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

194 INTRODUCTION/CONSERVATION IN BIG THICKET
FIG. 112/ THE COMPROMISE ACTIVITIES AND SUPPORT OF LUMBERMAN
ARTHUR TEMPLE WERE IMPORTANT IN THE CREATION OF THE BIG THICKET
NATIONAL PRESERVE (REPRINTED FROM SAWDUST EMPIRE BY ROBERT S.
MAXWELL AND ROBERT D. BAKER BY PERMISSION OF THE TEXAS A&M
PRESS.COPYRIGHT © 1983 BY ROBERT S. MAXWELL).
FIG. 113/ GERALDINE WATSON, ARTIST, BOTANIST, WRITER, AND CONSER-
VATIONIST, WHO WAS ONE OF THE INDIVIDUALS RESPONSIBLE FOR CREATION
OF THE BIG THICKET NATIONAL PRESERVE, NOW LIVES NEAR SILSBEE AND
MAINTAINS THE WATSON PINELANDS PRESERVE, DEDICATED TO PRESERVING
APORTION OF THE DIVERSITY OF THE BIG THICKET. PHOTO COURTESY OF
GERALDINE WATSON.
(Eisner 1973) or a much smaller area of 20,000
acres proposed in 1966 by those influenced by
the timber companies (Cozine 1993). Some
individuals advocated one large block of land,
while others preferred a “String of Pearls”
approach—a number of smaller separate parks
preserving representative samples of the diverse
vegetation types of the Big Thicket. Still other
individuals and lumber companies actively
worked to minimize the size of any park created
and thus reduce the amount of land lost for
lumber production (Cozine 1993). According to
Howard Peacock (quoted in Cook 2001), one of
the leaders of the preservation movement, “The
guy who really turned the trick was Arthur
Temple [lumberman and head of Temple
Lumber/Temple Industries; Fig. 112].…There
was a complete standoff—I mean a hostile
standoff—between the environmentalists and
the timber companies. Then Arthur Temple
broke the pattern.” The compromise activities
and support of Temple were critical to the eventual
formation of a preserve, as were the legislative
efforts of U.S. Senator Ralph Yarborough. It
was Yarborough who led the fight in Congress
and who had first introduced a controversial bill
proposing a Big Thicket National Park in 1966.
Increasing national attention and a more
sophisticated understanding of the value of the
Big Thicket were growing. In 1972, McLeod was
able to say:
The forest is highly productive and its potentially
sustained yield of timber is very great.
Economically important as these forest products
are to the economy of the area, this large forested
area supplies even greater benefits indirectly.
Because of the large water-absorbing and waterholding
capacities of these forest soils and their
underlying strata, great reserves of underground
water are available for industrial development
along its southern border. These luxuriant woodlands
exert an ameliorating influence on the local
climate, serving as a natural cushion or buffer to
cold northers, local tornadoes, and destructive
hurricanes.
The location, size, and great natural beauty of
this forest area makes it one of the most valuable
and attractive recreational areas remaining in the
state. Its present and future potential as a natural
resource for out-of-doors recreation for the people
of the area cannot be overestimated.