Chambers County is our neighbor and it is just southeast of Harris County and east of Baytown.  When I think of Chambers County I think of coastal prairie, Smith Point, Galveston Bay, oyster reefs, Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Candy Abshier Wildlife Management Area, Wallisville Dam, and Lake Anahuac.

But there is another side of Chambers County that is just as interesting:  the wooded and forested part of this coastal county.  The Trinity River, its floodplain, and delta define Chambers County on the west, south, and north as does its heavily wooded neighbor directly north, Liberty County.

This forested part of Chambers County can still be seen at the Wallisville Lake Project and the series of cypress-lined natural lakes along the Trinity River:  Mud Lake, Lake Miller, Mac Lake, Lake Charlotte (Tom Douglas calls it  “Cypress Wonderland”), and along a 10-mile stretch, north and south of Interstate 10 to the Liberty County line.

In addition, you can view forests at Double Bayou Park, Lake Anahuac (Turtle Bay), Double Bayou, Turtle Bayou, and the 15-acre Texas Chenier Plain National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) Complex office.  This office was constructed next to a cypress swamp on Lake Anahuac.  As you walk on the trail toward a board walk, which crosses the cypress swamp and Lake Anahuac, you will see pine and hickory trees (probably Mockernut Hickory) on a raised shelly hill (that lays next to the cypress swamp) that are remnants of the mixed forests that used to grow here.

I have been intrigued by the presence of Longleaf Pines in Chambers County for many years.  My interest was piqued by maps which showed a disjunct population of Longleaf Pines existed just south of Anahuac and in the West Fork of Double Bayou, East Fork of Double Bayou, East Fork of Oyster Bayou, and Oyster Bayou areas to FM 1941.  Many maps of the historical Longleaf Pine range do not acknowledge this population.   

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s there was a significant amount of forest in Chambers County and lumber operations followed.  According to W.T. Block, in his multi-volume “East Texas Mill Towns and Ghost Towns, “Chambers County is sparsely covered with forests except along the Trinity flood plain mostly on the east bank, where mixed pine and hardwood forests extend eastward in places to a depth of about ten miles.”

Block quotes other sources and says, “trees in this section are the same as those along the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Plains … East of the Trinity River, the forests are of long leaf, while west of the Trinity River the timber is mainly post oak, blackjack, and live oak … plenty of cypress and a ‘right smart’ of pine timber of the loblolly variety … Turtle Bayou … as it meanders its way through the pine and hardwood forests east of Wallisville …the area may have contained a substantial amount of pine, cypress and hardwood before the timber was cut out and land was converted to rice fields … there were abundant forests of white and red oak, ash, blackjack, hickory, cottonwood, beech, red, black, and Tupelo gum, and walnut … wine barrel coopers of France and Germany sought barrel staves made of oak … furniture makers of England and Germany wanted … oak, ash, gum, walnut, hickory, and cottonwood”. 

Lumber mills were in towns like Wallisville and Anahuac and were exemplified by the C.R. Cummings Lumber Company (Cummings Brothers Lumber Company) which exported many bottomland hardwoods.

Hurricanes significantly altered life and the forest in Chambers County in 1875, 1900, and 1915.   Hurricane Ike continued this tradition and destroyed the Texas Chenier Plain NWR Complex buildings at Anahuac NWR.  This resulted in the Texas Chenier Plain NWR Complex office being rebuilt near the town of Anahuac. 

I have found very few references to this Chambers County Longleaf Pine population and have seen no Longleaf Pines in Chambers County.  It would be a tremendous accomplishment if we could replant the Longleaf Pine forest in Chambers County.  The increased forest, wildflower, and wildlife diversity that such a forest would provide would be a real achievement and a giant step toward restoration of the ecosystems of Chambers County.  Who would have thought Chambers County used to have Longleaf Pine?

Restoration of Longleaf Pine in Chambers County could be one way that the community could pull together to enhance their local environment while preparing for the future that climate change will bring.  Already, a variety of people have worked to produce a Double Bayou Watershed Protection Plan in Chambers County.  Restoration of Longleaf Pine could be an added element or an associated action for that Plan to improve water quality in Chambers County.  What a great way to bring people together to bring back a magnificent forest!

For more information contact Brandt Mannchen at 281-570-7212 or brandt_mannchen@comcast.net.