In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Preface When I was a child, my family lived for a while on Morgan Peninsula in coastal Alabama. My father, like me, loved the Gulf and could never live far from it. Growing up there I experienced things that piqued my curiosity. For example, our neighbor, who tonged for oysters in the bay, frequently returned with Indian artifacts that he had gathered there. We wondered how these objects occurred in oyster reefs that are now in 5 to 10 feet of water. I now know that these reefs were at one time, just a few thousand years ago, above sea level. As I grew older, the changes that were taking place along our coast became more evident, and today, a half century later, I occasionally return to our old bay house and view with amazement the amount of shoreline erosion that has occurred during my lifetime. But nature is not the only force that has changed the coast. When I was a kid, miles of beach were accessible to the public. Now I drive along the coast at Gulf Shores, Alabama , for miles and cannot see the Gulf past all the condominiums—at least that was the case until the summer of 2004, when Hurricane Ivan destroyed many of those that lined the coast. Texans are fortunate. We have vast stretches of undeveloped coastline, and beach access is guaranteed to all citizens by law. Unfortunately these laws are eroding with our beaches. In 1975 my family and I moved to Houston and immediately began visiting the upper Texas coast. I must admit that at first I was not impressed with Texas beaches. They certainly are not as spectacular as the white sandy beaches of west Florida and Alabama. When we first started going to the beach we saw more cows than people. That is starting to change. The upper Texas coast has finally been discovered, and developers are cashing in on this interest. Preservation of our valued coastal areas hinges on citizens being better informed about how coasts evolve, how they operate, and which natural processes will threaten them in the next century. We must all take an active role in protecting the coast. I have spent more than two decades studying the Texas coast and continental shelf to better understand how the coast evolved, how the coast will respond to rising sea level and climate change, and how we might best prepare for these changes. Over the years, I have led many field trips for students, teachers, and professionals and given many public presentations on the evolution of the upper Texas coast. My audience’s great interest inspired me to write this book. We all feel an attraction to the coast. In the Houston-Galveston area, it is our prime recreational resource. But in our lifetimes we see changes taking place that concern us, and we want to understand why these changes are occurring. How much is due to human influence, and how much is simply natural evolution? I wrote this book because I feel that time is running out to save our coast. I see too many things happening that will have a long-term detrimental impact. My goal is to impress upon readers the fact that our coast is a fragile system that requires our immediate attention. One of the challenges of writing a book like this is that if it is too heavy on the science, people will not want to read it. If the science is omitted, some will say that the book is heavy on opinion and light on supporting data. I have tried to get around this problem by providing important background information needed to understand scientific issues. I have included some key figures that present hard data, but these are not critical to understanding the basic processes that are occurring along our coast. I have also included a fairly comprehensive list of references for those who would like to learn more or locate supporting data for my interpretations. viii P R E F A C E ...

Share