Tour of the central Cypress Forest Public Utility District (PUD) land leased to Raveneaux

The central portion of the PUD leased land is not used for golf, but is a beautiful recreation area that would be destroyed by a detention basin project

This tour covers the central portion of the PUD land that is leased to the Raveneaux Country Club.  It is not formally part of Cypress Forest Park, although it is adjacent to it and treated by most residents as an extension of it.  Cypress Forest park is the “manicured” type of park.  The leased area is more “natural”, so it has a wider variety of vegetation and wildlife. The Cypress Forest Public Utility District (PUD) owns this land and also owns adjacent land leased to Raveneaux Country Club.

This central portion of the leased land is not used by Raveneaux for golf.  Raveneaux uses this as a source of water, and occasionally as a source of trees or as a dumping ground.  Raveneaux mows portions of this periodically.  This includes mowing of areas that act as trails where there are gaps in the former golf cart trails, and often  mowing more.   The area has many beautiful features, including ponds, wildlife, and tall trees making walks more pleasant in the summer. It is widely used for walking. This area is the most in danger from destruction as a result of construction of a floodwater detention basin by the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD).  The following map shows this area highlighted in light blue:

The following is an annotated satellite view focusing on this central portion of the PUD land:

This page focuses on the attractiveness of the land that would be destroyed by a detention basin project.  For numbers quantifying the impact (number of years to project completion, number of dump truck loads, etc.), please see the PUD issues page .

 The central land includes ponds, ...

The ponds support extensive wildlife such as egrets, herons, turtles, beavers, and fish.

“Central Lake” - the lake in the center of the central section of the PUD  land, with a low water level at the time of the picture (August 25, 2020)

“West Pond” - the pond near the west edge of the central PUD land (November 16, 2020)

“Snake Pond” (west of Central Lake), with fall colors (November 11, 2020)

... Shady trails with tall, mature trees, ...

A shady section of Cypress Creek trail heading from Central Lake to West Pond(November 16, 2020)

 A shady walk between Central Lake and Cypress Creek trail (July 13, 2020)

... There are lookouts over Cypress Creek, ... 

Looking over Cypress Creek near the Cypress Creek trail (November 16, 2020)

 ... Wildlife, ...

One of the family of deer whose habitat would be destroyed by a detention basin, seen on the trail just west of Central Lake (July 9, 2020)

When we stop mowing every part of the land so much, we’ll see more wildlife and interesting flowers return like we had in earlier years when we enjoyed some benign neglect ...

This “Sunflower Hill” at one time was covered with sunflowers.  It is at the northeast end of Central Lake, adjacent to part of the official Cypress Forest Park.  The area has been mowed to suppress this sort of natural growth since the picture was taken in 2012, but it might recover if just left alone. (June 10, 2012)

Another place where sunflowers grew naturally when not mowed, was just south of West Pond, along Cypress Creek trail (June 10,  2012). 

Passion flowers became common in some areas when mowing stopped.  Flowers like this led to much larger populations of butterflies, so that this was a common sight.  (June 10, 2012.)