A 51-acre prairie is a fine example of one of the most endangered ecosystems in North America. It’s been called a “platinum prairie,” and is home to more than 300 species of native plants. Animals that live here include pocket gophers, three-toed box turtles and Cajun chorus frogs. Resident birds include Eastern meadowlarks, black-bellied whistling ducks, sedge wrens, white-tailed kites and many others. Less than 1 %  of the original 9-million acres of coastal prairie of Texas and Louisiana remains. Only a few of the remaining sites are of high quality, and even fewer can be found within an urban area. This prairie is sometimes called a Cajun prairie because it is often a wet prairie with many species similar to ones found in rare Louisiana coastal prairies. The micro-topography is quite complex with numerous depressional ponds and pimple mounds.

Jason Singhurst, a botanist with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, studied the flora and plant communities and in 2018 published a paper in the Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. Jason describes six plant community associations and 346 native plant species! This is more species than in other upper coastal prairies that have been studied and is especially remarkable considering that the Deer Park Prairie is the smallest.  See article below.