[env-trinity] River loses its greatest champion- Trinity Journal Editorial

[Tom Stokely]

River loses its greatest champion

http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/2011-06-01/Opinion/River_loses_its_greatest_champion.html 

The Trinity River lost its greatest champion last month when Byron Waite Leydecker, 83, passed away.

Mr. Leydecker had been a fan of the river since his early childhood in the 1930s. But it was a pivotal trip in the early 1990s when he got stuck in the mud while fly fishing that turned him into the Trinity River’s leading champion. Irate over how the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was treating the river, choking it with silt during channel improvement projects, Mr. Leydecker formed a group which would eventually become the influential Friends of Trinity River.

The group put a stop to channel projects until full environmental reports were completed, which ultimately led to the 2000 Trinity River Record of Decision which restored flows to roughly half of pre-dam levels.

Friends of Trinity River also worked with the restoration program and was instrumental in obtaining funding for the bridge replacements that have allowed higher Trinity River flows and critical springtime releases.

And while he always deferred credit, leading the charge on these issues for nearly two decades was Mr. Leydecker.

The river itself, and all friends of the Trinity River, will miss his leadership.
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