Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge
Managed by United States Fish and Wildlife Service
9 acres
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
DOutdoors
Outdoors in Rice Tracts
Few parks or trails are on the map in Rice Tracts
0.1 miles of mapped trail cross Rice Tracts, 0.1 per square mile of land.
Ahead of 6% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Conserved land
1%
11 acres · of 1.9 sq mi of land
Trails
0.1 mi
0.1 per sq mi of land
Near a park
under 1%
of residents within ½ mile
Lakes & rivers
1
Outdoors grade
How much outdoors does Rice Tracts have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Rice Tracts is ahead of 6% of U.S. towns. All four inputs are below most U.S. towns; conserved land comes closest.
D
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Rice Tracts’ overall grade.
Conserved land1% of the land · typical TX town 2% · U.S. 4%CTrails0.1 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (0 mi) · TX 0.2 · U.S. 0.4C−Park land0.0 acres of park per 1,000 residents (0 acres) · TX 9 · U.S. 13DParks close to home0% of residents within a half mile of a park · TX 69% · U.S. 72%D−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 6%
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Few Texas towns conserve much land (a typical one, 2%; the U.S., 4%), so Rice Tracts’ 1% is ahead of 33% of Texas towns, while its trails per square mile lead 21% of them.
Water is 8% of Rice Tracts’ area (0 of 2 square miles), so every share here is of land; over land and water together, the conserved share would read 1%.
NoteFew parks or trails are mapped in Rice Tracts. OpenStreetMap is mapped by volunteers and coverage varies from town to town, so a town with unmapped parks scores low on them.
How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from D− to D. Trails and many small parks come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by volunteers, so coverage varies from town to town; the half mile is a straight line from each census block, so a river or highway in the way isn’t counted against it.
PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →
The map
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.
Easements protect land from building but are usually private.© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk
Pick a walk
Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.
Who protects it
11 conserved acres
1% of Rice Tracts’ land. Water is left out: Rice Tracts has 1.9 square miles of land and 0.2 of water, so the share counts land only. Who manages Rice Tracts’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service22 ac
National Wildlife Refuge · 22 ac
The biggest protected parcels
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge National Wildlife Refuge | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | 22 | Restricted |
Trails & water
1 lakes & rivers
Lakes & rivers tap for directions
When to get out
April is the best month for walking in Rice Tracts
NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for the town and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 59 to 86 °F and little rain for the place.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 10.7 | 11.2 | 11.9 | 12.7 | 13.4 | 13.8 | 13.6 | 13.0 | 12.3 | 11.5 | 10.8 | 10.5 |
| High (°F) | 72 | 76 | 81 | 86 | 91 | 94 | 96 | 97 | 92 | 87 | 79 | 73 |
| Rain (in) | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 2.2 | 2.9 | 2.0 | 1.9 | 5.3 | 3.2 | 1.7 | 1.3 |
February is the driest month (1.0 in) and August the warmest (highs of 97 °F). 5.3 inches fall in September, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 97 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Rice Tracts →
Next door
Rice Tracts and its neighbors
Rice Tracts has the second most mapped trails of the 2 towns around it. Tap a town to see its outdoors.
| Town | Conserved of land | Trail mi per sq mi | Park acres per 1,000 | Near a park ½ mile | Outdoors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rice Tracts | 1% | 0.1 | under 1 | under 1% | D |
| Encantada-Ranchito-El Calaboz | 4% | 0.4 | 8 | 90% | B |
The four inputs of the Outdoors grade, from the engine; shares are of land, not water.
Questions about parks and trails in Rice Tracts
How much of Rice Tracts is conserved land?
1% of its land, against a typical 2% for a Texas town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Are dogs allowed on Rice Tracts’ trails?
Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge doesn’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
Is there public land near Rice Tracts?
2,470 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Rice Tracts or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), almost none of it inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Rice Tracts have?
Ahead of 6% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade. The grade combines the share of land that is conserved, miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, park acres per 1,000 residents and the share of residents within a half mile of a park. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
Trail talk
Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Rice Tracts neighbors.
Share a tip
Sources
Where this page comes from
Conserved and public land: USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US), service updated July 2026. Parks, trails, playgrounds, beaches and other places: OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), map data as of 2026-10-28. Land and water area: Census 2025 Gazetteer. Residents near a park: 2020 Census blocks. National Register: National Park Service. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →