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Go Wild for the Katy
Prairie!
All of us at the Katy Prairie Conservancy hope that 2008 brought you many
opportunities to experience the wild side of the Katy Prairie. If you enjoyed
visiting the prairie or simply reading about it in
our newsletter, please consider a generous year-end gift to the
Conservancy. Your donation will help
ensure that all the wild things can continue to make the prairie
their home. Here's wishing you a wildly
happy and prosperous New Year!
Where can you
experience the wilder side of nature - just 30 miles from downtown Houston (at least as the goose flies)? Where do Bobcats run along creeks,
White-tailed Deer bound across fields, and Bald Eagles soar high overhead? The Katy Prairie is home to these creatures
and more, but your help is needed to expand and protect this habitat.
More than 300
species of magnificent birds and other wildlife, including bullfrogs, snakes,
ducks, beavers, bass, and geese call the Katy Prairie home. Some only winter on the prairie, some stop to
rest on their spring and fall migrations back home, and some spend their entire
lives on the prairie -- brooding, nesting, nurturing, and resting amidst an
amazing array of native grasses and plants, including Big Bluestem,
Indiangrass, Coneflower, Kansas Blazing Star, and Rattlesnake Master.
These plants
and animals aren't the only creatures on
the Katy Prairie. Bicyclists traverse
county roads to train for the MS 150.
Hikers seek trails along bayous and in fields to enjoy the early morning
dew. Birdwatchers set up scopes at dawn
and dusk to glimpse a life bird or just to watch the habits of familiar
animals. Photographers spend days on the
prairie to catch the right light and the right shot. Schoolchildren do fieldwork in nature's
outdoor laboratory.
This year the
Katy Prairie Conservancy, a nonprofit land trust, hosted more than 70 field
trips, tours, and special events for schoolchildren, birdwatchers, bicyclists,
nature lovers, and others who visit the Conservancy's preserves to experience the
wild things that live on the Katy Prairie.
Our Prairie Discovery Tours introduced audiences to the sights and
sounds of the prairie while Open Trails encouraged visitors to explore our
preserves at their own pace, aided by an interpretive mini-field guide and
podcast.
The
Conservancy has restored and enhanced wetlands and grasslands -- expanding
habitat for wetland and upland species, including Mottled Ducks, Eastern
Cottontails, and Bobwhite Quails. And,
as always, the Conservancy continues to add to protected lands on the
prairie. We are already at 17,500 protected
acres and are exploring innovative and cost-effective ways to conserve even
more land... while it's still available.
But the Katy
Prairie keeps getting more and more new neighbors. Harris County anticipates that its population will
grow by more than 3.5 million people by 2035.
A land-use study by the Katy Area Economic Development Council projects
that much of the vacant land on the Katy Prairie will be converted to
residential, commercial, and industrial uses over the next several
decades. The study notes that the land
conserved by the Katy Prairie Conservancy will be a major exception and will
provide extraordinary recreational opportunities for the growing regional population
as well as Houstonians and visitors alike.
If the Katy
Prairie Conservancy is to succeed in keeping the wild things on the Katy
Prairie where they belong and in opening up the prairie so that you, your
family, and others can experience its abundant wildlife, we need your support.
Remember -- that by the year 2020 Houston will have extended itself westward all
the way to Sealy. We need to preserve some open spaces not only for the wild
things but for your grandchildren and their grandchildren. Houstonians need more than just roof tops and
pavement -- imagine what Houston would be like without Hermann, Memorial,
and other parks.
So please consider
a year-end donation to the Katy Prairie Conservancy to help us continue our
timely efforts to conserve more land, expand public tours and events, restore
wetlands and grasslands, enhance and improve preserve management. Let more
people know that the Katy Prairie is where Houston's wild things are.
Sincerely,
 
Thomas R.
Kelsey Mary Van
Kerrebrook
Chairman,
Fundraising Campaign President,
Board of Directors
Mary Anne
Piacentini
Executive
Director
P.S. Take a
gander at the donation card below and see how you too can become a wild
thing! Or help a friend of relative
become a wild thing by making a donation in their name.
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Want to be a Wild Thing?
You can either print out the card below and return it with your check enclosed to the Katy Prairie Conservancy at 3015 Richmond Avenue, Suite 230; Houston, TX 77098 or you can click here to donate online and be sure to write "Wild Things" in the Designate My Donation space.
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| The Katy Prairie Conservancy
3015 Richmond Avenue, Suite 230
Houston, TX 77098-3114
713.523.6135
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