Charlie Wilson

Wilson was a naval officer and politician, serving as a Texas state representative (1961-67) and senator (1967-73), and later as a U.S. representative (1973-96). As a Congressman, he played critical roles in several Southeast Texas conservation issues. With Rep. Bob Eckhardt, he sponsored HR 11547, which protected over 84,000 acres as the Big Thicket National Preserve (1974), and returned in 1983 to add Village Creek tracts to the Preserve. In 1984, he helped pass the East Texas Wilderness Act, banning logging and road-building in five areas, including Little Lake, Big Slough, Turkey Hill, Upland Island, and Indian Mounds. Finally, in 1990, Wilson managed to derail the 160,000-acre Rockland Dam, slated for the lower Neches, by attaching a deauthorization amendment to a must-pass omnibus House bill.