Environmentalism in Texas (original) (raw)

You can find the genesis of East Texas' modern-day environmental movement hidden in the memories of Jack McElroy of Tyler.

In the spring of 1966, McElroy was the supervisor of the Texas National Forests when he was assigned to escort Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas on a tour of East Texas forests.

Douglas, already an ardent conservationist (the word environmentalist had not emerged), was invited by Liberty mayor Dempsie Henley to tour East Texas' threatened Big Thicket, an area sprawling over several counties north of Beaumont.

Douglas used the invitation as a reason to tour other parts of Texas, including the state's four national forests, Caddo Lake, the Guadalupe peaks of West Texas, and industrial forestlands in East Texas.

He spent two weeks in the state and wrote "Farewell to Texas: A Vanishing Wilderness." In it he deplored the loss of wilderness areas throughout the state.

McElroy feels Douglas' tour and the publication of his book ignited the save-the-forests movement in places like Houston, Austin and Dallas and led to widespread acceptance of the environmental movement in otherwise conservative Texas.

"It was his first visit to Texas. He spent a couple of weeks here and when he left, he felt he knew everything there was to know," said McElroy. "The timbermen in East Texas blamed me for bringing him here, but I was simply doing my job," he said.

At the time, Douglas, 67, was already the author of 20 books on nature. With the physical condition of a man half his age, he was renowned for his stamina.

During his tour, Douglas heaped praise on McElroy and the management plans of the Texas National Forests, but he complained about the lack of additional public lands in the state. "Real estate operators are eating you away. There's no overall program for conservation," he told reporters. Douglas' book, published in 1967, was an indictment of dam-builders, ranchers, lumber companies, oil and gas companies, and others who were managing land resources in Texas.

He predicted: "The people of Texas are aroused against these modern Ahabs; and their voices are beginning to be heard. But heroic action is needed if the shining bits of wilderness that are left in Texas are to be salvaged."

As a part of his tour, ..... next page :
The county line magnolia and General Sam Houston Cypress ›