McFaddin refuge to grow by 8,169 acres
Published 7:09 pm Monday, April 23, 2018
By Ken Stickney
The Conservation Fund and U.S. Wildlife and Fisheries Service on Monday announced expansion of the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge by 8,169 acres — it’s all in Jefferson County, north of the Intracoastal Waterway — coastal prairie and marshlands rich in waterfowl habitat and important as essential hurricane and storm surge buffer.
In an issued statement, the Conservation Fund, which has owned the property and more from the Sabine Ranch since September 2016, said it is transferring the property, located some 30 miles southeast of Port Arthur, into the hands of the Wildlife and Fisheries Service as it can afford to in phases. The Conservation Fund says it needs to raise another $12 million in private funds to effect that transfer.
The Sabine Ranch has been the final, unprotected portion of the former McFaddin Ranch, which included 106,000 acres. The property now includes the McFaddin and Texas Point National Wildlife Refuges, Sea Rim State Park and J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area.
In its statement, the Conservation Fund cited this from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: “An acre of wetlands can typically absorb and store 1-1.5 million gallons of floodwater.” During Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey, those numbers suggest, about 12 billion gallons of rainwater were absorbed on the Sabine Ranch.
The Sabine Ranch also provides breeding, migration and wintering habitat for hundreds of thousands of shorebirds, wading birds, marsh birds and more, the Conservation Fund said in its statement. Ranch conservation will also protect other fish and wildlife habitat.
In emailed responses to The Port Arthur News, Julie Shackelford, Texas programs director for the Conservation acquisition, described the property transferred as coastal grasslands and freshwater marshes. She also said the last roughly 4,000 acres of the 12,376-acre Sabine Ranch could transfer to federal hands in 2019.
“When that happens, the property will be accessible by public road,” which is not possible now because of adjacent private property, she said.
“Now that the acreage is in public ownership, USFWS will begin assessing appropriate public use of the property which will include hunting,” she said. “The property will be marked by signs.”
