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

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PRESETTLEMENT AND EARLY SETTLEMENT CONDITIONS OF BIG THICKET/INTRODUCTION 175 & Harcombe 1983). Specific examples include Marysee Prairie (currently considered to be the only protected prairie remnant in the Big Thicket area) in Liberty County (Ajilvsgi 1979), and Batson, Jones, Pelt, and Pigeon Roost prairies in Hardin County (Truett & Lay 1984; Schafale & Harcombe 1983). To the south of the Big Thicket, the vegetation graded into what in presettlement times was an extensive area of Coastal Prairie (with woody vegetation continuing along major drainages) (Smeins et al. 1982). While originally probably occupying only a small percentage of the area of the Big Thicket, prairies contributed to the vegetational complexity and species richness of the area. PRESETTLEMENT AND EARLY SETTLEMENT ANIMAL LIFE OF THE BIG THICKET—The animal life of the presettlement and early settlement Big Thicket was diverse and was a good representation of that of the Pineywoods as a whole. As with plants, unexpected animals sometimes occurred together (Watson 1975; Gunter 1993) because of the proximity of habitats such as arid sandylands or prairies with more mesic mixed deciduous forests and wetland habitats. Roadrunners, jackrabbits, and (at one time) horned lizards could be found in close proximity to eastern bluebirds, pileated woodpeckers, swamp rabbits, and alligators (National Park Service 1974). There were more than 50 species of mammals (including 10 species of bats), 60 species of reptiles (including 37 species of snakes and 15 species of turtles), 30 species of amphibians, 98 species of fishes, and around 215 species of birds (National Park Service 1974, 1996, 1997; Peacock 1994). A few of these species are now extinct in the area, and many others have had their populations dramatically reduced, primarily due to habitat alteration and overhunting. A case in point is that of the black bear. In the 1880s and 1890s the Big Thicket became renowned for its epic bear hunts (Gunter 1993). In fact, bears were so abundant that East Texas has been called the “Land of Bears and Honey” (Truett & Lay 1984). “Bear meat was eaten by settlers, crews of loggers and railroad workers, and slaves. Bear fat was standard cooking oil, both for white settlers and the Indians before them. The supply lasted about a century and a half after the first settlers arrived” (Truett & Lay 1984). Unfortunately, overhunting took its toll—two of the last authenticated records of bears killed in East Texas were a female and two young in Liberty County in 1919 and a large bear in Hardin County in 1928 (Truett & Lay 1984). The heavy mast (fruit) production from numerous tree species including American beech (Fagus americana) and various oaks (Quercus spp.) was an important food source for bears and a diversity of other wildlife (Parks & Cory 1936). Other large mammals now gone from the Big Thicket include American bison and red wolves. While much more common on the prairies to the west and south, bison are thought to have ranged over almost the whole of the present state of Texas (Bailey 1905). Joutel, who was with the La Salle expedition in 1686, reported that in what is now northwestern Harris County, they “were favored in crossing [probably Cypress Bayou] by a way beaten by the bullocks [bison]” (Truett & Lay 1984). Overhunting quickly led to the extirpation of bison from Texas. The red wolf, intermediate in size between the gray wolf and coyote, was confined to the eastern part of the state, including the Big Thicket. U.S. Biological Survey biologist Gaut reported in 1915 that, “Wolves are numerous in the [Big] Thicket and do considerable damage to calves and pigs.…” (Truett & Lay 1984). This species declined due to habitat alteration, hunting (including for bounties), and hybridization with coyotes and dogs. By 1980, for all practical purposes, the red wolf was extinct in the wild (Schmidly 1983). Though originally well known in the area, the mountain lion (also known as cougar, puma, or locally as “panther”) (Fig. 96) was extremely rare or nearly extinct in East Texas by 1905 (Bailey 1905). In 1959 McCarley was unable to document any recent records. There are, however, reliable recent reports of mountain lions in various parts of East Texas including the Big Thicket (D. Fusco, pers. comm.), and the species is apparently present in low numbers.
