By Brandt Mannchen
Recently, I was invited by Kirk Farris, who founded and pilots a group called
Art and Environmental Architecture”, to take a boat trip and see the changes that are occurring due to commercial development, highway expansion, and the construction of hike/bike trails along Buffalo Bayou.
Kirk is a long-time friend that I first met at Sam Houston State University in the early 1970’s. He’s noted for rehabilitating the historic McKee Street Bridge and buying and saving the original site of “Frost Town”, possibly the first suburban development in Houston, Texas, which dates to 1836 and 1837.
Harris County is in the midst of a James Bute Park Master Plan process for the “Frost Town” site. Kirk owns the “Frost Town” site on Buffalo Bayou and would like to sell the property to Harris County to continue its legacy as a historic park and native natural revegetated landscape.
But I digress. Kirk, Ed, and David, were the other people who were on the boat. David ably maneuvered the small pontoon boat from the very low-tech boat dock at James Bute Park, first to Allen’s Landing in Downtown Houston, and then to the beginning of the industrial part of Buffalo Bayou, known as the Houston Ship Channel.
It was a great day, sunny with mid-60’s temperatures. However, there was a chilly wind that swept the Bayou that kept us on the cool side during our 3-hour trip. Relics of past industrial and other development are seen along the Bayou via abandoned boat docks, drainage facilities, and concrete structures. Many highways, streets, and railroad tracks cross Buffalo Bayou and add to the high sound level near these facilities.
We talked about the proposal to make a channel cut for White Oak Bayou to flow into Buffalo Bayou and avoid some bends in Buffalo Bayou and the environmental changes this would create.
It seemed to us that this was like pointing the barrel of a gun right at the McKee Street Bridge and James Bute Park. This could result in heavy erosion and the endangerment or loss of Buffalo Bayou’s banks due to the huge flood flows that White Oak Bayou carries with eroded soil and sediment. Not a good idea! We didn’t see how that proposed project would help maintain a more natural Bayou.
We also saw much residential and recreational development after Downtown and Interstates 45 and 69. It amazed me that the City of Houston and Harris County allow developers to build in the 100-year floodplain. Many apartments and other living spaces were virtually on the banks of Buffalo Bayou. This doesn’t bode well for those who rent and live in these areas when we get the next big flood.
Climate change has virtually guaranteed that large storms like Hurricane Harvey will be repeated over time. The folly of floodplain development hasn’t engendered political courage in the people who are supposed to be our elected leaders. That is sad!
But what about the birds? The trip didn’t start as a birding confab, and I didn’t have my binoculars with me. But soon it became evident that Buffalo Bayou is home to many winged friends who claim this stream as their own.
Perhaps the most majestic birds that we saw were Ospreys, also called “Fish Hawks” because of their love of and constant need to catch fish from streams, rivers, and bays. Several, probably about four, posed for us as we motored slowly by, and one of them had a fish it was eating. These birds were so comfortable on Buffalo Bayou that they allowed us to take their picture as we passed by them.
Turkey and Black Vultures and Red-tailed Hawks soared and circled overhead while Snowy and Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, cormorants (either Neotropic or Double-crested), and Muscovy Ducks hung out near shorelines and on snags which breached the water.
A Belted Kingfisher was seen near the discharge pipe of the City of Houston 69th Street Wastewater Treatment Plant and American Crows and Rock Pigeons flew across the Bayou on a journey that was theirs and not ours to know and complete.
It was good to see that there were a few patches of riparian (streamside) forest on Buffalo Bayou. When you see native trees like American Sycamores, Boxelders, and Black Willows you know you have the foundation for a healthier stream ecosystem. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough of these patches and native trees to help our Bayou become the healthy aquatic ecosystem that’s needed and that I want. We need to do more and better work more quickly!
We also met a boat which was carrying people who fish Buffalo Bayou. You can engage a fishing guide who will take you up and down our “Mother Stream” so that you can catch both freshwater and saltwater fish which mix together all the way to the Shepherd Bridge, where the saltwater wedge is diluted by freshwater. We even saw someone who was fishing and broadcasting his endeavors on “Tik Toc”.
It’s unfortunate though that some people fish Buffalo Bayou and eat that fish they catch when they may be contaminated with water pollutants like heavy metals, petroleum derivatives, and fecal bacteria. We saw several people fishing and using cast nets right at the discharge point for the wastewater plant. Not a good choice.
The trip ended and we all went in different directions to get home. But it was a good trip and reminded me that a tiny bit of “wild” can still be found in the middle of our Nation’s Fourth Largest City. That is truly astounding and we need to improve on this so that our Bayou landscape is the norm and not unusual.
Think about what you’ll do so that this happens. Then do it!