Mesh bags with oyster shells are used to make a natural barrier and help break any wave action for a living shoreline at Galveston Bay Foundation’s Sweetwater Nature Preserve in Galveston. Photo courtesy of Galveston Bay Foundation

Vicki Blythe patrols a stretch of beach from the Palisade Palms condominium towers to the ship channel looking for sea turtle tracks in Galveston. She’s part of a network of volunteers who patrol the beaches during nesting season. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds

Dorothea Morris uses a grabber tool to pick up trash beside her litter buggy on Galveston’s West End. Photo by Stuart Villanueva

Arnold Garza, head of the Texas Pit Stop BBQ team, started competing in barbecue cook-offs in 1989. His team has won five of the first seven triple crown championships by winning cook-offs at the Galveston County Fair & Rodeo, Hitchcock’s Good Ole Days and La Marque Bayou Fest. Photo by Stuart Villanueva

Brooke McCrumb places a halter on her steer at the Dickinson school district agriculture barn. Photo by Stuart Villanueva

Ferris wheel riders board their gondolas at the Galveston County Fair & Rodeo. This year’s pared-down event, scheduled for April 16-24, won’t include the carnival, shopping vendors, rodeo and live entertainment. File photo by Stuart Villanueva

Wally Deats, clockwise from left, Joe Matlock, J.L. Giamalva, Ernie Deats, Walter Wilson, Ron Morales, Billy Patton and Harvey Criswell trade stories and insults at Rogers Malt Shoppe in Dickinson. The group has met for breakfast at the restaurant weekday mornings and occasionally Saturdays for more than 20 years. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds

Kevin Schirmer and Gary Schaper co-own Texas City Feed & Supply. Schaper’s father, Rusty, bought the business in 1975, and Schirmer started working there in 1980. Photo by Stuart Villanueva

Jan Porter joined Daughters of the Nile, a nonprofit organization of women that supports the activities and patients of Shriners Hospitals for Children, after years of service with The Salvation Army. Photo by Stuart Villanueva

Members of Dickinson’s Emmite family, from left, Debby Emmite Gast Grubb, Jonathan Luke Matula, Lucille Emmite Hardcastle, Sam Emmite, Jacqueline Valcoviak and Charles Emmitte stand outside Emmite Square, where two of the family’s two homes on St. Goar Street in Dickinson have been preserved. Photo by Jennifer Reynolds