The Nature Conservancy in Texas - Texas City Preserve

Texas City Prairie Preserve

View a slideshow of the preserve

Attwater's prairie chicken
© Mitch Philpot

The Texas City Prairie Preserve features rare coastal prairie habitat and is one of the last remaining sites that supports wild Attwater's prairie chickens. At the turn of the century, there were approximately 1 million Attwater's prairie chickens along the Texas coast. However, loss of coastal prairie habitat over the years devastated the population, and less than 50 remain in the wild today, making the bird one of the most endangered in North America.

Location
The preserve is situated on Galveston Bay in Texas City, approximately 40 miles south of Houston.

Size
2,303 acres

Attwater's prairie chickens
© Lynn Mc Bride

What the Conservancy Is Doing
The recovery program for the Attwater's prairie chicken has included the introduction of captive-bred juvenile birds into the wild at the preserve each summer since 1996. The birds are monitored and a survey of their numbers is taken every spring.

Restoration of the coastal prairie is a primary stewardship activity on the preserve. Cattle grazing, which has occurred on the prairie since the late 1800s, continues to provide a substitute for the wandering herds of bison that are no longer present. Through the use of prescribed burning, the Conservancy staff is returning natural fire to the preserve. Chinese tallow trees, a non-native species that poses a serious threat to coastal prairies, are being eliminated. Volunteers are critical in the maintenance and restoration of the prairie. Volunteer opportunities are available and potential volunteers are encouraged to contact the preserve.

Attwater’s Prairie Chicken Recovery Efforts
A lack of suitable habitat is the greatest threat to long-term recovery of the Attwater’s prairie chickens. While much work has been done to restore habitat for the prairie chickens at Texas City Prairie Preserve, conservation scientists and prairie chicken experts recognize that a great deal more habitat must be made available in order for the birds to recover healthy population numbers. Creating suitable habitat of adequate size will require coastal prairie restoration efforts over a large land area in multiple locations. In addition, an aggressive program to release greater numbers of captive-bred birds must be undertaken to populate suitable existing and new habitat.

Attwater's prairie chicken
© Lynn Mc Bride

To enhance Attwater’s prairie chicken recovery efforts, The Nature Conservancy of Texas has committed $5 million to the effort over the next five years.

To increase available habitat, the Conservancy has begun working with private landowners, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other public and private organizations in the Refugio-Goliad Prairie region of the state to create voluntary agreements to restore and maintain existing coastal prairie for the potential future release of captive-bred prairie chickens without creating liabilities to the landowners.

The Conservancy also is creating a professional prescribed fire team to work in the Refugio-Goliad prairie area to enhance coastal prairie habitat with prescribed burning.

In addition, the Conservancy is working with the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken Recovery Team - comprising multiple local, state and federal conservation agencies and non-governmental partners - to increase production of healthy captive-bred birds for release into the wild.

Hours
Public access to the preserve is available through volunteer opportunities. For more information, please contact the Texas City Prairie Preserve, 4702 Highway 146 North, Texas City, Texas, 77590, phone: (409) 945-4677, fax: (409) 943-5056.

What to See: Plants
Big and little bluestem, indiangrass, switchgrass, eastern gammagrass, cordgrass and the rare coastal gayfeather.

What to See: Animals
In addition to habitat for the prairie chicken, the property provides a home for wintering and migrating grassland songbirds. The preserve also contains excellent wetlands that support migratory and year-round populations of waterfowl, shorebirds and wading birds, including nesting colonies of least terns and black skimmers. Other birds sighted here include brown pelican, white-faced ibis, black rail, American peregrine falcon, white-tailed hawk, reddish egrets, Forster's terns and American oystercatchers.

Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
The creation of the preserve in March 1995 was a significant step toward saving the Attwater's prairie chicken from extinction. It was made possible by a $2.2 million land donation from the Mobil Oil Company (now ExxonMobil).

Related Information

Texas City Prairie Preserve Newsletters

Spring, 2008 newsletter (PDF)