A group of Montgomery County officials and volunteers are moving forward with plans to preserve and transform nearly 5,000 acres of land along Lake Creek from I-45 to FM 149 as part of the Lake Creek Greenway Project.
About 603 acres of that land are already preserved by conservation easements, bankruptcy court agreements or as a part of a development commons, said Glenn Buckley, Lake Creek Greenway Partnership president.
Since the project was initiated in 2011, acreage has been obtained from various county entities to protect the forest and flood plain areas from rapid development, Buckley said.
The project will include the installation of new hiking trails, a nature center and a 20-mile canoe route along the public stream south of the preserve, Buckley said.
“The impetus [for the greenway project] was all the growth around here and the impact on the water quality,” Buckley said. “Our intent was to take that [area] and put nature trails on it, and try to get people to go down there and show them that there’s potential for recreation.”
Creating a greenway
Over the past four years, Keep Montgomery County Beautiful members have collaborated with the Bayou Land Conservancy, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Houston-Galveston Area Council to move forward with conservation efforts.
In 2013, KMCB members and residents from nearby neighborhoods began volunteering and donating funds to develop recreation areas within the greenway. One project includes the construction of two new hiking trails on a 64-acre tract of land along Sendera Ranch Drive to turn the area into a recreational and educational destination, Buckley said.
The LCGP is now the lead organization on the project.
“Ecotourism is a big part of [the Lake Creek Greenway project], and we are promoting lower impact development because of the impact we’re seeing on the water quality and the flooding,” Buckley said. “We believe [the greenway] has the potential to improve on the commercial aspects in terms of attracting people to the area.”
The project is needed because of its location on a flood plain, which tends to retain water during periods of heavy rainfall, said Becky Zitterich, former biologist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service and LCGP board member.
“With all of those trees, if you came in and [cut them down] before the floods, the water would destroy bridges downstream,” Zitterich said. “I don’t want to talk scare tactics, but it is conceivable. All those trees hold the soil, and if you cut them down, that causes 10 times the erosion problems.”
Land acquisition
A 64-acre tract was donated to Montgomery County in 2009 by Woodforest Development Inc. The company originally acquired the acreage through wetland mitigation efforts for the construction of Fish Creek Thoroughfare, Buckley said. The county then placed the land under a conservation easement held by the BLC.
Woodforest Development also agreed to cede 539 acres of land to the Montgomery Trace Property Owners Association for use as a nature preserve through a bankruptcy agreement in 2009.
With continued volunteering and donated funding from residents, Buckley said he estimates the planned hiking trails and canoe route will be completed in the coming months.
“[We are] trying to make people aware of what we’re trying to do,” Buckley said. “Citizens have to start demanding this; otherwise, it is not going to happen.”
