My friend Judy Schmidt, the Communications and Marketing Manager for the City of Dallas and the Trinity River Corridor Project, needs your help. The TRCP is calling for “trail maintenance” volunteers this weekend at Rochester Park, a 900-acre park blossoming with birds, ponds, and meadows since the TRCP, Dallas Street Department, and Parks and Recreation agreed to stop vehicular traffic in the area near the levee.
Judy and other local birders have reported multiple sightings of Bald Eagles in the wetland area near the intersection of I-45 and Loop 12. Look out, Dallas. You may think being a nature freak is nerdy, but Nature Nerds, like me, spend a lot of money looking for natural beauty (and birds). I hope the city of Dallas focuses on the potential for what I call “Twitcher Tourism.” (Maybe build a series of cabins in the woods for visitors to rent?) Call volunteer. I would love to join you but I have volunteered to help the Texas Bluebird Society install a few miles of bluebird nesting boxes at Lake Tawakoni. With Boy Scouts! Jump for more info on Rochester Park opportunity.
Student Conservation Association Celebrating Martin Luther King Rochester Park Trail Maintenance
Come join the celebration!
WHAT: In conjunction with the Student Conservation Association, the Trinity River Corridor Project would like to invite everyone to come join us for a morning in Rochester Park. On the Saturday following Martin Luther King Day, we will be gathering to perform trail maintenance. The Student Conservation Association will also be kicking off the Conservation Leadership Corps at this event. This program will allow volunteer members to build trails, restore river and lakefront environments, conserve habitats, and attend weekend camping trips and excursions throughout the school year. We would love to see as many people there as possible, so bring your rakes and gloves and come join the celebration!
WHEN: Saturday, January 24, 2009 from 9:00am-2:00pm.
WHERE: Rochester Park located at 3000 Municipal Street, Dallas, TX 75215
WHO: In addition to volunteers, members of the Student Conservation Association as well as representatives from The City of Dallas will be in attendance.
About the Student Conservation Association:
The Student Conservation Association (SCA) is a nonprofit organization that offers conservation internships and summer trail crew opportunities to more than 3,800 people each year. SCA members complete projects in every conservation discipline – from archeology to zoology – and everything in between. SCA is focused on developing conservation and community leaders while getting important work done on the land. Founded in 1957 to restore and protect America’s public lands and preserve them for future generations, SCA remains committed to this goal today.
About the Trinity River Corridor Project:
The projected $2 billion Trinity River Corridor Project is the largest public works and urban development project in the history of Dallas, and one of the largest of its type in the nation. It will reduce flood damage, provide recreational amenities and add visionary environmental benefits, improve downtown traffic congestion, and encourage development along the Trinity River. The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, designed by internationally known architect Santiago Calatrava, is now under construction; and in 2011, construction will begin on the second Calatrava designed bridge, the Margaret McDermott Bridge. For project updates visit: www.trinityrivercorridor.org.
5 comments
Good call. Lake Tawakoni sounds a whole lot safer.
And I say this as someone who lives downtown and enjoys the urban lifestyle, but good luck renting cabins at I-45 and Loop 12, unless they’re surrounded by razor wire and gun turrets.
The eagles are probably on their way to Lake Ray Roberts.
I’m also a nature nerd. So much so that I’ve recently moved from Dallas to Missoula, Montana to be closer to nature. However, I think Dallas receives a raw deal in regards to its perception as a concrete sprawl. You can take a late afternoon walk in the Spring at White Rock and see orioles, kingbirds, kingfishers, flycatchers, pelicans, wood ducks, hawks of many varieties, and woodpeckers. To name just a few species. How many major metropolitan areas have urban lakes that hold such variety? I doubt many, if any.
We should build a toll road down there so we can watch the bald eagles at 70MPH in air-conditioned comfort. (The eagles like the exhaust, too. It’s like crack to them.)
Improving and raising the levees is the only smart thing about this whole plan for the Trinity River in Dallas. Environmentally it will be very expensive. The river is filthy and it has been recommended for years that fish caught in it should not be consumed because of numerous toxins. These toxins (PCB’s, mercury, lead, etc.) have leached into the soil and will be re-exposed during construction. The amount of trash and debris in the river bottom is enormous and must be removed. In 1982 while living in Hutchins I personally saw the Dallas bomb squad retrieve and detonate about 50 sticks of unstable dynamite from the trees on each side of the Dowdy Ferry Rd bridge that had been dumped and floated down the river during flood stage from Ft. Worth or Dallas. They probably didn’t find it all.
The 200+ acres of wetland habitat will be a very nice breeding ground for West Nile Virus carrying mosquitoes.
Unless the the distance between levees is increased (moved farther away from the river channel) the river will continue to fill the entire river bottom up to the top of the levees during flood stage. Everything built between the levees will then be underwater and covered with debris and mud thus creating major cleanup and maintenance repairs after the water recedes. A new lake, 2nd river channel, and wetlands aren’t going to change the elevation of flood waters on the levees in Dallas unless they are built farther apart. Don’t be fooled, flood water is not going to pass through Dallas any faster than it does now because of this project. I have seen no provisions in this plan to improve the existing old river channel or levees south of I-20 in Hutchins. Without any improvements south of I-20 nothing will be gained in the amount and speed that flood waters leave the Dallas area.
I’m a retired Corps construction inspector and have been directly involved in the repairs, realignments, and upgrades of the levee systems on the Trinity River and its tributaries from Grand Prairie to Ennis since 1981 and I know what I’m talking about. And by the way, where is the Trinity River Authority during all these planning and approval hearings?