One of the major wetlands in Houston is disappearing — fast. The modest El Franco Lee Park in south Houston is losing a major wildlife treasure.

The lake and surrounding swamp are the latest victims of extreme drought conditions that have plagued Texas over the past months. With some of the driest months on record, crops have been damaged and ranchers had to cull herds statewide, leading to increased meat and wheat prices.

The dry conditions have been accompanied by severe wildfires in west Texas, where thousands of acres have been destroyed. Every single county in Texas has been affected by the lack of rain, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared 213 counties in the state of Texas as "primary natural disaster areas."

Simply put, this is the third-worst drought on record in Texas, and threatens to claim the top spot.

Hitting home

Here in Houston, ditches are bone-dry, and lawns crackle underfoot — no matter whether home owners are desperately watering or not.

Now an 80-acre oasis is almost gone.

Beyond the playing fields at El Franco Lee Park lies a wetland harboring an incredible variety of wildlife within the Houston city limits. Or perhaps used to harbor.

Behind a low line of trees waits a world apart from the surrounding suburbs. Flocks of birds circle above a hidden lake, while several raptors find perches in a forest of snags. Turtles drop audibly off logs into water covered with duckweed, and snakes — the vast majority of them harmless and shy. Swamp rabbits sneak from thickets in the evenings, and with luck, one may spot a bobcat on the nature trail.

The rush of nearby Beltway 8 may as well be distant wind.

Natural selection

It is hard to believe that nature not only survives but thrives within the Houston city limits. But it does.

Over 200 species of birds have been found in and around the wetland, while numerous species of frogs, turtles, and snakes croak, slither, and swim in abundance. Not only do bald eagles spend the winter here, but other bird species of special concern occur here, including wood storks, mottled ducks, white-faced ibis, and roseate spoonbills. Species that are rarely spotted in Houston include least grebe, Harris's hawk, crested caracara, and snail kite, plus dozens of migratory birds.

The reason they end up here? Water. But now the place has changed dramatically.

I have regularly visited the park for over seven years, and I have never seen conditions this bad. The large impoundment, which served as water storage during the rice-growing era and is currently a protected wetland, resembles a moonscape.

Waterfowl huddle on hardened mud, turtles flee en masse, and gar writhe in the remaining puddles. The alligator that has successfully raised young over the past years vacated long ago.

Over the past weeks, enough water remained to attract scores of wading birds. Flocks of migratory species, on passage from Arctic breeding grounds toward South America, found food and shelter in an otherwise parched landscape. During the winter months, visitors could enjoy the spectacle of a bald eagle making dramatic scoops at hundreds of ducks.

Now, only specks of water remain, with birds and turtles struggling through muck.

No help in sight

While a system to pump water from Clear Creek into the reservoir is in place, Harris County Precinct One general superintendent of parks Paul Mauricio stated that the year’s allotment has already been used, or nearly so. At this point, according to Mauricio, the county has decided "to let nature run its course."

Under the fierce sun and absolute lack of precipitation, the critical water is evaporating visibly from day to day. It is doubtful pumping water would make a lasting difference, but it may be the only option to save some habitat.

I still think it's worth the effort, and the pump should be turned on. But as of now, there are no plans for that.

Of course, what we really need is rain.

Under the boardwalk

To add insult to injury, the county has plans to construct a boardwalk along the edge of the wetland.

The majority of El Franco Lee County Park's 361 acres are already cropped and mowed into playing fields and parking lots. At some point, we have to stop developing Houston's parks and let nature have an undisturbed corner.

Once the wetland has been refilled — either by pumping water from the creek or by rain — wildlife will return. But building any type of structure will have a negative impact on the returning wildlife, especially on critical reedbeds or snags.

This summer, tree swallows successfully nested in an old woodpecker cavity in one of the many dead trees — an extremely rare event in this part of Texas. Ducks seek shelter among the forest of bare trunks and bald eagles during the day, and great-horned owls at night use them as perches.

If a boardwalk is built, these things may not happen.

Even if the boardwalk can be constructed with minimal impact, the resulting increased disturbance by visitors could reduce the abundance of birds. Currently, an easy trail encircles the lake almost completely and offers several great viewpoints. But money and effort would be better spent improving the missing sections of the trail to form a loop for the benefit of joggers, hikers, and cyclists — which would not affect the actual wetland.

It would be tragic to see a wild treasure pruned and plastered with another boardwalk.

The little ones strike big

The dramatic climate conditions, droughts in the south, and floods and tornadoes in the Midwest are apparently textbook La Niña.

La Niña conditions occur when waters of the equatorial Pacific Ocean cool to below normal levels — the opposite of El Niño. This tends to lead to cool, wet weather in the Northwest, freezing winters in the central states, and, well, droughts in the Southeast.

The ocean’s temperatures have returned to neutral, but weather conditions have not improved in Texas. All we can hope is that rains will return soon.

It will be interesting to see whether wildlife can bounce back, but nature is resilient if left to its own devices. Once the wetlands are restored, El Franco Lee Park will soon draw hordes of birds and other animals — hopefully accompanied by more hikers, nature enthusiasts, and photographers.