April 5, 2004

Hello All,

With spring’s arrival, we begin to think again of the beautiful trees and wildlife surrounding us. The Texas Forest Service and Texas A&M have chosen this time of year to introduce their improvement plans for Jones State Forest, a wonderful resource we all have right at our back door but most of us know nothing about.

Jones State Forest is one of the largest open green spaces in the Greater Houston area. The 1,700-acre forest provides habitat for wildlife species such as the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. It also boasts the largest Sweetleaf tree in the state of Texas along with the Sweetleaf Nature Trail. Jones Forest is featured in the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail and Texas Historical Trails maps and many “birders” fly into Bush International just to make the trip up to the Forest to see the red cockaded woodpeckers.

Though the Forest is already open to visitors and holds many demonstrations and nature related talks and walks throughout the year, the Forest Service and Texas A & M’s Agricultural Program is proposing a phased development of a 17,000 sq. ft. Jones Forest Center which will both show and teach the relationship between a healthy forest and an improved quality of life for Texans.

They estimate the facility, when finished, could attach 250,000 visitors a year and offer a great teaching tool for the one million K-12 public school children enrolled within the two educational regions adjacent to the Forest.

For more information about the project or to offer funding, contact Jan Davis, Project Leader at 979-458-7320 or e-mail her at jdavis@tfs.tamu.edu.  For information about what’s happening right now in Jones State Forest, contact  jwarner@tfs.tamu.edu

                                                Signs and More Signs

Chairman of the Sign Committee Cheryl Meyer is pushing ahead, trying to eliminate illegal signs along the FM 1488 corridor.  She recently sent a letter to various local and state officials ask them to enforce the no bandit signs rule by handing out citations to the two or three businesses that continuously keep putting up illegal signage during the weekends. We await their response.

With more huge billboards going up along FM 1488 daily, it’s very important that we continue to support Scenic Texas (www.scenictexas.org ) in their work to eliminate billboards throughout Texas. Scenic Texas submitted a bill last legislative session that included FM1488 on their scenic routes.  Unfortunately, the big money behind Billboards won out and the bill never got out of committee. Keep telling our State Representative Rob Eissler how much you hate those signs. He listens and he makes things happen.

                                                Computer Recycling

Do you have an old computer gathering dust in the hall closet?

The Woodlands GREEN, The Community Associations of The Woodlands Waste Management and Montgomery County Precinct 3 Recycling are sponsoring a Computer Recycling Day, Saturday, April 24, 2004 at 8203 Millennium Forest DR, Community Associations of The Woodlands Parks Recreation and Environmental Services Building

next to The Woodlands High School. There will be a drive though drop-off area that will be under cover, so the event will go on, rain or shine. Call Lynne Aldrich at 281-210-3926 for more information or to volunteer to help.

                                                Drainage Committee

Many thanks to the Kramers of Owner-Builder Network, for allowing the Drainage Committee to use their facilities for several meetings. The next meeting is planned for May 3 at Owner-Builder Network on FM 1488.  We hope to have a speaker from the TCEQ (Texas Committee on Environmental Quality and/or the Natural Resources Council. This meeting will be open to everyone. The topic will be erosion control and the rules governing developers and developments.

Chairman Richard Swingle has done a wonderful job planning and chairing the meetings that bring our subdivisions together to discuss drainages issue. The last one was March 26 and was followed by an April 4 “walk through” of various subdivision drainage areas..

The Association is extremely grateful to County Engineer Dan Wilds who has attended the drainage meetings and met individually with the subdivisions involved to offer his expertise in solving some of their problems. He’s put together a map of the area showing flood plains, creeks and other water/drainage systems along the FM1488 area. It puts things in perspective and makes us realize how much we need to work together as more development occurs and more water runs off rather than being collected by the natural sponges trees and forests have provided in the past.

                                                Property Buyers Guidelines

A booklet entitled Guidelines for Prospective Property Owners written by Glenn Buckley is at the printers now. We hope to have it on the web site soon. It contains valuable information for anyone interested in building a home and living in the Montgomery County area though most of the questions/information are applicable no matter where you’re buying property. The booklet is good enough that the Houston-Galveston Area Council has requested they be added to the booklet’s resource list. It’s a must read. We’re looking for business sponsors to help us print and distribute more copies.

Business Sponsor

Welcome to our second Friends of the E1488 CA business sponsor:

Sybil Hodges of Texas Country Real Estate. Sybil and her husband Len specialize in home and land sales and can be reached at their offices at 6904 FM 1488 and by phone at 281-356-8383. Their logo appears at the bottom of this newsletter and on our web site. We thank them for supporting their community through the E. 1488 Community Association. For information about how you can become a business sponsor, go to www.e1488ca.org.

     Annual General Meeting

The annual general meeting is set for May 20, 2004. The Association hopes to have revised By-laws to present to the membership at that time. If you’re interested in getting involved with the community, contact the Association through e-mail at e1488communityassoc@charter.net or telephone 936-321-1352 for more information.

Regards,

Ann K Anderson, President

Universal Natural Gas, Inc.               Sybil Hodges