The Texas City Prairie Preserve is a

nature preserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological o ...

located on the shores of

Moses Lake Moses Lake is a lake and reservoir along the course of Crab Creek, in Washington state, USA. Moses Lake is part of the Columbia River basin, as Crab Creek is a tributary of the Columbia River. Although originally a shallow natural lake, Moses ...

and Galveston Bay in

Texas City, Texas Texas City is a city in Galveston County in the U.S. state of Texas. Located on the southwest shoreline of Galveston Bay, Texas City is a busy deepwater port on Texas's Gulf Coast, as well as a petroleum-refining and petrochemical-manufacturin ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, near

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

. The preserve was created in 1995 by the

Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Nat ...

thanks to a $2.2 million donation of land by ExxonMobil. The primary goal in creating the preserve was to save the endangered

Attwater's prairie chicken Attwater's prairie chicken (''Tympanuchus cupido attwateri'') is a highly endangered subspecies of the greater prairie chicken that is native to coastal Texas and formerly Louisiana in the United States. Description Attwater's prairie chicken me ...

, though the preserve protects coastal prairie and supports a wide variety of wildlife. The terrain of the preserve includes

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

and

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

habitats, enabled in large part by restoration efforts in recent decades. The preserve includes of limited public access areas including a small hiking trail. The remainder of the preserve is closed but available for tours and access at the discretion of preserve staff, including birding events and volunteer events. The preserve is part of the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, a network of preserves and trails along the Texas coast featuring habitats for birds and other wildlife.

Controversy

1999 the

commissioned an oil and gas operator to set up a new gas well inside the preserve. The location was "the closest to where the prairie chickens normally hung out, or normally boomed." In 2010 a paper was presented at a

Society of Petroleum Engineers The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit professional organization whose stated mission is "to collect, disseminate, and exchange technical knowledge concerning the exploration, development and production of oil an ...

conference stating that the original well "died in March 2003, and was unable to flow due to excessive water production." A new well was drilled in the same area in late 2007, the new well was for oil while the original was for natural gas. Due to a change in release strategy by the Attwater's Prairie Chicken Recovery Team, captive-bred bird releases were stopped in 2011. There are no more

s on the land as of 2012.

References

External links

Gulf Coast Bird Observatory: Texas City Prairie Preserve

Nature reserves in Texas Protected areas of Galveston County, Texas Galveston Bay Area Nature Conservancy preserves Texas City, Texas 1995 establishments in Texas Protected areas established in 1995 {{Texas-protected-area-stub

Controversy

References

Further reading

External links