Drive around Houston suburbs and golf courses, and you'll see mostly
manicured expanses of green. Keep driving, and eventually you'll see
the latest landscape trend in the United States; to get away from the
manicured look by preserving the wild, scenic and natural. In fact,
the top four courses on Golfweek magazine's annual list of best
modern courses are all natural-style, and all were built within the
last eight years. Those courses include Tierra Verde Golf in
Arlington, Texas, Pacific Dunes and Brandon Dunes (both in Oregon) as
well as Whistling Straits in Wisconsin (site of PGA Championship in
2004). Increasingly, more golf courses in the United States are
working toward goals of the Audubon International Signature Status
Program. This program promotes environmental awareness, sound land
and water management practices, and natural resource conservation.
Why the emphasis on nature? Because in a business where only the
fittest survive, golf courses today are promoting wild life, nature
walks, wetlands, and native grass--a natural beauty reserve PLUS a
great game of golf.

Waterwood's initial developer, Horizon Corporation, was way ahead of
its time when they boasted in 1980 sales material that "protection
and enhancement of the magnificent environmental heritage of
Waterwood is a major goal of the developer." It further claimed
that "carefully conceived restrictions assure that Waterwood will
remain unspoiled through the years." Often, new homeowners claim to
buy a lot or home here because of Waterwood's unspoiled and
natural "curb appeal." This restriction -- a protective covenant
also known as a deed restriction -- is unique to Waterwood simply
because most lot owners elsewhere have nothing to preserve when
building a home. They have no wild, scenic and natural areas to
protect.

Ironically, Waterwood's most blessed natural resource is its most
under-appreciated one. Supposedly, the Architectural Control Board
(ACB) which is composed of three people, is the entity that is
charged with preserving our natural wildness. While it may seem
logical that one of the ACB directors should be an avowed nature
preserver (such as one of our more famous neighbors, Kenneth
Russell), politics always wins over logic at Waterwood.

That nature deed restriction states that "native growth on any lot
shall not be destroyed or removed from any lot, except such native
growth as may be necessary for the construction and maintenance of
roads, driveways, residences, garages, accessory buildings and/or
walled-in service yards and patios, unless written permission is
first obtained from the Board."

This year, the "Board" is Carol Winters, Dick Hansen and Damon
Thomas. All three are elected WIA directors, although only one needs
to be a WIA director. While it may seem logical to have two non-WIA
Board members serve on the ACB to ensure professionalism, fairness
and consistency, politics again wins over logic at Waterwood.
Supposedly, these three people visit and make final decisions about
which trees can be removed prior to construction. It is
unfortunately a decision that changes from year to year, depending on
who serves as the ACB that year. If you can't do something this year,
wait till next year.

This year, however, Joe Moore (WIA's administrative employee who is
now readily accessible at Waterwood instead of 28 miles away in
Huntsville) has become powerful enough to obtain ACB permission for
several lot owners to remove all pine trees on their lots. A clear
message has been sent to the community. With a little bit of "good-
old-boy networking", you can have a chat with Joe Moore to get his
help in circumventing this deed restriction. If you can convince him
that you're one of the good old boys in the community (or have the
potential to become one), he'll do you a favor and convince his pals,
Dick Hansen and Damon Thomas, to grant you permission to remove
native growth. Furthermore, in the event that Hansen, Thomas and
Winters feel too guilty about allowing the killing of something
they're suppose to protect, Joe Moore will invite you to make an
appeal to the WIA Board at its monthly meeting. This ingenuous
strategy created by Joe Moore allows the ACB members (Hansen, Thomas
and Winters) to dilute their guilt over killing trees among six of
their peers (similar to the way nine people on a firing squad are
chosen to share the guilt of killing someone; "it wasn't my
bullet"). Readers may recall that Waterwood Watchdog complained two
years ago about the political havoc and inconsistency created when
three WIA directors also serve as the ACB, and when there is no
written ACB appeal procedure. Sadly, enforcement of our nature
preservation restriction will continue to be a community joke until
we are guided by a respected WIA president.

It is ironic that Joe Moore and the ACB, along with the WIA Board,
have begun an ingenuous practice of allowing lot owners to destroy
their piece of rugged natural beauty, while the rest of the country,
albeit a younger one, is becoming enlightened about natural
landscapes. It is no surprise that struggles, sometimes dragged into
the courtroom, have begun between these two groups of people, not
just at Waterwood, but elsewhere, too. There are the traditional
folks who want the manicured green look and then there are those who
are making an effort to get away from that unnatural, very contrived,
manicured look by simply leaving more untouched areas.

Here in Waterwood, a drive-through reveals just where a homeowner
stands on this issue. There are those who take the surgical and
medicinal approach to having a green, well manicured and irrigated
lawn, and there are those which take the leave-it-alone approach that
needs minimal intervention, less water, less maintenance and less
chemical intervention. But, for all its virtues and its increasing
popularity, this leave-it-alone look (despite our 28-year-old deed
restriction) won't catch on at Waterwood until there's a change of
heart or change of staff and directors at the WIA office building.