Richland Creek WMA expands wetland habitat

By Jason Jones jjones@palestineherald.com A relaxing drive through the Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area is hard to beat. The sound of hundreds of waterfowl announcing their presence has a way of easing any tension built up due to the daily navigation of life.

Not long ago, however, those sounds were disappearing due to the loss of marshes and hardwood habitat in an area critical to waterfowl migration.

Creation of the roughly 14,000-acre Richland Creek WMA began in 1988 following the completion of Richland Chambers Reservoir in 1982, which provides water to two million people in Fort Worth and Tarrant County.

Bob Locke, left, with Ducks Unlimited and Texas Parks & Wildlife Biologist Matt Symmank check out the rate of water flow under a levee at Richland Creek WMA. By Jason Jones

"Richland Creek WMA was created as mitigation for Richland-Chambers," said Texas Parks & Wildlife Biologist Matt Symmank. "Part of the agreement was that they had to offset the loss of wildlife habitat caused by construction of the reservoir."

TPWD collaborated with Tarrant Regional Water District to create an extensive wetland treatment system on the WMA, covering over 5,000 acres and treating raw Trinity River water before it enters the reservoir, eventually delivered to municipal and industrial water users.

"The project with Tarrant Regional was the first of its kind in Texas," Symmank said. "It's also the first of its kind in the country of this scale."

While the creation of the WMA was a necessity for the migratory bird population, the main focus of the initial project was simply to provide a water source for north central Texas.

It wasn't until a collaboration with Ducks Unlimited was formed that saw a true commitment to wildlife habitat conservation.

Bob Locke is the Director of Development for North Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico with Ducks Unlimited.

"We started working with TPWD here at Richland Creek building duck marshes back around 1989," Locke said. "Our most recent collaboration, along with some corporate sponsorship, has resulted in a nice expansion of the wetland habitat."

That recent collaboration resulted in a new wetland called Wildcat Marsh. Named for nearby Wildcat Crossing, the project added over 200 acres of new wetlands within the WMA. Water from the Trinity River will flood the wetland complex during the winter to provide habitat for a variety of bird species and the associated recreational benefits. After the winter, water from the wetland units are released back to the Trinity River. The wetlands provide valuable treatment and improved water quality for the Trinity River. The project is also responsible for more than 200 million gallons of water replenishment benefits annually.

"The wetlands are kind of like 'nature's kidneys' if you will," Symmank said. "It's a natural filter that removes toxins and heavy metals. Not only is it able to do that naturally, it's more cost-effective than conventional water treatment methods, and it provides a great natural habitat."

Filtering water is fairly cut and dried. Maintaining the wetlands for migrating bird species requires more planning.

"We periodically draw down different marshes at specific times to replicate the necessary environment and vegetation as different species migrate through," Symmank said. "We will typically draw down for spring to create mud flats around April to mimic the wet/dry cycle making the WMA a much-needed stop during migration."

The project with Ducks Unlimited was made possible by several corporate sponsorships. Texas Water Action Collaborative helped connect TPWD and DU with PepsiCo, Meta/Facebook and the David Litman Foundation.

"The companies who invest in projects like this are major water users who are returning clean water for future use," Locke said. "PepsiCo obviously uses a lot of water in their product production and Facebook is a surprisingly large consumer as they use water to keep their servers cool. Projects like this help them to put clean water back into the environment."

To date, Ducks Unlimited's long-standing partnership with TPWD has resulted in over 1,300 acres of wetland habitat on Richland Creek WMA. https://www.palestineherald.com/news/richland-creek-wma-expands-wetland-habitat/article_50e382b2-d5ae-11ed-ac64-afe5f2032d89.html