The 100 Acre Wood Preserve, located in northwest Harris County and about 15 miles southwest of Spring, has newly expanded boundaries and will be home to new hike and bike trails in the upcoming months.
On June 4, 2.73 acres were added to the preserve as part of an agreement between the Bayou Land Conservancy and Harris County. Before the additional acres were added, the preserve was a little more than 98 acres of land, said Jennifer Lorenz, executive director of the Bayou Land Conservancy.
She said the additional acres were added to the preserve as a result of a constructed corridor that now runs through the preserve that was made too wide by Harris County. As a result, the conservancy and the county came to an agreement to add more acres for the land that was lost as a result of the wider path.
“We approached the county, and we came to an agreement to extend our conservation easement to include those couple of acres,” Lorenz said. “Also, when we first looked at the original boundaries of the land, it showed it was already 100 acres. But when going out to look at it, there were some acres that were lost. But we still called it the 100 Acre Wood Preserve. We did want to make the preserve whole.”
Lorenz said the 100 Acre Wood Preserve is one of 15 preserves in Harris County the conservancy maintains and includes under its conservation easement. The conservancy has about 12,000 acres in total under conservation easements. An easement is a legal permanent agreement for a piece of land that enables the conservancy to continually protect the boundaries of that land.
Harris County has owned the preserve for the past five years, while the conservancy has maintained it. The preserve was first purchased as land from a private owner and then donated to the county as a result of a grant received from the Houston Endowment Foundation.
Besides adding on the 2.73 acres of land to the preserve in June, construction will begin on a new 4,200-linear-foot asphalt trail in the next couple of months. A ceremony to mark the start of construction, which begins Sept. 14, is set for Sept. 26. Lorenz said the trail is expected to cost $595,000.
Mike Howlett, special projects coordinator for the Harris County Precinct 4 Parks Department, said the project is estimated to be complete in late spring 2016 and is expected to bring in many more bicyclists and hikers from both Harris and Montgomery counties.
“The trail is going to extend from Jones Road and to what is now the Cypress Creek hike and bike trail now, go through the preserve and end at the property line of the [D. Bradley McWilliams YMCA at Cypress Creek],” Howlett said. “This is really putting us on the map for the fact that biking is growing in popularity. By adding on new acres and trails, it’s opening up the preserve, and more people are coming from different counties.”
Scott Moran, a member of the Greater Houston off-Road Biking Association, said the trails provide ideal biking conditions, and the preserve will become more of an attraction to bicyclists with the additional trails.
“We love them, and we’re happy to see new trails,” Moran said. “There are about 100 to 120 bikers who come to the preserve every day.”
Lorenz said the preserve is a park for many people in the area and will continue to be so for residents in the community.
“There’s obvious public benefit uses here, and it is one of the most-loved places by bikers,” Lorenz said. “This is a community park, and more and more people are coming to know about it.”
