Water woes partly blamed on this summer’s Hurricane Alex has left two state parks in south Texas with different problems, reports Valley Morning Star.
3 turtles all in a row at Estero Llano Grande State Park; © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved
For Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco, there’s too much water.
The problem at Resaca de la Palma State Park in Brownsville, about 30 miles away, is a lack of water.
Estero Llano Grande
At Estero Llano Grande, National Resource Specialist Kyle O’Haver estimates that a quarter of the park has been flooded and is inaccessible to visitors.
Lesser Yellowlegs at Estero Llano Grande; © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved
Estero Llano Grande is just one of numerous victims of flooding caused by back-to-back Hurricane Alex and Tropical Depression No. 2 in July.
“At our park, when the floodway filled up, the county had to shut drainage ditches in our area,” O’Haver said. “All the storm water that came through Weslaco started building up in our park. When the floodway level goes down, we may be able to open the drains.”
In the meantime, some of the park did flood and the trail to Alligator Lake and Grebe Marsh was submerged and the two bodies of water became one.
Fortunately for the park, the flooding came in late summer, typically the offseason for visitation.
O’Haver said migratory warblers are already showing up at the park and the first ducks, blue-winged teal, are populating the ponds.
The park will return to normal as soon as the water level lowers in the floodway and we can start moving the water out, O’Haver added.
Resaca de la Palma
The ever beautiful and saucy green jay, a common winter visitor to RGV; © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved
Pablo de Yturbe, manager at Resaca de la Palma, said part of the culvert that transverses the tram road has collapsed and repairs are needed. The problem was detected in late 2009.
“Our resaca system is divided into five parts and two of the parts have no water,” de Yturbe said.
The observation deck closest to the visitor center now overlooks a dry resaca bed overgrown with weeds.
In better days, that overlook would have produced sightings of pied-billed and least grebes, green and ringed kingfishers, along with great kiskadees and white ibises.
Resacas are former channels of the Rio Grande River that have been cut off from the river and filled with silt and water creating marshes and ponds.
Great Kiskadee at Resca de la Palma State Park/World Birding Center in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) near Brownsville; © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved
De Yturbe said electric cars now take visitors to parts of the nearly 2,000-acre park that have water.
He said that when park visitation picks up in the cooler months, it would be important that the entire resaca has water.
“Regardless of whether the culvert is fixed or not, we will begin pumping water in November,” he said. “We’re just mimicking what the river would naturally do,” he said.
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