Edward Carl "Ned" Fritz

An attorney, advocate and community organizer, Ned Fritz helped defeat a planned barge canal and floodway, and later brought attention and support for protection of the 6000-acre Great Trinity Forest, one of the nation’s large urban natural areas. Fritz was also heavily engaged in habitat protection in Texas national forests, including successfully pressing for creation of wilderness areas and protection of the rare red-cockaded woodpecker. As well, his advocacy extended to work against dams, such as that planned for the Little Cypress Creek. He also was involved in co-founding several conservation groups, including the Dallas Sierra Club, the Texas League of Conservation Voters, the Texas Land Conservancy, the Nature Conservancy in Texas, and the Texas Conservation Alliance. Many of his views are described in his Sterile Forest: The Case Against Clear Cutting (1983) and Realms of Beauty: The Wilderness Areas of East Texas (1993).