Trust for Public Land in Texas - 2024

Texas

YOU HELPED US ACCOMPLISH SO MUCH IN 2024, AND THERE IS SO MUCH MORE TO COME!

Top: Greener Dallas, Greater Dallas projects. Bottom: Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge in Austin.

Connecting Everyone to the Outdoors in Texas!

Communities in Texas and beyond are eager for solutions to the many challenges facing our nation today. YOU are part of the solution. Together, we are not just dreaming of a healthier, more equitable, climate-resilient future—we are building it.

From advocating for and passing historic state and municipal funding measures to putting shovels in the ground to bring quality parks to communities that need them most—Trust for Public Land is getting the work done to connect everyone to the outdoors. Right now, we are advancing three key efforts in Dallas: the Five Mile Creek Greenbelt, the Dallas Greening Initiative, and protection of Texas lands for public good.

We are thrilled to welcome TPL’s new President and CEO, Dr. Carrie Besnette Hauser. Well prepared to propel TPL forward, she brings a wealth of experience in public policy, philanthropy, the outdoors industry, and community engagement. Carrie’s leadership will be instrumental as we amplify our efforts to expand outdoor access through commitments to equity, health, climate, and community.

Since our first undertaking in Texas—the protection of 258 acres of sacred Atakapa land along Lake Conrad in 1979—we have completed more than 175 projects, including conserving nearly 434,000 acres of vital lands and waters. And we have proudly connected 282,299 Texans to a quality green space within a 10-minute walk from home.

As TPL looks to the future, we remain committed to our vision of a world where every person can connect with the outdoors. We sincerely appreciate your steadfast support. Thank you for partnering with us on this journey.

Molly Morgan Texas State Director

Eagle Mountain Lake Park in Fort Worth.

PHOTO BY DARC Y KIEFEL

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TRUST FOR PUBLIC L AND IN TEX AS

Texas Voters Deliver Historic Wins for Parks Passing ballot measures that deliver real systems-level change is no easy task. TPL’s Federal Relations and Conservation Finance experts are trusted advisors to state and local governments and community leaders on how to design, pass, and implement ballot and legislative measures to fund parks and conservation that reflect public priorities.

Across party lines, the measures we support win approval in voting booths and on legislature floors, coast to coast and on Capitol Hill.

In 2024, Dallas voters approved a $345 million parks bond—the country’s largest-ever municipal parks bond. It will fund park maintenance, trails, playgrounds, recreation centers, and more, with a $9.5 million allocation to projects TPL is actively advancing.

Six months earlier, as we celebrated the 100th anniversary of our state parks system, an overwhelming 77 percent of Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment to create the Centennial Parks Conservation Fund. Texas State Parks attract nearly 10 million visitors annually.

But our current state park inventory no longer meets the demand of the state’s growing population. This $1 billion fund will be used to catalyze the largest expansion of state parks in Texas history. To support this undertaking, TPL is actively seeking and identifying opportunities to protect more unique and important lands in Texas.

It is thanks to the generosity of donors that TPL is the national leader in securing voter-approved funding

PHOTO BY CHRISTI COOPER-KUHN

for parks and conservation. Your philanthropy makes it possible for us to engage in designing and advocating for measures like the ones in Texas. In our nearly 30 years advancing policy and public funding efforts, we have helped pass 649 ballot measures across the country. We are proud of our 83 percent success rate for approved ballot measures, which have raised $94 billion in public funds. Together, we are safeguarding our lands, helping neighborhoods thrive, and building more resilient communities for the future.

The $9.5 million Dallas bond allocation will support Greener Dallas, Greater Dallas. And it is thanks to donor support that we will complete the groundwork to make projects shovel-ready so we can unlock the public allocation for capital projects. This expansive undertaking includes the Five Mile Creek Greenbelt park and trail system; the Dallas Greening Initiative to transform vacant lots into green spaces; and Texas Lands, the large-scale conservation of iconic landscapes. Together, we can ensure that everyone in Dallas, regardless of zip code, will have access to the benefits and joys of the outdoors.

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Harnessing Nature for a Healthier and Thriving Dallas Access to nature is a fundamental human need. This is why we are building the Five Mile Creek Greenbelt in partnership with the City of Dallas. The 17-mile park and trail system, stretching across southern Dallas along Five Mile Creek, is forging a pathway to greater health, equity, and prosperity.

Chronic conditions like diabetes, obesity, asthma, and hypertension cost the U.S. more than $100 billion each year, and Texas has the highest rate of uninsured people in the nation. A 2022 study ranked Dallas last in the country when it comes to mental health. Access to the outdoors is a powerful public health tool, but nearly half of residents in southern Dallas do not live within a 10-minute walk of a park, trail, or green space—well below the city average of 74 percent.

