‘Pristine’ coastal land donated for new park

The final acres for a new Texas state park near the state’s Gulf Coast have been donated to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, it announced this week.

In 2014, TPWD announced the deal that would create the park. Conservation partners and donors, led by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, helped secure the 17,351-acre Powderhorn Ranch, a “pristine” stretch of land near Post Lavaca in Calhoun County.

The foundation donated nearly 15,000 acres of the ranch to TWPD in 2018.

Last week, the final 1,360 acres were handed over to the state agency, TWPD said in a news release.

TPWD has not said when the new state park will open but said in the news release that it takes many years to develop a master plan and to secure funds.

Powderhorn Ranch is one of the largest remaining tracts of unspoiled coastal prairie in the state, the news release said. The land consists of forests of coastal live oak and thousands of acres of freshwater wetlands and salt marshes. Aerial video footage of the land was shared on TPWD’S social media accounts.

The state park will be more than 2,000 acres, and the remainder of the property, known as the Powderhorn Wildlife Management Area, will be available for public hunting opportunities such as drawn hunts and Big Time Texas Hunts programs, a TPWD spokesperson said.

The department’s executive director, Carter Smith, said in the news release that Powderhorn Ranch had faced increased development pressure. The creation of the new state park helps to protect an area that is “vital to the resilience of a healthy Gulf Coast ecosystem,” Smith said.