Resource Management Codes Improve Texas Coastal Management By: Diana Del Angel                  Texas coastal wetlands. Mustang Island,  Texas.  Photo Credit: Diana Del Angel Resource Management Codes are assigned to state submerged land tracks and are designed to improve coastal conservation while making the permitting process more efficient and transparent for those proposing activities in Texas’ coastal zone. The Texas coast is a diverse environment, featuring 493 miles of Gulf shoreline and over 8,000 miles of estuarine shoreline. Beaches, reefs, seagrass meadows, bird rookeries, expansive flats and emergent wetlands exist along the shoreline or within the coastal bay systems providing habitat for a wide range of species. Adjacent or concurrent to these sensitive habitats, below the tideline, are submerged lands. These include bay bottoms and ocean floor extending over 10 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico. Map featuring submerged land tracts with Access codes CF,  CA, and CC. CF- Limit vehicular access for development  activities; CA – use existing channels; CC- Dredging of one  channel may be authorized. Submerged lands are managed by the Texas General Land Office (GLO) and are available for lease for the benefit of the Texas Permanent School Fund. Leases are available for a variety of purposes, including oil and gas production; solar, wind and geothermal power; agricultural related activities; and commercial development. But to lease these lands, permits must be sought and proposed activities must meet federal and state environmental regulations. In an attempt to simplify the planning and the lease-bidding process, the GLO with the assistance of CMGL has developed a web-based tool featuring Resource Management Codes which are applicable to state submerged tracts. The two-letter Resource Management Codes (RMCs) are assigned to state-owned tracts in Texas bays and estuaries, and Gulf of Mexico waters, representing development guidelines for activities within the tracts. As an example, Miscellaneous codes indicate the presence of sensitive areas like wetlands, oyster reefs, algal flats and other sensitive areas. Other codes focus on activities like access, navigation, drilling, and dredging; these activities may not be permitted or may require a survey in the vicinity of particular sensitive areas or habitat. Brach Lupher and Diana Del Angel, part of the  RMC update team, attend meeting in Austin Texas April 2014. Photo courtesy of James Gibeaut. The codes were originally developed in 1996, using agency recommendations to assign RMC’s to tracts. The 2014 update was a data-driven process using the best available natural resource spatial data to populate the RMC map. RMC’s and sensitive areas were defined and updated where necessary for the development of the new map with the recommendation of various permitting and regulating offices including Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas General Land Office, US Army Corp of Engineers, Texas Historical Commission, and the GLO field offices, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, among others. The process took 10 months to complete and the team gathered the necessary information through a series of monthly meetings held at the GLO offices in Austin Texas. The RMC’s have been recently used in the latest bidding process (January 2015) and will be updated as new data becomes available for version 2.0 in September 2015.  RMCs are in place to enhance protection of sensitive natural resources and to assist potential bidders by providing up-to-date information of natural resources and environmental concerns that may be associated with leasing and developing state submerges tracts. In addition, links within the web-tool provide recommendations for minimizing adverse impacts from mineral exploration and development activities to assists bidders in their project planning efforts. The RMC are available at the Texas General Land Office Resource Management Codes website. RMC Mapping Viewer screen shot. Map shows submerged land tracts; lease sale nominations in red; and two access codes, CA in pink and CF in blue; and  a pop-up window with details of the selected tract.