There are ten known populations and approximately twenty historical locations. This plant is found within the dunes of the Great Lakes, military training installations, old sand pits, gravel mines, and other areas of exposed sandy or rocky soils. It may be overlooked since it often occurs in disturbed areas (i.e. disturbance that exposes bare mineral soils). As is the case with many disturbance-loving species, this sedge is able to seed bank for long periods of time allowing it to appear for a short time after a disturbance (e.g. fire or soil scrape) and then disappearing again until the next disturbance. This makes survey work somewhat more challenging. Fortunately, this is a relatively easy sedge to identify. To ensure its long-term existance at any site, active management strategies that replicate natural disturbance may be needed.

There is no data indicating how populations are changing in the short term. Also, since this species needs disturbance to germinate and grow, populations will normally fluctuate in abundance based on disturbance regimes. For example, on dune systems where the soils are constantly shifting populations should be expected to remain vigorous from year to year. In pine barrens, populations will be high after a fire and decline as the habitat undergoes succession. These populations will rebound with a new fire or other disturbance event. Overall, short term trends are not known but populations should be expected to fluctuate widely depending on the disturbance regimes.

There are 10 populations which have been seen in recent years. Most of these populations were also first discovered in recent years. Some of these populations were probably overlooked in the past. Others may have been dormant in the seed bank in the past and are currently responding to a recent disturbance event.There are also about 20 populations that have not been seen in recent years. It is unknown if these populations are still extant but it is likely that even if individual plants are not present, seeds are present in the seed bank and will germinate with a new disturbance event. Therefore, long term trends are not clear and will be hard to determine due to the cyclical pattern of abundance that C. houghtoniana has.