With purchase of natural prairie, Fort Worth preserves open space in heart of the city
After 16 years of fighting to preserve natural prairie land in east Fort Worth, environmental activists were able to breathe a sigh of relief at a gathering Thursday night celebrating the city’s acquisition of Broadcast Hill.
The $610,000 purchase of the 50-plus acre property from oil giant Total was funded through Fort Worth’s oil and gas trust fund and about $64,000 in donations raised by The Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area, a volunteer group focused on educating the public about the importance of conserving indigenous prairie.
“Thank goodness no fracking is ever going to occur here,” Don Young, who founded the organization in 2004, said at the celebration. “I’m still pinching myself. It’s hard to believe it’s true, but it is.”
Despite concerns over budget shortfalls due to the COVID-19 pandemic, city officials are moving forward with their plans to use oil and gas revenue to purchase open spaces for preservation, with Broadcast Hill serving as the first property in that initiative. The deal was first proposed in February, before the pandemic hit the United States with full force.
“It would have been very easy for the city to say, ‘For financial reasons, we can no longer do that,’” said Jim Marshall, who donated thousands to the purchase. “But the city took the long view, and they stayed the course and they moved forward with the acquisition.”
City Councilwoman Kelly Allen Gray, who represents District 8 on the east side of Fort Worth, said “the stars aligned” to make the purchase possible through a combination of community support, city funding and Total’s willingness to sell. Thanks to the deal, the Tandy Hills area now spans 230 acres.
“It made perfect sense to spend those dollars back in a place where there really was concern about oil and gas and trampling that beautiful area,” Gray said. “There are not many urban cities that can say they have original prairie land, and in Fort Worth, we have it right in the middle of the central city with a beautiful view of downtown. It’s utopia.”
A few dozen supporters of the purchase donned masks at an outdoor ceremony on the hill, which Sam Kieschnick described as a refuge for thousands of native species and the humans who appreciate them. KXAS Channel 5 was formerly located on the east side of the hill, giving the property its name.
“We’re seeing pretty close to pristine area here,” Kieschnick, an urban wildlife biologist for Texas Parks & Wildlife, said. “It hasn’t changed much from pre-history times, which makes it pretty cool to explore.”
Beyond the beauty of its wildflowers and high biological diversity, the land helps with water runoff during storms, soaking up moisture and preventing flooding in the region, Young said.
The city’s parks department and Friends of Tandy Hills will work together to maintain the property. Young and his volunteers plan to develop a trail system for hikers and rid the hill of invasive species, in addition to their continued educational efforts about the benefits of preserving natural prairie.
“There’s a very small percentage of native prairie that’s left anywhere in the country, but in this particular part of the country, there’s probably less than one-tenth of a percent of prairie left,” Young said. “This place that we’re standing on is like a little museum … This is a very big deal to save this.”
This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 3:00 PM.
