By Brandt Mannchen
Recently, I visited with a friend, two nature preserves that the Bayou Land Conservancy (BLC) protected in Montgomery County. We visited the Lake Creek Preserve (LCP) and the Montgomery County Preserve (MCP), part of the Spring Creek Greenway.
BLC was founded in 1996 by Terry Hershey to protect floodplains and associated green spaces along streams in Harris and surrounding counties. BLC is a land trust and in the past 30 years has protected over 15,000 acres in 63 preserves via conservation easements, fee acquisitions, or donations. These protected areas provide benefits for wildlife, flood control, and clean water.
My purpose, besides seeing two preserves that I hadn’t seen, was to determine if these preserves would make good places for future Houston Sierra Club outings.
The first preserve we visited was the LCP. What impressed me most was an Overcup Oak grove mixed with Water Hickory, Sugarberry, Cedar Elm, American Elm, Green Ash, and Sweetgum. I also enjoyed seeing Dwarf Palmettos, some of which were the tallest with the most well-defined trunks that I have ever seen.
The area closest to Lake Creek had sloughs and swales and alternating sandy and clay soils with a lot of diverse riparian (stream-side) vegetation. This area, In my view, is close to “old growth” bottomland hardwood forest and although dry, looks like it would be very wet when it rains. The LCP is our natural flood water detention area.
During our visit, we saw a Southern Copperhead and a Broad-banded Water Snake. Since I love reptiles/amphibians, this was a great treat.
The MCP is drier and unfortunately has some litter and user trail (illegal trail) problems. However, the view of Spring Creek is great. It’s sad that we found illegal ATV tracks that people left when they illegally drove in Spring Creek and its sand flats. These persons should be prosecuted for damaging the beauty and aquatic ecosystem of Spring Creek.
I really appreciate BLC’s efforts in acquisition and management of these two preserves. They are wonderful places to visit. I encourage others to see and steward these areas so they continue to serve as wildlife havens and places where natural flood control and water quality filtering can take place.