We have good news and bad news.

First, the good news:

1) In May, 577.59 acres, on the west side of the Neches River, below the Beaumont Unit of Big Thicket National Preserve (BTNP), were donated as mitigation lands to the National Park Service (NPS).

2) In June, 4,600 acres of cypress-tupelo swamp, owned by Temple-Inland (TI), were bought by the Conservation Fund and will be turned over to the NPS to add to BTNP. The cypress-tupelo swamp is adjacent to the Beaumont Unit and connects it to Interstate 10.

3) In July, 171.99 acres were acquired along Big Sandy Creek, at the Polk/Tyler County line and will be added to the Big Sandy Creek/Village Creek Corridors that extend from the Big Sandy Creek Unit to the Neches River.

4) A donation of $16,500 by the Vick Family Foundation in Dallas allowed the Big Thicket Natural Heritage Trust to acquire 4.4 acres at the confluence of Beech Creek and Village Creek. The acreage will be turned over to the NPS to add to BTNP.

Now the bad news:

1.55 million acres of TI forest land was sold to The Campbell Group, Inc., a timber management organization (TMO) for $2.38 billion. This is a disappointment because the Conservation Fund, Nature Conservancy, and other land trusts (at the urging of several federal and state conservation agencies, including the NPS, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department) were vying to buy about several hundred thousand acres of important conservation lands owned by TI including those along the Neches River and around the Turkey Creek and Hickory Creek Savannah Units. Other smaller parcels of important conservation lands including the Azalea Canyons and Pyramid Magnolia tracts, for example, also were acquired by The Campbell Group.

TMO's manage natural resource assets for investors. The hope now is that conservationists will be able to develop a good relationship with The Campbell Group so important conservation lands are protected and managed well. This strategy has worked well in the past with Hancock Forest Management, another TMO, who has been very proactive in developing a good relationship with conservationists. Later it is hoped that some of these conservation lands may be available for acquisition so they can be provided to the NPS and added to BTNP.

The Sierra Club will keep you informed about further land acquisition progress for BTNP.

Information for this article was taken from the July/August 2007 "Big Thicket Reporter".

September 2007

Last updated:  11/02/2007.   Content © 1999-2007 by the Sierra Club.