Cypress Bayou is the name applied to a series of wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

s at the western edge of Caddo Lake

Caddo Lake

Caddo Lake is a lake and wetland located on the border between Texas and Louisiana, in northern Harrison County and southern Marion County in Texas and western Caddo Parish in Louisiana. The lake is named after the Southeastern culture of Native Americans called Caddoans or Caddo, who lived in...

, in and around Jefferson, Texas

Jefferson, Texas

Jefferson is an historic city in Marion County in northeastern Texas, United States. The population was 2,024 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Marion County, Texas, and is situated in East Texas...

, making up part of the largest Cypress forest in the world. The bayou

Bayou

A bayou is an American term for a body of water typically found in flat, low-lying areas, and can refer either to an extremely slow-moving stream or river , or to a marshy lake or wetland. The name "bayou" can also refer to creeks that see level changes due to tides and hold brackish water which...

 is divided into three areas—each part of the watershed of a small river or creek—Little Cypress, Big Cypress, and Black Cypress. The features had been modified, to an extent, by human beings in the 19th and 20th centuries, but today is endangered by pollution, development, and the deforestation

Deforestation

Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....

, through clear cutting, of the Piney Woods

Piney Woods

The Piney Woods is a temperate coniferous forest terrestrial ecoregion in the Southern United States covering of East Texas, southern Arkansas, western Louisiana, and southeastern Oklahoma. These coniferous forests are dominated by several species of pine as well as hardwoods including hickory and...

that surround the bayous. Large groves of trees have completely died off, and land has been recently deforested up to the water's edge.