Boggy Slough Conservation Area is a 19,000-acre unbroken tract of
pine and bottomland hardwood forest situated in East Texas' Trinity and
Houston counties. More than twenty miles of the Neches River, one of the
last free-flowing rivers in the state, serves as the eastern boundary,
and for more than a century the land has been one of the state's leading
game and industrial forest management areas.
A unique blend of natural, cultural, and business history, Boggy Slough
presents a highly illustrated narrative of the land, people, and
evolving purpose, from time of European contact to the present. Gerland
traces the many phases of land use in this forest as it transitioned
from hunting, gathering, fishing, and subsistence farming to an
experimental mix of stock raising and large-scale commercial forestry,
eventually becoming important conservation land along the Neches River
Corridor. Gerland explores the natural features and adaptive land use
practices of the region as well as the environmental history of
railroads and logging camps, barbed wire fences and company cattle
ranches, and exclusive hunting clubs.
The underlying story is the evolution and environmental impact of
Southern Pine Lumber Company, founded in 1893 by T. L. L. Temple. Now
owned and maintained by the fifth generation of the Temple family, the
Boggy Slough lands are the last remnants of what was once a 1.2
million-acre forest empire. Gerland examines the family's and the lumber
company's struggles to grow and manage a second-, third-, and
fourth-generation forest, ultimately achieving sustainability while
managing changing environmental concerns and attitudes.
