ILLUSTRATED FLORA OF EAST TEXAS - Brit - Botanical Research ...

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PRESETTLEMENT VEGETATION TYPES OF PINEYWOODS/INTRODUCTION 87 E.L. Kurth, a second generation ‘timber baron,’ built East Texas’ first paper mill at Lufkin. The effluent drained into Peach Creek, later renamed Paper Mill Creek, and the Angelina River. From 1940, when paper production began, through the fall of 1944, game wardens and their supervisor from Austin talked to the mill superintendent about state water pollution laws. Promised ponds for settling out some waste were never built. Finally Tucker of the Texas Game, Fish and Oyster Commission wrote a letter to Kurth stating that he would ask a court to stop pollution unless some action was taken. Tucker was under pressure from fishermen who had employed a lawyer in Nacogdoches after witnessing heavy losses of fish. Damage reached to the coast. Waste fibre clogged nets. Caustic chemicals caused cotton and linen lines and nets to waste away. Some camp owners along the river had to quit using their places. Pointing to the jobs he had created, Kurth asked for help in Austin, and Tucker lost his job about six months later. The mill operated with little change until the 1970s when the Environmental Protection Agency forced some air and water protections. Unfortunately, not only the environment, but also the economy and numerous individuals suffered the consequences of short-sighted and self-serving practices: “At the end of the era most of the large operators moved on, leaving great problems for conservationists and the government to cope with regarding both human and natural resources” (Maxwell & Baker 1983). One positive step during this period was that the federal government purchased more than 600,000 acres (243,000 hectares) of cutover land and in 1936 President Roosevelt officially proclaimed the Texas national forests (Maxwell & Baker 1983; Maxwell 1996b). In addition, reforestation efforts were mounted by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the 1930s (Watson 1975). Since that time there have been many changes in the Pineywoods, but the lumber industry has remained an essential part of the economy. Enlightened conservation attitudes became more widespread and reforestation and sustained-yield strategies were widely adopted—as a result, lumber production increased dramatically. In recent decades, management of East Texas forests has intensified and monocultures of genetically superior loblolly pines have become the norm (McWilliams & Lord 1988). The replacement of vast areas of high diversity forests with such monocultures has sometimes been referred to as “coniferization.” While effective in terms of wood production, it is controversial ecologically because of the resulting tremendous decrease in biodiversity. Instead of high diversity forests supporting numerous plant and animal species, such monocultures are in essence “biological deserts” (Ajilvsgi 1979), with little potential to support the rich variety of wildlife previously found in the area (Truett & Lay 1984). In 2001 and 2002, a dramatic change occurred in the region when two of the major timber companies, International Paper and Louisiana-Pacific announced their pullout from Texas— together they are selling over a million acres in East Texas, much of it near the Big Thicket National Preserve (Johnston & Roberts 2002). Current efforts are underway to obtain for conservation some of the vast acreages now changing hands. It is clear that there will never again be a conservation opportunity of the magnitude that now presents itself. PRESETTLEMENT VEGETATION TYPES OF THE PINEYWOODS Although modern equivalents exist for many presettlement plant communities (Harcombe et al. 1993), there have been dramatic changes in both their structure and abundance. Widespread logging has assured that, unlike historic forests which had an uneven-aged structure (= with trees of various ages) with some trees more than 400 years old (Mohr 1897; Schwarz 1907; Chapman 1909), most modern forests are immature, even-aged stands with few trees more than 80 years old. Dramatic changes also resulted from the virtual elimination of fire as an ecological force over most of the landscape and the consequent replacement of
88 INTRODUCTION/PRESETTLEMENT VEGETATION TYPES OF PINEYWOODS longleaf pine-dominated woodlands by mixed forests of loblolly pine and broad-leaved deciduous hardwoods (Frost 1993). In addition, large areas have been cleared for ranching and agriculture, reservoirs have covered many acres of former river floodplains, and more and more areas are becoming urbanized. Despite the importance of understanding historic vegetation for both science and conservation, only a few published studies quantitatively estimating presettlement vegetation exist for the Pineywoods and adjacent areas (Evans 1997). Much of what is known has been either reconstructed from witness tree data (Delcourt 1976; Schafale & Harcombe 1983), derived from early published descriptions in combination with detailed knowledge of existing relationships between vegetation, soils, and physiography (Brown 1944; Marks & Harcombe 1981; Harcombe et al. 1993; Van Kley & Hine 1998; Van Kley 1999a, 1999b), or reconstructed from early timber company surveys (Evans 1997). The following accounts are largely adapted from the description of Pineywoods and western Louisiana historical vegetation in the Ecological Classification System of Turner et al. (1999). LONGLEAF PINE COMMUNITIES—Texas longleaf pine woodlands represented the western edge of “an unbroken forest of the same general character” which extended eastward to Virginia (Bray 1906; Frost 1993). Early data from uncut forests (Mohr 1897; Schwartz 1907; Chapman 1909) reveal mostly uneven-aged stands with the oldest and largest trees 400 or more years old and up to about 98 cm (40 inches) (rarely to about 60 inches—Block 1995) in diameter at breast height (dbh). Bailey (1905) described Texas longleaf pine as “miles of dense forest of the cleanest, most uniform and symmetrical body of timber to be found on the continent.” Often occurring in pure stands, longleaf pine dominated most upland areas in the southern and eastern Pineywoods but diminished to the west and north. Wet longleaf pine savannahs with a ground layer of grasses, sedges, and specialized wetland plants occurred on the poorlydrained, nearly level topography along the southern (Big Thicket) edge of the region. Longleaf pine woodlands with a diverse ground layer of grasses, composites, and