Creating partnerships: Coastal Prairie Conservancy teams with farmers, ranchers for land conservation

By George Slaughter, News Editor
Posted 2/16/23

The Coastal Prairie Conservancy continues to partner with local farmers and ranchers on land conservation and stewardship as local urban development continues, two conservancy volunteers said.

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Creating partnerships: Coastal Prairie Conservancy teams with farmers, ranchers for land conservation

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The Coastal Prairie Conservancy continues to partner with local farmers and ranchers on land conservation and stewardship as local urban development continues, two conservancy volunteers said.

Kylynn Harris is a senior at Katy High School and a conservancy volunteer. She and her father, Chris Harris, provided an overview of the conservancy and its activities at a Feb. 15 Fulshear Area Chamber of Commerce meeting. The monthly meeting was at Parkway Fellowship, 27043 FM 1093, in Richmond. Chris Harris was elected to the conservancy’s board of directors last year and serves as council member-at-large and mayor pro tem in Katy.

As area urbanization has grown, so has the conservancy’s efforts toward conservation, stewardship, education and outreach, community resilience, and public policy and research. The conservancy, founded in 1992 by duck hunters and rice farmers, originally focused on serving the Katy area. Chris Harris described how the conservancy bought a rice farm and focused just on the general Katy area in Fort Bend, Harris, and Waller counties, and how things expanded since.

“They didn’t want development there,” Harris said. “It’s all community-funded, volunteer-based, all private operations, and all based on donations.”

The conservancy changed its name last year and expanded its focus so it could apply for federal grant money, Chris Harris said. The conservancy now serves Austin, Brazoria, Colorado, Fort Bend, Harris, Jackson, Matagorda, Waller and Wharton counties. Today, he said, the conservancy works to conserve and protect about 30,000 acres. The property includes conservancy-owned land, parks, farms and ranches, and even some land owned by the City of Houston.

“It’s a very large piece of property,” Harris said.

Protection is only part of what the conservancy is trying to do, Harris said. Land conservation efforts activities include conservation easements, fee lands, purchasing development rights and securing land donations.

“We love donated lands,” Harris said. “If you own a large piece of property in the area and want to keep it as a prairie, visit coastalprairieconservancy.org. We’ll be glad to help you out.”

Land stewardship activities include prescribed burns and grazing, invasive species control, prairie restoration and wetlands creation. Local agricultural activities include working with farms and ranches on rice crops, sustainable grazing and cattle ranching.

The conservancy works on public policy issues including roads and mobility, stream mitigation, transmission lines and resiliency.

Education and outreach activities include educational programming and restoration volunteer activities. The conservancy also has a 9 Natives program intended to promote the value of native plants to pollinators.

“We’re kind of getting to the next stage of wanting people to know what the conservancy is,” Harris said, adding that one such activity is working with Katy High students on the Katy mini-prairie at the high school, 6331 Highway Blvd. Kylynn Harris said the conservancy has many outreach and education programs.

In an interview following their presentation, Chris Harris said he thought people didn’t realize how big an organization the conservancy was becoming, or about the amount of land the conservancy mentions.

“We are operating a very large piece of property,” Harris said. “It’s amazing what we’ve been able to do.”

Another misconception, Harris, said, is about how the conservancy works with farmers and ranchers on conservation easements.

“They can contact the conservancy and we will work with them on a conservation easement,” Harris said. “We’re not there to take that person’s property. It’s an agreement the agreement is that they will continue the current use of that land. You are just agreeing that you’re going to use the lead for your present use people. There is a taxable benefit.”

Kylynn Harris said she and her father have been volunteering with the conservancy as long as they can remember.

“He got me involved,” Kylynn Harris said.

“I think I became more involved because she was involved,” Chris Harris said. “When your kids are involved in something, you become involved in something.”

Harris urged listeners to get involved in the conservancy by donating, volunteering and following the conservancy on social media.

Coastal Prairie Conservancy, Fulshear Katy Chamber of Commerce