{"id":9663,"date":"2021-03-07T19:52:54","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T01:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=9663"},"modified":"2021-03-07T21:15:59","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T03:15:59","slug":"late-winter-on-the-bayou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=9663","title":{"rendered":"Late Winter on the Bayou"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Plus Houston Stronger Survey, Scenic Houston Panel Discussion About Buffalo Bayou, Flood Planning Vacancies, Resiliency, and More<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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March 7, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our famous photographer Jim Olive<\/a> was back in town, so a few days ago we went out into the woods in the drizzle just after dawn to photograph that bend in the bayou in late winter for our years-long series documenting the same bend through the seasons<\/a>. The backup photographer, fearing that winter would soon be over despite the record freeze, had taken a sunny interim photo<\/a>, which received some criticism from the master. (\u201cToo flat,\u201d he said.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now we were standing in a parking lot off the Picnic Lane\/Loop in Memorial Park in the middle of Houston staring at sawed-up pieces of a big, old oak tree, new wooden fencing reinforced with moss-covered oak limbs, and a pile of sawdust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New wooden fencing in front of wire fencing blocking popular footpath through the bayou woods in Memorial Park. Photo March 2, 2021 by SC<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Apparently it is a priority of the Memorial Park Conservancy to keep people off these lovely trails<\/a>. In addition to a new wooden fence, there was extensive wire fencing winding along the edge of the tangled woods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found a way in, noting the tiny buds of green in the trees. Jim set up his borrowed tripod, and we waited for just the right light in the fog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jim Olive’s photo of that bend in the bayou in late winter. March 2, 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Conservancy Plans to Bulldoze, Smother the Bank<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We couldn\u2019t help but notice a couple of the conservancy\u2019s Keep Out signs someone had tossed down the bank. The photographer\u2019s helper wandered downstream a bit, contemplating the slumped, eroded bank, the colors of the revealed earth, the powerful forces that shaped the irregular mounds and valleys of the downward sloping bank. This was an area damaged by the Harris County Flood Control District<\/a> when it removed the stabilizing woody debris, scraped and mucked around in the channel with an excavator and barge during its \u201cmaintenance\u201d operations after Harvey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studying the slump brought back poignant memories of playing on the wild sandy bank of the bayou as a child in Houston, of being in awe of the force of nature, that early sense of the bayou as a living thing. It was a rare learning experience to have, and a privilege.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These memories were prompted by the sad news that the conservancy is planning to bulldoze and \u201crestore,\u201d smothering and landscaping the public banks of the bayou in the Old Archery Range, a small section of the park west of the 610 Loop off Woodway Drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll have more on that soon. But as a historical note, an earlier, far more enlightened and ecologically sensitive master plan for Memorial Park in 2004<\/a> (the current plan dates from 2014-15<\/a>) said that “the recommended course of action for the Bayou is simply to leave it alone and consider it a symbol of dynamic natural process. The Bayou can serve as a valuable environmental education tool that depicts the change inherent in nature. Possible solutions such as concrete surfacing and decreasing the bank slope would only destroy the habitat value and visual amenity of the bayou and conflict with the ability to observe natural process.\u201d (p. 11)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n