Padre Island National Seashore is the longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island in the world. With 70 miles of protected coastline, including a coastal prairie, a dynamic dune system, wind tidal flats teeming with life. A sanctuary and nesting grounds for the endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle. A haven for 380 species of birds, a rich cultural history including the 1554 Spanish shipwrecks; and the Laguna Madre, one of the few hypersaline lagoon environments left in the world.

Photo: Teresa Eimers, National Park Service 

On the most southern tip of Texas, along the shores of the Laguna Madre, dense patches of thorny brush rise among unique wind-blown clay dunes called “lomas” in the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. In a region of Texas some call the last great habitat, thorn forest intermingles with freshwater wetlands, coastal prairies, mudflats and beaches. Here, the endangered ocelot silently hunts within the brushlands, white-tailed deer browse on a banquet of plants, Aplomado Falcons soar above the grasslands and nearly half of all the bird species (including Green Jays in the photo above) found in the continental United States rest, feed, nest and or migrate.

Photo: C.V. Vick, USFWS