Our Mission
The Matagorda Bay Foundation is dedicated to the wise stewardship of central Texas’ estuaries and the coastal watersheds that sustain the natural resources of the Matagorda, Lavaca, Espiritu Santo and San Antonio Bays.
We envision a state where the relationship between freshwater inflow and a healthy, productive coast is understood and embraced by all Texans; a coast with diverse habitats and abundant wildlife and fisheries resources available for the use and enjoyment of future generations.
About the Bay
The Matagorda and San Antonio Bay estuaries are situated between Galveston and Corpus Christi and cover almost 700 square miles of the central Texas coast. The mainland fringe is comprised of large expanses of coastal prairie dotted with oak mottes, bisected by coastal streams and river bottoms, and punctuated with freshwater marshes and tidal wetlands. Clear, cool water flows from Texas hill country streams and aquifers down the San Antonio, San Marcos, Guadalupe and Colorado rivers and mixes with the salty waters of the Gulf of Mexico near the towns of Seadrift and Matagorda. The critical freshwater flows moderate salinity, and supply crucial sediments and nutrients that sustain habitats, bay health and productivity. The unique environment created at the confluence of central Texas Rivers and the Gulf of Mexico is home to incredibly diverse populations of wildlife and fisheries species, migratory waterfowl, and overwintering populations of endangered Whooping cranes.”
In Memory of C. Hasty Johnson III
Matagorda Bay Foundation Board Member
The Staff and Board of the Matagorda Bay Foundation
The Matagorda Bay Foundation began working with Hasty around 2017 when he expressed interest in protecting the habitat that fringed his family’s property at Schicke Point. Coincidentally, the Foundation had identified his property as a priority project site because of the diverse and unusual habitats that included a unique woody shrub community, oyster reef, tidal wetlands, and seagrasses. The Foundation partnered with Texas Parks and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and Hasty to build phase II of the shoreline protection project that extended the initial project, with the same protections and benefits to habitats, west of the first project. This project is the gold standard by which other living shorelines projects should be evaluated.
After the project was complete, I received a phone call from Hasty. He asked what he could do to help us protect and conserve Matagorda Bay’s natural resources. We happened to be looking for a board member, and Hasty accepted. In early 2023 Hasty joined the board of the Matagorda Bay Foundation. He was instrumental in helping us improve our business structure and legitimize our operations. His business insights were vital to our growth but his brief private messages and emails that offered praise and encouragement were beyond value.
Hasty’s contributions to our Foundation were huge, and he leaves behind a legacy that is so rare in this world – a desire to invest in the conservation and protection of our natural world. Today, the living shoreline at Schicke Point is a model of how these systems should work. Erosion has been stopped. The marsh is recovering, and sea grass has grown in behind the protective structure. As a legacy, the Schicke Point living shoreline is a monument to Hasty, to the bay and to good thinking.
Mr. R.J. Shelly
Hasty Johnson was a soft spoken, kindhearted, gentle man that had a deep love for his family and the natural world around him. He loved all outdoor activities. He never fought Mother Nature. He looked at what she offered up for the day and adjusted his game plan to take advantage of those activities that were suited for the conditions. He truly enjoyed the time that he got to spend outdoors with his family. He was the type of person that always put other people first. If the fish were biting on his side of the boat or the ducks were decoying to his side of the blind he would always insist that his guest take his spot so they could have the best opportunity to catch a fish or bag a bird. Hasty had a deep love for the Matagorda Bay System. He noticed that the marsh along Schicke Point did not look as healthy and vibrant as it used to. He knew that erosion had been taking its toll on Schicke Point and he wanted to preserve it for future generations. Hasty knew that these type of projects take time but he kept pursuing it until the first phase of the Schicke Point Living Shoreline Project was constructed a few months before Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas Coast in 2017. The Schicke Point Living Shoreline Project has been the gold standard for all coastal living shoreline projects along the Texas Coast. Every time we fished or hunted together we would talk about how good the marsh looked, how much the land behind the breakwater had built up, and how no one could have ever guessed that this project would have turned out this good. It was definitely something that he was extremely proud of in his own quiet way. The Texas Coast lost a great man this year. My deepest condolences to his wife Sis and his daughters Ann and Alice. I’m going to think of your husband and dad every time I see a heron feeding along the marsh. The world is a better place because of him.
