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36 * TEBRUARY 2ooe
T EXAS PAR KS & W T LD LT F E * 37
 I
i

First you notice the spade-sized pockmarks that li diminutive sandpipers - can find refuge.
make strolling an ankle-turning adventure. Off to the The r$$os were a time of quiet grovth for the consewancy, with
south, at the end of faint tire tracls, there are larger muddy scars large acquisitions topped by its zoo4 "crown jewel," a controlling
againstthe green. Behindyou, sounds of tra{fic intrude, asthe con- interest inthe 6,4oo-acreWarren Ranch south of HocHey. The new
venience store at the corner of Saurnsand Greenhouse floats com- millennium hasbrought increased development pressure, however,
muters off on a sea of gasoline and hot coffee. Just out of sight as the area'shistoric rice farms and cattle ranches fall, one by one'
behind those trees are suburban hornes, apartment blocls and the I- under a tide ofrooftops rippling out frorn Flouston.Just eastofthe
to freeway into downtown Houston. KPC s largest holdings, the 12,ooo-acre Bridgeland development
This is, by expert account, one ofthe finest patches ofpristine plans r7,ooo homes on what were theJosey and I-ongenbaugh
prairie left in W'estHarris County, part of the greater Katy Prairie ranches. The Grand Parkway,SH gg, part ofa proposed fourth loop
that once rippled across a thousand square miles between the around Houston, is set to be extended north of I-ro through some
Brazos River and Houston. More than the surn of its parts, Saums ofthe samereal estate.Acres previouslysellingfor under $r,ooo now
Road is a rare whole package, a mature bit of what once was the fetch 2o times that amount. There waseven talk at one time that the
region's characteristic landscape, now part ofa suburban devel- route of a newlnterstate 69, thetans-TLxas Corridor, would plow
opment hotspot. Over the next few months, as Greenhouse Road right through the Warren Ranch.
is extended to the interstate, this remnant patch is scheduled to With a new senseof urgency, the Katy Prairie Conservancyis using
be bulldozed, and the prairie-that-time-forgot will catch up with "everytool in its toolbox" to protect land, saysexecutivedirector Mary
the booming subdivisions all around. Anne Piacentini. A new conservation buyer program, for example,
Last summer and fall, the Katy Prairie Conservancy, alongwith
other environmental groups and governmental agencies, raced to
savewhat they could of the Saums Road Prairie. Alongside tree-
spadesand sod-digging equipment, platoons of eagervolunteers
gathered before daylight on severalweekends, armed with narrow
shovels, rubber boots and bug spray. By the bucketful, they hauled
off clumps of gay feather, milkweed and other prairie species, for
replanting at pocket prairies and larger restoration efforts across
the region.
These days, the Saums Road rescue saysa lot about the dwin-
dling Katy Prairie, and the need to rally support for what's left,
lessthan 2 percent of the original prairie remains. Populations of
specieslike meadowlark and bobwhite quail are in serious decline,
and the migratory snow geeseand other waterfowl
that once feastedon the regions rice fields are also
losing ground. More than a quaint relic of bygone
days, the Katy Prairie is an essential ecosystem
upon which hundreds of bird, mammal, insect
and plant speciesdepend.
But while Saums Road represents loss, friends of
the Katy Prairie sawits opportunities aswell - includ- rlr[. :
,l r*

ing the chance to educate the public about the con-

servancy and what its new community education
manager calls "Houstoris hidden hurting habitat."
"We cant afford to lose any more patches like
Saums," saysCommunity Education DirectorJaime
Gonzalez, who seesthe rescue as a possible turning
point in public awarenessabout the Katy Prairie
"What we've done is savethe genetic imprint of that
prairie remnant. That prairie is going to survive in J a i m e G o n z a l e zs t a n d si n
small chunks all around Houston. This is a little ark that is going treadmarks wheretallprairie
to help us reconstruct what was there." grassesonce stood and
Created in Igg2, the Katy Prairie Conservancy owns or Protects looksoverthe lastremnants
oftheSaumsRoadPrairieas
nearly 18,ooo acreswestof Houston, onwhat once wasa vastexPanse
irLrlldozers makeway{ornew
of coastal tallgrass prairie. The consenancy's holdings, alongside development.
other protected lands, now include a patchwork ofprairie, wood-
lands, wetlands and working farms and ranches that together repre-
sent the region's environmental, agricultural and wildlife history.
The grouph goal is to eventuallyprotect - and when possible, restore
- 5o,ooo acreswhere hundreds ofthousands ofwintering geese,
ducls, hawks and other birds - fiorn bald eaglesand barn owls to

