LLELA

Tucked into the folds of the soft rolling hills of north central Texas, situated beneath the Lewisville Dam, the Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area (LLELA) occupies a unique ecological position in the landscape of North America. It is here where the northwestern-most extent of the bottomland forests stretch fingers into the southern end of the tallgrass prairie of the Midwest; where the Elm Fork of the Trinity River winds its way out of the sandy uplands of the dry Cross Timbers into the deep, rich soils of the Blackland prairies; where agricultural lands intergrade with ranching and a rapidly growing urban expanse. LLELA is dotted with sloughs, wetlands, creeks, and dry channels, the landscape features originally wrought by the Elm Fork and its tributaries during flood events. LLELA, also known as the Lewisville Wildlife Management Area, was created in the early 1990s by a consortium of local, state, and national government agencies, who have obtained a 25 year management lease from the US Army Corps of Engineers. Today, the LLELA consortium is comprised of the University of North Texas, Texas A&M University, the City of Lewisville, and the Lewisville Independent School District.