legumes (Bridges & Orzell 1989a) were prevalent to the north on drier, more topographically variable uplands where, as today, communities similar to wet pine savannahs (Herbaceous Seeps or “bogs”) occurred as isolated inclusions in areas of groundwater seepage. Low-intensity surface fires ignited by lightning strikes and, during the last 12,000 years, also set by Native Americans burned the grasses and fallen pine needles every 2 to 8 years and maintained a grassy, open woodland by destroying competing woody plants (Heyward 1939; Grelen & Duvall 1966; Komarek 1968; Christensen 1981). These fires were more common in the spring and summer when thunderstorms are more frequent (Christensen 1981) and, once ignited, could burn for days across large areas of uplands. Longleaf pine, which has adaptations enabling both adults and seedlings to survive fire (Platt et al. 1988), would then dominate on such sites. These were clearly pyrogenic (= resulting from fire; fire dependent) communities and the critical role of fire in their maintenance is now widely recognized (e.g., Christensen 1981). Following the logging era of 1880–1930 and the virtual elimination of fire during the twentieth century, mixed second growth stands of loblolly pine and deciduous hardwoods developed. Today, longleaf pine is dominant on only about 1.5% of its former range (Frost 1993; Outcalt 1997; Estill & Cruzan 2001). SHORTLEAF PINE COMMUNITIES—Uplands in the northern and western Pineywoods were largely dominated by mixed stands of shortleaf pine and a variety of dry-site oaks and hickories. Mohr (1897) described how longleaf pine forests “toward their northern limit… gradually pass into a mixed growth of deciduous trees and shortleaf pine.” Gow (1905) referred to these shortleaf pine-oak-hickory forests as “high hammocks” and indicated that their “appearance differs totally from (longleaf) pine uplands,” being “characterized by dense thickets of shortleaf pine seedlings, often stunted by shade of hardwoods under which they grow.” The oldest and largest trees in these mixed-age stands were more than 200 years old and 86 cm (35 inches) or more dbh, (Turner et al. 1999). Most virgin shortleaf pine in the region had been
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ILLUSTRATED FLORA OF EAST TEXAS
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ALLDREDGE, LINDA & JACK BATTERBAE,
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We would like to recognize and expr
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ISSN 0833-1475 ISBN 1-889878-12-X S
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“DEEP EAST TEXAS IS AN OLD, QUIET
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Elray S. Nixon E lray Nixon was bor
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ILLUSTRATED FLORA OF EAST TEXAS TAB
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TABLE OFCONTENTS/ PAGE APPENDICES A
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Hymenocallis liriosme
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ILLUSTRATED FLORA OF EAST TEXAS OVE
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4 INTRODUCTION/GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF E
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10 INTRODUCTION/MAJOR RIVERS OF EAS
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12 INTRODUCTION/PLANTS TREATED The
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14 INTRODUCTION/GUIDE TO ARRANGEMEN
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16 INTRODUCTION/GUIDE TO SOURCES OF
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18 INTRODUCTION/GUIDE TO GEOGRAPHIC
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20 INTRODUCTION/GUIDE TO ENDANGERED
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22 INTRODUCTION/GUIDE TO GLOSSARY,
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24 INTRODUCTION/GUIDE TO ABBREVIATI
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26 INTRODUCTION/SUMMARY DATA ON FLO
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28 INTRODUCTION/ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Kar
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30 INTRODUCTION/AUTHORS’ NOTE Pre
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32 INTRODUCTION/GENERAL GEOLOGY OF
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34 INTRODUCTION/GENERAL GEOLOGY OF
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138 INTRODUCTION/PRESETTLEMENT AND
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144 INTRODUCTION/VEGETATION OF BLAC
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146 INTRODUCTION/FUTURE OF BLACKLAN
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148 INTRODUCTION/FUTURE OF BLACKLAN
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150 INTRODUCTION/CADDO LAKE LOCATIO
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152 INTRODUCTION/CADDO LAKE FIG.84/
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154 INTRODUCTION/PRESENT AND FUTURE
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156 INTRODUCTION/BIG THICKET THE BI
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158 INTRODUCTION/BIG THICKET GEOGRA
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160 INTRODUCTION/NATURAL HISTORY OF
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172 INTRODUCTION/SUMMARY DEFINITION
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184 INTRODUCTION/HISTORY OF BIG THI
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190 INTRODUCTION/CONSERVATION IN BI
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200 INTRODUCTION/ORIGIN AND DIVERSI
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228 INTRODUCTION/CONSERVATION IN EA
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234 INTRODUCTION/HISTORY OF BOTANY
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244 INTRODUCTION/BOTANY IN NORTH CE
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246 INTRODUCTION/BOTANY IN NORTH CE
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248 INTRODUCTION/BOTANY AT UNIVERSI
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250 INTRODUCTION/BOTANY AT TEXAS A&
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252 INTRODUCTION/BOTANY AT TEXAS A&
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254 INTRODUCTION/OTHER CONTRIBUTION
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256 INTRODUCTION/CURRENT BOTANICAL
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258 INTRODUCTION/BOTANICAL ART IN E
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