Helen S. Young
Texas General Land Office
P.O. Box 12873
Austin, Texas 78711
Helen.Young@glo.texas.gov
512-463-5338
Planning for a Healthy Texas Coast
through Partnering and Strategic Stakeholder Engagement
With 367 miles of Gulf-facing coastline and more than 3,300 miles of bay shoreline, Texas has
one of the longest coasts in the nation, which creates a major challenge when it comes to the
responsibility for keeping its coast healthy. Knowing that it’s too big a job for one person or one
entity, the Texas General Land Office Coastal Resources Division (“GLO Coastal”) is stepping
up to the challenge through partnering and strategic stakeholder engagement.
Since the Texas Coastal Management Program (CMP) was authorized by NOAA in 1997, GLO
Coastal has been designated as the lead for a group of “networked” state agencies that work
together on evaluating grant proposals for funding as well as on issues, such as federal and state
consistency reviews of coastal construction projects and strategies to address non-point source
pollution. This multi-agency partnership has helped ensure beachfront construction projects are
reviewed from multiple perspectives and that funding is awarded to a variety of projects in
numerous coastal communities. CMP also hosts annual workshops to inform local stakeholders
about CMP grant funding opportunities and the types of projects that can be funded.
GLO Coastal also has had long-standing successful partnerships with many federal agencies,
which helps foster a healthy Texas coast. For instance, GLO Coastal implements the EPA Beach
Watch program that monitors the water quality at recreational public beaches. Since Texas has
one of the highest erosion rates in the nation, GLO Coastal also works with USGS to obtain and
analyze data to track coastal erosion rates. Another federal partnership involves GLO Coastal as
the non-federal sponsor for the Corps of Engineers study of the upper Texas coast, which was the
area most impacted in 2008 by Hurricane Ike, which was one of the costliest hurricanes in U.S.
history. Through partnering on this study and engaging stakeholders through public meetings,
alternatives for protecting, preserving, and restoring the upper Texas coast will be identified.
In addition to partnering with state and federal agencies, GLO Coastal also works closely with
non-governmental organizations and universities. For instance, after participating in several of
America’s WETLAND Foundation’s (AWF) resilient community forums throughout the Gulf
states in 2011, GLO Coastal partnered with AWF in developing “The Texas Coast: Shoring Up
Our Future.” This overview report emphasizes the importance of community resiliency and the
economic and ecologic health of the Texas coast as well as threats to its sustainability. To
develop the content, we worked with Harte Research Institute to create a Technical Advisory
Committee of more than 40 Texas coastal experts and held regional meetings to gather input
about each region’s issues of concern. We then conducted regional forums with local officials
and other stakeholders to discuss the issues of concern and expand on them. We provided the
overview report to the state legislature and the Texas Congressional delegation to help spread the
message that “Texas is a coastal state, not just a state with a coast.” GLO Coastal and AWF are
continuing to work together to spread the message to all stakeholders of the Texas coast that a
strong coast is essential for a strong Texas as well as for a strong state and national economy.
Speaker Bio: (100 words or less)
Helen S. Young
Helen S. Young is the Deputy Commissioner of Coastal Resources for the Texas General Land
Office. She oversees a team of professionals who operate the Texas Coastal Management
Program and numerous federal and state grant programs that fund projects and studies to address
erosion response, coastal and marsh restoration, water quality, hazard mitigation, and other
critical coastal issues.
Helen is a member of the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) and the
Coastal States Organization. Helen earned a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) from
the University of Texas and has worked for the General Land Office since 2000.