Save Memorial Park

As part of the 10 Year Master Plan, the Memorial Park Conservancy plans to clearcut a large area of naturally diverse woodland along the west side of the park, and replace it with an extensive monoculture of pines planted in rows traditionally seen on a tree farm. This area will be called the Memorial Groves, and will represent the fallen soldiers of WWI. It's not ecologically responsible, so why is the MPC determined to do this when they're pushing "ecological restoration?"

This long form article from The Texas Observer might give us some clues: "The natural cycle of life, death, and decay is clearly illustrated in Upland Isle. But these characteristics are absent from the neighboring 15- to 20-year-old pine plantation, where the loblolly stand is in an artificially arrested state. The monoculture trees 'are only economically healthy,' Shelton says, 'they aren’t healthy for wildlife.'"

Unhealthy Forests - The Texas Observer Driving east on T. F. Boulware Road, inside the boundaries of the Angelina National Forest, the woods differ dramatically depending on where you stop the car. Immediately after entering the National Forest, hundreds of pines of the same species, size, …

Did you know? The name loblolly pine (the type of pine tree found throughout Memorial Park; Latin name Pinus taeda) comes from the reference to "a mudhole or mire" in the American South. These trees thrive in swamps and wet bottomlands, and is the most common pine tree in the southeastern part of the US from central Texas to Florida.

Definition of "loblolly" from the American Heritage Dictionary:
1. Chiefly Southern US A mudhole; a mire.
2. The loblolly pine.

Word History: In some regional dialects of the American South, the term loblolly is used to refer to a mire or mudhole. The word is a combination of lob, probably an onomatopoeic word suggesting the thick heavy bubbling of cooking porridge, and lolly, an old British dialect word meaning "broth, soup, or any other food boiled in a pot." Thus, loblolly originally denoted thick porridge or gruel, especially that eaten by sailors onboard ship. The meaning of the word in American dialects of the South makes allusion to the consistency of such porridge.

The name loblolly has become associated with several varieties of trees as well, all of which favor wet bottomlands or swamps in the Gulf and South Atlantic states. Among these is the loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), whose strong wood is used as lumber and for paper pulp.

The American Heritage Dictionary entry: loblolly The American Heritage Dictionary entry: loblolly

Poll: Was Memorial Park ranch land, savannah, prairie, or pine forest when the park was acquired? This history book says pine forest. History books are a beautiful thing. 😊