Buffalo Bayou

Regarding “Bayou project” (Page A31, Sunday), thank you for your important coverage of the future of one of the last forested, public stretches of Buffalo Bayou.

Michael Bloom’s letter overlooks the point expressed so well in “What we found canoeing Buffalo Bayou” by Paul Hung (Page D1, Saturday).

The section of Buffalo Bayou bordering Memorial Park is a unique, relatively unspoiled stream with abundant wildlife in a grove of towering trees. Nowhere else in Houston could Paul or anyone else enjoy canoeing in a stream like this. The $12 million flood control project promoted by Bloom and the Bayou Preservation Association would destroy that experience with no benefit in return.

No infrastructure in or around Memorial Park is threatened by erosion, as Bloom claims. There is no evidence that the proposed stripping of the vegetation and massive rearranging of the banks and channel will “stabilize” the banks, as Bloom also claims. In fact, the banks in Buffalo Bayou Park downstream, where this method has been used already, are less stable.

I worked closely with the late environmentalist Terry Hershey for more than 50 years. She did initially support Natural Channel Design, the controversial method planned for this project. She did not support ruining healthy, natural streams, stripping riparian forest and destroying wildlife habitat. And neither do I.

In fact, in a 2009 taped interview the inventor of Natural Channel Design, Dave Rosgen, praised this wondrous section of the bayou as a “living, functional river system right here in the middle of Houston.” Frank C. Smith Jr., former chairman, Bayou Preservation Association, and co-founder and board president, Save Buffalo Bayou