Nature center, other projects blooming in Great Trinity Forest
Trails, nature center planned for sprawling forest
11:04 PM CDT on Sunday, April 6, 2008
Note to hikers and bikers, birders and boaters: The pace is picking up in the Great Trinity Forest.
Ten years after Dallas voters approved a far-reaching redo of the Trinity River Corridor, the waterway's woodlands are ripe with projects designed to tap and protect the sprawling resource at the city's southern door. For example:
•A nature center, to be operated by the National Audubon Society, will officially open in October.
•Construction of the first segment of a proposed 24-mile system of concrete trails is expected to begin in June, with completion by year's end.
•The concrete paving of a portion of the Buckeye Trail in Rochester Park is scheduled to begin next month, as is construction of the Moore Park Gateway in Oak Cliff, the first of at least four new trailheads into the forest.
•The first draft of a 100-year forest management plan will be released this summer.
•Design of a city-owned equestrian center will resume this summer if a nonprofit group raises enough money toward its share of the cost.
The forest projects are among the first to break ground in a $1.7 billion program for a riverfront toll road, parks, recreation, flood control and bridges.
Also OnlineAs designated by planners, the forest stretches along the Trinity from the former Santa Fe railroad near Corinth Street southeast to Interstate 20.
It covers about 6,000 acres of land lying mostly in the river's 100-year floodplain, making it among the largest urban hardwood forests in North America, said Bryan Kilburn, the city's Trinity forestry manager.
"There's so much more than just the toll road and the levees," he said of the future highway, which survived an election last year to kill it.
Hardwoods – including black willow, American and cedar elm, red oak, burr oak, green ash and pecan – cover about 87 percent of the forest, much of which is less than 50 years old, having emerged from land long cultivated for farming. The city owns about two-thirds of the forest property and plans to acquire the rest.
"We don't want you cutting on big branches overhead," trail planner Wade Peterson told a group of contractors as they walked the future route of one path.
When built this year, the 12-foot-wide concrete hike-and-bike way will extend from a trailhead near the river and Loop 12 through the Joppa Preserve park to Simpson Stuart Road. Passing small lakes, running atop levees and crossing creeks, the trail will cut through an area now scarred in stretches by litter and junk.
"There are wild hogs down in here," said Mr. Peterson, walking along. "They usually just go away."
That two-mile trail will be the first piece of a system designed to connect with others in the city and forest itself.
One of those is the Buckeye Trail, which winds through the woods of Rochester Park about four miles south of downtown.
One segment leads to a grove of Texas buckeye trees (this year's white flowery bloom is over), while another ends at a river overlook.
That latter, half-mile stretch will be paved with concrete in the months ahead, to the objection of at least one local naturalist.
"It will destroy any sense of being in a wild area," said Jim Flood, who routed the dirt path six years ago and leads public hikes there.
"Once it gets opened up like that, it's going to be a less-safe trail. You put concrete in and the next thing you know, people are going to want streetlights."
Mary Ayala, the city's Trinity recreation manager, said the goal is to provide a trail that is wheelchair accessible and durable. Crushed stone would make the trail accessible, but floods might wash it out, and replacements cost more over time than concrete, she said.
"It is a sensitive area, but you want to have opportunities for everyone," she said.
The Buckeye Trail construction and other trails planned for the Rochester Park area will increase recreation opportunities for neighboring residents.
"It's wonderful, man. It's going to be an adventure," said Marvin Richardson, who lives near the trailhead at the end of Bexar Street.
He said he lived for 27 years in the Turner Courts public housing up the street and has never walked the Buckeye Trail. He might check it and the other forest projects out because "curious minds want to know."
Local youngsters stand to benefit most of all, Mr. Richardson said. "I couldn't even start to tell you what it's going to mean to those kids," he said. "They've never had anything like this."
Dallas has never had anything like the Trinity River Audubon Center, either. Built on the site of a former landfill near the river, the almost $14 million city-owned center and grounds will offer nature education, exhibits and hiking.
"That pool was 11 feet high in debris. Now it's 8 feet deep in water," said Don Burns, the city's project manager, looking at one of 10 ponds on the property.
About two miles northwest of the nature center, the city and a nonprofit have agreed to share in building the Texas Horse Park. The 225-acre center and grounds, near Loop 12 and Pemberton Hill Road, would host equestrian competitions and provide trails for horseback riding.
The group – Texas Horse Park Inc. – would operate the center and is trying to raise its estimated $15 million share of the project. If it shows enough success and design resumes this summer, construction could begin in September 2009 with possible completion by late 2010, said Mr. Burns, manager of that project as well.
The Moore Park Gateway, near the Dallas Area Rapid Transit rail station at Eighth and Corinth streets in Oak Cliff, will be the entry point for a new trail across the river bottom.
Other trailheads are planned for Rochester Park, the Joppa community and near Interstate 20. Canoe access points will be added near I-20 and Moore Park. Planners would like to see a campsite near White Rock Creek.
The forest is no Central Park. But at roughly seven times the size of New York City's jewel, it stands to be a regional draw. Not only will it expand recreational options, but someday, Mr. Kilburn said, it could fuel economic growth and change perceptions of an area of the city that has lacked opportunities.
How and how much the public takes to the forest will be answered in time. Responsibilities and funding for its upkeep haven't been resolved.
"It's going to take a long-term commitment by the city of Dallas," Mr. Kilburn said. "Hopefully, there will be some ownership by the neighborhoods."
And volunteers will continue to play an important role.
"It's my hope people will want to be involved in this, put their money where their mouth is," Mr. Kilburn said.
"People talk about a green Dallas. Well, here's an opportunity."
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