That Bend in Winter: A Hidden Landscape

Waiting for the Return

Feb. 24, 2021

We are quite a bit late posting a winter photograph for our ongoing series documenting the same bend in Houston’s Buffalo Bayou throughout the seasons. Our devoted and generous photographer Big Jim Olive is living with his beloved in fiery California these days where the air is supposed to be better. But he still frequently returns to his native Texas for photography jobs and visits with his many friends. Founder and executive director of the Christmas Bay Foundation, he also participates with other volunteers in Texas Parks and Wildlife’s annual Abandoned Crab Trap Removal program, which takes place from February 19-28.

Last week he was on his way, driving cross country, stopping to take photos of icy cacti. But by Seguin the frozen, snowy highway was closed, and after two nights in a motel there Jim was forced to turn back, leaving behind the excellent barbecue.

He’s returning this week, despite the forecast for stormy (warm) weather. But in the meantime the backup photographer had already gone out into the forbidden woods of the city’s Memorial Park to document that bend in winter. The fear was that winter would soon be over before Jim returned, despite the historic weather that froze the city and state just a few days earlier, leaving us all in the dark.

Frozen. Still Living. Still Closed. Sighting of a River Otter. Dumping of Picnic Tables

Whether you think a bare winter landscape is lovely is a matter of personal taste. For some people, the sight of seemingly dead trees and plants can be alarming. Will they come back?  But winter, particularly a harsh and deadly winter, however disturbing, does reveal a landscape that would ordinarily be hidden.

On a happy note, we did receive after the freeze a report of multiple sightings of a river otter in the bayou across from the park around Pine Hill. And many have surely noticed the flocks of handsome cedar waxwings in the city flitting from tree to tree, often yaupon, feasting on berries.

Looking downstream in winter at Buffalo Bayou from a high bank in Memorial Park, another installment in our ongoing series, A Bend in the River. Photo by SC, Feb. 20, 2021, because JO wasn’t there yet.

The popular trail through the bayou woods on the southeast side of Houston’s Memorial Park was still fenced off and posted with the same fictitious warning signs. In fact, the gates to the Picnic Loop itself were still locked on this sunny, warm Saturday after the horrible freeze. No doubt this was due to a shortage of staff still coping with the disastrous impact of the winter weather. People were forced to park their cars in any spot they could find and squeeze with their kids and bikes and strollers through or around the gates.

Flow in the bayou was around 400 cubic feet per second (cfs) and dropping.

Looking upstream from the same high bank at the costly and damaging concrete walls and riprap needlessly installed by the River Oaks Country Club. Photo Feb. 20, 2021

Violets and Dandelions

After documenting the bend upstream and down, we ventured further down the path and reached the steep banks of the creek that flows from the center of the park, noting that there were several new spontaneous foot paths through the woods.

The ground was mostly bare, scattered with spikey sweetgum seed balls, which like pine needles (see also here), black willows, American beautyberry, and many other things growing on the bayou, have medicinal qualities. The small green leaves of edible wild violets and dandelions were peeking hopefully out of the earth. (Before the freeze, in another part of the park, we had seen some young stinging nettle, a delicacy served in the finest Parisian restaurants.) The water in the winding creek was clear and made a gentle tinkling sound as it flowed over the sand and woody debris. There were large trees fallen across the creek, and in a youthful past the backup photographer, who grew up on the bayou, might have carefully stepped or scooted across these bridges laid down by nature. Or at least watched her brother do it.

Fallen trees lying across a creek, a tributary of Buffalo Bayou that flows from the center of Memorial Park. Photo Feb. 20, 2021

The bare winter landscape revealed a haphazard pile of concrete picnic tables, benches, and grills that had apparently been removed from the Picnic Loop and tossed in the woods near the creek. We’ll ask about this thoughtless trashing of the park.

Concrete picnic tables, benches and grills tossed in the woods of Memorial Park near the creek. Photo Feb. 20, 2021

The Bayou in the Snow

Here’s the way the bayou looked on Feb. 15 after the snow.

SC

In the Snow

Buffalo Bayou meander in the snow, looking upstream with the east edge of Memorial Park on the right. Photo by BA, February 15, 2021
Looking downstream on Buffalo Bayou in the snow just below Memorial Park. Photo by BA, February 15, 2021.
Another view of snowy Buffalo Bayou looking downstream just below Memorial Park. Photo by BA.

Slow the Flow

What Houston and Other Cities Are Doing to Reduce Flooding

And Make Life Better

Feb. 11, 2021

Despite flooding issues that threaten lives as well as the future of the city, Houston has lagged behind other cities in the state and around the world in encouraging, implementing, or requiring basic steps that can reduce flooding. Harris County, along with six other Texas cities, scored higher than Houston on Environment Texas’ 2020 Scorecard.

But recently the Houston City Council passed a property tax incentive to large commercial developers who use green (nature-based) infrastructure to slow stormwater runoff from their new projects.

Developers are already required to prevent an increase in the amount of stormwater running off projects built on previously undeveloped land. Now Houston taxpayers will actually pay for the cost of doing that if developers use rooftop gardens (green roofs), vegetated swales, permeable paving, trees, etc., known as Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI).  Also known as Low Impact Development (LID) or even Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS), though the latter also focuses on reusing stormwater.

Slowing stormwater runoff reduces flooding. And in addition to passing the property tax incentive to large commercial developers, the City of Houston recently increased its stormwater detention requirements for new single-family residential projects. This was forced in response to Harris County requirements. No tax incentive yet.

