Wetlands Education Center open to public

The free tours at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute Wetlands Education Center draw crowds. A salt marsh lies just off the Aransas Pass, adjacent to The University of Texas at Austin’s Marine Science Institute visitor center.

It is one of the more ecologically productive habitats on the planet.

That’s one of the facts that visitors learn when they walk through the Wetlands Education Center, located between the University of Texas at Austin’s Marine Science Institute visitor center and the pass, on the northernmost tip of Mustang Island.

The new center was officially dedicated in August 2008, and is included in the 185,000-acre Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve that is administered in Texas by the institute as part of a worldwide program administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Wetlands Education Center is open all the time, seven days a week, and features a selfguided tour of a transition zone between the mainland and open bays, estuaries and lagoons.

Guided tours are also conducted at 10 a.m. each Tuesday and Thursday. The time of the tours may change as the weather gets warmer, so check the weekly editions of the South Jetty, where tours are listed on Page 2A in the Island agenda, or call ahead to confirm. The number is (361) 749-6832.

Visitors can view the vegetation in sand dunes and identify the various species of plants by reading displays that are located throughout the outdoor center.

The salt marsh that is featured in the wetlands center is a unique habitat for a large variety of plants and animals.

The center in Port Aransas is a man-made 3.6-acre salt marsh that lies adjacent to sand dunes that help to protect the island from storm surges.

It is handicapped accessible, and provides information about the wetlands at different kiosks along a trail in the center that winds around the marsh. A geodetic marker also exists at the entryway to the center, and provides distances to other National Estuarine Research Reserves throughout the world.

The center was created through a 13-year-long collaboration between federal, state and county governments as well as The University of Texas at Austin and private donors to raise $4.4 million to build it.

The Wetlands Education Center was designed by Corpus Christi architect David Richter, and its concept was developed by Dr. Rick Tinnin, recently retired director of marine education at UTMSI and the education coordinator for the Mission-Aransas Reserve.

More information about The University of Texas Marine Science Institute and the Mission- Aransas NERR can be found at www.utmsi.utexas.edu.