Texas Coastal Wetlands: Their Status, Legislation, and Regulation

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) estimates that Texas lost approximately 8,400,000 acres of wetland (inland and coastal) between colonial times and the 1980's, next to Florida, the second highest total of any state. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Departmetn ( TPWD) estimates that approximately 35% of the state's coastal marshes (salt, brackish, and fresh) were lost between the mid-1950's and 1979.