COLORADO COUNTY, Texas — Conservation groups have added more than 500 acres of habitat to the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge to support recovery efforts for the endangered Attwater’s prairie-chicken, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.
The new tract marks the largest expansion of the refuge in decades and increases the total protected land to more than 11,000 acres. The foundation said the acquisition strengthens coastal prairie habitat used by the species.
The Attwater’s prairie-chicken, a ground-dwelling grouse native to Texas coastal prairies, now numbers fewer than 200 birds in the wild. The species currently survives in only two Texas counties: Colorado County, Texas and Goliad County, Texas.
Wildlife officials estimate that about 1 million Attwater’s prairie-chickens lived across the Gulf Coast prairies of Texas and Louisiana in the early 1900s. The population declined over the following decades due to habitat loss, fragmentation, overhunting and invasive species such as red imported fire ants.
Much of the coastal prairie ecosystem disappeared as land was converted to cropland, pasture and urban development. Officials also cited industrial expansion, invasive plants and brush growth linked to decades of fire suppression as factors that degraded remaining habitat.
Less than 1 percent of the approximately 6 million acres of Gulf Coast coastal prairie that once covered the region remains today, according to conservation groups.
The refuge, located about 60 miles west of Houston, Texas, protects one of the largest remaining areas of native coastal prairie in southeast Texas.
The land acquisition was funded through donations to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation and support from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Conservation groups said early observations show prairie-chickens already using the newly protected property.