Rivers and Reservoirs

Outline of what this section will cover, equivalent to 1 to 2 chapters in a book. Content will be posted as funding becomes available. If you have photos, film/videos, or insight or tips for this section, please contact us.

Bottomland forests are incredible and precious bastions of diversity and fertility. Ned understood that the huge money and power of the large-scale construction lobby had more to do with reservoir building than legitimate needs of water-guzzling and wasting urban areas.

Abetting this was the Texas State Water Plan skewed toward reservoir building. Advance notice of the water plan Ned fought them by challenging the plan and dissecting arguments used to justify reservoirs. He rallied the effective use of conservation easements on land, including use of easements held by US Fish & Wildlife Service’s Bottomland Hardwood Preservation Program.

Some challenges Ned won, with a few riparian lands ultimately becoming fully protected. A major lawsuit against U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) didn’t prevent a reservoir, but did lead to the creation of 25,000-acre wildlife area in the Sulphur River basin. Yet the Sulphur River is under siege again further upstream with the proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir, set to destroy 66,000 acres of prime bottomland wildlife habitat and force thousands of Texans to sell their family lands.

His passion for saving bottomlands imparted a unique and powerful focus to TCONR, leading to successes such as the establishment of Neches River National Wildlife Refuge and struggle such as the ongoing fight against Marvin Nichols.

The story of Ned’s lifelong relationship with the Trinity River is told in Trinity River and Dallas (tab: North Texas).