Texas City Prairie Preserve

The Texas City Prairie Preserve is a 2300acre nature preserve located on the shores of Moses Lake and Galveston Bay in Texas City, Texas in the United States, near Houston. The preserve was created in 1995 by the Nature Conservancy thanks to a $2.2 million donation of land by ExxonMobil. The primary goal in creating the preserve was to save the endangered Attwater's Prairie Chicken species, though the preserve supports a wide variety of wildlife.The terrain of the preserve includes prairie and wetland habitats, enabled in large part by restoration efforts in recent decades. The preserve includes 40acre of public access areas including camp sites. The remainder of the preserve is available for tours including boardwalk access through the marshes.The preserve is part of the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, a network of preserves and trails along the Texas coast featuring habitats for birds and other wildlife.Controversy1999 the Nature Conservancy commissioned an oil and gas operator to set up a new gas well inside the preserve. The location was "the closest to where the prairie chickens normally hung out, or normally boomed."