During the deepwater horizon oil spill in 2010, approximately 3.19 million barrels of oil was released into the ocean, spreading from texas to florida

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Region 2, through the Coastal Program (CFDA 15.630), awarded a cooperative agreement of $146,530 to Galveston Bay Foundation Inc. (GBF) effective October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2030. This funding supports data collection and reporting activities for the monitoring and adaptive management plan associated with the Jones Bay Oystercatcher Habitat Restoration Project in Galveston County, Texas. The project is part of the broader Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill natural resource damage assessment and restoration efforts, with GBF serving as a core project team member alongside USFWS offices and additional partners to restore American oystercatcher nesting and foraging habitat on four remnant islands and adjacent intertidal reefs in Jones Bay.

The award specifically funds monitoring and adaptive management services rather than direct habitat construction activities, which are currently under construction as of June 2025. These monitoring and reporting functions are essential to track restoration outcomes and inform adaptive management decisions for the habitat restoration initiative, which is designed to restore natural resources and services injured by the 2010 oil spill to their baseline conditions.

Under natural resource damage assessment in response, BP agreed to compensate the public for injuries to natural resources by contributing to a restoration fund as agreed to by state and federal trustees. As such, the texas trustee implementation group (texas TIG) became responsible for restoring natural resources and their services that were injured by the oil spill within the texas restoration area. Restoration activities were designed to restore or replace habitats, species, and services to their baseline condition. Jones BAY oystercatcher habitat restoration project was published as a selected project in the texas restoration plan #2 (2022) as a preferred project. The jones BAY oystercatcher habitat restoration project (under construction as of june 2025) will restore up to four existing remnant islands and adjacent intertidal reefs which will support american oystercatcher (haematopus palliates) nesting and foraging in jones BAY located in galveston county, texas. Galveston BAY foundation (GBF) serves as a member of the project team along with the U.S. Fish and wildlife (USFWS) gulf restoration office, USFWS coastal program, and other partners. This proposal will support the data collection and reporting aspect of the monitoring and adaptive management plan developed for the jones BAY oystercatcher habitat restoration project.