Renowned because the “organic crossroads of North America,” Big Thicket in East Texas is a top-notch mix of southeastern swamps, Japanese deciduous wooded area, critical plains, pine savannas, and dry sandhills. There are 10 wonderful ecosystems in the almost 106,000-acre keep that are domestic to a spread of unique vegetation and animals. Four of the five carnivorous flowers in North America can be found right here, as can extra than 20 sorts of orchids.
In addition to rare vegetation, almost 186 species of birds stay in or migrate through the preserve, together with the bald eagle, peregrine falcon and swallow-tailed kite. Several species of snakes, such as the Louisiana pine snake, and even a small population of alligators also can be observed at Big Thicket.
Established through Congress in 1974, Big Thicket changed into the first maintain within the National Park System. It is likewise indexed as one of the United Nations International Biosphere Reserves.
BIG THICKET GETS BIGGER
We have helped preserve nearly 33,000 acres at Big Thicket National Preserve. Most extensively, The Conservation Fund made the largest donation in Big Thicket National Preserve’s records when, with our partners, we donated 6,600 acres of bottomland hardwood wooded area and cypress-tupelo swamp to the National Park Service in 2009. That identical yr, we helped Texas Parks and Wildlife double the size of Village Creek State Park with the addition of one,500 acres. The park is placed subsequent to Big Thicket National Preserve’s Village Creek and Neches River Corridor devices.
Building on that fulfillment, in 2010 we helped the National Park Service buy more than four,000 acres of former Hancock Timberland. These purchases delivered extra than 800 acres to the Canyonlands Unit of the keep and extra than 3,600 acres alongside Village Creek, which establishes a continuous habitat corridor for migratory waterfowl and songbirds and serves as a floodplain that will gain the groups along Village Creek and the Neches River.
WHY THIS PROJECT MATTERS
Having largely been owned by means of wooden organizations for the past century, the Pineywoods region of East Texas, which incorporates Big Thicket and the Neches River, the closing “wild” river in Texas, is a herbal wonderland that the general public hardly ever was given to look. Due to modifications within the industry, those wood corporations had been promoting their forestland, imparting extraordinary possibilities for landscape stage conservation and public endeavor. Our work in Big Thicket and the surrounding vicinity is ongoing. In addition to land acquisition, we additionally run an ecotourism and financial development application for the vicinity called the Pineywoods Experience, and we helped establish Texas’ largest wetlands mitigation bank, the Pineywoods Mitigation Bank.