In the spring of 2002, a group of agency, advocacy, and industry partners met to address the issue of habitat loss in dickinson BAY and to evaluate the potential to restore three lost islands

The Galveston Bay Foundation Inc. received a $112,807.60 cooperative agreement award from the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Region 2 under the Coastal Program (CFDA 15.630) to support habitat restoration efforts in Dickinson Bay, Texas. Key products and services include developing a vegetation plan with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to create nesting habitat for bird species, monitoring the biological outcomes and stability of constructed bird nesting islands over five years, and implementing vegetation restoration actions. Specifically, the Foundation will carry out monitoring and assessment of Dickinson Bay Island II, constructed in 2022 with Deepwater Horizon NRDA funds, to document bird use and vegetation cover. Results will inform future bird nesting island designs along the Texas coast. The award period is from April 1, 2022 to April 1, 2027.

Historically, and before significant subsidence and erosion occurred, the islands supported nesting bird species, including least tern, gull-billed tern, royal tern, black skimmer, american oystercatcher, and caspian tern, as well as intertidal marsh habitat. The first island (dickinson BAY bird island I) was constructed in 2005, and consists of a 5-acre, horseshoe-shaped clay island protected with RIP-RAP with marsh mounds in the interior plus a 2-acre oyster reef adjacent to the island. In 2011, the coastal program in partnership with the galveston BAY foundation, restore america's estuaries - national oceanographic and atmospheric administration, and galveston BAY estuary program - texas commission on environmental quality, funded the bathymetric studies, the design and engineering proposal and U.S. Army corps of engineers permits needed to construct dickinson BAY island II. Construction of dickinson BAY island II was funded through deepwater horizon natural resource damage assessment funds. The galveston BAY foundation proposes to carry out several tasks in support of the project to establish vegetation and to assess the biological outcome of the project. These tasks incorporate strategic habitat conservation, i.e. monitoring project performance, and also includes implementing vegetation restoration actions. A vegetation plan will be developed cooperatively with U.S. Fish and wildlife service to create nesting habitat for different guilds. Given the length of time required for bird nesting islands to mature, this project will include a 5-year monitoring plan to document island stability bird use and vegetation cover. The results of this monitoring effort will inform bird nesting island design and restoration actions for other parts of the texas coast.