting on the other side.

- [Jay] Next time on "Chasing the Tide."

- The Laguna Madre, this is a hugely important migration corridor for birds.

- The behavior has changed this place, and what was once peaceful and serene, it's just not what it was.

- [Jay] Funding for this program was provided by.

- [Chrissy] The J.W.

Couch Foundation.

- [Jay] Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University Kingsville.

- [Chrissy] Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, - [Jay] The Gulf of Mexico Trust.

- [Chrissy] Threshold Foundation.

- [Jay] Shield-Ayres Foundation.

- [Chrissy] Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation.

Gossamer Gear, Cina Alexander Forguson, Pam and Will Harte.

- [Jay] Helen Alexander, Blair and Wade G. Chappell, Claire Dewar, Cheryl and Paul Drown, Deborah and David McBride, Myfe Moore, Shirley and Dennis Rich, and the Texas Water Foundation.

- [Chrissy] For more information and a complete list of funders, please visit chasingthetideseries.com.

(light flute music)