With extreme heat surrounding the Houston area and hurricane season underway, many of us are considering the ways that climate change and extreme weather events effect our daily lives. While this news can become overwhelming, positive things are happening right here on the coastal prairie to help combat the damaging effects of climate change!

The Texas bluebonnet is a stunning wildflower that boasts vibrant blue petals arranged in the shape of a bonnet, giving it its unique name. When spring arrives, these flowers burst into bloom, painting the Texas landscape in breathtaking blankets of color.

Each New Year’s Day, groups of volunteers visit the Coastal Prairie Conservancy’s preserves to tally bird species and monitor population counts. This annual event, called the Christmas Bird Count, provides important insights into bird activity that are used year-round to support stewardship efforts.

The Eastern Spotted skunk, Spilogale putorius, is a diminutive relative of the more familiar and common striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis). The subspecies, Spilogale putorius interrupta or plains spotted skunk, inhabits the Great Plains in the MIdwest and central area of the United States, including Texas.

Picture this: It’s a beautiful fall day along the Texas Gulf Coast. While enjoying the sun and listening to the peaceful sounds of waves crashing along the shoreline, your eyes are drawn towards the sky. A beautiful flock of birds fly overhead towards the coastal marshes just behind you. You grab your binoculars, zoom in, and see multiple species of medium white waterbirds. A black bill and yellow feet give away the snowy egret immediately.

As a country kid roaming the piney woods and plentiful pastures of rural north Louisiana each summer, I remember mimicking the "bob-WHITE" call. With each attempt, I hoped a northern bobwhite would answer back like they did for my father's whistle. But I could not, and still can't, whistle. My inept attempts at using my shrillest voice to approximate the call never quite worked. But that did not stop me from practicing the high-pitched bobwhite’s call frequently.

Walking across the coastal prairie in the winter, you scan the horizon and the grasses surrounding you, looking for sandhill cranes, northern harrier hawks, and other winter visitors. Suddenly you jump: inches in front of you, a single sparrow-like bird shoots straight up to the sky, uttering a loud squeak as he goes. You catch your breath and smile, realizing that you have just encountered a Sprague’s pipit.

Do you remember the first time you encountered the wild beauty of a natural landscape? When we think back to these moments, we sometimes find a deeper connection to land conservation than we assume we have. For Ranger, CPC Outreach Assistant and volunteer, five acres of land next to a cornfield near her house provided the opportunity to forge a connection to the wild spaces she once roamed around growing up.

As the name suggests, the crawfish frog (Lithobates areolata) lives in crawfish burrows. You might think this frog is a wetland creature from its common name, but is actually lives in grasslands, prairies, open fields, and abandoned pastures.

When asked where her lifelong love of science came from, Nova Morales proudly thanks her parents. Nova was always interested in the outdoors as a child, and her parents never missed a chance to take her to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and nature preserves around the area.