Communities that invest in quality trails, parks, and green spaces experience increased activity levels, improved mental and physical health, better air quality and other environmental conditions that affect health, and a decline in chronic illnesses. The Five Mile Creek Greenbelt will deliver community-wide preventative care. It will put more than 200,000 southern Dallas residents within a safe and welcoming 10-minute walk of three incredible new parks and 14 existing parks.

And it will connect residents to vital services within a five-minute walk of the trail—hospitals and healthcare

South Oak Cliff Renaissance Park in the Five Mile Creek Greenbelt. PHOTO BY JASON FLOWERS

facilities, schools and universities, light rail stations and 100 bus stops.

The Greenbelt will link two existing hike and bike trails— Trinity River Trail at Joppa Preserve and Chalk Hill Trail, both part the city’s popular Loop Trail. In effect, the new link will extend The Loop through a beautiful and lesser-known natural area. As a result, all of Dallas will gain access to an immersive experience in nature that is unlike any other area in the city. And southern Dallas will gain long-needed access to The Loop. The Greenbelt is expected to spur economic growth, including an estimated $17 million in new wages and $1 million in state and local tax revenues.

LEVERAGING PHILANTHROPY FOR TRAILS A thriving trail system is a mirror of a thriving community. TPL has created or protected over 3,000 miles of urban, rural, and suburban trails.

Our portfolio includes nearly 150 active trail projects, making us the leading trail organization in the country. Over the next decade, we will leverage philanthropy to raise $4 billion in local, state, and federal funding to build shovel-ready trail projects.

Five Mile Creek Greenbelt. PHOTO BY JASON FLOWERS

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A Greenbelt Park Honors Land and People

LEFT: “Explore and Restore” Blackland Prairie

restoration event. PHOTOS BY T Y L E R H O L LO WAY/CO U R T E S Y O F T H E N AT U R E CO N S E R VA N C Y; RIGHT: Charles R. Rose Community Park groundbreaking event. PHOTO

North Texas was once covered in fields of Blackland Prairie. Today, over 99 percent of this native ecosystem has been lost to development. After discovering remnants of original prairieland at Judge Charles R. Rose Community Park, currently under construction, TPL partnered with The Nature Conservancy to host “Explore and Restore,” a seed-planting event. Volunteers catalogued existing grass species and planted new seeds. The event launched a long-term restoration of acres of Blackland Prairie.

Alongside revealing and stewarding the important ecological role of Blackland Prairie, the park celebrates cultural legacy. Named in honor of Judge Charles R. Rose, the Texas Legislature and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department awarded a catalytic $1 million grant to the park in 2019 in his honor. Judge Rose for decades served the Highland Hills community, where the park is located.

Unity, reunion, nature, and access are park themes that Rose’s legacy of community engagement inspired.

BY JASON FLOWERS

TPL worked with hundreds of nearby residents for two years to develop a community-driven master plan.

The 40-acre park features a view to downtown Dallas; shaded event spaces; an outdoor classroom and pavilion with solar-powered lighting and Wi-Fi; an inclusive playground and spacious lawns for people of all abilities; a walking trail winding through preserved woodlands; and collage-inspired murals that residents helped design.

The nearly 4,000 people who live, work, or learn within a 10-minute walk of the park will have unprecedented park access. This also benefits students from elementary and middle schools, patrons of the library across from the park, and thousands of students who attend nearby University of North Texas at Dallas and Paul Quinn College, the oldest Historically Black College and University west of the Mississippi.

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VACANT TO VIBRANT

Greening Dallas One Lot at a Time When Mayor Eric Johnson approached TPL with an inventory of 2,800 city-owned vacant parcels and an idea to transform these neglected lots into green spaces, we understood the opportunity in front of us. Narrowing the park equity gap in Dallas will generate lasting benefits.

This is why in 2024, TPL partnered with the City of Dallas and Dallas Parks and Recreation Department (DPRD) to launch the Dallas Greening Initiative.

Neighborhood parks, where kids play and where we interact with neighbors, contribute to social cohesion within communities. And time spent outdoors results in better physical and mental health. Green spaces also strengthen environmental health, improving air quality and making communities more resilient against flooding and intense heat. Communities that lack access to closeto-home quality parks experience disparities in health, climate, and equity over generations.

With the Dallas Greening Initiative, we are transforming 15 vacant, city-owned lots into vibrant, safe, and welcoming green spaces. TPL enlisted our award-winning

geospatial team to analyze the thousands of vacant city parcels, prioritizing those with the greatest potential to cool neighborhoods, reduce flooding, improve health, build equity, and connect communities.

