Importance of the Trinity River to Texans

This summer many townships across Texas were on the brink of water rationing as the lack of rainfall had much of the state gripped in drought. Uncommon rainfall during the dog days of August eased the apprehension of city leaders, urban and suburban homeowners, and livestock and wildlife managers. Life would be easier with predictable rainfall, but you know what they say about predicting the weather.

Texans expect the western half of the state to receive less rainfall and to experience drought conditions more frequently than the eastern side of the state. Expectations are one thing but when reality offers little rainfall it affects us all. Scarcity instills greater appreciation for water and this condition becomes a driver to better understand the most important nutrient that sustains us.

If we had to fetch our own water like early Texans, I suspect the effort would cause us to be better stewards of this resource. However, when a simple twist of the wrist has water spilling from the tap it is easy to take its availability and source for granted.

The Trinity River corridor is flanked in the north by Dallas and Fort Worth and Houston on its southern end, each having a huge population. In a University of North Texas study, 92% of 1,000 respondents, who lived in the Trinity River Basin, did not know that they lived in a watershed. Further, 45% of the urban respondents did not know the source of their drinking water. It is easy to see that the Trinity River is underappreciated, as 5.5 million people are dependent on the river as their primary source of water.

Although the bulk of the water users are found in metropolitan areas, the majority of the Trinity River Watershed (18,000 square miles) is dependent on open space rural lands for supply from tributaries. In addition to water supply, recognition of other ecosystem services (recreation, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, flood abatement, etc.) is growing along the ~ 512 mile watercourse.

Members of the Trinity River Basin Conservation Foundation seek to better understand how land management has positive influence on ecosystems associated with the Trinity River. For instance, maintaining bottomland hardwood forests is known to be important for some wildlife species and standing timber is known to slow flood water. Plants that make up wildlife habitat benefit from nutrients that settle from the water column. Without standing timber, water moves at a faster rate and more nutrients rush downstream unused. Humans benefit as slower flood water has more time to infiltrate into the ground thus reducing the overall water volume that could cause problems downstream.

The Trinity River epitomizes the urban / rural interface where creative thinking and long-range planning are needed to assure that the river continues to provide for the wellbeing of humans, wildlife and fish. As urban dwellers, we need to recognize the value of open space lands like those found in the Trinity River Basin. For instance, grasslands serve as rainfall sponges bottomland hardwood forests hold carbon and slow flood waters – both are important to wildlife. These functions and more are essential to our everyday lives and they may become an important income stream for landowners that conduct sound land management practices. Emerging markets change the way that business is conducted. Perhaps conservation of wildlife habitat will take on a new look and approach from a business person’s perspective.