Coastal Brigade: Growing our Future Coastal Conservation Leaders

Texas Brigades is a nonprofit with a “mission to educate and empower kids with leadership skills and knowledge in wildlife, fisheries, and land stewardship to become conservation ambassadors for a sustained natural resource legacy.” Coastal Brigade is one of the ten conservation leadership camps offered by Texas Brigades to kids ranging from 13 to17 years old. As the name suggests, Coastal Brigade is focused on coastal habitats, ecology, and fisheries management. Each year, this 5-day camp is held in July around Galveston Bay, where volunteers from multiple natural resource agencies and conservation organizations work together to create an immersive and hands-on learning experience for our camp cadets.

When cadets arrive at camp, they are put in “schools” because fish swim in schools of course! Each school consists of an adult leader, an assistant school leader, and four to six cadets. The assistant school leaders are cadets from the previous year’s camp that have returned to camp to help guide the next group of cadets. Both the adult leader and assistant leader encourage cadets to work together through a series of competitions such as trivia, marching as a school, group presentations, and so much more!

Throughout the week, cadets learn about the life histories of recreationally important fish species and commercially important shellfish through presentations from fishery professionals. They have the chance to get hands-on with fish dissections led by graduate students from Texas A&M University-Galveston. Cadets also participate in managing coastal resources by conducting bay trawls and oyster dredges as shown by staff associated with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) Coastal Fisheries resource monitoring program.

You can’t have a camp on the Texas coast and not include a little coastal fishing fun. Several fishing and fly-fishing groups volunteer their time and resources to teach cadets how to fish using various casting methods. Cadets even get the chance to learn how to tie their very own flies. As previously mentioned, everything at camp is a competition, and that includes fishing! We host a casting competition that usually ends after multiple tie-breaking rounds, a fly-tying competition, and of course a fishing tournament where there is a prize for the biggest fish!

Coastal resources education often takes the cadets off-site to places such as the Sea Center hatchery in Lake Jackson and out to Galveston Island State Park. At Sea Center, they learn about the TPWD stock enhancement program, go kayaking on the ponds, and my personal favorite part of the day: enjoy a fish fry dinner in front of the aquariums inside the visitor’s center! On their visit to Galveston Island, Texas Master Naturalist volunteers teach cadets about the different species they may encounter on the bay and gulf sides of the island using cast nets and seines. Also during camp, local game wardens and the Coast Guard visit with cadets to offer career advice and discuss boating safety.

Coastal Brigades offers more than just techniques in conservation of our coastal resources, it dives into the arts through photography, drawing, and journaling. Cadets also learn important life skills like public speaking and time management through interactive projects such as a mock stakeholder meeting, group PowerPoint presentations, and individual poster presentations. Learning to connect with new people from different backgrounds and working together to achieve a common goal are among the many ways cadets grow and develop leadership skills that they can take back to their own communities.

To continue the camp fun, we encourage cadets to earn their way back to camp the following year as an assistant school leader. For this, they must put together a Book of Accomplishments that includes different outreach events they either participated in or helped organize throughout the year in their communities. As an extra incentive, assistant leaders can also earn a scholarship toward college for all their hard work!

If spending a week encouraging and empowering the next generation of conservation leaders sounds fun, every camp in Texas Brigades needs adult leaders! Future scientists, conservation leaders, and coastal artists need direction, and this is not accomplished without adult mentors. As an adult leader, you get to attend camp for FREE and help guide a group of bright young minds through the week. Applications for cadets, assistant leaders, and adult leaders open on November 1st for all Texas Brigades camps, so spread the word and mark your calendars! For anyone interested in attending or helping with Coastal Brigade or other Texas Brigades camps, please visit our website at www.texasbrigades.org.

I kind of feel like this paragraph needs to start out with something that ties things together in conclusion before jumping into the call for adult leaders. Maybe something that mentions “if all of these experiences sound like fun and you believe in the mission of helping to educate and empower our next generation, every camp in Texas Brigades needs adult leaders!” It obviously doesn’t have to be exactly that, but just something that provides a little smoother transition into the final paragraph.