Houston Legends:
The conservationist’s influence is found nearly everywhere, from bayous to parks
Terry Hershey saved Buffalo Bayou and made Houston greener.
Former President George H.W. Bush once called Terry Hershey a “force of nature for nature.”
It’s doubtful truer words ever have been spoken.
Hershey is widely credited with jump-starting the environmental movement in Houston back in the 1960s, by stopping Buffalo Bayou from being channelized and stripped of its natural beauty.
It was the first victory of many more to come. Hershey launched several conservation focused groups, inspiring legions of others to pick up the torch for the environment, which is certainly no small feat in Houston, the heart of the fossil fuel industry.
“Houston is a greener city because of Terry’s involvement and persistence in preserving the bayous,” said Katharine C. Lord, executive director of the Bayou Preservation Association, a group Hershey’s work help spin off. “We have her to thank.”
At 93, Hershey isn’t holding court at county commissioners meetings like she once did. But her influence is just about everywhere in Houston, particularly those special places where Houston residents can get back to nature.
Look no farther than Terry Hershey Park in west Houston, which is a favorite among bikers, runners, and bird watchers. The park weaves into the core of Buffalo Bayou, just like Hershey’s legacy.
But it’s not just Houston that benefitted from Hershey’s work. So has the state of Texas.
A former member of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, Hershey was a powerful advocate for state parks, demanding that passive recreation — things like hiking and wildlife watching — be considered just as important as hunting.
“One time someone called her an environmentalist,” said Ann Hamilton, a longtime Hershey friend and renown parks advocate. “She said, ‘Call me a conservationist.’ Whatever you wanted to call her, know that she truly believes in the Earth, in nature and wildlife. It’s what she cares deeply about.”
Terese “Terry” Tarlton Hershey moved to Houston in the 1950s from Fort Worth to marry Jake Hershey. The fun-loving couple spent years competing in international yachting competitions before finally putting down more permanent roots in the Memorial area.
It was there, in 1966, when Terry and her neighbors discovered bulldozers clearing land near Buffalo Bayou. Amazed to find out the Army Corps of Engineers had planned to straighten the bayou for flood control but hadn’t notified the public, Hershey called her local county commissioner, Squatty Lyons, and was promptly rebuffed.
“And it made me mad and I stayed mad for 30 years,” Hershey said in a 2002 interview.
Hershey and the Buffalo Bayou Preservation Association managed to persuade the county commissioners to temporarily delay the project. Knowing she’d need more firepower, Hershey turned to newly elected Congressman George H.W. Bush for help.
Even though the project was temporarily delayed, Hershey and her growing circle of the friends continued to challenge the Corps, the county commissioners and the Harris County Flood Control District.
“She was always charming, but very persuasive,” said Mike Talbott, director of the Harris County Flood Control District. “She always wanted people to do the right thing and never hesitated to tell them what the right is.”
Their work culminated with the passage in 1972 of the National Environmental Policy Act, which among other things requires federal agencies to notify the public of their plans if it could have any negative environmental impact. Not long after that, the Buffalo Bayou project was dead.
Hershey liked to give credit to the “two Georges” — George H.W. Bush and the billionaire Texas oilman George P. Mitchell — for stopping the project. But her friends say it was Hershey’s tireless work behind the scenes that garnered the win.
Said Frank C. Smith Jr., another longtime friend whom Hershey enlisted to stop the Buffalo Bayou project: “I wish we could turn back the clock 20 years and run her for president. We had a good one with Bush, but she would have been even better. She would have everyone eating out of her hands.”
Not long after she was elected governor, Ann Richards appointed Hershey to Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in 1991.
In some ways, Hershey might have seemed like an obvious choice. She founded the Park People, a group dedicated to parks and open space in Houston.
But at that time, the commission was geared toward hunting and hunters. Hershey was not a hunter. In fact, she is widely known for carrying “doggie bags” to take scraps of leftover food to feed the wildlife in her backyard.
“I don’t care how sophisticated an event it was, you could count on her whipping out her garbage bag out of her purse to collect scraps for the raccoons,” said Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack, who was instrumental in the establishment of Terry Hershey Park.
It helps explain why at the end of her first commission meeting, after a long debate on hunting regulations, Hershey famously remarked, “All this talk makes me want to throw up.”
But it didn’t take long for Hershey to mend fences and make her mark on the commission.
The Hersheys owned two cattle ranches, and Terry intuitively understood how to work with private landowners.
Former Texas Parks and Wildlife Department director Andrew Sansom has widely credited Hershey with adroitly promoting conservation easements to help preserve some of Texas’ most ecologically valuable pieces of land.
Hershey always has brushed off personal tributes, expressing appreciation but insisting others did the hard work.
In 2013 she told the Houston Chronicle, “I made little differences here and there. That’s all you can do as one human. You can help by joining groups that do good things and you can give your time if you’re lucky.”
Today, Hershey lives in the home she and Jake shared until his death in 2000. She receives frequent visits from a tight-knit circle of friends, many of whom she met through the dozens of boards and commissions she’s served on through the years.
“I still call her my fearless leader,” said Smith, who at 95, is still fighting to keep Buffalo Bayou safe.
While Hershey has dedicated her life to protecting the environment, her friends say the most important part of her legacy is the people she inspired to do conservation work of their own.