Audubon Texas Rookery Islands

The Audubon Texas Rookery Island program protects over 175 coastal breeding and forage sites, stretching from the Rio Grande to the Sabine River, for more than 26 waterbird species.

The program began in 1921 with the passage of SB 42 by the Texas Legislature. The law was spurred by a 1920 trip by T. Gilbert Pearson (head of the National Association of Audubon Societies) to the Lower Laguna Madre’s Green Island with local ornithologist R.D. Camp. Pearson’s report, confirmed by J.R. Pemberton, verified the existence of rare colonies of reddish egrets, roseate spoonbills, and other waterbirds that had survived the Plume Wars.

The statute authorized General Land Office Commissioner J.T. Robison to lease rookery sites to Audubon, which soon hired Mr. Camp as its first Texas warden. These long-term, low-priced leases have continued in the century that has passed, with a series of wardens, including John Larson, Chester Smith, Emilie Payne, Sue Bailey, and many others standing guard.