District G extends along Buffalo Bayou from Shepherd Drive to Barker Reservoir<\/a> in far west Houston.<\/p>\n Members of Save Our Forest, which was successful last year in persuading the City of Houston to drop its plan to raze forest<\/a> in Terry Hershey Park for a stormwater detention basin, are urging citizens to \u201cshow your support for the forest to our new City of Houston administration.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe now have a new city council representative, a new mayor and a new [Public Works and Engineering] director since we began our campaign to Save Our Forest,\u201d wrote community activist George Crosby in an email. \u201cIt is important that they know how much you care about Buffalo Bayou.<\/p>\n The banks of Buffalo Bayou in Terry Hershey Park in West Houston. Straightened and channelized by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1940s to speed storm waters, the bayou has since restored itself but remains threatened by public projects to build detention basins.<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cLast year there were two major rainfall events which caused structural flooding in Houston.\u00a0 Regional detention alternatives that can reduce local flooding without having to destroy the forested areas of Buffalo Bayou are not happening. Cooperation between the City, County and Federal governments is required for a successful regional detention initiative.<\/p>\n \u201cA cooperative inter-governmental effort begins with the City of Houston understanding our support for this approach. \u00a0Please help us give emphasis to Save Our Forest,\u201c wrote Crosby.<\/p>\n The public forests of Buffalo Bayou are still threatened by a Harris County Flood Control District plan<\/a> to build some 24 detention basins on both banks of Buffalo Bayou in Terry Hershey Park.<\/p>\n The flood control district is also waiting for a federal permit to raze the forest along more than 1.25 miles of one of the last natural stretches of the bayou<\/a> as it flows past Memorial Park and the Hogg Bird Sanctuary.<\/p>\n It makes no scientific sense<\/a> to destroy forests to create detention basins. Forests provide valuable natural detention <\/a>by slowing, absorbing, and deflecting rainwater, in addition to many other valuable ecological services, including cleansing and filtering the water and protecting against erosion.<\/p>\n In October of 2015, the Obama administration issued an executive order directing all federal agencies to incorporate the value of ecosystem services in their decision-making.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/T.-Hershey-bayou-5.jpg\")
<\/a>Detention Alternatives Without Destroying Forests<\/h5>\n