On August 23, 2026, the Golden Triangle Sierra Club and the National Park Service (NPS), with help from various other organizations, enjoyed with about 100 other people the film, “The Neches River:  Wild Heart of East Texas”, in Beaumont, Texas at the historic Jefferson Theatre.

The showing of this film and a shorter film about “Big Thicket National Preserve” (BTNP) was in celebration of 110-year anniversary of the NPS.  In 1916, the U.S. Congress passed legislation which created the NPS and the rest, as they say, “is history”!

Many people who spent years or their lifetimes working to create and protect the BTNP were at the film showing including Maxine Johnston, “Godmother of the Big Thicket”, Julie Shackelford, Texas State Director Conservation Fund, Cliff Shackelford, retired Texas Parks and Wildlife Department ornithologist, Adrian Van Dellun, President Neches River Watershed Sentinels and nature photographer, Ellen Buchanan, President Big Thicket Natural Heritage Trust, Ike McWhorter, retired ecologist of the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas, Bruce Walker, Captain of the Ivorybill boat for the Big Thicket Association, and many more.

Folks gathered to enjoy Ellen Temple’s new movie, “The Neches River:  Wild Heart of East Texas” which was released in 2026.  You should be able to see this film on your local PBS station’s archive of shows.  At the end of the film, there was a panel discussion about the need for further protection of the Neches River.

Some of the topics covered by the film include: The Caddo Crossing, Conservation, Neches River National Wildlife Refuge, Paddling the Neches, Hobson Crossing, Rocky Shoals, Rush Creek, Mayhaws, The Botanist, Catfishing, Big Thicket Crawfish, The Neches Bottoms, and Alligator Snapping Turtles, 

Ellen Temple is from Lufkin, Texas and helps run the “Temple Foundation” which was created in 1962.  She has been instrumental in funding many important conservation projects in East Texas.

There were tables set-up where local conservation organizations and the NPS provided educational materials which spoke about environmental protection for our natural resources and the Big Thicket.

It was a great time to enjoy and celebrate what we have in the BTNP and what we still need to protect on the Neches River to ensure that this treasured biological and cultural resource will be “Forever Protected”.