Trinity River
This section underwritten by Trinity Coalition. “opening doors to the Upper Trinity River and its surrounding parks and natural ecosystems”
First segments, followed by an outline of what this section will cover, the equivalent to 2 to 3 chapters in a book. If you have photos, film/videos, or insight or tips for this section, please contact us.
The Trinity: River of Dreams & Schemes
There was Ned alone. He’d paid his way to Washington, DC to speak up for the Trinity River. He could see boosters of the Trinity barge canal in their sharp suits and slick hair practically slapping each other on the back. They’d secured many millions in federal funding for the project to straighten and channelize the Trinity from Fort Worth to the Gulf of Mexico and tame the wild river with dozens of locks and dams—all so DFW could call itself an inland port more than 300 miles from the sea. These appropriation committee hearings were a mere formality.
The early 1970s had been busy for Ned. He was in the final throes of nailing down legislation to create the Big Thicket National Preserve https://www.nps.gov/bith/index.htm/, a significant focus for him since the mid-’60s. In 1970, he started the Texas and Dallas Leagues of Conservation Voters and Dallas County’s Save Open Space. The following year he wrapped up the multi-year Texas Natural Areas Survey, which listed, evaluated, and categorized wild lands in the state to encourage their preservation, and received the Conservation Award from National American Motors.
But to these back-slapping business boosters, he was an eccentric fool with unruly red hair who refused to mow his lawn, taking the city to court in 1970 to defend his right to a native-plant yard. He won, of course, just as he’d been winning most of his legal fights, environmental and otherwise, since the ’50s. Underestimating Ned was their first mistake.
Ned hadn’t yet had time to immerse himself in the ecological and economic issues of the Trinity barge canal. Instead, he spoke of what the canal would destroy, the wading birds and wildlife along its banks, shaded by immense pecan and bur oak trees adorned with songbirds. He’d seen it countless times in Dallas County during his and Genie’s canoe trips on the Trinity as they passed through deep woods that would someday be known as the Great Trinity Forest.
As the river coursed southward, said Ned, DFW’s urban pollutants abated. It became full of fish which attracted even more birds and fed immense snapping turtles. He spoke of white sandbars in the river bends where one could fish for hours and lazy oxbows where five-foot-long alligator gar spawned in spring floods.
The Trinity caresses the western edge of his beloved Big Thicket’s cypress woods where bobbing flotillas of waterfowl lived in the warm waters all year. The river triumphantly exits into Trinity Bay, forming one of the nation’s largest estuaries, a rich breeding ground for aquatic life upon which commercial fishermen depended.
All of this, an entire river, destroyed, he decried, so a small cadre of North Texas businesses could escape paying high railroad shipping fees, their billion-dollar scheme underwritten by American taxpayers. “Environmental whack job,” snickered the businessmen.
Then Ned returned to Dallas and got to work saving his river.
~ Future segments in this section ~
The Forks of the Trinity: A River of Drought & Deluge (in layout)
Snags and Sinews: Navigating the Trinity (in writing process)
The ‘50s Texas Water Plan Reborn
Smelled More Than Seen: The Polluted Trinity
Dallas’ 1908 Flood & Taming (Sort of) the Trinity
<> Trinity River Barge Canal: The Plan to Destroy a River <>
DFW’s Generational Oligarchy & River Politics
Trinity River Barge Canal: The Plan
Exit River and Rail, Enter the Airplane
High Bridges & Higher Hopes
Trinity River Barge Canal: The Plan
Exit River and Rail, Enter the Airplane
High Bridges & Higher Hopes
<> Trinity River Barge Canal: Opposition Arises <>
Ned & Defending the Great Trinity Forest
The Rising Environmental Matrix
Federal Calvary: The Clean Water & Environmental Policy Acts
A Seismic Shift: Alan Steelman’s Vision for Dallas
See it Up Close: Ned & Genie Canoe Conversions
Deer, Dove, and Pasture: Rural East Texas & the River
<> Trinity River Barge Canal: David vs Goliath <>
COST: Fiscal Conservatives, Environmentalists, & More
Spending 100 to 1: Canal Proponents’ Hired Guns
COST vs the Canal Kings: Questioning the Economics
COST vs the Canal Kings: Questioning the Ecology
Southern Factor: The Wallisville Dam
Tennessee Colony Reservoir: A Sure Thing Sours
<> Trinity River Barge Canal: An Epic Fight Ensues <>
COST Puts on the Gloves
Jaw Hit: Canal Hearings as Free Speech
Nose Jab: The Accidental Election
Upper Cut: Steelman Election as Referendum
Counter-Punch: Suppressing the Studies
Big Jaw Slug: KERA Enters the Fray
Gut Punch: The Wallisville Decision
Knockout: The Vote
<> The Trinity Blooms Again: Texas Buckeyes <>
Tree dedication: Texas Buckeye
Texas Buckeyes: Ned Saving the Forest Through Spring Walks
Bonton Floods: Drowning a Disadvantaged Community
Ned & Genie Fritz Texas Buckeye Trail: Honoring a Legacy
The Privet Problem: Naturalists Restoring the Trail
Bonton/Ideal Reclaims the Neighborhood Woods
<> Perils for the Trinity <>
The Canal Plot Rises Again: Round #2 in Washington
Ned, Trammell Crow Sr, and Town Lake
Dallas Floodway Extension: Pushing the Problem Downstream
Ned’s Solution: Nonstructural Green Stormwater Management
A Look Back: Texas Legacy Project & Living With The Trinity
Trinity Tollroad: Freeway in a Floodplain
Trinity Tollroad: Ned’s Crucial Contributions
The Destruction of McCommas Bluff
Paved Trails in the Bottomlands
Return of the Floodway Extension: More Levees, Less Forest
<> Potential of the Trinity <>
A River Reborn: North Texas Re-Discovers the Trinity
Ned’s Vision for Urban Nature: State Parks on the River
A Trinity Greenbelt Begins to Form: Dallas County Open Space Preserves
Anchoring Trinity Tourism: Trinity River Paddling Trail
Future of the Trinity: A Panel Speaks
