Don Greene, Defender of Buffalo Bayou, Has Died

Don Greene on the water.

Don Greene on the water, c. 2001.

Aug. 21, 2014

Don Greene has taken his last trip.

Don, beloved and admired by many, was an ardent defender of Buffalo Bayou for more than forty years. He knew its history, geology, and ecology. He was one of Houston’s most dedicated conservationists. Much of what you read here on this website was influenced by Don Greene.

Update Aug. 26, 2014: Read remembrances from Don Greene’s friends in a tribute compiled by Lisa Gray and published today in Gray Matters in the Houston Chronicle.

Don, founder of Whitewater Experience in 1975, educated several generations of people about our bayous and rivers, here in Houston and across Texas and New Mexico and into Mexico.

Just a couple of months ago Don explained the bayou to Channel 13 reporter Ted Oberg in Oberg’s report on the project to bulldoze Buffalo Bayou. You can watch Don on the water with Oberg here.

Here is Don’s obituary in the Houston Chronicle. And watch this slideshow of Don doing what he loved best.

  • Don Greene on the Rio Grande in Big Bend, c. 1976.
  • On the Guadalupe with his Yorkie, Shadow, and friend Cliff Wood, c. 1976.
  • On the road, 1978.
  • Handling the oars in the Grand Canyon, 1981.
  • Don Greene on Buffalo Bayou, c. 2001.
  • On Buffalo Bayou rapids passing Memorial Park in Houston, near the railroad bridge, 2007.
  • Safety instructions before a bayou float trip, British School of Houston, 2007.
  • Don Greene, always safety equipped, right, with fellow bayou activist Frank Salzhandler, on the landscaped banks of Buffalo Bayou in downtown Houston, 2008.

Ted Oberg Investigates Project to Destroy Buffalo Bayou: Stubborn Old Cliffs Taking Too Long to Erode

June 25, 2014

Harris County Flood Control District Director Mike Talbott Says He Could “Sleep Just Fine” If Project Doesn’t Go Ahead.

A pretty good report from Channel 13 investigative reporter Ted Oberg that aired yesterday. HCFCD Director Mike Talbott is quoted as saying that those magnificent thousand-year-old cliffs on the bayou are a “scientific sign that the bayou is trying to change course.”

Since those cliffs haven’t changed much in over a century, apparently the bayou is taking way too long to change course and the county is going to speed things up by bulldozing the cliffs, digging new channels in the bayou, and ripping up all those trees that keep falling in the water and “clogging it up.”

Talbott is also quoted as saying the bayou is trying to change course by “eroding the land at the water’s edge” at the bottom of the cliffs while the tv shows what looks like a lot of sand deposited on the bank at the bottom of the cliff. That would be sand from upstream, where most of the sediment comes from (according to the HCFCD’s permit application to the Army Corps of Engineers).

But watch for yourself and decide. And thanks, Ted Oberg, for paying attention.

(Sorry, below is a screenshot of the stubborn bluff from the television report. You can’t punch the arrow to make it move.)

Thousands-year-old cliff taking way too long to erode away. County will bulldoze it instead.

Thousands-year-old cliff taking way too long to erode away. County will bulldoze it instead.