{"id":733,"date":"2014-08-11T00:38:21","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T05:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?page_id=733"},"modified":"2024-04-23T14:24:09","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T19:24:09","slug":"who-we-are","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?page_id=733","title":{"rendered":"Who We Are"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

This meander in the middle of the stretch that had been targeted for destruction by the flood control district is a natural detention area. Situated at the eastern edge of Memorial Park, it was to be filled and a new bayou channel dug across the point on the south (left) bank. The high cliffs in the bottom of the photo would have been leveled, and the entire area graded and planted with turf grass. An access road for heavy equipment would have been bulldozed through the public forest of the park on the right. Photo by Jim Olive on April 7, 2017<\/p><\/div>\n

Save Buffalo Bayou is a 501c3 nonprofit association. Donations<\/a> to Save Buffalo Bayou are tax deductible.<\/p>\n

Board of Directors<\/strong><\/p>\n

The trustees are Blaine Adams, Bruce Bodson, Susan Chadwick, William Heins, Tom Helm, Olive Hershey, Joe Liggio, and Bill Wilson.<\/p>\n

Frank C. Smith Jr,<\/a> a retired electrical engineer, was the founding president of the board of Save Buffalo Bayou and remained actively engaged until his death at home in Houston on April 6, 2023, at the age of 101. He was a founding member and past president of the Bayou Preservation Association and served on its executive committee for nearly fifty years. He was a founder of the Galveston Bay Foundation and served on its advisory council. He was also a founder and past president of the Armand Bayou Nature Center, a founding board member of the Memorial Park Conservancy, past president of the Texas Nature Conservancy, and past president of the Rice Design Alliance, among other activities. He lived on Buffalo Bayou throughout his adult life.<\/p>\n

Blaine Adams is an investment manager in Houston and trustee with Prometheus Charitable Trust. She has served on the board of the Memorial Park Conservancy and lives on Buffalo Bayou.<\/p>\n

Bruce Bodson is an environmental lawyer, fisheries biologist, river runner, member of the advisory council for Bayou Land Conservancy<\/a>, board member of the Christmas Bay Foundation<\/a>, and president and executive director of Lower Brazos Riverwatch.<\/a> He teaches environmental law and policy, among other things, in the marine resources management program at Texas A&M Galveston.<\/p>\n

Susan Chadwick, a writer and journalist who grew up on Buffalo Bayou, is the president and executive director of Save Buffalo Bayou. She was the art critic for the Houston Post<\/em> from 1985 until it closed in 1995.<\/p>\n

William Heins is a retired senior research geologist. He received his doctorate in geology at UCLA in 1992 and was a Fulbright Scholar at E\u00f6tv\u00f6s Lor\u00e1nd Scientific University in Budapest. He has undergraduate degrees in both geology and economics from the University of Pennsylvania and speaks English, German, Hungarian, and Mandarin Chinese.<\/p>\n

Tom Helm is a geologist, geoscience consultant, naturalist, sailing instructor, and river guide. He lives on White Oak Bayou.<\/p>\n

Olive Hershey, secretary of the board, is a poet, novelist, and environmentalist and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, of the advisory board of Inprint, and of the board of the Jacob and Terese Hershey Foundation. She was a board member and officer of the Sierra Blanca Legal Defense Fund and a board member of Friends of Hermann Park.<\/p>\n

Joe Liggio is an environmental biologist, plant expert, award-winning natural history photographer and writer and author of Wild Orchids of Texas<\/a>, <\/em>among other publications. He has served on the board of the Big Thicket Association<\/a>, Houston Audubon<\/a>, and Bayou City Waterkeeper<\/a>. He was an environmental project manager for the Texas Department of Transportation from 2000 to 2015.<\/p>\n

Bill Wilson joined the board in October 2022 after years of active support. A devoted biker and hiker, Bill is grateful for the natural beauty of the concrete city\u2019s bayous, green spaces, and parks. Now retired, Bill, who has a degree in chemistry, worked around the world in the oilfield service industry, among other jobs, including emergency response and safety consulting.<\/p>\n

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of board member Richard P. Keeton on April 20, 2019. Mr. Keeton was of great help to Save Buffalo Bayou, offering excellent guidance, encouragement, and advice. He was a prominent Houston trial lawyer and until his retirement was of counsel to the international law firm McGuireWoods. He was a graduate of the University of Texas and the UT Law School and had been included in The Best Lawyers in America<\/em> since 1983.<\/p>\n

Advisory Board<\/strong><\/p>\n

Katy Emde, plant conservation coordinator for the Houston Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas<\/a>, member of the Houston Chapter of the Native Prairies Association of Texas<\/a>, former member of the Conservation Committee of the Memorial Park Conservancy, and long-time advocate, living on Buffalo Bayou, for keeping Memorial Park and the Hogg Bird Sanctuary<\/a> natural and native<\/p>\n

Kirk Farris, artist, environmentalist, preservationist, and founder of Art & Environmental Architecture, Inc.<\/a>, a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring an historic area along Buffalo Bayou in downtown Houston<\/p>\n

Mathias Kondolf<\/a>, PhD, fluvial geomorphologist (author of a textbook on the subject<\/a>), earth scientist, environmental engineer, professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning, director of RiverLab<\/a>, University of California, Berkeley<\/p>\n

Evelyn Merz, chair of the conservation committees of the Lone Star (Texas state) Chapter of the Sierra Club<\/a> as well as the Houston Regional Group of the Sierra Club<\/a>, co-founder of the Sims Bayou Coalition, former board member of the Native Prairies Association<\/a>, Texans for State Parks<\/a>, and the Wildlife Diversity Advisory Committee of Texas Parks & Wildlife Department<\/a><\/p>\n

Jim Olive<\/a>, photographer, environmentalist, naturalist, Eagle Scout, founder and executive director of the Christmas Bay Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n

Honorary Advisor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rick Bass<\/a>, author, novelist and short story writer, environmental activist, geologist, native Texan who grew up in Houston<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Save Buffalo Bayou is a 501c3 nonprofit association. Donations to Save Buffalo Bayou are tax deductible. Board of Directors The trustees are Blaine Adams, Bruce Bodson, Susan Chadwick, William Heins, Tom Helm, Olive Hershey, Joe Liggio, and Bill Wilson. Frank C. Smith Jr, a retired electrical engineer, was the founding…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-733","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=733"}],"version-history":[{"count":72,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11768,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/733\/revisions\/11768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}