However, the City does reduce the city drainage fee based on the percentage of pervious surface on a lot. So planting a garden on your roof, for instance, changes the roof from an impervious surface into a pervious surface and reduces your drainage fee. (See below.)

Elsewhere, cities like Toronto and Utrecht require green roofs, which can reduce stormwater runoff by more than 50 percent. (Toronto provides financial assistance.) Simply disconnecting roof downspouts from the public stormwater drainage system can help prevent the system from being overwhelmed, a practice recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency.

From California to Illinois to New England, cities are asking residents to disconnect downspouts and instead allow rainwater to flow and soak into a yard, among many other things. (Directing roof runoff onto a concrete driveway, seemingly common practice in Houston, is not helping, since it runs directly into the paved street and into the stormwater system anyway.)

We’ve been gathering information for a while with the intention of eventually posting about what Houston and other cities are doing about flooding. It’s complicated!

Flooding Begins on the Land

A rooftop garden at Annunciation Orthodox School in Houston.

Stormwater is rain that falls and runs across the ground into our built (pipes) and natural (bayous and creeks) drainage system. The harder the surface, the faster the runoff, the higher the flooding in our streets and streams. Also, the more polluted the water. And the uglier and hotter the city.

In recent years, experts have shown that nature-based drainage and detention systems are cheaper to build and maintain as well as more effective in reducing flood risk than pipes and dams, for instance. (See also here.) There are also more benefits, because you end up with trees and native plants, bees, birds, and butterflies, stuff that actually increases the attractiveness and value of property (and our environment).

In addition, there is increasing awareness that it is more practical and effective to manage flooding in place, to stop raindrops where they fall.  As a 2018 study of urban flooding reported, “[m]any cities and towns across the United States are giving considerable attention to plans that support the capture of rain in areas where it falls.” (p. 32)

The American Society of Landscape Architects recommends that every city have a green infrastructure plan, defining urban green infrastructure as “everything from parks to street trees and green roofs to bioswales — really anything that helps absorb, delay, and treat stormwater, mitigating flooding and pollution downstream.”

Nature and Nature-Based Infrastructure is Part of the Resiliency Plan

The City’s Resilient Houston Plan contains our “green infrastructure plan” and more. Creating incentives for green development is part of that resiliency plan.  (p. 36)

Also part of the Resilient Houston Plan is conserving land within the city limits as part of a goal of “increasing the area of the preserved or conserved land in the eight-county Gulf Houston region to 24% by 2040.” (p. 153)

Discouraging development in “sensitive upstream areas,” protecting and restoring prairies and wetlands are also goals of the plan. (p. 151) City boundaries do not extend into the “sensitive upstream areas” beyond the Addicks and Barker federal flood control reservoirs on Buffalo Bayou, for example, although those areas are part of the City’s Extra Territorial Jurisdiction. The  Memorial Villages, which are in the Buffalo Bayou watershed, also are not part of the City. The plan is to work with “regional partners” on resiliency goals.

The initiative to create a tax rebate for green stormwater infrastructure received widespread support. But during review of the legislation over the past year or so, there were also comments, including from a prominent engineering firm, asking why taxpayers should pay for something that essentially costs developers less to install and maintain than conventional grey stormwater infrastructure, works better, and improves the value of their property.

The tax credit is available only to new structures in greenfields (undeveloped land) or redevelopment in brownfields (land polluted by toxic waste) in a tax increment reinvestment zone (TIRZ). The structure must be larger than a building with four residential units, valued at $3 million or more, with at least $200,000 invested in the green stormwater infrastructure.

The credit lasts for ten years and may not exceed the total cost of the green infrastructure. (For details see Ch. 44 here.)

What Some Other Cities and States Are Doing: A Short, Incomplete List

So basically green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is anything with soil and greenery or a container, or maybe just gravel, even permeable pavement, and, of course, trees, that can divert, absorb, disperse, hold, slow down, and filter rain runoff.  “Daylighting” streams (streams, creeks, etc. that have been buried in concrete pipes) would also be considered green, as are open ditches. We have many creeks and ravines that have been filled in (and built on, flooding as a result). Houston was never so completely flat as advertised.

The City of Houston does provide some small financial incentives to the little people for green infrastructure.  As noted above, the City’s Drainage Fee is based on the amount of impervious surface on your land. That means rooftops, driveways, patios, etc. So reducing the amount of impervious surface on your property reduces your drainage fee.

Here is what some other cities and states are doing or suggesting to make themselves more like “sponge cities”:

Atlanta, Georgia

Austin

Chicago and Illinois

Kansas City, Missouri

Fort Worth

Minnesota and here, too

Nebraska

New York City

North Brook, Illinois

Pacific Grove, California

Palo Alto, California

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Portland, Oregon

Toronto

Vermont

Wuhan, also Shanghai and other cities

We Can Do This At Home!

Some resources for understanding and using green infrastructure to help Houston reduce flooding:

City of Houston Infrastructure Design Manual, Stormwater Design, Ch. 9, 2020

Environmental Protection Agency: Green Infrastructure

Environmental Protection Agency: Soak Up the Rain

Environmental Protection Agency video: Reduce Runoff: Slow It Down, Spread It Out, Soak It In

Rain Gardens, Harris County Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service

See also:

Tending Our Garden, Tips and Resources

The Top 14 Super Trees for Houston from the Port Houston and Houston Wilderness Tree Planting Program

Three case studies from the Houston, Texas, area where green infrastructure is already in use. From Texas Community Watershed Partners.

SC