38 * TEBRuAR Y 2ooe
 allows willing buyers to purchase land - a deer lease, for example - Society and the KPC rallied governmental representatives and
under easernent agreements with the conservancy that ensures it will secured landowner perrnission to sahagesome of the plant materi-
be managed and permanently protected against developrrrent. als before theywere destroyed.
"Species that use the Katy Prairie need big swaths of habitat that are The situation becarnea public education bonus, asthe story made
contig'uous," says KPC board president Mary Van Kerrebrook. the local papers and volunteers were invited to join in the "rescue"
"They dont care whether the land is owned outright by the conser- - shovelby shovel and bucket by bucket.
vancy or protected by a conservation easement." Volunteer Sheryl Marquez, in wide strawhat and rubber boots, was
The consewancy also has begun focusing on another important out during one of those rescueweekendslast summer. "It's just gor-
area: introducing the public to the subtle and sometirnes exuberant geous. Look at it," she said, gesturing acrossthe epherneral Saurns
beauf of prairie life. I-ast summer, for the first time, dre conservan- Road landscape. "There's a senseof satisfaction in helping the peo-
cy launched weekly Open tails days, givingvisitors a chance to roam ple at the Katy Prairie Conservancy savea little bit of what was orig-
at will on selected properties - accompanied by a podcast of prairie inally here before all the concrete."
information and lore. At last October's "Farnily Day on the Prairie" Dirt-stained commercial loan underwriter Iris Poteet had a the-
event, kids planted seedlings for prairie restoration, scooped up ory about what people would get from helping savethe Katy Prairie.
indigenous creepy-crawlies with butterfly nets, and took a hapide "I'rn in an o{fice all week at a cornputer, doing all this brain work. So
around a working farrn. I love corning out and getting rny hands dirry . . . watching things grow
The hope is these visitors will leave with a new appreciation for Heiping them along."
prairie life, and a willingness to heip preserve it. Wrestling a root ball of bluestem from the rock-hard ground,
"The KatyPrairie is kind of abigsecret. Nobodyreallyknows about environmental consultant SteveRamseyoffered another reason.
it," says Piacentini, who believes such events are sornewhat overdue. "I think it's the spiritual connection that people have when they
"Even ifyou don't know a darn thing about the birds and bugs, you come out in nature," he said. "You can read about the creation,
might just want to get outside once in a while. If people get out or get out in it."
there, every single one is going to find something they'll like." Sorne of the rescued plants will be distributed to pocket and
When environrnental groups noticed the "for sale" sig:r on the go- Iarger prairies springing up around the Houston area - in Brays
acre Saums Road tract in 2oo8, it was already too late to save it "as it Bayou, Armand Bayou Nature Park in Pasadena,Missouri City's
is - where it is." The land was destined to become an extension of Buffalo Run Park, and at the Fort Bend County Extension Office
Greenhouse Road, a drainage detention pond and, eventually, rnore in Rosenberg.
suburban housing and retail. Groups like the Houston Audubon The Katy Prairie Consewancy had ambitious plans for its rescued

bounty: The prairie clumps were used to jump-start a demonstra-

tion garden at the {ield office in Waller County. Plans are to show-
case 13 oftJre prairie's signature plants - like yellow Indiangrass and
white prairie clover. They also have started a seed bank for future
restoration work.
"Unless people have gone out to a place like this, they really haven t
seen it," Gonzalez says about popular prairie misconceptions.
"Sornetirnes it's just glorious - as beautifi.rl as any landscape you can
rt!ffi rr,iiffi
{6i,1',
WWSMmdtdi, imagine. We need to put more effort into restoration, into saving
areas so they can become prairies again. We need to show people that
all prairie beauty is not subtle."
A local businessrnan gave the project an added boost with a good
deal on prairie sod, Crews were out last fall, scraping up 3-foot-wide,
8 inch-deep strips and loading thern on a flat-bed truck. I{PC also
engaged the services ofa giant tree-spade, rnoving about two dozen
four-foot plugs to its Nelson Farms property on Clpress Creek.
Harris County Precinct 3 workers had their own tree-spade going,
transplmtinghundreds ofprairie plugs from Saums Road to the Paul
D. Rushing Park north of Katy. Still more sod went to a roo-acre
prairie restoration plot on Katy-Hockley Road, created by the Har-
ris County Flood Controi District.
A sod-cutting crews got to work lastAugust, Gonzalez was on hand
to record the event, and to point out a few classic prairie species in
plots defined by orange plastic tags.

