Outdoor Nature Club

The Outdoor Nature Club was formed in 1923, and is considered Houston’s first conservation group. In 1951, the Club began efforts to purchase acreage for the Little Thicket Nature Sanctuary, a critical remnant of the Pineywoods of east Texas, at a time when much of that area was being lost to clearcutting, monoculture pine plantings, and reservoir inundation. The Sanctuary later grew to span 665 acres. In 1969, the Club’s Ornithology Group spun off and created the Houston Audubon Society, one of the larger environmental groups and land trusts in Southeast Texas.