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The Lawther Deer Park Prairie was purchased Fall 2013 through one of the most amazing social and local media fundraising campaigns in conservation history in Texas. This is how it happened.
In 2008 the Coastal Prairie Partnership (CPP) was established as a private, non-profit collaboration of governmental agencies, non-governmental institutions, private individuals and landowners to achieve common conservation and education goals. Its mission is to promote the conservation and restoration of coastal prairie ecosystems. From its infancy the CPP cultivated the attention of native plant enthusiasts in the greater Houston area including several Native Plant Society members.
Several of the native plant folks established a sub-group of CPP called the Prairie Hunters to track down known and unknown prairie remnants in Harris, Chambers and Galveston Counties. The Prairie Hunters initially visited with the Native Prairie Association of Texas (NPAT), a non-profit land trust dedicated to conserving, recording, and appreciating native prairies, savannahs and other grasslands in Texas. NPAT, in coordination with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), was in the final stage of finishing a range-wide (95 counties) tallgrass prairie mapping project in Texas.
In late winter of 2011, the Prairie Hunters met with NPAT and TPWD to gain access to the locations of prairie remnants documented from public roads (rights-of-way) in the Houston area. The Prairie Hunters had three goals: to make landowner contact with the known remnant prairie sites, visit the sites and document the flora and condition of the prairies, and to locate additional prairies in Harris, Chambers and Galveston Counties not previously documented.
Starting in Spring 2011, the Prairie Hunters visited known sites and started finding unreported prairies. When the Prairie Hunters found a new prairie, they then found the landowner through local contacts and county appraisal offices. They started doing checklists of the flora and finding globally rare, regionally rare and endemic plants such as Bracted Gayfeather (Liatris bracteata), Houston Daisy (Rayjacksonia aurea), Texas Windmill Grass (Chloris texensis), Topeka Purple Coneflower (Echinacea atrorubens), Texas Coneflower (Rudbeckia texana), Lindheimer’s Beeblossum (Gaura lindheimeriana) and Compass Plant (Siliphium laciniata).
The core team of volunteer Prairie Hunters included Lan Shen, Katy Emde, Flo Hannah, Don Verser and a few others. The Prairie Hunters found new prairies in southern and eastern Harris County, several around Winnie, Texas, in Chambers County and others in mainland Galveston County.
The Prairie Hunters found both vertisol (clay) prairies dominated by Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans), Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), and alfisol (sandy) prairies dominated by Little Bluestem, Gulf Coast Muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris), Brownseed Paspalum (Paspalum plicatulum) and Thin Bluestem (Schizachyrium tenerum). These newly-documented prairies ranged from 5 – 80 acres in size. Although small in size and surrounded by development, several of these prairies contained extremely high plant diversity and great seed harvesting potential for restoring prairie landscapes.
The most significant tract was located by Don Verser, a 52-acre prairie nestled in Deer Park, Texas, just east of Houston near Galveston Bay. I was contacted by Don in November 2011 to conduct a flora survey of what is now called Lawther Deer Park Prairie. I met Don, Katy, Lan and a few others and was pleasantly surprised by the plant diversity of this prairie. This was during one of the most extreme drought years recorded in Texas. I was amazed at the species richness and variability of prairie habitats such as pimple mounds, swales, prairie potholes and saline barrens. I documented close to 150 plant species during extreme drought in that initial site visit.
I have joined the Prairie Hunters on several botanical surveys at Lawther Deer Park Prairie between 2012 to the present and we have documented 357 plant species to date in this magnificent prairie. The seasonal flora displays of this prairie are magnificent and I encourage everyone to take advantage of the NPAT field trips and educational events that are posted on its website.
The characteristic spring flora includes Simpson’s Rosinweed (Silphium radula), Longleaf Milkweed (Asclepias longifolia), Ovate leaf Indian Plantain (Arnoglossum ovatum), Purplehead Sneezeweed (Helenium flexosum), Pale Lobelia (Lobelia appendiculata), Long Bract Wild Indigo (Baptisia bracteata), Multiflowered Goat’s Rue (Tephrosia onobrychoides), Prairie Bluets (Stenaria nigricans), Carolina Larkspur (Delphinium carolinianum ssp. vimenum), Prairie Parsley (Polyteania nuttallii), Gulf Vervain (Verbena xutha), Trailing Rattany (Krameria lanceolata), Nodding Beard Tongue (Penstemon laxiflorus), Little Tooth Sedge (Carex microdonta), Black Seed Speargrass (Piptochaetium avenaceum) and Eastern Gammagrass (Tripsicum dactyloides).
During the summer months, the prairie wildflowers are densely painted with colors of purple, yellow and white across nature’s canvas. The perennials such as Prairie Blazing Star (Liatris pycnostachya), Texas Coneflower, Roughleaf Coneflower (Rudbeckia grandifolia), Lanceleaf blanketflower (Gaillardia aestivalis), Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium), Scented Goldenrod (Solidago odora), Maryland Meadowbeauty (Rhexia mariana), Lindheimer’s Beeblossum and Switchgrass.
The fall flora is vibrant with warm season bunchgrasses that include the purple hues of Gulf Coast Muhly, blue tints of Little Bluestem, the display of excerted bright yellow anthers of Indiangrass and reddish tones of the cornerstone of the Prairie Big Bluestem. The fall flora is dotted with many composites (members of the Sunflower Family) including Thoroughworts (Eupatorium spp.), Southern Prairie Aster (Eurybia hemispherica), Maximillian Sunflower (Helianthes maximillliana), Swamp Sunflower (H. angustifolia), Bushy Goldentop (Euthamia leptostachya), Slender Gayfeather (Liatris acidota), Goldenrod (Solidago spp.), Downy Lobelia (Lobelia puberula), Snow-on-theprairie (Euphorbia bicolor), Azure Blue Sage (Salvia azurea) and False Foxglove (Agalinis spp.)
We have located regionally significant plants at Lawther Deer Park Prairie such as Texas Windmill Grass, Snowy Orchid (Plantanthera nivea), Drummond’s Sneezeweed (Helenium drummondii), Colic Root (Aletris aurea), fall blooming Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana ssp. praemorsa) and Chalky Bluestem (Andropogon capillipes). This special prairie is also blessed with thousands of the annual Sundew (Drosera brevifolia), a carnivorous plant.
The Lawther Deer Park Prairie was purchased in Fall 2013. More than three million dollars were privately raised through the leadership of Bayou Land Conservancy (a non-profit land trust in Houston) along with partners NPAT, CPP, Katy Prairie Conservancy and tireless efforts of the Prairie Hunters. The permanent conservation of this prairie was supported by these grassroots citizen scientists who spent an extraordinary amount of their own time and money to make this land acquisition happen.
This prairie has been transferred from Bayou Land Conservancy to NPAT, who will be actively managing and utilizing the prairie for outreach and as an education tool for restoring and conserving additional coastal prairies in the upper coast of Texas. This acquisition is a true testament of how conservation partners and citizen scientists holistically work together to conserve the natural heritage of one of the best remaining examples of coastal prairies in the upper coast.
Thank you, Prairie Hunters, for your hard work and accomplishments that will be enjoyed for centuries to come.
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: singhurst
