Texas Aquatic Connectivity Team (TXACT)
The Texas Aquatic Connectivity Team (TXACT) formed in March 2023 in San Marcos, Texas. This team is a group of professionals throughout Texas whose main focus is to identify opportunities to increase aquatic connectivity throughout the state by retrofitting and/or removing barriers such as culverts, low water crossings and dams. The TXACT consists of partners from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, US Fish and Wildlife Service, multiple river authorities including the Lower Colorado River Authority, San Antonio River Authority, and Brazos River Authority, academic institutions including Texas State University, Texas A&M University, and Stephen F. Austin State University, and non-profit NGOs including The Nature Conservancy and Llano River Watershed Alliance. We look forward to growing this list of partners as this work expands across the state!
If you are currently a TXACT Member and want to access the private TXACT workspace please Login.
If you are interested in joining the TXACT or accessing the team's workspace please contact: Shawna Fix, [email protected].
Team Leads
Meitzen, Kimberly
Dr. Kimberly Meitzen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Texas State University (TXST) and is one of our co-leads for the Texas ACT. Kimberly teaches undergraduate courses on river processes, river basin management, environmental management, and biogeography, and graduate courses on water resources and river and society related issues. Her research focus heavily around the central tenets of the four dimensions of riverine connectivity (longitudinal, lateral, vertical, and temporal), with applications for hydraulic flood modeling, environmental flows, river channel and floodplain habitat suitability modeling, riparian ecosystems, geomorphic channel changes, and aquatic barrier inventory and prioritization. Dr. Meitzen is currently the TXST representative for the Stakeholder Committee of the Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Plan, the public interest representative for the Guadalupe Regional Flood Planning Group, co-chair of the Upper San Marcos Watershed Protection Plan, and serves on the board of the San Marcos River Foundation. She has received the TXST Favorite Professor award in 2014 and 2019 and the College of Liberal Arts Service Award in 2022, and a Presidential Research Award in 2023. Dr. Meitzen completed her B.S. at the University of Texas at Austin and received her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina at Columbia in 2011. After receiving her doctorate, she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow with Duke University and the Nature Conservancy in North Carolina. She first began collaborating with SARP in 2010 with the Southeastern Instream Flow Network and has continued collaborations with them on barrier inventory and prioritization in the upper Guadalupe River basin since 2017. As co-team lead, Kimberly is energized to advance aquatic connectivity applications in Texas through the partnerships with the recently formed Texas Aquatic Connectivity Team.
Curtis, Stephen
Stephen Curtis is an Aquatic Biologist on the River Studies Team at the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department and serves as co-lead for the Texas Aquatic Connectivity Team. Stephen focuses most of his efforts on biological and habitat monitoring in rivers and streams across the state to support the conservation and management of stream fish communities. He has spent the past few years working with multiple partners to assess the status of American Eel in Texas with a focus on their population status, recruitment, and potential fish passage opportunities to benefit this species. Stephen partnered with SARP and Dr. Kimberly Meitzen at Texas State University to inventory and prioritize barriers in the upper Guadalupe River Basin. He enjoys working with a diverse group of academic, state, federal, and NGO partners to conduct fisheries research and monitoring to support the conservation of Texas fishes. Stephen holds a M.S. in Aquatic Resources from Texas State University and a B.S. in Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences from Texas A&M University. As co-team lead, Stephen is excited to work with a wide variety of partners to identify opportunities to improve aquatic connectivity in Texas.
