Big Thicket

Up the creek – with a paddle

Explore the Big Thicket with a guided canoe trip to experience the waterway of the preserve from a new angle. The free adventure targets the casual and novice paddler. Canoes, life jackets and paddles are provided. Visitors are asked to bring water, snacks and water shoes.

Student learns about timber industry

Silsbee High School’s Cara Heisner, the SHS student representative for Congressman Brian Babin’s Student Congressional Advisory Council, last month spent the day learning about the timber industry in East Texas.

Big Thicket hosting volunteer planting events

Big Thicket National Preserve is expanding the volunteer longleaf pine planting efforts to ecosystem-wide planting events this winter. Volunteers can join park staff and partners to plant longleaf pine and native grasses in December, January, and February.

TxDOT plans Big Thicket Parkway clear-cut

Removing 13 miles of trees on Highway 69 (U.S. 69) just north of Beaumont in Hardin and Tyler counties will exponentially increase the flood threat to Beaumont and Hardin County, Big Thicket Natural Heritage Trust’s Ellen Buchanan warned in the face of certain deforestation.

Groups oppose Big Thicket Parkway deforestation

Several groups, along with the Hardin County Commissioners Court, are offering opposition to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) removing trees for the U.S. 69 Corridor “Gateway to the Big Thicket” project in Hardin and Tyler counties. Nov.

HARDIN COUNTY | Big Thicket National Preserve to plug orphaned oil, gas wells with federal funding

The National Park Service has received approximately $9.8 million in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to plug, remediate and reclaim abandoned oil and gas well sites in seven national parks.

Big Thicket Day

The free and open-to-the-public Big Thicket Day will take place Saturday, Oct. 8, at Collier’s Ferry Park, 5390 Pine St. in Beaumont, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Big Thicket to host “Super Bowl Sunday Hike”

The Big Thicket Association will host a “Super Bowl Sunday Hike” at the Big Thicket National Preserve’s Kirby Nature Trail Inner Loop on Sunday, Feb. 13, at 1:30 p.m. There are three loop options, ranging from 1.5 to 2.

Big thicket volunteer tree planting

Big Thicket National Preserve is expanding the volunteer longleaf pine tree planting efforts to multiple events this coming winter. Volunteers can join park staff and partners to plant over 20,000 longleaf pine trees in January and February.

Big Thicket brings in big bucks, jobs

A new National Park Service (NPS) report shows that 309,053 visitors to Big Thicket National Preserve in 2020 spent $20.3 million in communities near the Southeast Texas park. That spending supported 256 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $26.7 million.