Reflections: Armand Bayou Nature Center Land Acquisition Project
Reflections on Restoration Progress
RESTORE Council- 2025
Armand Bayou Nature Center Land Acquisition Project
The RESTORE Council has prioritized the acquisition and protection of valuable coastal habitat to ensure it is available for use and enjoyment by future generations. As an example, the state of Texas, through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), received $3 million in RESTORE Act Council-Selected Restoration Component funding to acquire critical land within the Armand Bayou Watershed in Harris County, Texas. Utilizing these RESTORE Act funds as well as other funding sources and donations, the Armand Bayou Nature Center (ABNC), through a collaborative partnership between Harris County and the ExxonMobil Corporation, acquired 1,145 acres of remnant coastal prairie land for habitat preservation and restoration.
Established in 1974 by environmental visionaries, ABNC protects three rapidly disappearing habitats that were historically dominant along the Texas Gulf Coast: Texas coastal tallgrass prairie, riparian forest, and the unchannelized estuarine bayou and surrounding marshes. Coastal tallgrass prairie once comprised 9 million acres along the Texas and Louisiana coasts, but less than 1 percent of that historical prairie is left today.
ABNC’s acquisition of this highly valuable wildlife habitat expands the preserve’s total acreage to 3,947 acres, making it the largest urban wilderness preserve in Texas. Approximately half of the acquired land is remnant coastal prairie, with the other half riparian forest and bayou wetlands. ABNC will begin the process of returning the land to its former glory as a tallgrass prairie and restoring marsh grasses along the bayou, ultimately providing publicly accessible wilderness habitat for the enjoyment and well-being of future generations. Conservation work at ABNC has brought about the return of many native animal species that had almost completely disappeared, like American alligators, bald eagles, ospreys, brown pelicans, and river otters. Several rookeries of colonial nesting waterbirds have also been re-established as a result of these efforts.
Watch the GulfCorps in Texas: Armand Bayou and Port Aranas Nature Preserve video
The RESTORE Council is commemorating 15 years since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill incident with a month-long reflection on its progress to date implementing meaningful ecosystem and economic restoration across the Gulf Coast. Subscribe to our eBlast or Modify your eBlast subscription.
Keala J. Hughes
Director of External Affairs & Tribal Relations
(504) 717-7235
keala.hughes@restorethegulf.gov