The Big Thicket National Preserve

In 1974 the Big Thicket National Preserve was created to protect and preserve a portion of the Big Thicket area. It was America's first national preserve and was placed under the administration of the National Parks Service, a division of the US Department of the Interior. The Congressional action creating the Preserve set aside approximately 85,000 acres of land and water units.

In 1981 the Big Thicket National Preserve was designated as a "Man in the Biosphere Reserve" by the United Nations. In 2001 the American Bird Conservancy recognized the Preserve as a "Globally Important Bird Area ".

The land area making up the Preserve is not consolidated, but scattered into various units over seven counties in Deep East Texas. In an effort to begin consolidating and linking the various units of the Preserve and afford protection for areas not included in the original legislation, Congress passed the Big Thicket Addition Act in 1993. This Act authorized the addition of roughly 10,000 acres to the original Big Thicket National Preserve but appropriated no money for acquisition of the privately held lands. It was hoped that the desired lands could be acquired by trading federal lands for the privately owned lands. After a number of years it became apparent that this transaction would not take place.

Recognizing the need to fund the acquisitions, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Congressman Jim Turner introduced legislation in 2002 to set aside five million dollars to purchase a portion of the lands covered under the Addition Act. The final dollar amount approved by a House-Senate Conference Committee was $3 million.

During this same time period, Louisiana-Pacific and International Paper announced they would be selling nearly 1,000,000 acres of forest lands in East Texas. These lands and the manner in which the two companies had cared for them had always provided an environmentally friendly buffer to the Preserve. This buffer protected the Preserve lands from encroachment and adjacent development. The announced sale concerned a number of individuals and organizations who are watchful of events regarding the Big Thicket National Preserve. Led by the Big Thicket Association www.btatx.org other conservation groups have sounded the alarm for the rapid acquisition of critical properties to protect and expand the Preserve. The Conservation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, The National Parks Conservation Association, Texas Committee on Natural Resources, Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, are just a few of the statewide and national organizations concerned that if acquisitions of these critical properties are delayed, the Preserve may incur irreparable damage.

An active market to purchase the LP and IP lands exists and several sales have already taken place. These are not small acreage purchases. Some number in the thousands of acres. Only a rapid concerted effort to fund and acquire the necessary properties to be added to the Big Thicket National Preserve will preserve the valuable ecosystems.

The Angelina & Neches River Authority is confident that the $5,000,000 it is proposing (see ANRA media release of March 23) to purchase Big Thicket property, as part of it’s mitigation plan for the Columbia project, will allow many of the ecologically important portions of the necessary property to be purchased. The process cannot begin until the River Authority receives a 404 permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers. Once the permit is issued, the Authority can sell bonds to fund the Columbia Water Supply Reservoir project www.lakeColumbia.org and the necessary mitigation including Big Thicket purchases.

The Corps of Engineers will seek public comment in the near future on ANRA’s 404 permit application.