176 INTRODUCTION/PRESETTLEMENT AND EARLY SETTLEMENT CONDITIONS OF BIG THICKET Two other locally extinct cats, the jaguar and the ocelot, are known to have inhabited the Big Thicket forests. In 1902 there was a report of a jaguar killed south of Jasper a few years before, as well as reports of the former occurrence of the species along the Neches River near Beaumont and in the timber south of Conroe (Bailey 1905). Bailey (1905) reported that, “ocelots are still reported as very rare about Beaumont and Jasper.” Schmidly (1983) noted that “George Walker (born before 1860) of Lufkin…remembered that ocelots (called “tiger cats” by locals) were found in Polk and Hardin counties.” Even the sole relatively common wild cat species remaining in the Big Thicket, the bobcat, was much more abundant previously. Bailey (1905) wrote that the bobcat was “in no other locality so abundant as in the Big Thicket of Liberty and Hardin counties. Here its tracks were seen in every muddy spot in roads and trails, and on damp mornings the dogs started one about as soon as they got into the thicket.…Cat hunting is a favorite sport in this region.…” Other previously abundant large species whose numbers were dramatically reduced have now made a comeback. McCarley, in 1959, indicated that the “native beaver of East Texas is apparently extirpated.” However, this species made a surprisingly rapid recovery and is now common. Likewise, river otters, reported as “nowhere common” by McCarley (1959) can be seen “fairly often” (F. Abernethy, pers. comm.; e.g., Jack Gore Baygall—G. Diggs, pers. obs.). Of all the large mammals previously found in the Big Thicket, only white-tailed deer remain in large numbers, and even this species was dramatically reduced during the first half of the twentieth century. Though Bailey reported deer as common in the Big Thicket in 1905, subsequent overhunting resulted in their “almost complete extirpation…in most areas of East Texas” (McCarley 1959). Restocking efforts have largely been successful, and the white-tailed deer is now FIG. 96/MOUNTAIN LIONS, LIKE MOST LARGE PREDATORS, very common in the Big Thicket. WERE RAPIDLY ELIMINATED FROM THE BIG THICKET (FROM The bird fauna of the early Big Thicket was COOKE & COOKE 1995, USED WITH PERMISSION OF LOIS LEONARD STOCK). also much richer than that of today. The globally extinct passenger pigeon (Fig. 97) was well-documented for the Pineywoods (and for virtually all of East Texas west to Bexar, Grayson, and Travis counties at the western edge of East Texas and well beyond—Oberholser 1974; Casto 2001) and may have been the most abundant bird species in East Texas. These birds were referred to as “wild pigeons” by early settlers, and huge flocks were reported from the Big Thicket (e.g., Hardin, Jasper, Polk, and Tyler counties—Oberholser 1974; Casto 2001). Descriptions such as the following by eyewitnesses were given for the Pineywoods—“millions of pigeons flying over,” “roost covering ten acres,” “wild pigeons robbing hogs of mast,” or “millions roosting” (Casto 2001). One place in Hardin County southeast of Kountze, where early settlers would find large flocks roosting in trees, was even named “Pigeon Roost” Prairie (Loughmiller & Loughmiller 1977; Truett & Lay 1984). In the area slightly to the south, Oberholser (1974) reported, “…many old residents living in Houston, Harris County, recalled a great Passenger Pigeon invasion in the vicinity of that city during October, 1873…. One ranchman said that when he first saw the pigeons approaching in the evening he took them to be clouds of a great storm from the northeast, while others stated that at times clouds of pigeons darkened the sky.” The passenger pigeon preferred acorn-abundant oak forests and when the flocks, sometimes numbering in the millions or even billions of individuals, descended upon an area, they could have a dramatic effect on the vegetation. Broken branches and other devastation were apparently a common result (Oberholser 1974). According to Casto (2001),
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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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46 INTRODUCTION/SOILS SOIL ORDER DE
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48 INTRODUCTION/SOILS, EAST TEXAS B
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50 INTRODUCTION/SOIL-RELATED GEOLOG
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60 INTRODUCTION/SOILS OF BLACKLAND
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66 INTRODUCTION/CLIMATE OF EAST TEX
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Forests define East Texas, and to a
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78 INTRODUCTION/GEOLOGY OF PINEYWOO
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80 INTRODUCTION/PRESETTLEMENT, EARL
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88 INTRODUCTION/PRESETTLEMENT VEGET
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90 INTRODUCTION/CURRENT VEGETATION
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106 INTRODUCTION/POST OAK SAVANNAH
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108 INTRODUCTION/POST OAK SAVANNAH
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110 INTRODUCTION/GEOLOGY AND SOILS
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112 INTRODUCTION/SOILS, FIRE, AND T
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114 INTRODUCTION/SOILS, FIRE, AND T
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116 INTRODUCTION/ PRESETTLEMENT, EA
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118 INTRODUCTION/VEGETATION OF POST
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226 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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