Save Buffalo Bayou

Save Buffalo Bayou Stop bulldozers on Buffalo Bayou and all our streams. Nature is the best engineer and works for free. Most of what we do is journalism. We publish editorials.

Nature is the Best Engineer

Save Buffalo Bayou advocates for Buffalo Bayou, for creeks and streams, forests and wetlands, for nature and the natural landscape, and for modern flood management. The 18,000-year-old mother bayou is our main waterway flowing through the center of Houston, one of our few streams remaining relatively natural. We investigate, we watch and listen, we educate the public a

bout how streams work and why nature-based flood management works best, costs less, and is better for us and our world. We expose destructive, outdated practices that waste public money and lead to costly and continuous maintenance. We write about bats, beavers, alligators, and snakes. From 2014 through 2017 our efforts centered on a misguided project to strip, dredge, and reroute a forested public stretch of the bayou. Since Harvey in August 2017, our broader focus is the most effective policy and practice to reduce our region’s flood threats. We believe in managing flooding in place, in stopping stormwaters before they flood our streams. Slow it down, spread it out, and soak it in. It’s what the rest of the world is doing. We are a 501c3 nonprofit environmental organization with a very modest budget. Donations are tax-deductible. Visit our Donate page on our website: http://www.savebuffalobayou.org/?page_id=508

03/01/2026
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02/24/2026

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As Bayou City Waterkeeper turns 25 this year, we are transitioning into a shared leadership model with BCWK’s Executive Director Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud and Senior Legal Director Kristen Schlemmer now serving as Co-Executive Directors. This decision recognizes the strength of their labor and expertise, the demands of this political moment, and the need to embrace joy and rest.

Read more: https://bayoucitywaterkeeper.org/coleaders-2026/

02/23/2026

Most people think wetlands “disappear” because of drought.

A lot of them disappear because we drained them… and then forgot what the land used to be.

Out on the prairies, the original landscape wasn’t one perfect, flat field — it was millions of shallow depressions that filled with snowmelt and rain. Those little basins are called prairie potholes, and they’re one of the most important bird nurseries on the continent. Ducks, shorebirds, songbirds — so many species time their lives around those brief, messy, muddy weeks of water.

Here’s the part that feels like a plot twist:

Some farmers and conservation programs are now doing the opposite of drainage. They’re putting the water back — flooding low spots or fields at key times to recreate “pop-up” wetland habitat. It looks like a pond that showed up overnight… and to migrating birds, it’s basically a flashing neon sign that says: food + safety here.

And it works.

Projects like BirdReturns (a pay-for-habitat model) have turned large areas of farmland into temporary wetlands during migration windows — and researchers have documented far more shorebirds using these flooded fields compared to typical dry conditions.
USDA scientists have also highlighted how intentional flooding in farm landscapes can create real win-wins: birds get habitat, and farmers can see soil and nutrient benefits depending on timing and management.

I love this story because it’s not “humans vs. nature.”
It’s humans saying: we can share the land and still farm it.

A few weeks of water.
A low spot allowed to be a wetland again.
And suddenly the sky fills with wings.

If you’ve ever wondered what “helping wildlife” looks like in real life… sometimes it looks like a farmer letting a field be a pond for a little while.

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02/19/2026

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Artist Boat's Habitat & Stewardship Program Manager will be presenting at tonight's Native Plant Society - Houston Chapter meeting. If you're unable to make it to our Diamondback Terrapin Beaches' new habitat ribbon cutting at Artist Boat Headquarters this evening, consider hearing her speak about the plant communities of the Ancient Dune Swale: 7pm at the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center https://www.npsot.org/event/houston-chapter-meeting-february-19/
Houston Chapter - Native Plant Society of Texas Houston Arboretum & Nature Center

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