LITERATURE + LECTURES

The Houston Seminar presents The Neches River: Ribbon of Life. One Tuesday, March 22, 11:30 a.m.–2:00 p.m., at Lora Jean Kilroy Visitor and Education Center (the new building at Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens), 6003 Memorial Drive at Westcott.

Texas’ burgeoning population places enormous pressure on its finite natural resources. Conservationists and environmentalists battle tremendous odds and are only occasionally successful in preserving the state’s natural and cultural heritage. The victory of the Neches River National Wildlife Refuge is a story you won’t want to miss.

Gina Donovan, executive director of Houston Audubon and coauthor of the Neches River User Guide (Texas A&M University Press, 2009) will deliver a presentation about the grassroots effort to protect the essentially free-flowing Neches River in East Texas. She will include a timeline of advocacy events and beautiful photographs of the ecologically diverse river and the wildlife it sustains.

Richard M. Donovan, author of Paddling the Wild Neches (Texas A&M Press, 2006), will discuss the early history of the Neches River Valley and his 1999 and 2001 Neches River canoe expeditions. Using photographs, he will take us on a paddling trip down more than 200 miles of remote river bottomlands. Donovan rallies support for designating the Neches a “National Wild & Scenic River” in order to protect this spectacular waterway in perpetuity.

The price of the course includes a box lunch and a pass to the Bayou Bend Gardens to be used on March 22.

This is a companion course for the study tour of the Neches River, but it is also for those who would choose an “armchair expedition” instead.