BBP President Anne Olson wrote a letter of support for the destruction project to the Army Corps of Engineers in June 2014 saying that the plan would \u201csignificantly prevent\u201d the bayou from \u201cdepositing silt on Buffalo Bayou\u2019s downtown parks and trails.\u201d She also claimed that the project, known as the Memorial Park Demonstration Project, would demonstrate \u201ca prototype that can be employed by bayou property owners who currently remedy their property erosion by all different types of inappropriate stabilization methods.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact the amount of silt and sediment contributed by the historic nature area targeted for destruction by the Harris County Flood Control District is minimal. But the project itself would likely greatly increase the sediment flowing downstream as a result of dredging the bayou, removing trees and plants, and breaking up the soil structure of the banks.<\/p>\n
Demonstrating Exactly the Wrong Thing to Do<\/strong><\/p>\n Beautiful banner of a night heron drawn by Houston artist Frank Tolbert<\/a> hanging over Buffalo Bayou during the annual Regatta.<\/p><\/div>\n In addition, the project demonstrates to property owners on the bayou exactly the wrong thing to do for erosion control. Property owners have problems with erosion when they remove trees and plants, known as the riparian zone<\/a>, that protect the banks from eroding. Riparian zones<\/a> are necessary for cleansing our water and for wildlife habitat, and virtually every federal and state resource agency has policies and programs protecting riparian zones.<\/p>\n Geologists and river experts on the Save Buffalo Bayou defense team also believe that the flood control project will greatly increase the volume and velocity of water through the engineered channel, threatening vulnerable property downstream, including Buffalo Bayou Park.<\/p>\n The BBP\u2019s Buffalo Bayou Park, which is in part a project of the flood control district <\/a>using \u201cnatural, stable, channel design,\u201d<\/a> is already suffering from erosion and unstable banks as a result of the removal of riparian vegetation and disturbance of the banks. Projects using so-called \u201cnatural channel design\u201d have a high rate of washout and failure.<\/a><\/p>\n Save Buffalo Bayou set out signs all along the bayou beginning at the Woodway not-a-boat-launch in a section of Memorial Park that remains closed to the public for no good reason<\/a>. A stunning twelve-foot high vertical banner of a night heron by Houston artist Frank Tolbert<\/a> hung from the railroad trestle that crosses the park east of the Arboretum.<\/p>\n More signs announced the beginning and end of the nearly 1.5 mile destruction zone, the 10,000-year-old cliffs that will be obliterated and the forest and wildlife habitat that will be destroyed. Private property owners in the destruction area opposed to the project also hung banners and set out signs.<\/p>\n Someone removed our fourteen-foot-wide banner that said \u201cSave Buffalo Bayou Before It\u2019s Too Late\u201d from the Shepherd Drive pedestrian bridge during the day. We hope it was a mistake, and we ask for the return of our banner.<\/p>\n![\"Beautiful](\"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Heron-SBB.jpg\")
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