Effects of urbanization across region poses new set of challenges to Jones State Forest
Jones State Forest was in the middle of nowhere when Texas created it eight decades ago — some 40 miles separated the piney woods and Houston.
These days, the forest is an island of tall trees surrounded on all sides by apartment complexes, single-family houses and strip malls. The Woodlands and Texas 242 border the southwest side of the property and FM 1488, the increasingly busy roadway, runs through the middle of it.
Montgomery County’s increasing urbanization is bringing a new set of challenges to the woods, which the state initially purchased to hold onto a piece of a once-great forest that was being clear-cut by timber harvesters.
There are more people living here, more people coming for a visit and more people who need to be educated about how the state manages the 1,722-acre forest.
“The growth has been mind-blowing,” said John Warner, a state forester at the Jones property. “There isn’t much space left to be developed.”
The growth is forcing changes in the way that the Texas A&M Forest Service manages the forest, which is critical habitat for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.
For the rare bird’s benefit, foresters burn sections of the woods to mimic the natural cycle of wildfires. The practice removes hiding places for predators, opens flyways for the woodpecker and allows light to reach the forest floor for regrowth of trees and grasses where its food sources live.
But the prescribed burns also create smoke, which can enter nearby homes. So the service now limits the hours of the burn and extinguishes any fire typically by 3 p.m. to avoid bothering neighbors — a move that wouldn’t be necessary in remote areas, Warner said.
For decades, the forest, named after W. Goodrich Jones, founder of the Texas Forestry Association, was a place apart, accessible only by a dirt path.
FM 1488 now has brought Houston’s sprawl to the forest’s doorstep, with strip malls, big-box stores, spacious houses and multistory apartment buildings springing up along the route. There are plans for some 400 houses on 188 acres hard against the forest. Developers are telling prospective buyers that the gated community will have “direct access to hiking and biking” in the forest.
The area represents one of many hot spots for growth for Conroe, which borders the forest. The city is benefiting from Exxon Mobil’s construction of a massive campus for roughly 10,000 workers south of The Woodlands, which coincidentally is nearing the end of its residential development.
In all, Conroe officials have approved construction of 3,300 single-family houses, some priced in the millions, as well as four apartment complexes and a hotel near the forest along FM 1488. The residential upsurge should attract more retail, said Nancy Mikeska, the city’s assistant director of community development.
The building boom has virtually cut off the Jones forest from other open spaces — and placed wildife at risk. To move about, bobcats, deer and turtles, among other animals, are forced to cross the farm-to-market road.
“It’s all backyards” around the forest, Warner said, “so wildlife can’t go anywhere.”
Warner said he is also worried about the safety of the forest’s neighbors, many of whom enter through “cracks in their fences” rather than at trail heads. That’s a problem because foresters close off some areas for logging, burns or quiet during the endangered woodpecker’s breeding season.
“It’s great that people want to visit, but they need to be respectful,” Warner said. “It’s not a park. It’s a working forest.”