tected area located near Jacksonville and managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
Most of the 25 miles of hiking trails feature the bottom-land hardwood forest habitat the refuge was created to protect. One trail runs along the Neches River. A longer, more challenging trail climbs into the pine uplands. The U. S. Fish and Wild Service life is working on plans to add other activities to the refuge, such as hunting, fishing and trail biking.
Temple said you can both hike and paddle the Neches River Refuge
“ You go in and your first hike to the right, I think they call it Birdsong Trail or something like that, it’ s along the river. There are not many places where you can hike along the river. And then it’ s got the overflow bottomlands. It is just a gem. I went with Julie and another friend from Lufkin up there in the spring. It was cold, but we had the best time exploring. It’ s probably the best time to go.” Temple noted there are lots of voices for the Neches River, including the Neches River Refuge, Friends of the Neches River Refuge, private landowners with conservation easements on their land – like the Boggy Slough Conservation Area, there’ s National Forest land that abuts the river and Village Creek State Park and the Big Thicket National Preserve and Big Thicket Association. However, Temple said she would like to see the Neches be protected by The Nature River Conservancy, which protects critical river and stream ecosystems in Texas through the Texas Water Program. Waterways already covered include the Devils, Blanco, Trinity, Brazos, Frio and Nueces rivers.
Temple said one of the problems the river is facing, and many organizations are trying to address, is to try to expand its protection because there’ s an 80 mile portion that is not wide enough to allow the river to overflow, and the whole ecosystem of the Neches River depends on the annual overflow.“ When we have rain in the winter and spring, the water overflows into the bottoms. The bottoms become the river woods. They nurture plant life that has danced to that rising water for 1,000s and 1,000s and 1,000s of years, and that sounded magical,” Temple said.“ That’ s the best word I can give you, and I wanted to capture that in film, and I was lucky enough to convince Curtis Craven to take on photographing nature and the people who work on it. People who do the scientific studies, the conservationists, all these people who, for a long, long time, have done their best to protect the river. We just wanted to build on their work and to show that we still have work to do,”
Curtis Craven served as the Director and Cinematographer for this film. Craven is a Texas-based producer, director and cinematographer with over 40 years experience focused on cultural, historical and environmental documentaries, working extensively throughout Texas and Mexico. His acclaimed PBS documentaries include“ Koo-hoot Kiwat: the Caddo Grass House( Lone Star Emmy),”“ Life in the Logwoods( Lone Star Emmy for Photography),”“ A Way of Life: East Texas Cowboys,” and“ Caddo Voices: a Pottery Revival.”
Temple said she knew Craven a while before they worked on a film together.
“ Curtis worked for Parks and Wildlife, and he would do work for Arbonne, Texas, and I had done several interviews with him,” Temple said.“ I knew of his work. He helped me with the wrap up filming for a film that I did, a short film, 30 minutes. It’ s streaming on YouTube. It’ s called‘ An Organ for Saint Cyprian’ s.’ and it’ s about a kite organ that our church bought, and the power of music to heal during COVID. He was living in East Texas in Rusk, and he was working on a couple of films,“ Life in the Logwoods,” and then also his“ A Way of Life: East Texas Cowboys.”
Temple said she helped support Curtis’ cowboy film as a donor and then asked him to help her with her river film.
“ I said,‘ I’ d really like to do a river film. Think you could handle it?‘ He had no idea what he was getting into, but oh my gosh, he’ s a brilliant photographer. He was my director, and he did a fantastic job. He does fantastic work. He has a real artist’ s eye and he brought that sensibility to the film. Wait till you see it. It is all his photography. It’ s stunning.”
After Craven agreed to direct and film Temple’ s film, she said she gathered up advisors and they developed a plan. Craven did all the interviews while filming, plus filming all the scenes.
“ I’ m very proud. I’ m proud of the music, you
16 SUMMMER EDITION 2026