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THE LOST FOREST
by Bob Bowman | |
| ".....
8,500 acres of magnificent pines ..... were destroyed and the red-cockaded woodpecker,
an innocent caught in the struggle between environmentalists and foresters, lost
its home....." |
Some 20 years ago
when Congress created several wilderness areas in East Texas, environmental groups
cheered the establishment of the Indian Mounds Wilderness in Sabine
County.
But, as things turned out, what Washington created was a
humongous bug factory that destroyed an interesting piece of East Texas history.
The roots of Indian Mounds reach back to the 1980s when Congressman Charles
Wilson convinced Congress to pass federal legislation creating a federal wilderness
sanctuary.
The Indian Mounds for which the area was named were not actual
mounds. While they resemble early Caddo Indian burial mounds found near Alto and
Nacogdoches, archeological excavations have produced little signs of Indian habitation
in the area.
Like its mounds, the 11,000-acre Indian Mounds Wilderness
Area wasnıt real either.
Instead of being virgin forests, the lands were
cut over by gypsy lumbermen in the early l900s. Old photographs show vast landscapes
of stumps with few trees growing on the lands.
When the U.S. Forest Service
bought the lands in the l930s, they were replanted by the Civilian Conservation
Corps to provide new forests to support the regionıs lumber economy.
Gordon Steele, a former U.S. Forest Service employee, said Congress ignored the
agency's appraisal that the area didnıt fit the legal description of a wilderness.
The area was laced with pipelines, a road leading to a subdivision, and other
signs of civilization, he said.
When it was created by Congress, Indian
Mounds' most striking feature was its tall, thick pine trees, most of them 80
years old. Uncut since the l930s, they had been managed by federal foresters for
maximum maturity and size.
They had also become a favored habitat of
the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.
But in 1992 Indian Mounds was
stricken by a terrorist attack -- billions of southern pine beetles forming one
of the the largest continuous beetle infestation in the U.S.
When the
U.S. Forest Service moved to control the beetles and save the wilderness, environmental
groups protested. They said man should not interfere with nature in wilderness
areas.
As a result, 8,500 acres of magnificent pines -- the very feature
which resulted in the establishment of Indian Mounds -- were destroyed and the
red-cockaded woodpecker, an innocent caught in the struggle between environmentalists
and foresters, lost its home.
Today, ten years later, Indian Mounds --
the wilderness that never was one and the Indian mounds that werenıt authentic
either -- is a growing concern for Sabine County residents who live near the wilderness.
They fear the falling pine timber, standing snags, and the availability of
ground-level fuel has made the wilderness susceptible to forest fires started
by lightning strikes and hunters.
"Weıre sitting on a fire disaster
waiting to happen," said County Judge Jack Leath.
Congress, meanwhile,
has moved on to dealing with other terrorists, unmindful that a band of nature's
best assassins destroyed one of its legislative creations in 1992.
All
Things Historical
May
5 to 11, 2002
A syndicated column in over 40 East Texas newspapers
(Bob
Bowman is author of Pioneers, Poke Sallet and Politics with Archie McDonald. It
is available through the East Texas Historical Association, Nacogdoches) |
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