National Parks:
Big Thicket National Preserve

Kountze, Texas -- Big Thicket National Preserve is known as a "biological crossroads of North America" for the remarkable co-existence of diverse wildlife found within its borders. The National Preserve is a biological and botanical wonder located in the southeastern corner of Texas and near the Gulf of Mexico. The nearly 100,000-acre park was established by Congress in 1974. In 1981, it was designated International Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The American Bird Conservancy recognized the Preserve as a Globally Important Bird Area in 2001. Today, these designations attract bird watchers and other biological travelers from all around the world.

The National Preserve was established to protect the remnant of the region’s complex biological diversity. This complexity is the result of favorable climate, geology, and topography. Ice Age plant and animal migrations and more recent storm events, such as hurricanes have contributed to its uniqueness. The historic Big Thicket once covered over 4 million acres, and its magnificient 120-foot tall Longleaf Pine trees provided much of the wood products for a growing nation.

What is so extraordinary is not the rarity or abundance of its life forms, but how many species coexist here in its combination of southeastern swamps, eastern forests, central plains, and southwest deserts. For example, bogs sit near arid sandhills and eastern bluebirds nest near roadrunners. There are more than 100 trees and shrubs species, which provide habitat to a diverse array of wildlife, including 300 migratory and nesting bird species; over 1,000 flowering plants, including 26 ferns and allies, 20 orchids and four of North America's five types of insect-eating plants. Fifty reptile species include a small, rarely seen population of alligators and snapping turtles. Amphibious frogs and toads abound.

DID YOU KNOW

• The nearly 100,000 acres within Big Thicket National Preserve are not confined to one large tract. Rather the Preserve is composed of tracts scattered among seven counties of east Texas.
• The Preserve consists of nine land units and six water corridors.
• Approximately 80 miles of the Neches River, the last major free flowing river in Texas, is contained within the Preserve.
• The Preserve irregular boundary doubles that of Yellowstone NP.
• Preserve has most active prescribed fire program in the Service.
• Hunting and trapping are allowed in several units of the Preserve.
• Every kind of poisonous snake found in the U.S. can be found here - copperhead, cottonmouth, rattlesnake and coral snake - but snake bites are extremely rare.
• Four distinct ecologic systems converge in the Big Thicket - Central Plains, Eastern hardwood forest, arid Southwest, and coastal plains.
• The last reported sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker took place in Big Thicket in 1971. The bird is now considered extinct.

DON'T MISS ATTRACTIONS

• In January and February the park profiles the history of the Big Thicket. Various experts on the Big Thicket will be telling their stories on the culture, architecture and mysteries of the Big Thicket. Past topics have included Board Houses, the Neches River culture, local folklore, Hardin County bear hunts and the Civil War in Texas. Please visit our website for more information.
• Hiking is available year-round, though it is warm and humid during the summer months. Wildflower viewing is best from March to October.
• Boating, canoeing, fishing can be enjoyed from April to October. Hunting in specific areas is authorized by a Preserve-issued permit, accompanied by a valid State of Texas Hunting License, from October to mid-January.
• Bragg Road, now known as the Ghost Light Road, is associated with several tales about a ghostly light. Is it the railroad worker who was decapitated in a train wreck searching for his head? Is it a gaseous substance like scientists believe? Or is it a hunter who got lost years ago searching for a way out of the Thicket? Visit Big Thicket and discover the answer.

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE PRIORITIES

The Big Thicket was once part of a four million acre area of tall longleaf pines and savannas, interspersed with a rich hardwood bottomland forest. Today, the Preserve only protects a small portion of this area that once stretched from present day Houston to portions of western Louisiana. Only 3% of the longleaf pine in the nation still exists. Longleaf pine is the prime habitat for the endangered Red Cockaded Woodpecker: currently there are no known nesting pairs in the Preserve due to the lack of suitable habitat. The park is using prescribed fire and other research-based restoration techniques to reestablish some viable stands of longleaf pine in the Preserve.

The Preserve's largest neighbors, timber companies, have helped buffer the park from development and illegal activities. Unfortunately, the timber industry is facing new economic realities: more than 1.5 million acres of this land have sold recently in an area near the third largest city in the country. It is now more imperative than ever that the Preserve work to protect and preserve this fragmented landscape.

The Preserve contains well over 1,000 species of vascular plants and a comprehensive inventory is almost complete. However, very little is known about the less studied and less visible species of plants and animals in the Preserve's rivers, bayous, and swamps. Additional research and education are the keys to the long-term protection of this very important resource.

Source: National Park Service