T EXAS PAR KS & W tLD LtF E * 39

 "Rattlesnake rnaster, that's one," he says, singling out a plant with cultural and natural heritage, and see the wealth of wildlife out
distinctive prickly flower heads. He dernonstrates the fibers of sticky there, then we will succeed in saving a sustainable part of the prairie
sap that give spiderwort its name and offers a section of fragrant gold- within the narrowwindow of opportunity tJrat rernains."
enrod, with its licorice perfume. So far, saysVan Kerrebrook, throwing out the welcorne rnat has
"And this isvery veryrare," adds Gonzalez, hishands frammgl.u& been successfirl.
shoots of eastern gama grass. "From several centuries of cattle ranch- "It's just a delight to see the faces of children out on the prairie
ing, they've pretty rnuch eaten rnost stands of it. So whenever we see for the first time and adults too. We have this incredible treasure
it, we go for that." in our bad<yards and when people experience it, they tend to fall
By the next month, sorne of that rescued rnaterial was thriving in in love with it. It s great to think that someday, if we're carefirl and
a field at I,Joo-acre Nelson Farms, the consewancy's very ffrst acqui- the local community engages now, that we'll have this ecological
sition in Igg|, purchased from a longtime rice farmer who still treasure to pass down to fi-rture generations."
works the land under lease. Wetlands, grasslands, beaver ponds and In his cluttered office on the Warren Ranch, James Warren is liv-
a patch known as Barn Owl Woods make up this property, along with ing the story of the Katy Prairie. His great-grandfather came to this
all the typical equipment and outbuildings of a working ag operation. countryas an English immigrant in 1853, stafted aboardinghouse
On a cool, sunny rnorning in October, second-graders Nil<ita when the railroad reached Hockley in r8g/, and laterbought land.
Munsif and Madison Morton were on their knees beside a big blue A big man with a big mustache, Warrens grandfather raised cat-
bucket, squishing seeds, compost and clay into ping-pong-sized tle on that land, as did his father. His uncle, Bill Warren, helped
balls. It was "Farnily Day" on the Katy Prairie, and KPC volunteers found the American Ouarterhorse Association.

From Ieft: The SaunrsRoad Prairie;

.la inreGo nzalezv olr
; r nt eort rsans plant
clu mps0f pr air iegr as ${ ls
ir r t oono of
severalrestoration plotsnsarKaty.

:li
$*iu.*;'r

had assembleda small carnival ofbooths, designed to introduce vis-
itors to the irnportance ofthe prairie habitat.
Volunteer Grace Liggett helped the children pour water into the
bucket and rnix it with their bare hands. l-ater, the seed balls -
including some from Saums Road Prairie - would be tossedinto a
. prepared field, to gerrninate with the rain. "The clay protects the
seeds,"she explained to her young audience. "There's a much bet-
ter chance they're going to grow and make our prairie pretty."
'Alittle bit of clay in your hands and rolly, rolly, rolly," sang Niki-
' ta, just happy to be outside. "We love playing in the rnud."
Van Kerrebrook, the KPC board chairman, has been devoted to
i, the prairie sincejoining the fight to stop a westsideHarris County air-
port in the rg8os. She waspart of the initial group that organized the
Kary Prairie Conserv-ancyin the early I99os - the first local land trust
', in the Houston area.
"The conservancyis maturing and we want to do more to deepen
,:;our ties to the local comrnunity, to engagemore Houstonians in the
.l wonderful experience of being out on the prairie," saysVan Kerre-
I brook. "We lcnow that if people will corne out and look at placeslike
, the Warre.r Ranch and Nelson Farms, and get engagedin our agri-
In his time, James W'arren also becarne ranch rnanager, deter-
rnined to hold the ranch together even as other working ranches
were disappearing from the Katy Prairie. "I've been hearing it
since I wasa child," he says."Houston is coming."
In 2oo4, againstyearsof development pressureand other oppo-
sition, Warren supported the Kary Prairie Consewancy in what
would become a strategicacquisition, A /o percent interest in the
fields, pastures, woodlands, creeks and lakes that make up this
historic property. The conservancy now owns about 7oo acres
outright and holds a mortgage on the rest.
"I'm trying to presewe this ranch. This is where my roots are,"
says'Warren,who continues to manage the property as his family
has for more than roo years. Bouncilg acrossthe landscape in his
dented Chevy tru&, Warren points out the strips ofwild vegetation
he leavesfor the benefit of quail and other wildlife, and the pine-
covered hilltop from which rooftops arejust visible to the north.
"There are placesyou can go on this ranch where you don t see
a house or hear any road noise. There are still places to get away
from all that. I'm talking about roo years ofhistory here. I'rn
trfing to savethat."*

+O * FEBBUARY 2ooe