HOUSTON (AP) _ A new state park and wildlife management area will be created with the almost $38 million purchase of a more than 17,000-acre ranch along the Texas Gulf Coast between Port O’Connor and Port Lavaca.
The Powderhorn Ranch in Calhoun County is being donated to the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife by three conservation groups who used settlement money from the 2010 BP Deep Horizon rig explosion and oil spill for their purchase.
The ranch is considered one of the last huge tracts of unaltered land on the Texas coastline.
Parks and wildlife agency executive director Carter Smith tells the Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1vlgHEl) the ranch is one of the “Holy Grails of coastal conservation” that eventually will be used for kayaking, fishing, hiking, birding and public hunting.
