May 14, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Houston Parks Board has begun scraping vegetation, cutting native willow and cottonwood trees, and bulldozing the north bank of Buffalo Bayou upstream of Shepherd Drive. The plan, according to an announcement, is to widen the bank to its \u201cpre-Harvey\u201d condition and install concrete riprap and sheet pile walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cslope repair\u201d work is part of a four-phase Parks Board project on the bayou bank from Shepherd to the Memorial Park golf course, according to the City building permit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The area, though partly landscaped, is one of the few stretches of \u201cliving\u201d bank in the highly urbanized bayou, home to families of threatened alligator snapping turtles, beavers, alligators, and more. Hardening the bank with concrete and metal destroys wildlife habitat as well as the bank\u2019s natural ability to cleanse and absorb polluted stormwater and sediment. Bank hardening increases erosion and flooding up and down the stream, displacing flow onto other property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Because of these negative impacts, the project violates the City\u2019s Floodplain Management Plan (p.6),<\/a> which requires the protection of the \u201cnatural and beneficial function\u201d of our floodway and floodplains, and thus has the potential to reduce the City of Houston\u2019s Community Rating from the Federal Emergency Management Agency<\/a> (see also here<\/a>), potentially raising the cost of flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, the City\u2019s Floodplain Management Office issued the project a floodplain development permit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The increasing number of bank hardening projects downstream<\/a> and upstream (here<\/a> and here<\/a>) threatens the life and health of our ancient river, the city’s main waterway,<\/a> as well as the people who live near it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where is the Greenway?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Parks Board\u2019s April 30 press release<\/a> stated that while the project \u201cpreserves the potential for a future Bayou Greenways 2020 trail,\u201d the Board \u201cat this time\u201d is \u201cnot constructing a greenway or hike-and-bike trail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bayou Greenways 2020<\/a> is the Parks Board\u2019s signature project: the installation of 150 miles of wide concrete sidewalks along our mostly mowed, treeless, channelized and concreted bayous. The project has provided Houstonians with much needed areas to bike, jog, and walk, connecting bayous, parks, and neighborhoods. We do wish that more native trees and vegetation would be planted on these shadeless, lifeless bayous. The City\u2019s Natural Resources Management Program,<\/a> a part of the Parks and Recreation Department, does have projects to restore prairies and the riparian areas of some bayous in city parks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, destroying the natural greenery of a bayou in order to create a \u201cgreenway\u201d seems counter-productive, to put it mildly. Biodiversity loss<\/a> is a profound issue worldwide, in urban areas in particular<\/a>, considered a threat to human health<\/a> and survival, a factor in epidemics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the Parks Board\u2019s announcement says that the \u201cstable\u201d bank will be \u201cplanted to match the adjacent landscape,\u201d whatever that means, concrete riprap and metal walls destroy the natural, beneficial functions of the bank and stream. These functions include naturally adjusting and stabilizing itself. In the last three years since Harvey, the bank has done that with deep-rooted plants, native trees and a wall of sturdy cane, now being ripped out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Board\u2019s plan to extend the bank and harden it is clearly an attempt to support a wide concrete sidewalk on the bayou\u2019s edge, always a foolish idea<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Safe Route Needed for Hikers, Bikers, Joggers<\/strong>. Access to the Bayou is Good.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Beth White, president of the Parks Board, did not immediately respond to questions about the route of the future \u201ctrail\u201d that would connect joggers, hikers, and bikers headed to and from Memorial Park from Buffalo Bayou Park below Shepherd. Certainly a safe path is needed. The sidewalk along Memorial Drive west of Shepherd is narrow, broken, and dangerous. However, along the bayou, the land is narrow, wooded, and other than Memorial Park and the Hogg Bird Sanctuary, mostly private.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recently the Memorial Park Conservancy, the private foundation managing the public park, closed public access to the popular but unofficial trails through the bayou woods on the southeastern side of the park, citing vague safety issues.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Streets for the People<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n White also did not respond to an invitation to consider less costly and destructive solutions to the trail connection problem. These could include a simple crushed granite path along the existing natural bank, perhaps for pedestrian use only, as heavy bike traffic could be destabilizing. And\/or perhaps dedicating a portion of the six-lane Memorial Drive to hikers and bikers. Cities all over the world and the US are setting aside streets for hikers and bikers,<\/a> particularly in response to the increased pressure to be outside<\/a>\u2014and in nature–resulting from the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once an Urban Wonderland<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The current project is under construction on land behind the Left Bank apartments at 5353 Memorial Drive. The Parks Board around 2018-2019 apparently purchased some 28,000 square feet of bayou frontage behind the apartment complex now valued at around $1.5 million, according to the Harris County Appraisal District. Note that that was after<\/em> Hurricane Harvey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Willows-cane-vines-lk-us.jpg\")
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