VOLUME 10 • NUMBER 2 • SPRING 2013 Protecting Our Green Heritage CENTER FOR PUBLIC HISTORY Dirt y Habits Changes bring hile doing research for my dis- into the city’s Wsertation last century, I stum- bayous and Houston bled across a report on oil pollution sewers to make of coastal waters in the United States the HSC “one HISTORY published in 1923. I was surprised to see of the worst Houston, Galveston, and Port Arthur oil polluted into the future mentioned prominently among the localities in the most polluted waterways in the nation. nation.” Down Oil-led development on Sabine Lake the ship channel, Galveston’s beaches Beginning with the next issue, near Port Arthur had been underway were a mess. Oil discarded from Houston History will produce a digital for about twenty years at the time; the producing wells into nearby streams issue in the summer followed by two Houston Ship Channel (HSC) had been found its way down the Brazos River print issues in the fall and spring. opened for less than a decade. and out into the Gulf, where the cur- According to the report, oil entered rent often took it up to Galveston to Subscribers will enjoy added content the region’s waters from every direc- join the tourists. Hotels placed cans in the digital issue that is not available tion. Under appalling—but accept- of gasoline on the beach so that their in the printed magazine, including ed—business practices, many tankers guests could clean up after swimming videos, audio of interviews, and coming into Galveston harbor and the in the ocean. bay simply dumped oil-contaminated Looking back at our history, these additional photos. ballast out at sea, where it rode the practices are hardly surprising. The You will access the Summer digital waves onto the shore. Bad equip- region was booming, and there was ment and sloppy procedures in the little time to waste on strengthening edition Aug. 1 through our website at transshipment of oil from re neries local regulations, which one critic www.houstonhistorymagazine.org to tankers put much more oil on the called “tri ing matters to harass using the password: subscriber. water. Indeed, one re nery in Port companies which had invested Arthur found it pro table to employ millions on plants along the water- Thank you for your continued support “crews of men and equipment for way.” Around the nation, not just in of Houston History. skimming the surface of the har- Houston, pollution was still viewed as – Joe Pratt, Editor in Chief bor waters” and returning oil to the an “externality” separate from eco- re nery. But “they appear to be doing nomic considerations. At the time, the little more than holding their own.…” federal government lacked effective In the ninety years since the 1923 The regular operations of the grow- powers to address the problem, and report, much has changed. Strong envi- ing re neries along the HSC left large state and local agencies had limited ronmental laws are in place at all levels amounts of crude oil on the ground, resources and authority. Oil was, after of government; public attitudes toward waiting for the region’s hard rains all, the engine of growth in the region, pollution are dramatically different; in- to wash it into the channel. There and jobs trumped pollution control. dustry has put in place cleaner operating it joined oil-contaminated cooling Houston—the city of opportunity— procedures, at times to respond to new water and used crank case oil dumped was too busy to clean up. regulations and at times to limit waste. Yet in a region that grows and grows, pollution control remains a dif cult is- Beginning with this issue, we will be listing those who have generously sue. Our air and water continue to bear the burden of emissions from our giant donated to the Houston History Project and Houston History magazine re neries and petrochemical plants and in support of our ongoing mission to keep the city’s history alive. We our regional “mass transit system” of greatly appreciate the support of the following people and foundations sprawling freeways packed with gasoline- that made contributions October through January. powered vehicles-often carrying a single passenger. These drivers, more than Dr. Wiley and Gloria Biles Richard Moynihan with matching re neries and tankers, have become the symbol of the Houston area’s race to bal- gift from ExxonMobil Foundation Carter Bliss ance economic growth with improved en- Minnette Boesel Miki Lusk Norton vironmental quality. The race is still on, Joe Desola J. B. Potter and slowly we are gaining ground. But we have a long way to go to make up for Cathy and Casey Grant The Samuels Foundation decades of environmental neglect as our Terry Tarlton Hershey Jack Sheridan city grew into the Oil and Gas Capital of Beverly M. Manne Bill Speary the World—and its oil pollution capital as well. Table of Contents FEATURES Houston’s Environmental V O L U M E 10 • N U M B E R 2 • S P R I N G 2 013 