Janice Bezanson

Region: Hill Country

Topics: Forests, Logging, Streams, Dams, Environmental History
 

Mrs. Bezanson has had long experience as a volunteer, board member, officer and executive director with Texas Conservation Alliance, the statewide group formerly known as the Texas Committee on Natural Resources (TCONR).  She and TCONR have been successful advocates for reform and limits on clearcutting, burning and abusive practices in the public forests of Texas, as well as for creation of 35,000 acres of wilderness areas within these public lands.  She helped extend many of these same goals and strategies to other states via the national Forest Reform Network.  Aside from forestry work, Mrs. Bezanson and TCONR have been active in protecting free-flowing streams against dams proposed for the Little Cypress, Neches, and Sulfur Rivers.

She is also active in land conservation, as a trustee for the American Lands Alliance, which advocates for public lands across the country.  On the state level, she has been a board member and past president of the Natural Area Preservation Association, the oldest and largest state-based land trust in Texas, responsible for 80 preserves throughout the state.

As well, Mrs. Bezanson is a board member of the Conservation History Association of Texas, helping guide its archive and documentary work.

Interviewed

January 20, 2007
West Lake, Texas
Reels 2385 and 2386