The first park of its kind to serve Houston’s East End residents, Buffalo Bend Nature Park is a new project of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership Conservation Division.

Consisting of a series of graded, water-treatment wetlands, the environmental park will contribute to the restoration and enhancement of Buffalo Bayou and the downstream coastal ecosystems it impacts. Buffalo Bend will also serve an important function for East End residents, providing them a direct link to the heritage of their city and a higher quality of life that offers hiking, bird watching, environmental education and most importantly, a sense of wildness that many locals from this community rarely have the opportunity to experience.

The central feature of the park will be a system of three wetlands which will meander through the parkland before finally opening to the bayou. The wetlands will be surrounded by Gulf prairie transitioning to the bayou’s restored riparian forest on the fringes. With sustainability being the overarching feature of this inner city park, sustainable principles will guide all aspects of the Park’s development, from low impact building materials and solar energy panels to restoring the once abundant wildlife habitat, ecological productivity and species diversity. Historically known as an under-served, industrialized and highly developed portion of Houston, the completion of Buffalo Bend Nature Park will provide an important natural space for recreation and rejuvenation within Houston's East End.

Students from Texas A&M University's College of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning Senior Design Studio have generously offered their talents to assist in the design for Buffalo Bend Nature Park.

We’d like to thank all of the senior design studio students and their professors, Dr. Nancy Volkman and Dr. Chris Ellis, for their applying their professional talents to help us make Buffalo Bend Nature Park a reality.

Project partners include the Trust for Public Land, Harris County Flood Control, Harris County Precinct 2 Parks Department, and Texas A&M University.

We thank them all for their partnership with us, their support and their hard work.

Check back as we progress on this exciting new park for the East End!

Buffalo Bend
Nature Park Gallery

Landscape Architecture Students

from Texas A&M University

Proposed Park Design

(MDK Designs, Texas A&M University)