{"id":252066,"date":"2026-04-16T04:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/252066\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T04:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:56:15","slug":"coastal-prairie-conservancy-opens-new-katy-prairie-welcome-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/252066\/","title":{"rendered":"Coastal Prairie Conservancy opens new Katy Prairie Welcome Center"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coastalprairieconservancy.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Coastal Prairie Conservancy<\/a> members and community officials gathered April 10 to cut the ribbon on the new Katy Prairie Welcome Center.<\/p>\n<p>The full story<\/p>\n<p>The Welcome Center\u2019s main purpose is to act as a starting point for guests to experience firsthand the almost 20,000-acre Katy Prairie Reserve, which aims to decrease flood risk, support wildlife, maintain the region\u2019s agricultural heritage and provide the public with recreational activities.<\/p>\n<p>The center, located at 31975 Hebert Road, also serves as a hub for year-round programming and events. The remodeled facility previously belonged to Dow Chemical, said Shirley Hunter, who serves as a Coastal Prairie Conservancy board member.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&gt;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a place where kids can come and learn about nature and what\u2019s going on,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cWe\u2019re really excited that we have an official place for people to come see the value of a prairie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What they\u2019re saying<\/p>\n<p>As the need for both development and conservation continues to affect the area, Waller County Judge Trey Duhon highlighted how holding on to the past can still shape the present and future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReal progress is not just about what we build, it\u2019s also about what we choose to protect and that\u2019s why the Katy Prairie matters,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Katy Prairie is a part of the identity of this region, it\u2019s a part of our history, it\u2019s a part of our landscape, it\u2019s what makes this area of Texas so special.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Remember this?<\/p>\n<p>The Coastal Prairie Conservancy preserved the final <a href=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/houston\/katy-fulshear\/environment\/2026\/04\/09\/coastal-prairie-conservancy-preserves-final-221-acres-of-three-oaks-farm\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">221 acres of Three Oaks Farm<\/a>, closing a gap in the Katy Prairie Preserve, in March, Community Impact reported.<\/p>\n<p>Three Oaks Farm links the Indiangrass Preserve and Hebert Reservoir together, allowing water, wildlife and working lands to \u201cfunction more naturally\u201d throughout the landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead<\/p>\n<p>The conservatory aims to permanently protect 50,000 acres across southeast Texas, according to an April 14 news release.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coastal Prairie Conservancy members and community officials gathered April 10 to cut the ribbon on the new Katy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[84212,56,58,57,6958,95367,10013],"class_list":{"0":"post-252066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-coastal-prairie-conservancy","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-headlines","11":"tag-houston-news","12":"tag-katy","13":"tag-katy-prairie-welcome-center","14":"tag-waller-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}