50 TH EB ACU DUB OON, BrU se Ee ay 
One Man's Viewpoint 
A POTPOURRI ON THE BIG THICKET 
by RAYMOND MOSTEK 
Past President, Illinois Audubon Society 
Conservationists all over the coun- 
try are rallying to aid the people of 
Texas in a last ditch stand to es- 
tablish Big Thicket National Park 
near Saratoga. 
The Texas Ornithological Society 
Newsletter admonished its readers 
and others: “Every birder who 
cares for bird survival and a place 
to watch birds is needed ... to 
write to public officials. If you don’t 
help now, you don’t deserve to ever 
see a rare or uncommon bird again, 
and may your life be full of star- 
lings and English sparrows.” 
Senator Lloyd Bentsen said that 
the Nixon administration and the 
Department of Interior are putting 
roadblocks in the way of his bill 
to establish a 100,000-acre national 
park on the Texas east coast. Sen- 
ator John Tower of Texas says that 
he has hesitated to introduce a new 
bill because the Senate passed leg- 
islation for the Big Thicket, but 
the House did not. (It appears more 
and more, that the House of Repre- 
sentatives, which is supposed to be 
“close to the people,’ has become 
reactionary, stubborn, and ornery, 
not only on environmental legisla- 
tion, but in other areas.) Congress- 
man James Haley of Florida has 
replaced the obstructionist Wayne 
Aspinall of Colorado, who was de- 
feated with help by the League of 
Conservation Voters last fall. Hope- 
fully, the House Interior Committee 
will now begin to move more rap- 
idly. 
Our Vice President for Conserva- 
tion, Betty Groth, has written 
about Big Thicket in the past. Sev- 
eral conservation journals have 
picked up the issue. Famed country 
singers George Jones, who was 
born near Saratoga, and his wife, 
Tammy Wynette, have done a bene- 
fit performance for the Big Thicket 
Association. The Jenkins Publish- 
ing Co., Box 2085, Austin, Texas, 
has just published a book by Dr. 
Peter Gunter for $12.50 on the Big 
Thicket. Real estate developers and 
lumber interests are destroying 
thousands of acres of this wonder- 
land. Upon visiting the area, Su- 
preme Court Justice, William O. 
Douglas said, “Is there no way to 
stop this plunder?” 
Well, of course, there is if enough 
conservationists and interested citi- 
zens send their congressmen some 
letters, telegrams and phone calls. 
The reason congressmen react to 
the plunderers rather than the con- 
servationists, is that 1% of the 
population contributes 90% of the 
campaign funds. When conserva- 
tionists become more politically in- 
volved, and start contributing some 
funds and energy, the plundering 
could stop. (How does your con- 
gressman feel about saving the 
Big Thicket from the plunderers?) 
The Big Thicket of Southeast 
Texas is a wooded region famous 
for its vast impenetrable wilder- 
ness. An alluvial basin of deep and 
porous sandy clay soil, it is a bio- 