Beginning with five pilot transformations, TPL, in partnership with Better Block, launched the initiative by hosting pop-up park events at all five locations. The events invited residents to walk to their future green spaces to play, socialize, and envision possibilities. The pop-up parks demonstrated the capacity for public land to energize and unite neighbors across differences.

Within 18 months of these events, the empty lots will be fully transformed and opened to neighborhoods.

Some will feature playgrounds and walking paths, while others will prioritize planting areas that capture stormwater and feature shade trees. TPL is establishing a maintenance fund and plan, and we are helping residents form “friends of” groups to steward these new green spaces. The DPRD will also provide ongoing maintenance. When all 15 parks are open, 23,265 residents will have new access to a quality green space within a 10-minute-walk from home.

Dallas Greening Pop -up Park events. PHOTOS BY, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: IMANI CHET LY TLE, BRIAN FERNANDO, ADRIAN CORTES, BRIAN FERNANDO

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A Wild and Breathtaking Landscape Protected for the People T PL T E X A S

BY THE NUMBERS

282

acres of wilderness

50,000+ TREES

Big Cedar Wilderness. PHOTO BY JASON FLOWERS

In north Texas, there are fewer and fewer places like Big Cedar Wilderness. A wild and breathtaking landscape, nearly 300 acres of rolling hills, cliffs, creeks, ponds, and wildflower meadows run along a steep escarpment in southwest Dallas and provide stunning views of downtown. The chance to protect Big Cedar from development was a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

Big Cedar has been a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts for years, and is especially beloved by the mountain biking community. Local groups have blazed over 20 miles of trails over the years. The same groups, including the Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association and Master Naturalists, have maintained the trails.

But ownership has changed hands numerous times, putting the land at risk of development and threatening permanent public access to the popular trails and remarkable landscape. This was the case until 2023, when then-owners Liberty Bankers Insurance Group made a generous and visionary donation. Under the leadership of CEO Brad Phillips, who grew up exploring these woods, the group transferred more than 280 acres to TPL. Phillips recognized the value in protecting these lands.

73 threatened or

endangered species

20+ miles OF TR AIL S

TPL has taken the next big step. After conveying the property to the City of Dallas, this year we partnered to begin a master planning process. Public engagement kicked off in fall of 2024, and the plan is expected to be complete by spring of 2025. The recent voter-approved bond package for Dallas parks dedicates $1.5 million to Big Cedar. As the master plan is developed and realized, people in and around Dallas will enjoy a healthier, more livable community for generations to come.

I’m proud to be part of the preservation of Big Cedar Wilderness. I look forward to watching it continue to prosper and serve outdoor enthusiasts both locally and beyond.”

— CEO Brad Phillips, Liberty Bankers Insurance Group

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THANK YOU TO OUR ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS Bobby Abtahi Chris Applequist Tre Black Lucy Burns Bill Chaney Chantel Cheatham Charles Elk, Vice Chair

CURRENT FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Our work in Texas is made possible thanks to the generosity of foundations, companies, and individuals like you.

Wildlands: Conserve our country’s most iconic and imperiled landscapes.

Trails Activation Fund: Expand America’s trail networks across urban, rural, and suburban communities.

Community Schoolyards®: Transform barren public schoolyards into vibrant green spaces for inspired learning, play, recreation, and access for all outside of school hours.

Tribal Community Schoolyards: Scale a groundbreaking model to remake tribal schoolyards into community hubs that redress disparities in education, health, and climate and celebrate Native lifeways.

Leave a Legacy: Create an even bigger impact by making a gift through your will, trust, charitable giving annuity, charitable remainder trust, beneficiary designation, or appreciated assets.

A.C. Gonzales Vonciel Jones Hill Peter Lewis Steve Martin Christina Mintner Drexell Owusu, Secretary

THANK YOU

Gunnar Rawlings

for helping improve the health, equity, and climate outcomes for communities in Texas and beyond.

Andres Ruzo Enisha Shropshire Asheya Warren, Chair

Molly Morgan Texas State Director molly.morgan@tpl.org

Join us Help ensure everyone has access to the outdoors. Every park we create, schoolyard we transform, trail we extend, and landscape we protect is thanks to supporters like you. tpl.org/donate/tx

Ray Garvin Texas Director of Philanthropy ray.garvin@tpl.org

3000 Pegasus Park Drive Suite 752 Dallas, TX 75247

COVER PHOTOS BY, TOP: T YLER HOLLOWAY/COURTESY OF THE NATURE CONSERVANC Y; BR ANDON FERNANDO; JASON FLOWERS; L ARGE: ERIC SWANSON; THIS PAGE: BRIT TANY GRYDER