The Pineywoods is a forested area in Eastern Texas and in the West Gulf Coastal Plain (a very wide stretch of Gulf coast that extends from the Mississippi all the way to the Lower Rio Grande Valley). To Houstonians the Pineywoods is just a day trip away.
Today conservationist Jim Neal introduces us to the region. He tells us of its trees and of Caddo Lake, which is the only natural lake in Texas. Then he takes us back in time to the Pleistocene, when a huge ice sheet covered North America and the wooly mammoth roamed the coastal plain. What was the region like, back then? What did it take for the regions early humans to succeed? Jim Neal has answers.
Resources on the West Gulf Coastal Plain:
- Jim Neal:
- See Jim Neal featured in the Texas Legacy Project.
- What is the West Gulf Coastal Plain?
- The CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas describes the West Gulf Coastal Plain.
- For a map of the West Gulf Coastal Plain, visitThe Teacher-Friendly Guide to the Earth Science of the South Central US. Scroll down to figure 1.3, which depicts the geologic regions of the South Central. The West Gulf Coastal Plain is number 3.
- To see how the shore line of the Gulf Coastal Plain moved from the end of the Cretaceous (66 million years ago) to the present day, visitThe Teacher-Friendly Guide to the Earth Science of the South Central US and scroll down to figure 1.15.
- Jim’s reading recommendations on the last ice age and the disappearance of the megafauna:
- Fagan, Brian. 2000. The little Ice Age. Basic Books.
- Martin, Paul. 2005. Twilight of the Mammoths. University of California Press.
- The Caddo:
- An example of present-day Caddo pottery.
West Gulf Coastal Plain – Episode Transcript
To view the episode transcript, click here to open the pdf file.