The forests in the U.S. state of Texas have been an important resource since its earliest days and have played a major role in the state's history. The vast woodlands of the region, home to many varieties of wildlife before Europeans first showed up, provided economic opportunities for early settlers. They continue to play an important role economically and environmentally in the state.
The densest forest lands lie in the eastern part of the state in the Piney Woods region. In particular the Big Thicket region, just north of Houston and Beaumont, has historically been home to the densest woodlands. The Big Thicket was mostly uninhabited until heavy settlement from the U.S. began in the mid-19th century, and was even used as a refuge by runaway slaves and other fugitives. The Rio Grande Valley in South Texas was home to a large palm tree forest when Spaniards first arrived, though today very little of it remains.
One of the first steam sawmills in Texas was planned in 1829 in what is now modern Houston. After the Texas Revolution lumber production increased steadily such that by 1860 there were reportedly 200 saw mills in the state. The construction of railroads throughout the eastern part of the state led to boom in lumber production starting in the 1880s. The following 50-year period in which the Texas timber industry flourished came to be known as the "bonanza era". Though the growth of the industry provided significant economic benefits to Texas, a lack of regulation allowed business owners to exploit many individuals including appropriating private property and forcing laborers to accept poor working conditions and low wages.
By the start of the 20th century timber was one of the leading economic engines of Texas and had become the state's largest manufacturing enterprise. Lumber barons, such as John Henry Kirby, were among the wealthiest people in the state. By 1907 Texas was the third largest lumber producer in the United States. The subsequent clearing of fields for oil exploration and the related demand for lumber through the first half of the 20th century destroyed much of the remaining forest lands in the state. By the 1920s lumber production was in decline and the onset of the Great Depression devastated the already flagging industry.
In recent times preservation efforts, such as the creation of the Texas Big Thicket National Preserve in 1974, have helped to stabilize parts of the Texas woodlands. Texas remains in the top ten timber producing states in the United States.
Ecological patterns
The climate in Texas varies greatly across the state. Humid, rain-soaked swamps lie toward the east and desert lands lie in the far west. Woodlands, grasslands, brushland, and other ecological regions can be found in between and around the state. A prominent climatic feature of Texas is a dry line that runs north-south through its center. This line, though not entirely fixed in its location, represents a point east of which relatively moist air from the Gulf of Mexico flows freely, and west of which the drier air from the Mexican deserts prevails. The forest lands, of course, mostly lie to the east of this line though pockets of woodland can be found in the mountains to the west. Texas is periodically subjected to extreme droughts that can last several years, even as much as a decade. The most severe example in modern history was the 1950s drought that reshaped the state's economy. These drought periods are known to dramatically reduce the forests. The severe drought of 2011, for example, is estimated to have killed between two and ten percent of the state's trees.
Texas forest lands can be divided into six major regions: the Big Thicket, the Piney Woods, the Gulf Coast, the Edwards Plateau, the lower Rio Grande Valley, and the Trans-Pecos mountain forests. East Texas is home to the Piney Woods, a vast region extending from Texas through parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. These woodlands feature many varieties of pine as well as hardwood varieties including magnolia, American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), and elms (Ulmus spp.). The Big Thicket is the southern portion of this region, and has historically been the most densely wooded part of the state, acting as a natural divide between Southeast Texas and coastal Louisiana. The Texas coastal region has more sparse tree growth but still contains many varieties including southern live oak (Quercus virginiana), mesquite (Prosopis spp.), and Texas Persimmon (Diospyros texana). Texas State Historical Association. The Edwards Plateau region of Central Texas contains woodlands featuring Ashe Juniper (Juniperus ashei), Texas Live Oak (Quercus fusiformis), and Honey Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa). The lower Rio Grande Valley has historically been home to a large semitropical forest of Mexican Palmetto (Sabal mexicana). Though West Texas is mostly grasslands and desert, mountainous areas in the Trans-Pecos portion, such as the Guadalupe Mountains, contain oases of forest lands featuring Bigtooth Maple (Acer grandidentatum), Velvet Ash (Fraxinus velutina), Grey Oak (Quercus grisea), and similar tree species.
Additional pockets of forest lands include the Cross Timbers areas of North Texas in the vicinity of the Dallas – Fort Worth metroplex, the Lost Pines Forest of Central Texas, as well as other areas throughout the savanna and blackland prairies that lie to the west of the Piney Woods and the coastal areas. For its part the Cross Timbers region, which straddles Texas and Oklahoma, though relatively narrow, was once dense enough to have been considered a natural barrier. Though these woodland areas have never been a major source of lumber they have nevertheless provided firewood as well as wood for poles, railroad construction and other limited uses. Patches of original oak and hickory woodland remain in the ranchlands of eastern Texas, west of the Piney Woods, and these have been described as the East Central Texas forests ecoregion.
