Local government, developers, and people who live in the 100 year floodplains of Pine Island and Little Pine Island Bayous (Bayous) are pressuring the National Park Service (NPS) to implement a flood control project, the removal of downed trees from the channels/floodplains of the Bayous, within Big Thicket National Preserve (BTNP). NPS has proposed hiring a contractor who could use boats, chainsaws, tractors, and roads to remove the downed trees.

The NPS admits that "hydrologists performed an on-site study of timber blow-down from Hurricane Rita … which determined that there were no post-Hurricane Rita woody debris collections that have increased flooding … hydrologists did observe a few areas where downed trees could possibly collect further debris and create obstructions with the potential to increase flooding in the future." Repeatedly, over the past 30 years, local people have pressured NPS to allow flood control projects in BTNP. The feasibility is so poor for such projects (which damage the National Park System) that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has stated that there is no economical way to conduct flood control projects on the Bayous.

Contact NPS by December 14, 2007 and say:

1) You do not support flood control projects in BTNP and want the proposal withdrawn; 2) if the proposal is not withdrawn you support the “No Action” Alternative; 3) this proposal degrades BTNP and the entire National Park System; and 4) removal of downed trees destroys important habitat, food, and shelter, for wildlife.

Email NPS at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/bith   or write at: Mr. Tod Brindle, Superintendent, BTNP, 6044 FM 420, Kountze, Texas 77625.

For more information contact Brandt Mannchen at 713-664-5962 or brandtshnfbt@juno.com.

December 2007

Last updated:  11/29/2007.   Content © 1999-2007 by the Sierra Club.