Houston Wilderness - It's Our Nature!

TOP 10 FACTS ABOUT...
THE COLUMBIA BOTTOMLANDS

1) Many species of trees call the Columbia Bottomlands home, including green ash, hackberry, honey locust, pignut, hickory, cherry laurel, American beech, magnolia and pecan trees.
2) The area is an important stopover habitat for migrating neotropical birds like hummingbirds, warblers, thrushes and orioles.
3) One of the state’s oldest and largest live oak trees resides in the Columbia Bottomlands.
4) Once covering over a thousand square miles, the bottomlands have been reduced to 250 square miles. Thankfully, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have begun a program to conserve the area.
5) The 46-acre palm tract contains the last remaining examples of the Brazoria palm, a native tree unique to the Columbia Bottomlands that grows up to 20 feet high.
6) Brazos Bend State Park, one of the most heavily used state parks in the region, boasts over 5,000 acres and is located on one of the bottomland’s coastal prairies, the floodplains of the Brazoria River.
7) Hudson Woods is one of the most beautiful and accessible areas of the Columbia Bottomlands. Open to the public year-round, it offers an oxbow lake and a two-mile walking trail for recreation.
8) The Columbia Bottomlands holds six or seven active bald eagle nests.
9) During the height of migration, it is estimated that 239 million birds representing 237 species pass through the Columbia Bottomlands each spring.
10) Common residents of the Columbia Bottomlands include swamp rabbits, bull frogs, red-eared slider turtles and the black-bellied whistling duck.

ABOUT THE COLUMBIA BOTTOMLANDS

As thick as a forearm, grapevines reach across hundred year-old oaks. A spot of sunlight ripens a banquet of dewberries. The brash colors of a scarlet Indian paintbrush are muted among the purples, pinks and blues of the multitude of wildflowers. And a host of insects find shelter in the dangling, tentacled Spanish moss.

Every year, about 29 million individual migratory birds pass through the Columbia Bottomlands. After a grueling northern migration flight of more than 400 miles, the birds’ first site of safety and shelter is a thick forest along the southeast Texas coast. Having lost as much as 1/3 of their body weight, the birds stop to feed and rest in this wet and low-lying, insect-rich area. The thick canopy hides them from soaring predators, such as hawks and kites. Following an internal compass, these millions of migratory birds return every year counting on the bounty of the bottomlands to refuel and refresh them before they continue their perilous journey north.

To read more about Columbia Bottomlands, download our atlas!

KEY LOCATIONS

Brazos Bend State Park

A scenic haven for birdwatchers and wildlife observers, covers roughly 5000 acres. For stargazers, the George Observatory is located within the park. More than 270 species of birds have been sighted here, and the prehistoric-looking American alligator is the park´s most noteworthy resident. Hiking and biking trails meander through the park´s varied terrains, and several lakes offer excellent fishing. Most of the park is in the Brazos River floodplains, but there are also areas of flat upland coastal prairies. Numerous swales and depressions become freshwater marshes during periods of heavy rain. In addition to the Brazos River, Big Creek meanders diagonally across the park and is associated with sloughs and oxbow lakes. Other lakes have been created by levees.

San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge

Gaze across the rippling marshes and ponds of San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge and it’s easy to imagine Texas as it was before settlement. Clouds of snow geese in winter or a warbler “fallout” in spring further convince any visitor that they have stepped back into earliest Texas. Less than half of the refuge is open to the public, leaving a vast landscape as wildlife sanctuary. Yet, a drive on the 3-mile auto tour or a hike on one of the three hiking trails can take up a full day’s worth of wildlife watching.

Winter grounds for vast numbers of migratory waterfowl and other birds; flat coastal prairies, salt marshes, numerous saltwater lakes, shallow freshwater lakes and marshes; intermittent stream and wooded areas, ancestral wintering grounds for snow geese, also Canadian and white-faced geese (over 100,000 geese in Dec./Jan); duck species include: pintail, teal, gadwall, widgeon and mottled ducks from October through March (over 35,000 ducks); also heron, ibis, sandpipers, stilts, yellow rails, roseate spoonbills, reddish egrets, white-faced ibis, wood storks, gulls, royal terns, black skimmers, brown pelicans; marine life: spotted sea trout, redfish, black drum, flounder, oysters, shrimp, crabs; coyotes and bobcats in upland part of park; some of the best waterfowl habitat in the nation, biggest live oak in Texas.