Big Thicket Plant Ecology: An Introduction, Third Edition

Chapter 4 Man in the Big Thicket

MAN IN THE BIG THICKET INDIANS Evidence shows that humans have been in this area for at least ten thousand years, possibly much longer. The aborigines were hunters and gatherers and practiced agriculture. Many habitation sites can be found above flood levels and near good water. These sites were connected by a system of trails, which were first followed by the early explorers, later by the traders, and lastly by the settlers, widening them as foot traffic progressed to horse-drawn vehicles to automobiles. Many of the present roads in Southeast Texas follow these routes. Game was plentiful and there was an abundance of native fruits, nuts, greens, and roots. Corn, beans, and squash were grown and the fields were fired each winter to clear weeds and brush and provide ashes for fertilizer. Fire was also used to drive game. Otherwise, the Indians made little impact on the land. ANGLO-AMERICANS Anglo-Americans and Mexicans began to enter East Texas in the 1600s and practiced subsistence farming and ran cattle and hogs in the free-range land. In the 1800s with the advent of steamboats on 115 4 116 BIG THICKET PLANT ECOLOGY the streams, they began commercial farming, hunting, and logging. The Indians were successfully removed or killed. MODERN USAGE By the end of the 1800s, John Henry Kirby came in and established a lumbering industry that denuded Southeast Texas of the virgin forests. Broad areas for pipeline, utility rights-of-way, freeways, oil, timber, rice farming, and real estate development left the Big Thicket with a small remnant that was worth saving. The Big Thicket National Preserve is only a portion of that remnant. Roadsides The vegetation of the roadsides is determined by the plant community through which the road traverses, but highway department management influences them as well. The soil is frequently scraped and rearranged and contains crushed limestone and gravel. Plant communities that thrive in the adjacent acidic soils often do not grow there but are replaced by seeds that are brought in with the calcareous gravel. If the surface is not too often disturbed, rare herbaceous plants such as tiger lily (Lilium michauxii), Indian pink (Spigelia marilandica), Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), and others that are crowded out of the brushy woods move onto the woods’ edge of the roadsides. An enlightened mowing program could permit them to survive. Someone needs to educate the highway department as to the economic and aesthetic value of beautiful roadsides. Bar Ditches Once, dirt was “borrowed” from the roadsides to build up roadbeds, and the resultant depressions (“bar ditches”) held water in which many aquatic and moisture-loving plants thrived. The boggy soil prevented mowing, but today, with huge earth-moving machines and special mowing equipment, bar ditches are seldom found. Also, herbicides are sprayed in areas difficult for machines to reach. Man In The Big Thicket 117 Fencerows Many shrubs and wildflowers grow along the fencerows where land adjacent to roads is fenced. Shrubs such as sumac (Rhus copalina), beauty berry (Callicarpa americana), arrow wood (Viburnum spp.), and goldenrod (Solidago spp.), give beauty and variety to the landscape . They also provide shelter and habitat for birds and small animals . Zealous landowners take pride in “clean” fencerows, usually by the use of herbicides, so the fencerow habitat is going the way of bar ditches. Roadside Wildflower Conservation Former first lady Ladybird Johnson made it her special mission to promote the beautification of the nation’s highways, so highway departments scattered wildflower seeds on roadsides. Unfortunately , site suitability, moisture, pH, and other factors are not considered , so most of the species do not survive or reseed. In the spring, Texas bluebonnet (Lupinus subcarnosus) and many perennials are followed by summer Indian paintbrush (Castilleja indivisa) and others, and these in turn are followed by a glorious burst of color, mostly gold and purple. That is, if they are not mowed down. Local garden clubs should make it a priority to protect the wildflowers of our roadsides. CONCLUSION This description of the Big Thicket is as I knew it in times past. Man’s interference has altered it in many ways. When I returned to the classic savannah, which I photographed when I first prepared this book, I found it completely covered with houses, and I know of no other in the Big Thicket area. The spot where Lance Rosier and I found myriads of orchids is now covered...