Early Texas and the Republic of Texas
The Big Thicket forest region once covered more than in east Texas. The Spaniards, who once ruled the region, defined its boundaries in the north as El Camino Real de los Tejas / Old San Antonio Road, a trail system that ran from Central Texas to Nacogdoches; in the south as La Bahia Road or Atascosito Road, a trail that ran from southwest Louisiana into southeast Texas west of Galveston Bay; to the west by the Brazos River; and to the east by the Sabine River. This thickly wooded area proved to be a natural barrier against settlement. It had remained largely uninhabited even by Native Americans until the 19th century.
In the Rio Grande Valley a large forest of Mexican Palmetto (Sabal mexicana) extended from the coast to approximately inland as late as 1852. Spanish explorer Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda, in fact, named the river Río de las Palmas (Palm River) in 1519 because of the forest that surrounded it.
When Europeans first arrived in east Texas the Hasinai, Bidai, and Akokisa tribes lived at the fringes of the Big Thicket lands. These predominantly agriculture-based peoples avoided settlement in the forests primarily because the sandy soils of these forest lands were much less fertile than the clay-rich soils outside the dense forests.
During the early 19th century the gradual westward migration of settlers in North America made the forests of east Texas a popular refuge for runaway slaves and fugitives from justice in the United States.
One of the first steam sawmills in Texas was planned in 1829 by John Richardson Harris, founder of Harrisburg (part of modern Houston). It operated until at least 1833. After the Texas Revolution, the influx of settlers quickly increased demand for lumber. Sawmills were constructed on the coast in locations such as Galveston, Houston, and Beaumont. As settlement moved further inland new mills were constructed at towns from Nacodoches to Bastrop.
The Lost Pines Forest near Bastrop, the westernmost stand of pine trees in the state, became an important source of lumber for Central Texas.
State of Texas in the 1800s
Following the annexation of Texas by the United States, the timber industry in the state continued to develop. By 1860 there were reportedly 200 saw mills in the state. The value of lumber products exceeded US$ annually (US$ in today's terms).
In Central Texas the forest lands became depleted much faster than in the East. Over the course of the mid-19th century oak lumber was becoming so scarce in many areas that masonry rapidly began to replace wood construction in many communities.
Even as late as 1870 the major forests of East Texas were largely pristine with some trees growing to more than in height and more than in diameter. This began to change rapidly in the 1880s as railroad lines were completed across the state. In 1877 Pennsylvania entrepreneurs Henry J. Lutcher and G. Bedell Moore established a major mill in Orange, creating the largest and most modern operation in the state. The timber industry entered what was known as the "bonanza era" as lumber plants and logging roads criss-crossed the forests. Plant owners built company towns, including Camden, Kirbyville and Diboll, to attract employees. Working conditions for timber workers was harsh and dangerous. Work days averaged 11 hours and pay was typically between US$1.50 to US$2.50 per day (US$ to US$ in today's terms). In many cases the owners established a nearly feudal structure of control exercising near absolute authority over the towns and their residents.
In the late 19th century a new technology known as the skidder was introduced to the Texas logging industry. The skidder consisted of a railway car with a crane assembly and long cables that dragged logs from the forest after they were felled. The dragging process was tremendously destructive to the forests in which they were used and dramatically hastened the rate at which forests were cleared, both because of its efficiency at extracting logs and because of the incidental damage to the flora.
A significant consequence of the growth of the lumber industry was the taking of land from families that had once owned it. Because of "use and possession" laws in force in Texas at that time, lumber barons flush with cash from Northern investors were able to seize lands belonging to local families, often property that had been in the families for generations.
East Texas farmer John Henry Kirby gradually acquired multiple mills eventually consolidating them in 1901 as the Kirby Lumber Company, the state's largest at the turn of the 20th century. Kirby would go on to be referred to as the "Prince of Pines" by the press in Texas.
Oil boom and the world wars {| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin:0 0 0.5em 1em;" border="1" |+ ! Year !! Annual production |- | 1869 || align=right | |- | 1879 || align=right | |- | 1907 || align=right | |- | 1932 || align=right | |- | 1940 || align=right | |- | 1991 || align=right | |- | 1992 || align=right | |- | 1997 || align=right |
By the start of the 20th century agriculture (particularly cotton), timber, and ranching were the leading economic engines of Texas. Lumber production became the largest manufacturing enterprise in the state, and the industry continued to grow in the early years of the century. Production grew from annually in 1879 to in 1907, the maximum the state has ever produced. Texas became the third leading lumber-producing state in the U.S. World War I only increased this demand as pine-built ships were common at this time.