Legacy: Terry Hershey, 2 Community, and Action Protecting Our By Teresa Tomkins-Walsh Green Heritage Galveston Bay: A EDITORIAL STAFF Brief History of One of Joseph A. Pratt, Editor America’s Great Waters Debbie Z. Harwell, Managing Editor 8 By Courtney Smith Aimee L. Bachari, Associate Editor Natalie Garza, Oral History Director Ann Lynd, Social Networking Coordinator Marsha Van Horn, Art Director Houston’s Own Historical ADVISORY BOARD Forested Wetlands: The Susan Bischoff Fred Korge 14 Spring Creek Greenway Betty Trapp Chapman Martin Melosi By Jennifer Lorenz Barbara Eaves Yolanda Black Navarro Steven Fenberg Jim Saye Oscar Gutiérrez Anne Sloan TEJAS: Environmental William Kellar Justice Texas Style A Conversation with EDITORIAL POLICY 19 Juan Parras and Houston History is published three times a year Natalie Garza by the Center for Public History in the History Department at the University of Houston. We wel- come manuscripts, interviews, and photographic DEPARTMENTS essays on the history and culture of the Houston region, broadly defi ned, as well as ideas for topi- Eclectic Houstonians cal issues. All correspondence should be sent to Frontier Texas Sculptor Houston History, University of Houston, Center 24 Remembered through His for Public History, 337 McElhinney Hall, Houston, Houston Monuments TX 77204-3007 (713-743-3123), or emailed to: By Susan Teich [email protected]. Culture Subscriptions are $10 per year for students, The Romance of Absolute $15 per year for individuals, and $25 per year Truth: Henry McArdle, James for institutions. Single issues and back issues DeShields, and the Meaning are available. For additional information, visit 30 of Texas History www.houstonhistorymagazine.org. By James E. Crisp © 2013 by the Center for Public History. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this issue or any Preservation portion of it is expressly prohibited without written Sam Houston Park: permission of the publisher. The Center for Public Houston History History disclaims responsibility for statements of 36 through the Ages fact and opinions of contributors. By Wallace W. Saage Houston History thanks the University News Updates & Books of Houston Alumni Association for its By Barbara Eaves partnership in creating the commemorative 40 issue celebrating the University’s eighty- fth anniversary. To join UHAA, visit Cover Photo: Duckweed fl oats on a still portion of Cypress Creek in Harris www.houstonalumni.com. County within the Cypress Creek Greeway. Photo by Jennifer Lorenz, Bayou Land Conservancy. HOUSTON HISTORY Vol. 10 • No.2 1 “Things come and go and sometimes they go away entirely and sometimes somebody resurrects them.” –Terry Hershey Houston’s Environmental Legacy: Terry Hershey, Community, and Action By Teresa Tomkins-Walsh 2 HOUSTON HISTORY Vol. 10 • No.2 ouston has a rich environmental past. From Joseph protection and con- HHeiser’s Outdoor Nature Club and the garden clubs servation of the Little in the early twentieth century to Sarah Emmott’s Texas Thicket Sanctuary in Beaches Unlimited in the 1950s and Terry Hershey’s Save the Big Thicket and Buffalo Bayou Campaign in the mid-1960s, these groups the Vingtune Islands in laid the foundations for a strong environmental community. Trinity Bay. According Throughout, Houston activists fashioned a legacy of conser- to Hershey, Joseph vation, preservation, and environmental action in Houston Heiser was Houston’s that continues today. John Muir. He had More than forty years ago, Terry Tarlton Hershey campaigned to preserve became the most visible representative of environmental ac- holly along Buffalo tion in Houston as she fought to preserve the natural beauty Bayou during the 1920s of Buffalo Bayou west of Shepherd Drive. She continues as and actively promoted a magna mater in the environmental community, but her the natural assets of the campaign to save Buffalo Bayou drew in part from a coterie Houston Gulf Coast of Houstonians committed to wilderness recreation and ur- region. Both Houston ban beautifi cation, organized in the wake of the First World Garden Club and River War. Eventually, through Terry Hershey’s collaborative ef- Oaks Garden Club had forts and infl uence, an environmental community emerged been involved since Joseph Heiser as a young man, circa to address the full spectrum of environmental issues. the 1920s in wilderness 1920s. Terry Tarlton moved from Fort Worth to Houston in the recreation and urban 1950s to marry Jake Hershey. The couple spent the better beautifi cation and had supported Heiser’s programs for the part of ten years sailing international seas in yachting com- Outdoor Nature Club.2 petitions. When Terry was in Houston, she joined in activi- Because Hershey was a relative newcomer to Houston ties sponsored by the Junior League and garden clubs, but it and had spent only sporadic intervals in town during her was 1966 when, by chance, she discovered her avocation.