The Texas Mid-Coast Initiative Area includes 16 Texas counties along the coast from Galveston Bay to Corpus Christi and inland. The area consists of large bay and estuary systems that are nearly isolated from the Gulf of Mexico by barrier islands or peninsulas. Extensive coastal prairies are inland from the bays and estuaries. The Initiative Area encompasses a total land area of 13,748 square miles or 8.8 million acres.

Important habitats found in the Texas Mid-Coast Initiative Area include coastal marsh, agricultural lands dominated by rice and pasture, and seagrass beds and associated estuarine subtidal acquatic bed wetlands.