CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — When you visit the Padre Island National Seashore or PINS for short, you’ll notice it's different from the local beaches.
Kelly Taylor with PINS tells us it’s a big stretch of land. Four and a half miles are protected for wildlife.
“The National Seashores protects roughly 66 miles of North Padre Island,” Taylor said.
To visitors, it’s a new experience. Steve Gibbs from Atlanta, Georgia is impressed by what he sees.
“I think it’s something totally different from what we’ve seen before. We’re used to going to Florida and Alabama Coast where it’s very commercialized and there are condos all the way up to the Coast,” Gibbs said.
But there’s a problem, the National Seashore does not have management plans to provide guidance like sand management, marine debris removal, beach driving, hurricane and storm recovery, or the management of species such as migratory birds and sea turtles. Taylor said it’s frustrating.
“Where we are right now, we just have vague ideas, but we have to start somewhere because we don’t have a plan,” Taylor said.
That’s made it more difficult for Taylor, other PINS staff members and the community.
“There’s guidance in place for example from the state when there’s a giant oil spill. They have a plan in place for how to deal with that,” Taylor said. “We don’t necessarily have a plan in place once it touches the beach when it’s no longer the states.”
There’s even a lack of guidance when it comes to maintenance at the visitor’s center.
Something Taylor and others would like to see change.
That’s why the Padre Island National Seashore is seeking input from the public to bring some changes. Two meetings will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 21, and Wednesday, Feb. 22 at the Texas State Aquarium.
