Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge

The Attwater's prairie-chicken is a ground-dwelling grouse of the coastal prairie, and it is critically endangered along with the grassland it needs. The World Wildlife Fund bought 3,500 acres here in the mid-1960s, the National Park Service named the preserve a National Natural Landmark in 1968, and in 1972 the land went to the Fish and Wildlife Service as a refuge, one of a handful run for a single endangered species. It now covers 10,528 acres, one of the largest remnants of native coastal prairie in southeast Texas.

Many of the birds here are hatched in captive-breeding programs at Fossil Rim, Texas A&M, the Houston and San Antonio zoos and others, fitted with transmitters and released once they can live on their own. Staff burn 2,000 to 3,000 acres each January or February to keep brush out and the grasses vigorous, and replant old fields with native grass.

From the public side you are more likely to see crested caracaras, white-tailed hawks, sparrows and, in spring, bluebonnets and paintbrush than a prairie-chicken. A four-mile unpaved auto loop runs along Coushatta Creek, and two short trails, Horseshoe Lake and Sycamore, cross prairie and bottomland. For a real chance at the birds, sign up for a staff van tour into the closed part of the refuge.