Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge


	Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge
	P.O. Box 450 Rio Hondo, TX 78583 E-mail: Phone Number: 956-748-3607
	Visit the Refuge's Web Site: http://southwest.fws.gov/refuges/texas/laguna.html

Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge
The south Texas landscape is a unique blending of temperate, subtropical, coastal, and desert habitats. Mexican plants and wildlife are at the northernmost edge of their range, while migrating waterfowl and sandhill cranes fly down for the mild winters. This combination makes Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge world famous for its birds, and home to a mix of wildlife found nowhere else.

Laguna Atascosa NWR is the largest protected area of natural habitat left in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, an oasis for wildlife with few alternatives. The refuge's 45,187 acres become more valuable with each acre lost to development--valuable to wildlife and valuable to those who enjoy wildlife in wildlands.

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Ocelot, Texas tortoise, green jays, chachalaca, and javelina prefer the dense thorny brushland areas of the refuge, while alligator, least grebe, and black-bellied whistling ducks choose the ponds and resacas. Desert dwellers like roadrunner, verdin, and cactus wren inhabit the scrub areas, while species like roseate spoonbill, egrets, and herons join black-necked stilt, American avocet, and piping plover at the shore of the Laguna Madre.

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When the Spanish explorer Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda arrived in the Rio Grande Valley in 1519 he found a landscape very different from what we see today. The area was abundant with wildlife, and 3 million acres of coastal prairies and brushlands covered the landscape. Doves darkened the sky, deer browsed along the edges of brushlands, and ducks filled the bays near the coast.

Cattle ranching in the 1800s and agriculture in the 1900s dramatically changed the landscape. Today, less than 5 percent of the original vegetation remains. The refuge uses various management techniques to lend a hand and help make up for these changes.

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Irrigation and drainage have reduced the amount of water flowing into the refuge. Water is trapped in ponds, resacas (old oxbows of the Rio Grande), and the refuge's namesake lake, Laguna Atascosa, to hold freshwater between rains. Many birds are particular about the depths they feed in, so levels are adjusted throughout the year to benefit both ducks and wading birds.

The refuge has planted several old farm fields in native brush for ocelot and other brushland wildlife. It may take 20 to 40 years to grow dense brush similar to untouched stands.

While working to re-establish brushland where it belongs, the refuge also maintains grasslands for those species that depend on them. Occasional prescribed burns increases the nutritional content of the grass and reduces invading brush.