In this year of the 60th anniversary of the Wilderness Act and the 40th anniversary of the Texas Wilderness Act, this article introduces people to the Upland Island Wilderness Area (UIWA)
Upland Island Wilderness Area is our largest wilderness area in Texas, 13,331 acres. It’s found in Angelina National Forest (ANF) and is the place to go if you like the highs and lows of East Texas, Longleaf Pine Upland forests and Neches River Bottomland Hardwood forests. Roughly, from a topographic (elevation) perspective, you go from 280 feet to 100 feet in about 2.5 miles.
UIWA has deep deposits of sand that were laid down with the acceding and receding Gulf of Mexico and a unique formation of white clay and stone called the Catahoula. It’s this formation that leaves on the high rolling hills and sometimes lower streams a stone bedrock that is unusual to see in East Texas.
Other vegetation seen on Longleaf Pine Uplands include Backjack and Bluejack oaks (scrub oaks), Farkleberry (a blueberry that is a tree), Flowering Dogwood, Little Bluestem, and Bracken Fern. Wildflowers like Slender Blazing Star, Purple Pleat-Leaf, False Dragonhead, and others dot the sandy, rolling, hills at different times of the year.
The high hills provide open and wide vistas in UIWA, which is a part of the locally named “Longleaf Ridge”. About a 2,000-acre portion of UIWA is called High Point because of its vista which includes Catahoula rock and seepage areas with Rose Pogonia Orchid, club moss species, carnivorous plants like Rush Bladderwort, Small Butterwort, and Yellow Pitcher Plant, Hoary Azalea, Ten-Angel Pipewort, Sunnybell, and Sugarcane Plume Grass.
Many creeks flow through UIWA including Falls Creek, Big Creek, Green Creek, Graham Creek, Oil Well Creek, Cypress Creek, and Salt Branch. These all provide a variety of floodplain and wetter habitats in contrast the to dry, rolling, sandy hills. Lower slope vegetation has American Beech, White Oak, Loblolly Pine, American Basswood, Cherrybark Oak, and Southern Magnolia with herbaceous plants like Bloodroot, Purple Meadow Rue, and Great Solomon’s-Seal.
Finally, the Neches River Floodplain produces a jungle-like atmosphere with hardwood-palmetto flats and Willow Oaks, Water Oaks, Overcup Oaks, Shagbark Hickories, and Swamp Chestnut Oaks. Sloughs, swales, and channels are places where you can see Common Persimmon, Dwarf Palmetto, Lizard’s-tail, Sebastian-Bush, Parsley Hawthorn, and Mayhaw.
When you finally come to the Neches River you are greeted by River Birch, Red Maple, Arrow-Wood Viburnum, and swampy sloughs with Bald Cypress. Beaver, River Otter, various watersnakes, and Prothonotary Warbler, Yellow-Billed Cuckoo, and Pileated Woodpeckers inhabit this great Neches Riverwood.
Access is by cross-country hiking only. Hiking in UIWA provides you with all the elevation changes you want, from High Point to Neches River. UIWA provides the highs and lows of East Texas Forests.