As the fourth largest city in the United States, Houston is known for its looming skyscrapers, winding highways, and overpopulation (leading to painfully heavy traffic). The city seems slightly out of place in Texas where it resides, a state filled with open fields without a building in sight for miles. Whether they are locals who have never left the concrete walls of the I-610 Loop or tourists visiting for the very first time, people do not see Houston as a part of nature. The bayou that runs through the heart of the city is seen through the same lens; although Buffalo Bayou is Houston’s last remaining natural feature, it is often overlooked by passersby. Mansions and overpasses conceal the Bayou from obvious view, however even those who call it their backyard do not recognize it as an element of nature. Houstonians drive over the Bayou day after day, yet it always seems to disappear from view. Its murky water and trash-covered banks do not look like the traditionally beautiful nature that the human eye recognizes, and so the Bayou simply fades into its surroundings as another part of the concrete jungle. Although it is rarely seen as an aspect of nature due to its metropolitan surroundings, Buffalo Bayou remains one of the only pieces of true nature in the city. In order to preserve the city of Houston and maintain the success of the population there, it is necessary that the current perception of Buffalo Bayou changes so that it may be seen as the work of art that Earth created rather than just a murky stream hidden beneath highways and skyscrapers.
Nature is precisely defined as anything naturally created by the Earth rather than by the hands of man; however this definition often has many exceptions because of the way that nature is perceived. The first thing that usually comes to mind when asked “What is nature?” is a place that is beautiful and serene. Nature is only perceived as such when it is pleasing to the human senses. Buffalo Bayou is not beautiful and serene; its waters are brown and its banks tarnished, with its putrid smell of pollution contaminating the air around it. This was not always the natural state of the Bayou. Formed some 18,000 years ago, the Bayou remained in its naturally-occurring state until it became the site of Houston’s founding in 1836, with plans to build a city all around the natural resource. The Bayou was the heart of the city for many years, and although it still remains in the same location, it has slowly begun to fade into the background as it has become continuously urbanized.
The transformation of Buffalo Bayou as the city of Houston has continued to grow around it has been astounding, and not necessarily in a positive way. Since Houston was first founded, the Bayou has been its principal drainage basin and has become highly polluted as it has become filled with toxic materials. The pollution problems have increased slightly since water quality has become a more prominent issue for people, however the waters are still nowhere near the cleanliness of their natural state. Although humans have attempted to fix the problems that they caused in terms of water quality, the urbanization of the Bayou has created and exacerbated countless other problems for the Bayou and the city as a whole. For instance, Houston has been extremely susceptible to flooding for as long as it has existed. According to
data recorded between 1960 and current day, the Houston area has had more losses due to flooding than any other city in the United States. Although its geography originally caused the
flooding issues, the main source of their augmentation throughout the years has been urban development. Nearly 80 percent of the Bayou and its Watershed are highly urbanized, and the Texas government and the Harris County Flood Control District continue planning for the alteration of the remaining 20 percent. The government is under the impression that the way to relieve the Bayou’s problems with pollution and flood control is to further interfere with the natural state of the Bayou, however the true solution lies in allowing the Bayou to flow freely.
The debate on what the measures to take in order to alleviate Houston’s flooding problems is a divisive issue in the city’s government. Two major forces are working against each other in this debate: the government agency Harris County Flood Control District and its opposing force, the Save Buffalo Bayou nonprofit association. The Harris County Flood Control District has been the driver of the urbanization of the Bayou throughout the past years. The policy of the Buffalo Bayou project is to make the Bayou both deeper and wider so that it can handle more water. However, experts state that this solution is ineffective for it will not truly solve any problems long term. The project is also responsible for channelizing 80 percent of the Bayou, pulling it farther and farther away from its natural state and causing it to be perceived as a man-made passage rather than a gift from the Earth. The project has attempted to help the flooding problems better, when truthfully, leaving the Bayou in its natural state is the best solution and will not waste taxpayer dollars. On the other side of the debate is the Save Buffalo Bayou foundation, a group working against the government agency to decrease flooding without
urbanizing the Bayou. Many major cities use a method called Green Infrastructure to manage flood control, and this is one of the prospective goals of Save Buffalo Bayou. This means of controlling flooding works to absorb and spread more rainwater out before it can rise and cause catastrophic floods. Green Infrastructure is both more cost effective and more successful in controlling flooding long-term. The project would also maintain a more natural form of the Bayou, making its waters more suitable for recreational outdoor activities and simultaneously changing the perception of the Bayou as a part of nature. As flooding problems grow worse and worse in Houston, the need for a new form of flood control increases, and the debate shifts in favor of the Save Buffalo Bayou project.
The people of Houston were highly aware of the increased flooding problems in Houston throughout the past few years, with flood warnings emerging more often than in any other city; however little action was taken, and that increase all led up to one catastrophic event earlier this month. Hurricane Harvey hit Southeast Texas on August 25, 2017 and Houston was not prepared. Fifty inches of rain covered the city, with seventy-five deaths and over twenty thousand people forced out of their homes and into shelters. The losses caused by this flood were incomparable, and the city must be put back together piece by piece. It will be a long and tiresome process, however, every dark cloud must have a silver lining. This disaster, though horrifying and awful, may become a wake up call for the Houston government. People do not realize how powerful water really is until they see what it can do with their own eyes. The urban development of Buffalo Bayou was one of the main causes of the destruction. A disaster such as this can open the city of Houston’s eyes to the fact that it is destroying itself by continuously
interfering with the last piece of nature that the city really has. Nature fights back. After a
catastrophe such as this one, the perception of the Bayou can be changed. Hopefully, people can now see it for what it truly is– a force of nature. This change in perception can in turn make
people more understanding of how humans can save nature so that nature can save humans.
Nature was not created by the Earth to be a pretty view, or a place of peace. It was not made for humans. Nature was made to be protected at all costs, yet when people can not understand that something, such as Buffalo Bayou, is a part of nature, it can be easy to forget that it must be protected. The idea that the city of Houston currently has of the Bayou, that it is merely a part of the urban city that has been built all around it, must be changed so that the city may be sustained for future generations. Buffalo Bayou is not a conventional idea of what people believe nature to be, but that does not mean that it does not have the power to destroy everything around it if it is destroyed itself.