The East End Lagoon is this wonderful collection of habitats found on the East End of Galveston
Island.
There's coastal prairie, there's wetlands marsh, there's beachfront, just about every
habitat that you would normally find on a barrier island.
The East End Lagoon is unique in that a lot of those habitats are still intact and they're
still present even today.
Also it's culturally important, a lot of Galveston's old families spent a lot of time
down in the East End Lagoon so it's important to the citizens as well as to the animals
and plants that live there.
Before World War II the area was a destination.
It was a place where families went, just as they were going to the beach instead of going
to East Beach or Stewart Beach they went to the East End Lagoon to swim and sail, etc.
There was a certain part of the lagoon that housed the club as well as a number of cabanas.
They were tiny little wooden houses that people used to change their clothes or to get out
of the sun for a while.
I remembered it well because my cousins and I were all of an age five, six, seven years
old when we went there.
I think most people understand the value of healthy exercise, recreation, recreation,
outside experiences and also not just recreation but also education and particularly with younger
children of course.
Those two things I think are at the heart of what this project is all about.
I became mayor in 2004, established an East End Lagoon committee of preservationists,
many of whom were friends of mine, to begin to study the East End Lagoon and raise money
in order to enhance the area, improve it and do what we could to make it a destination
for birders as well as people who just wanted to fish, kayak, etc.
What we're really excited about is we're going to make the East End Lagoon to be more accessible
to folks so everyone can really enjoy it.
We're going to put in some trails, both natural and man-made, we're going to build a nature
center for folks to be able to really explore what is found there, the intersection between
man and nature, life on a barrier island, we're going to be able to tell all of the
guests that are here, both citizens and visitors, what is truly found along the East End Lagoon
and why is it so important.
I would see the activities that take place out there now being enhanced by what we could
do and even adding more to it.
I think preserving the environment here is really important.
The East End Lagoon demonstrates to the rest of the world what makes up a barrier island,
what lives here, what wetlands are, what uplands are, what mangroves are, what animals live
here, what flower and fauna live here and it's just a great example and people are really
very excited to see this come about, to see this project come to fruition and be able
to participate because it's something that's not just for the local citizens, it's really
for the rest of the world.
