Terry Hershey, Houston environmentalist who saved Buffalo Bayou, dies at 94

Portrait of Terry Hershey, 90, at her home Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Houston. Hershey, who has a park along the Energy Corridor named after her, has been a life-long conservationist. ( Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle ) less Portrait of Terry Hershey, 90, at her home Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Houston. Hershey, who has a park along the Energy Corridor named after her, has been a life-long conservationist. ( Johnny Hanson / ... more Photo: Johnny Hanson, Staff Photo: Johnny Hanson, Staff Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Terry Hershey, Houston environmentalist who saved Buffalo Bayou, dies at 94 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

Terry Hershey, an environmentalist who prevented Buffalo Bayou from being channelized and stripped of its natural beauty, died Thursday. She was 94.

Hershey is widely credited with jump-starting the environmental movement in Houston, by fighting the reviled Buffalo Bayou project in the 1960s.

She later launched several conservation groups, inspiring legions to pick up the torch for the environment. A former member of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, she also was a powerful advocate for parks and worked hard to make sure the state's most spectacular places were protected.

"Houston is a greener city because of Terry's involvement and persistence in preserving the bayous," Katharine C. Lord, former executive director of the Bayou Preservation Association, told the Houston Chronicle last year. "We have her to thank."

Terese "Terry" Tarlton moved to Houston in the 1950s from Fort Worth to marry Jake Hershey. The fun-loving couple spent years in international yachting competitions before putting down more permanent roots in the Memorial area.

It was there, in 1966, when Terry and her neighbors discovered bulldozers clearing land near Buffalo Bayou. Amazed to find out that the Army Corps of Engineers had planned to straighten the bayou for flood control but hadn't notified the public, Hershey called her local county commissioner, Squatty Lyons, and was promptly rebuffed.

"And it made me mad, and I stayed mad for 30 years," Hershey said in a 2002 interview.

Hershey and the Buffalo Bayou Preservation Association managed to persuade the county commissioners to temporarily delay the project. Knowing she'd need more firepower, Hershey turned to newly elected Congressman George H.W. Bush.

But she and her growing circle of friends also continued to challenge the Corps, the county commissioners and the Harris County Flood Control District.

"She was always charming, but very persuasive," said Mike Talbott, the district's former director. "She always wanted people to do the right thing and never hesitated to tell them what the right thing is."

Their work culminated with the passage in 1972 of the National Environmental Policy Act, which among other things requires federal agencies to notify the public of plans that could have any negative environmental impact. Not long after that, the Buffalo Bayou project was dead.

Hershey liked to give credit to the "two Georges" – Bush and billionaire Texas oilman George P. Mitchell – for stopping the project.

Both men, however, publicly deferred to Hershey, who Bush once quipped was a "force of nature for nature."

The description stuck and not long after Ann Richards was elected governor, she appointed Hershey to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in 1991.

In some ways, Hershey might have seemed an obvious choice. She founded the Park People, a group dedicated to parks and open space in Houston.

But at that time, the commission was geared toward hunting. Hershey was not a hunter. In fact, she was widely known for carrying "doggie bags" to take scraps of leftover food to feed the wildlife in her backyard.

It helps explain why at the end of her first commission meeting, after a long debate on hunting regulations, Hershey famously remarked, "All this talk makes me want to throw up."

Still, it didn't take long for Hershey to mend fences and make her mark on the commission.

Former Texas Parks and Wildlife Department director Andrew Sansom credited Hershey with adroitly promoting conservation easements to help preserve some of the state's most ecologically valuable pieces of land.

Hershey always brushed off personal tributes, expressing appreciation but insisting others did the hard work.

In 2013, she told the Chronicle: "I made little differences here and there. That's all you can do as one human. You can help by joining groups that do good things, and you can give your time if you're lucky."