Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge is a 6,440-acre (26.1 km2) wildlife refuge located about 20 mi (32 km) south of Muleshoe, Texas, on Texas State Highway 214. It is the oldest national wildlife refuge in Texas, having been established as the Muleshoe Migratory Waterfowl Refuge by executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935. Roosevelt issued a proclamation in 1940 to change the name to the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge. In 1980, Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.
Attwater's prairie-chicken is a highly endangered subspecies of the greater prairie-chicken that is native to coastal Texas and formerly Louisiana in the United States.
Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge is a federally protected refugium encompassing one of the largest remnants of coastal prairie habitat remaining in southeast Texas, United States, and home to one of the last populations of critically endangered Attwater's prairie chickens, a ground-dwelling grouse of the coastal prairie ecosystem.
Brazos Bend State Park is a 4,897-acre (1,982 ha) state park along the Brazos River in unincorporated Fort Bend County, Texas, run by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The park is open year-round, with the exception of several weekends a year during which it is closed for controlled hunts to manage the white-tailed deer population.
The National Wildlife Refuge System in the United States has a long and distinguished history.
Houston, the most populous city in the Southern United States, is located along the upper Texas Gulf Coast, approximately 50 miles (80 km) northwest of the Gulf of Mexico at Galveston. The city, which is the ninth-largest in the United States by area, covers 601.7 square miles (1,558 km2), of which 579.4 square miles (1,501 km2), or 96.3%, is land and 22.3 square miles (58 km2), or 3.7%, is water.
Sanganois State Fish and Wildlife Area is an Illinois state park on 10,360 acres (4,190 ha) in Cass, Schuyler, and Mason County, Illinois, United States.
Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge was created on October 12, 2004, the 545th National Wildlife Refuge in the United States. Its creation was the result of cooperation between at least 30 agencies or governmental entities. The creation of the refuge was spearheaded by The Nature Conservancy, and the initial endowment of 2,300 acres (9.3 km2) of land was donated by the Conservancy. In light of its planned final size of 37,756 acres (153 km2), it is described by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as "the largest tallgrass prairie and wetland restoration project in U.S. history."
Armand Bayou Nature Center is an urban preserve located in Pasadena and southeast Houston between the Johnson Space Center and the Bayport Industrial District. The 2,500-acre (10 km2) nature center is the largest urban wilderness preserve in the United States.
Lone Star College–CyFair, formerly Cy-Fair College, is one of six colleges in the Lone Star College System located in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, United States.
The Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is the smallest of the National Wildlife Refuges located in the U.S. state of Alaska. It lies on the northwest coastal side of central Aleutians East Borough. Almost all of the refuge was designated as wilderness in 1980 under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (Anilca). The refuge is administered from offices in Cold Bay.
Hamden Slough National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge of the United States in Minnesota. Eastern hardwood forests stretching from the Atlantic seaboard give way to the western prairie at the area, in Audubon Township, near Audubon, Minnesota. Prior to settlement, its diverse vegetation was attractive to wildlife: waterfowl, upland birds, bison, wolves, and other prairie wildlife. When fully restored, the refuge will provide the largest contiguous block of wetland prairie habitat in the region, encompassing nearly 6,000 acres (24 km2).
North Deer Island is an island and wildlife sanctuary located in Hitchcock, Texas, in western Galveston Bay, about halfway between Galveston Island and Tiki Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The 144-acre (0.58 km2) natural island is one of the few natural islands remaining in West Galveston Bay. It is an important waterbird nesting site on the Upper Texas Coast and studies have shown that up to 40,000 pairs of birds nest on the island each year.
Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge (HNWR), a haven for migratory birds and other wildlife, lies in northwestern Grayson County, Texas, on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, on the Red River between Oklahoma and Texas. This National Wildlife Refuge is made up of water, marsh, and upland habitat. Visitors can hike, observe wildlife, hunt, and fish throughout the year.
The Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail is a state-designated system of trails, bird sanctuaries, and nature preserves along the entire length of the Texas Gulf Coast in the United States. As the state of Texas hosts more bird species than any other state in the U.S. the trail system offers some of the most unusual opportunities for bird-watching in the world. The "trail" is actually 43 separate hiking and driving trails that include 308 birding sites. The sites themselves feature a variety of viewing opportunities with boardwalks, observation decks, and other amenities. The trails boast more than 450 bird species. The trail system is managed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department as part of the Great Texas Wildlife Trails which also include the Heart of Texas Wildlife Trail, the Panhandle Plains Wildlife Trail, and the Prairies and Pineywoods Wildlife Trail.
Pass a Loutre Wildlife Management Area (WMA) is a 115,000-acre (47,000 ha) protected wetland in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, United States. The WMA is located due south and bordering the 48,000 acre Delta National Wildlife Refuge, accessible only by air or boat, contains the Pass A L'Outre Lighthouse, and Port Eads is within the boundary.
Over the past 200 years, the United States has lost more than 50% of its wetlands. And even with the current focus on wetland conservation, the US is losing about 60,000 acres (240 km2) of wetlands per year. However, from 1998 to 2004 the United States managed a net gain of 191,750 acres (776.0 km2) of wetlands . The past several decades have seen an increasing number of laws and regulations regarding wetlands, their surroundings, and their inhabitants, creating protections through several different outlets. Some of the most important have been and are the Migratory Bird Act, Swampbuster, and the Clean Water Act.
Sheldon Lake State Park and Environmental Learning Center is a 2,800-acre outdoor education and recreation facility in northeast Harris County managed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The site is located along Sheldon Lake reservoir. The federal government constructed the reservoir on Carpenter's Bayou in 1942 in order to support growing war-related industries along the Houston Ship Channel. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department acquired the reservoir in 1952 to provide a refuge for migratory waterfowl, a public fishing lake and a fish hatchery. It opened in 1955 as the Sheldon Wildlife Management Area. The hatchery closed in 1975, and the land began to revert naturally to forest, ponds and marshes. The site was designated a state park in 1984.
Texan by Nature, originally formed in 2011 as Taking Care of Texas, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit focusing on uniting business and conservation. Texan by Nature is headquartered at Austin, Texas.
The Louis René Barrera Indiangrass Wildlife Sanctuary is a 281 acres (114 ha) preserved wildlife sanctuary in northeast Austin, Texas, on the north shore of Lake Walter E. Long. Created in 1967 as part of Austin's network of conservation lands, it focuses on conserving native grasslands and wildlife while promoting the restoration of the Blackland Prairie. The Blackland Prairie ecoregion, one of the most threatened ecosystems in Texas, has less than 1% of its original area remaining because that rest was converted to row crops and pasture by European settlers.
