Ft Worth Times

During the State of the City Address on Friday, Mayor Mattie Parker announced the creation of the Good Natured Fort Worth Greenspace Initiative.

Fort Worth is losing 50 acres per week of natural open space to development, and this initiative is aimed at uniting public and private community partners to enhance greenspace investment in Fort Worth.

Parker, who serves as a chair for the Mayors for Parks Coalition and signed Fort Worth onto the 10-Minute Walk Program, has two primary goals for the Good Natured initiative:

• To collaboratively grow and improve Fort Worth’s park system with support from partners.
• To preserve a minimum of 10,000 acres of open space over the next five years.

During her speech on Friday, Parker emphasized the urgency and importance of protecting natural areas like parks and critical watersheds in a rapidly growing city like Fort Worth.

“We have an opportunity, responsibility and urgency right now to protect natural areas and to preserve critical watersheds and green and blue spaces across our city. Leaving this city better than we found it starts now, and the generations to come are depending on us taking this seriously,” Parker said.

City Manager David Cooke selected Mark McDaniel, a seasoned municipal public servant who previously worked with the Fort Worth Lab, to serve as the City’s Greenspace Champion to lead the focus on greenspace issues.

According to Trust for Public Land data, Fort Worth has faced shortcomings compared to other major cities in park investment and the percentage of residents who live within a 10-minute walk of a park.

The Good Natured initiative aims to boost park development, specifically by increasing private organization participation, which currently accounted for only 1% of park investment in Fort Worth.

Joining Parker in this effort are passionate environmental leaders, including Elaine Petrus, Bill Meadows and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation Director of Investments and Conservation Finance Merrill Gregg. George Bristol, who is well known for advocating funding for state parks, will also be joining the group.

Why it matters: This initiative will build off of previous decades of greenspace and blue space efforts made by the City and Tarrant Regional Water District. It’s expected to enhance collaboration between the two entities in areas like recreation, conservation, stormwater management and water quality.

View a video describing the initiative.

In an effort to support the initiative, Oncor Electric Co. donated $1 million to be distributed over five years, facilitated by Streams & Valleys.

The bottom line: This initiative strengthens environmental conservation efforts and inter-agency collaboration. It also attracts significant financial support from corporate entities, ensuring sustainable development in Fort Worth.

Original source can be found here.