The Big Thicket National Preserve
Written: May 06 '00 (Updated Jan 24 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: One of a kind environmental jewel
Cons: Hot and very very humid in the summer
The Bottom Line: The Big Thicket is one of those magic places where several
diverse environmental zones overlap
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| Howard_Creech's Full Review: Big Thicket National Preserve |
The Big Thicket once covered more than three million acres of East Texas, today less than a tenth of that remains, and of that 300,000 acres, only about 90,000 are protected in the Big Thicket National Preserve. Three distinct climate zones meet and overlap in harmony in the piney woods of East Texas. Oaks, Hickories, Maples, and other northern forest trees grow beside beavertail cactus from the desert and palmetto from the tropics. Alligators cruise black water bayous, while coyotes from the desert, and white tail deer from the northern oak-hickory forests go about the business of finding enough to eat, taking care of their young, and surviving the rigors of survival in ever shrinking pockets of wilderness.
More than 100 varieties of treelife call the Big Thicket home, over 300 different species of birdlife live or migrate through the area, fifty species of reptile crawl, slither, and swim through the thicket, twenty types of wild orchid grow here, with azaleas, dogwood, redbud, magnolia, almost 1,000 species of flowering plants, and four different types of carnivorous plant. Biologists refer to the Big Thicket as an area of critical speciation, meaning that the overlapping climactic zones, soil, water, and proximity of different species encourages environmental change, in other words a natural laboratory for adaptation and evolution.
The timber industry, interestingly enough, was both the major destroyer of the Big Thicket and unwillingly it's savior. Beginning in the last quarter of the nineteenth century loggers cut timber in the thicket, building towns, roads, railroads, and sawmills to harvest it's bounty. For almost sixty years the thicket was attacked from every side, until by the mid 1920's most of it was gone. The remaining parcels of timber were owned by the timber companies, but with the coming of the great depression in 1929, the timber industry fell on hard economic times. Uncle Sam stepped in and bought many of these parcels to keep the timber companies from going belly up. After the great depression was over the timber companies were very upset to learn that the federal government was unwilling to sell the scattered parcels of land. The U. S. government held the land until the great environmental uproars of the early seventies. The Big Thicket National Preserve was born, scattered remnants of the once mighty forest were protected and saved for future generations.
The Big Thicket is easily reached from anywhere in East Texas or Southwest Louisiana. A quick listing of some of the areas follows: The Turkey Creek Unit consists of the Kirby Nature Trail, the Turkey Creek Trail, and the Pitcher Plant trail. The Hickory Creek Savannah Unit is home to the Sundew Trail (one of the carnivorous plants the preserve is famous for) There is a fully handicapped accessible trail here. The Big Sandy Creek Unit consists of the Beaver Slide Trail (1.5 mile trail winds around a series of beaver created ponds), the Woodlands Trail (with trails running from 3.3 miles to 5.4 miles through a variety of terrains, and the Big Sandy Creek Horse Trail. The Beech Creek Unit. The one mile trail ends in a beautiful stand of old growth beech and magnolia.
If you go contact the Superintendent, Big Thicket National Preserve, 3785 Milam St., Beaumont, TX 77701 (409) 246-2337 for maps and information about hours and fees. Many of the units are located in remote areas, so restaurants and motels are scarce (but plentiful in the nearby "golden triangle" area). Wear sensible shoes, carry water, and be on watch for snakes, ticks, etc.
This is a very fragile area, so be careful to disturb nothing...like the Sierra Club says, "Take only photographs, and leave only footprints"
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Howard_Creech
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Member: Howard Creech
Location: Louisville, KY
Reviews written: 333
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Photographer/Writer fascinated by Movies, Music, Books, American Diner Food, History, "Popular Culture", and Travel.
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