About 24 acres of farmland were transformed into habitat for ocelots, jaguarundis and migrating birds over weekend.
Hundreds of volunteers turned out on Saturday for the 17th annual Rio Reforestation on a Lower Rio Grande Valley Wildlife Refuge tract outside Bayview.
Teams of volunteers planted thousands of native plants in the place of former farmrows on land next to the U.S. Customs & Border Protection Detention Center off Buena Vista Boulevard.
The plants included ebony, huisache, cactus, palm, lantana and other native species.
Officials said the plants, bushes and flowering plants would transform the landscape to multi-layered subtropical forest in a matter of a few years.
Volunteers came from across the Rio Grande valley, including several schoolbuses full of volunteers from Mercedes' South Texas ISD.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKGBT