Mission & History

For our communities, land conservation and restoration ensure healthier land, healthier watersheds, and healthier communities. Prairie grasses absorb and hold back floodwaters while also sequestering carbon. Wetlands protect water quality and quantity. Diverse wildlife call the prairie home. Protecting coastal prairie means current and future generations can connect with nature in these wide-open spaces. 

The Coastal Prairie Conservancy (formerly the Katy Prairie Conservancy) was formed in 1992 to conserve the coastal prairie for people and wildlife before it disappears. We are a nationally accredited 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Houston, Texas, and a trusted leader in local land protection. We are also one of the largest local land conservation organizations, by acreage, in southeast Texas, protecting over 30,000 acres of coastal prairie. On the historic Katy Prairie in Harris, Ft. Bend, and Waller Counties, the Coastal Prairie Conservancy owns more than 13,500 acres and protects 5,000 acres through conservation agreements with private landowners. The Coastal Prairie Conservancy is also working to protect coastal prairie in other Texas counties and through conservation agreements protects over 11,500 acres in Brazoria, Galveston, Matagorda, and Jackson Counties. 

The Greater Houston region has experienced rapid growth, resulting in the conversion of farms, fields, and prairies into strip malls, offices, parking lots, and proliferating suburbs, consuming thousands of acres of the coastal prairie, one of the most important and threatened ecosystems in North America. In an effort to safeguard this important ecosystem, the Coastal Prairie Conservancy continues to work toward four primary goals: increasing protected coastal prairie lands, restoring and enhancing conserved lands, collaborating with other organizations to ensure a vibrant and resilient community, and connecting the public with nature through public access, educational programming, and outreach.

The mission of the Coastal Prairie Conservancy: Sustaining a resilient Texas by preserving coastal prairies, wetlands, farms, and ranches to benefit people and wildlife forever.

Long-term goals are to:

• protect between 30,000 - 50,000 acres of the Coastal Prairie;

• protect 5,000 to 10,000 acres in each of CPC’s priority nine counties as we expand our conservation efforts into five important watersheds south of the Katy Prairie;

• provide access and programming to allow the public to enjoy the Katy Prairie Preserve;

• manage protected land to preserve and enhance its natural resources;

• restore and improve habitat for upland- and wetland-related species;

• offer programs that connect people with nature;

• conduct and facilitate research that helps the Coastal Prairie Conservancy achieve its mission; and,

• collaborate with many different organizations and individuals to meet the Coastal Prairie Conservancy’s objectives.