This week's Sunday Landscapes attempts to show what some of the Greater Houston area was like before the city's monumental expansion over recent decades.
Part of the Texas Coastal Plain, Katy Prairie is bound by the Brazos River to the southwest, pine-hardwood forest to the north, and the city of Houston to the east. Historically, Katy Prairie was a poorly drained tall-grass prairie subject to periodic fires, with a considerable number of wetland areas. However, housing lots, commerce and industry have well and truly marched over the eastern horizon.
Now it seems inevitable that only a small remnant will remain, that being largely due to the Katie Prairie Conservancy. You can click the link below to read about their efforts and see a particularly poignant map showing the erosion of the prairie by Greater Houston's expansion below. It is some 30 miles from downtown Houston to the area being conserved.
www.katyprairie.org/about-us/
Flickr Explore # 248 on Tuesday, January 24, 2017
