Big Thicket

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The Big Thicket. Naturalists had been trying to save the unique and delicate Big Thicket ecosystem for decades. By the late ‘60s it was becoming a fight on many levels. The land was increasingly coveted by voracious timber and oil interests. Ned’s activist approach was either greatly admired or greatly not. He suspected the all-powerful timber industry had planted ringers in their midst. Within those trying to save the Thicket, disagreements abounded on the Big Thicket borders, what could be saved, and how it should be done.

But Ned certainly did bring the goal into focus of passing national legislation to preserve the Thicket. Geraldine Watson said “Without Ned Fritz, we would have never got the bills passed. Ned had all of the knowledge of how to deal with the politics, legislation, and all of that.”

Ned also helped find a solution after the National Park Service pushed back on the Thicket as not park material—the creation of a new Park Service category of national preserve. Less bells and whistles than a park, more protection than a national forest.

Ned put in the Big Thicket hours, he knew the land. As the imitable Maxine Johnston said, “Ned logged more time in Big Thicket forests and in Washington offices than anyone, and he taught us not only about our biodiversity heritage but also about politics.”

Prequel: East Texas Big Thicket Association (1927)
Founding of Big Thicket Coordinating Committee (1967)
- Conflicts within the coalition
Big Thicket’s modern cast of characters and their relationships with Ned
U.S. Senator Ralph Yarborough, U.S. Representative Charlie Wilson, other politicians, and Ned’s work on legislation, and creation of Big Thicket National Preserve (1974)

Big Thicket

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