Thumbnail Sketch of Edward C. Fritz

Founder of Texas Committee on Natural Resources, now Chair Emeritus and Chair, Forest Task Force. Founder and member of the Board of Directors of Texas League of Conservation Voters. Founder and now Secretary of Natural Area Preservation Association, a Texas land trust with 80 nature preserves, the largest being 22,000 acres. First president of Dallas County Audubon Society.

In the conservation field, received the 1970 National American Motors Conservation Award in the non-professional category; the 1975 Oak Leaf Award of the Natural Conservancy and the 1978 Feinstone Foundation Award for outstanding environmentalist in the United States; the 1985 Sierra Club National Achievement Award; the 1990 Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Award (by President George Bush); a 1990 Special Service Award by the Sierra Club, Lone Star Chapter; and a 1992 Conservation Forester of the Year Award by Sportsmen Conservationists of Texas; 1993 Merit Award, Texas Organization for Endangered Species; and 1994 Environmental Excellence Award, CEED; 1996 Floyd Potter Award for outstanding achievement in endangered species conservation, TOES; 1997 Meryl and Edith Hoyt Volunteer of the Year, Dallas County Audubon Society; 1998 Excellence in Environmental Awareness, League of Women Voters of Texas; 1999 Texas Audubon Society Centennial Award; 2001 Award by Big Thicket Association for contributions for establishing the Big Thicket National Preserve, 2001 National Wildlife Federation National Conservation Achievement Award for Special Achievement.

Is author of three books: award-winning Sterile Forest, Eakin Press, 1983; Realms of Beauty, University of Texas Press, 1986 (revised); Clearcutting: A Crime Against Nature, Eakin Press, 1989. Authored numerous conservation and nature articles for magazines and other media.

Drafted the Texas Scientific Areas Act and several other bills for the Texas legislature, and the East Texas Wilderness Act, passed by the Congress of the U.S. and signed into law on October 30, 1984; the Forest Biodiversity Protection Act, introduced into Congress from 1993 to 1997.

Graduated from law school at Southern Methodist University in 1940 with an Ll.B degree, after first obtaining a B.A. degree at University of Chicago. Has practiced law in Dallas ever since, with time out for service as a naval aviator in World War II. Southern Methodist University awarded him its honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in May, 1991.


Served as attorney for Texas Committee on Natural Resources (co-plaintiff with Sierra Club and Wilderness Society) in lawsuit against the Forest Service (USDA) resulting in 1988 injunction against even-age management in habitat of endangered Red-cockaded woodpecker in Texas. Forest Service appeal denied in 1991. Won a 1997 injunction against all logging in national forests in Texas, reversed in 2000, now before the District Court for rehearing. In July, 2003, with the Forest Service’s new RCW plan and with a different attorney representing TCONR, the injunctions were lifted.

Began his interest in conservation at the age of 12 while passing merit badges to become an Eagle Scout.