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Good news! An amazing prairie remnant has been found in Deer Park. It is called the College Park Prairie, named after an adjacent elementary school. This is a 53-acre prairie pothole remnant with a full complement of pimple mounds and potholes.
It supports an array of wildlife that includes pocket gophers, unusual and often elegant insects, grassland birds including Henslow’s, Le Conte’s and Grasshopper Sparrows, and nesting Eastern Meadowlarks and Loggerhead Shrikes.
All photos by Don Verser.
A willing seller and a brief window of time to raise funds are providing a rare opportunity to potentially acquire this extraordinary property, the largest known high-quality prairie remnant for sale in Harris County. The Native Plant Society is not currently accepting donations but is partnering with Audubon Houston, Houston Wilderness and the Coastal Prairie Partnership to find acquisition funds from corporations and environmental agencies. Individual donors can make a contribution at www.saveourprairie.com.
Coastal prairie is the “rarest of the rare” of North America’s ecosystems. Coastal prairie was once the dominant ecosystem of Harris County’s sprawling 1.1 million acres. Now, only a few fragmented remnants are left of our local prairies where cowboys, cattle drives, saltgrass trails and rich farmlands once prospered. The vast local prairies of Harris County once teemed with grassland birds and supported countless other wildlife species. Except for the abundance of prairie-associated names, little remains of that rich heritage.
To date, more than 240 native species have been recorded, indicating an extremely diverse, high-quality prairie. Texas Parks & Wildlife botanist and plant ecologist Jason Singhurst has surveyed College Park Prairie three times. He describes the site as a Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie that is extremely rare in both Louisiana and Texas. This prairie community has only been documented in Chambers County (Winnie and Middleton Prairies) and Harris County (Deer Park Prairie) in Texas. Its status is: Global Rank: G1S1. G1 means it is at very high risk of extinction due to extreme rarity, with often 5 or fewer known populations; S1 means there are fewer than 5 occurrences known in Texas.
Coastal prairies are so rare that most Houstonians have never seen one.
I’m often asked how it is different from all the open pastures and fields lining the roadways of Harris County. One distinction is that a high quality prairie still has its original topography of pimple mounds and prairie potholes. It has not been overgrazed or plowed or converted to “improved” non-native range grasses. Quality prairie remnants are almost always hayfields. Regular mowing or fire is necessary to maintain a balance of native grasses and flowers. Otherwise, tallows and other alien plants will dominate.
Although not open to the public, the only way to really experience the complexity and excitement of the prairie is to walk through it and see all that is happening and changing every day. Since the College Park Prairie is located in Harris County, it is an ideal location for the public to visit and experience what prairies once looked like. When you step into the prairie you turn back the clock to a less stressful time.
I have had the opportunity to visit the site multiple times, and have a new appreciation for the complexity and interrelatedness of the coastal prairie. Each time I visit new wildflowers, grasses, insects, small mammals and birds are discovered.
Finding and preserving prairie remnants is now at a critical stage if we want to save a window into our past. Each quality remnant we find should be saved because every site has a unique combination of wildflowers, grasses, insects, reptiles, mammals and amphibians, and consists of one-of-a-kind topography, microorganisms and soil types. Sadly, native wildflowers and grasses once common are now very rare. When a prairie remnant is lost to development, an entire and complex wildlife community is lost. The delicate balance of the prairie cannot be reproduced.
Our efforts to date have been to relocate or propagate native plants for restoration or reconstruction projects. Many plants survive relocation, but rare site-specific plants do not. Generally only 10 to 20 species can be targeted for relocation but quality remnants consist of 150 to 300 plant species adapted to the particular soil and moisture conditions of that site. The best plan is to preserve an intact coastal prairie.
The current threat to the Deer Park prairie is urban development. The property owner is a developer who plans to build a residential subdivision on top of the prairie. He has, however, given until November 1, 2012, for a commitment to be made to acquire the property.
Normally we locate a prairie remnant with only days or weeks before bulldozers arrive. For decades we watched the last coastal prairie disappear before we could act, but we have the gift of time to save this one. There is a sense of urgency to reverse the trend of constant loss, and it is important to not lose even one more of the prairies that are part of our natural heritage. It is not likely another sizable remnant of this quality will be found in Harris County and so this may be the last opportunity to save a prairie this close to Houston.
For further information and to donate, visit www.saveourprairie.com.
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: flohannah
