The beauty of Nash Prairie

            There's no sign post or flashing lights outside the entrance to the Nash Prairie near West Columbia. Visitors won't come across long lines of exhausted tourists waiting for funnel cakes.

            What they will find is an opportunity to travel back to a time when Native Americans walked this prairie on their way to the Brazos River bottomland to fish and gather food.

            Back then, a vast prairie extended from Louisiana to South Texas. Over time, the land was swallowed up by urban sprawl. Today, all that remains is the Nash Prairie, 400 acres of pristine land that has never been grazed or plowed.

            These 400 acres miraculously escaped a contractor's bulldozer, and the prairie is providing answers to researchers about how this area looked hundreds of years ago.

            The Nash Prairie was once part of the KNG Ranch owned by the late Houston socialite Kittie Nash Groce. The land was eventually passed to St. Mary's Episcopal Church in West Columbia.

            Along the way, conservationists became interested in the prairie as did  Peter and Susan Conaty. Peter is the pastor at St. Mary's and Susan spent hundreds of hours with researchers as they began examining the prairie.

            They discovered over 300 botanical treasures most thought were long gone and realized they had a genuine treasure on their hands.

            This virgin land is now a preserve, a laboratory and a seed bank helping landowners and other conservation groups along the Gulf Coast restore their lands to their natural state and reintroduce native plants that were thought to be extinct.  

            The Nature Conservancy now owns the Nash Prairie, and they are committed to protecting the land and helping landowners within a 300-mile radius restore their property to its natural state.

            The Conatys are the local knowledgeable tour guides to the prairie and patiently answer any and all questions. Peter said they consider themselves stewards of the land and it's where he feels closest to God.

            I was fortunate to accompany the Coastal Prairie Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists on a day trip to the Nash Prairie. We started the tour at Peter and Mary's comfortable house in Columbia Lakes where their back yard is a gorgeous showcase for the advantages of using native plants in home gardens.

            Cookies and punch are always served to anyone wishing to stop by, tour the Conaty's back yard and then visit the prairie. Susan and Peter accompany guests out to the Nash Prairie as the land is still private. The prairie is located along a back country road, and unless one has a guide, it's easy to drive right past the unmarked entrance.

            At first, the prairie seemed like just another meadow, but as we walked further in, a gentle wind provided us with a symphony of rustling leaves and grasses and the outside world simply disappeared. Songbirds flitted in and out of the tall grasses and delicate spring flowers dotted the prairie.

            In this last remaining virgin tract of prairie, I felt a connection with past people who understood that when Mother Nature is allowed to swirl the color wheel, beauty is the result.

            As we drove away, I understood what Rev. Conaty meant when he told me I'd find peace on the prairie. Not only did I find solace and quiet, but I gained a greater understanding of our responsibility to this small patch of history.

            For more information on the Nash Prairie, contact the Conatys at 979-345-3456 or email stmaryswc@centurylink.net. This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.