Dow Black Skimmer Colony

The Dow Texas Operations site in Freeport, TX manages two hundred acres of the 5,000-acre facility as a nature refuge. More than 350 trees and shrubs and 2,000 aquatic plants are planted at the refuge in an attempt to restore the original canopy and native plant diversity of the bottomland forest. Wildflower meadows are also seeded and managed throughout the site. In addition to wetland plantings, a constructed pond is actively managed to provide wildlife habitat. This area provides habitat for pied-billed grebes, eastern meadowlark and scissor-tailed flycatchers and three wood duck and prothonotary warbler boxes have been installed to a created wetland area. The wildlife team conducts annual point counts, flora and fauna surveys, and general maintenance to the area. In the spring of 2011 for example, there was evidence that as many as eleven breeding pairs of white-eyed vireos may be nesting in the area.