Fritz, Edward C.

Edward C. ‘Ned’ Fritz (1916-2008), considered by many to be the father of Texas conservation and a passionate proponent for wildlife and the environment, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where his father, Edward P. Fritz, worked for Atlantic Refining Co. When Edward C. Fritz was seven, the company’s headquarters moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where his family relocated and Mr. Fritz would discover his passion for the outdoors. Fritz graduated from high school in 1934 and would go on to earn a degree in social science from the University of Chicago. Upon graduation, he enrolled in the law school at the University of Chicago and followed his family to Dallas after one year. Fritz then enrolled at Southern Methodist University and would finish law school in 1940. He would later receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in 1991 from SMU.

During World War II, Mr. Fritz served as a naval aviator and flight instructor. In Corpus Christi, Mr. Fritz taught future president, George H.W. Bush and many others, to fly. During this time he met his wife, Eugenia ‘Genie’ while she was attending the University of Texas at Austin. They would eventually settle in Dallas where Fritz became a very skilled and courageous trial lawyer. In 1948, he called for the equalization of tax valuations due to a downtown building being appraised at half of what it was sold for. In 1952, Fritz purchased three acres of land and built his home along Bachman Creek in North Dallas. The property was maintained in its natural state and native plants were left to grow freely. Birds and wildlife found his home to be a natural haven within the city.

Mr. Fritz was a deeply involved activist for the environment and fought many battles for Texas wildlife in the courtroom and through the legislature. He led the push for the National Environmental Policy Act in 1969 which declared a national policy to encourage harmony between man and his environment on a national scale. The Texas Committee on Natural Resources was organized by Fritz in 1968 and would be the spearhead of many legal battles to come.

From 1968 through 1974 he promoted a bill in the U.S. Congress that established the Big Thicket National Preserve, the first of its kind in the National Park Service. Ten years later he drafted more federal legislation that protected 34,000 more acres in East Texas. These efforts doubled the state’s protected wilderness areas. After 1974, Fritz became a full-time proponent for the environment. In 1976, he led his Texas group in a suit to stop the U.S. Forest Service from clear-cutting in Texas. The suit was successful and led to a permanent injunction on all clear-cutting on the 600,000 acres of national forests in Texas. This secured a landmark victory for environmentalists.

Mr. Fritz stood up for endangered and unique wildlife. He fought for the protected status of the Harris hawk in 1957. He battled to protect the red-cockeyed woodpecker during an attempted sale of 200,000 acres of land by the forest service in 1988. He received a Teddy Roosevelt Award in 1990 at the White House for his years spent fighting for the environment.

Mr. Fritz often expressed his passion through writing. Sterile Forest was published in 1983 and describes his account of the legal battle against clear-cutting. In 1989, Fritz wrote Realms of Beauty: The Wilderness Areas of East Texas which describes the 34,000 acres of East Texas that is north and west of Big Thicket. It provides a 200-mile self guided tour of vanishing plant and animal life unique to the forests of the region. Fritz’s third book, Clearcutting: A Crime Against Nature, calls for citizens to rise up against clear-cutting and examines the affects across 78 national parks.

Mr. Fritz died on December 19, 2008 of complications from kidney failure in Dallas. He was 92.

Sources:

Timothy Palmer, "Ned Fritz: Friend of the Forest," SMU Magazine Fall 1991: 8-9.

Joe Simnacher, "EDWARD C. 'NED' FRITZ - Lawyer 'had a finger in every conservation pie,'" Dallas Morning News, December 20, 2008, FIRST, METRO: 9B.

Edward C. Fritz, Feb. 7, 1983, Smallwood, J.B. Jr. Oral History Collection, North Texas State University, Dallas, TX.