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Big Thicket National Preserve
Several groups, along with the Hardin County Commissioners Court, are offering opposition to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) removing trees for the U.S. 69 Corridor “Gateway to the Big Thicket” project in Hardin and Tyler counties.
Nov. 8, commissioners tabled action on supporting mandated protections for the Big Thicket National Preserve with the retention of native vegetation on U.S. Highway 69 Gateway to the Big Thicket Parkway. However, County Judge Wayne McDaniel said the item again resurged at the Nov. 22 meeting to allow TxDOT Beaumont District Engineer Martin Gonzales to be at the meeting to present TxDOT’s “side of this or their plans” before the court makes a decision.
McDaniel also said representatives from Congressman Brian Babin’s office wanted to attend the meeting but were unable to. Nov. 8 was also the final day for public comments on the project, according to TxDOT.
According to the TxDOT Beaumont District’s website, the project is a 13-mile stretch of U.S. 69, from FM 1003 (north of Kountze) to FM 1943 (near Warren). TxDOT’s timetable for the project has the bidding process beginning in September 2023, and, according to TxDOT, further project changes are not anticipated.
TxDOT stated the purpose of the project is to provide safer travel through the area, improve emergency evacuation routes and relieve traffic congestion caused by a growing population.
TxDOT will enhance landscaping and add signage at Village Creek in place of an aesthetic bridge feature due to funding; provide a standard trail bridge in place of an arched trail bridge, due to rising material costs; and provide nine monuments at key locations to communicate the significance of the U.S. 69 corridor, although quantity and size of monuments have been reduced given rising material costs.
“In keeping with the revised TxDOT Design Manual to clear obstacles in the right of way, such as landscaping, TxDOT will clear the median and portions of the right of way removing trees and shrubbery. TxDOT recommends a roadside free of unyielding obstacles including landscaping for increased safety and reduces the extent of damage and injury of a single vehicle, run-off-the-road crashes,” TxDOT information details.
According to the presentation, no additional right of way is needed.
In a letter dated Oct. 19 to TxDOT Commissioner Laura Ryan, representatives from the Big Thicket Association, Big Thicket Biosphere Reserve, Big Thicket National Heritage Trust, National Parks Conservation Association, Texas Conservation Alliance, Conservation Fund and Texas Chapter of the Nature Conservancy claim TxDOT changed design plans without informing the public of the nature or extent of the modifications.
According to the coalition’s letter, TxDOT invited the public six years ago to collaborate on a future vision for the landscape of the project. “After years of public engagement and agreement the agency changed design plans without informing the public of the nature or extent of the modifications. The revised TxDOT plan will remove trees from a byway.”
“Anticipated impacts were addressed in the environmental assessment and mitigation plan under the original scope of work,” the group further denoted. “The newly determined clear-cutting of 145 acres of the median was never presented in work plans or critically assessed for potential impacts. The proposed changes threaten this special place. TxDOT’s disregard of environmental changes exposes the Big Thicket National Preserve and surrounding communities to potential negative impacts.”
According to the letter, coalition partners worked closely with TxDOT in collaboration with the final environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact issued in 2021. But in August 2022, several coalition partners were invited by TxDOT’s new Beaumont district engineer, Martin Gonzalez, for individual meetings to learn of the planned changes.
“It was then that we learned that the median trees presented an unspecified safety threat to highway travelers,” the group letter revealed. “According to Gonzales, the removal of median trees was judged necessary to provide ‘additional recovery space for drivers leaving the roadway,’ although no context was provided.”
According to the TxDOT public database, no deaths or accidents have been caused by trees in the median for the existing divided highway in the U.S. 69 project area. “When asked why TxDOT would be planting median trees on U.S. Highway 90 in Liberty County, the district engineer had no answer,” according to the letter.
In the letter, the coalition stated they’re pushing back against the TxDOT’s destructive and unwarranted design changes to the project to save the Big Thicket Parkway. The coalition supports the expansion of U.S. 69 but opposes recent revisions to the plan that will “harm more than highway sight lines, it will also contribute to regional flooding, stream erosion, and long-term damage to the Big Thicket ecology and the resiliency of the communities that surround it.”
Big Thicket Association President John Stafford said BTA supporters are disappointed with TxDOT’s decision to eliminate trees in the medium on U.S. 69.
“We are not pleased with this development and, in fact, are highly disappointed by this apparently unilateral decision by the district engineer,” Stafford wrote on social media.
Additionally, the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter has the “Save the Big Thicket Parkway” campaign posted on their website and includes a summary of the TxDOT action on the project at www.sierraclub.org/texas/golden-
triangle/advocacy.