Arrowwood Preserve (AP) is a 117-acre nature preserve that is owned by Bayou Land Conservancy (BLC) and fronts Spring Creek near Decker Prairie in Montgomery County. AP isn’t open to the public, unless by BLC approval or invitation, but certainly is a “gem” of a place to visit. AP is adjacent to and a part of Montgomery and Harris Counties’ Spring Creek Greenway.
Most of the preserves that BLC has are conservation easement agreements that exist between this land trust and the landowners which give-up development rights to protect riparian forest and other habitats.
However, AP is different because BLC owns this preserve that was given to them. To think that AP could have become a sand and gravel quarry in 2020 sends shivers down my back and prayers up above that it was saved and is now in the capable hands of BLC.
AP is being upgraded as a “showplace” for BLC and has a covered, open-air, wooden bench, teaching classroom, a new introductory sign which shows where the many trails go, water well and electricity, and a nice parking area.
There is an active program to reduce non-native invasive plant species (NNIPS) like Japanese Climbing Fern, Japanese Honeysuckle, Chinese Tallow, Trifoliate Orange, and non-native privet. AP has three management units that have 28 acres, 44 acres, and 46 acres respectively, where volunteers, youth conservation crews, and professionals have treated and reduced the number of NNIPS.
Some of the trail names include Becky’s, Highlands, Lollipop Loop, Karastin’s, and South 40. Being near Lone Star College and State Highway 249 provides people with a chance to access AP when there are open houses or workdays.
In the north and west portions of AP there is an upland fringe forest, a past pine plantation, that covers 30-50% of the Preserve. These sandy, higher places, have typical upland and or upper slope vegetation like Loblolly Pine, Black Hickory, Eastern Red Cedar, Yaupon Holly, Common Persimmon, Southern Red Oak, American Beautyberry, Cherry Laurel, Sweetgum, blackberry species, Virginia Creeper, Peppervine, grape vine species, Farkleberry, etc.
Most of the landscape of AP is that of a bottomland hardwood forest. What does that mean? Even though bottomland hardwoods have a diverse forest of tall, mostly deciduous trees, the bottomland landscape encompasses more than this. One important plant, often overlooked, is Inland Sea Oats which in AP is found in swatches that provide cover and erosion control on the slopy topography in the floodplain.
Abandoned channels, sand deposits, beaches, and bars, swales, sloughs, oxbows, multiple channels, ponds, flatwoods, overflow channels, tributaries, ridges, flats, etc., are found throughout Spring Creek floodplain in AP. These are natural erosion and deposition features and carve and make the bottomland landscape diverse. This provides important habitats for birds, herptiles, insects, mammals, plants, and other living things. When I visited AP, hawks and songbirds made their presence abundantly known.
Most of AP is covered in water during large floods or heavy rains. Restoration work has been done by planting wetland plants in, on, or near the topographic features mentioned above. Some wetland plants favored are Water Primrose, Cherokee Sedge, Ravenfoot Sedge, Lizard’s-tail, Button Bush, hibiscus species, swamp lilies, and Delta Arrowhead.
Some bottomland hardwood trees and other plants that exist in AP include Cedar Elm, Sweetgum, Green Ash, Water Hickory, Poison Ivy, Water Oak, River Birch, Black Gum, Loblolly Pine, Dwarf Palmetto, smartweed species, American Holly, Hackberry, American Elm, American Hornbeam, Button Bush, Elephant-foot, and Bushy Bluestem.
Unfortunately, feral hogs, which root, wallow, degrade, and destroy bottomland plants, are found in AP and need control here as they do wherever they are found in Texas.
AP is truly a lovely place, a “gem”, and deserves to exist. It reduces our flooding problems and perpetuates the living, breathing, bottomland hardwood forest.