Pig_ClosingoftheCommons_Donovan_Richard_LufkinTX_3March2008_Reel2434.mp3

Richard Donovan [00:00:00] Well, the decade of the 1950s was definitely a watershed decade for East Texas. It was the dying of the last frontier of Texas, essentially. I guess maybe people along the Rio Grande might argue with that, but at least a great culture that had swept across the underbelly of the United States, all the way from the Virginias and the Carolinas, ended on the Neches river in the 1950s.

Richard Donovan [00:00:30] And that was the commons - that everybody treated the land, that land as belonging to everyone. And if you wanted to protect something, it was the landowner's responsibility to build a fence around what he wanted to protect. And everything else was open range.

Richard Donovan [00:00:48] And in my early lifetime, you went anywhere you wanted to. You could get on a horse and ride for days in any direction of my hometown of Zavala, and not encounter a fence. If you did encounter a fence, you might ride a short distance and find a corner of it and be free of it again.

Richard Donovan [00:01:05] So all up and down the Neches river and Angelina was was unfettered ingress and egress.

Richard Donovan [00:01:13] Then the stock laws - people grew tired of cattle killing and maiming people on the highways. People grew tired of cattle and horses and hogs coming into towns, and scattering dung up and down the streets and, and fleas and ticks, and just lying down in the roads.

Richard Donovan [00:01:34] I can remember Mr. Barge feeding his cattle right in downtown Zavala and interrupting the traffic, stopping it on Highway 69 for long periods of time. Cars would have to just sit there and wait for, you know, some minutes before they could ease around and get through all that mess. So there was a real problem, but it was a culture and a society that had evolved over time.

Richard Donovan [00:01:59] Lufkin's stock law was passed or Angelina County's stock law was passed in 1952. But that doesn't mean that began to close the woods off at that time. It was just a fire, shot fired across the bow.

Richard Donovan [00:02:13] But as time passed, and more and more people were forced to enclose their animals behind fences and as authorities of the county sheriffs and things were expanded to force that, the woods became more and more closed off.

Richard Donovan [00:02:33] And the timber companies were, this was a great boon to them. They had been wanting to close their woods for quite some time. For one reason, probably the main reason, was that hogs root up little pine seedlings to eat that tender root of the bottom of that pine seedling. So hogs can destroy, if they had planted an area, or if natural seedling had occurred there, they could destroy an area of pine seedling in a night. And so companies were, they didn't like that.

Richard Donovan [00:03:05] And then people felt nothing about going on the company land cutting down a cypress tree for, for the lumber out of it to make cypress shingles for their house. Or, if a bee tree was growing on company land, they went in and cut down the tree and, and extracted the honey from it, and just left the tree lying there. And they just used the land as if it were their own, and which it had been for generations.

Richard Donovan [00:03:28] So the companies seized these opportunities to form up hunting clubs. And the hunting clubs were often, the companies hired old outlaw hunters to be their enforcement officers. Well, these hunters knew the whole tricks of the trade. And they knew how to, how to stop people from, from hunting.

Richard Donovan [00:03:50] They also took bulldozers and plowed ditches across all the old wagon roads that led down to the river. They put fences across many of the roads. They did everything they could to close off access to the river and to the forests, simply because to protect the integrity of their hunting clubs.

Richard Donovan [00:04:10] And they charged people to be a member of these clubs, which over time has grown to be a really significant income for the companies. But originally it was just to protect their private property rights.

Richard Donovan [00:04:23] Today, because of these actions that have been taken over a period of time by private individuals as well as companies, there is essentially, the younger people have been disconnected from the land. There's no, there's no appreciation, really, for the natural things that take place out there.

Richard Donovan [00:04:54] I find it interesting some times, and I have conversation with young people. I'm talking about college-educated, 30 year old young men and women. And I ask questions like, "Where is the Neches River?" And most often they do not know. And it forms the western boundary of our county.

Richard Donovan [00:05:12] I ask them where the Angelina River is, and and they don't know. And it forms the eastern boundary of our county.

Richard Donovan [00:05:19] They can't identify a sweet gum tree from a hickory tree. And to me, that is, that is tragic. It's maybe not important that they know how to identify those trees, but they need an appreciation for the fact that each one of those plants performs a different function, and it enriches our life by what it does.

Richard Donovan [00:05:44] Sweet gum trees, or black gum trees particularly, are notorious for their cavities so that wild animals and nesting birds can nest in them.

Richard Donovan [00:05:52] Oaks - the most sizable bounty that, from coast to coast, I guess, along the eastern seaboard for sure - the mainstay food supply for animals and birds is acorns. Acorns is the mannah of wildlife. So every time you cut down an oak tree, you deprive a wide array of birds and animals a foodstuff, plus they're also a great source of cavities. So you reduce nesting sites for many plants and animals.

Richard Donovan [00:06:28] So, we have these people that are detached from nature. They want to know about it. But their experience with nature is maybe reading a National Geographic magazine, or a Walt Disney program on television, or a video game that they can play and interact with nature.

Richard Donovan [00:06:44] They don't, they don't feel the heat. And they don't feel the mosquitoes. And they don't feel the air in their face. They don't smell the scent of decaying cellulose, or the smell of wild azaleas wafting through the air, or hear the color of the pileated woodpecker or, at night, the hoot of the barred owl or the great horned owl.

Richard Donovan [00:07:12] And so, we don't really, all I can say, David, is that we have just totally lost our contact with nature and they're all interested in it, but they can't put their hands on it. They can't become a part of it. They can't, they can't experience all of the senses that I have tried to mention.