The Great Trinity Forest: The Green Heart of Dallas
by Amy Martin with Kristi Kerr Leonard

July 12 Sat. at 2 pm

Forest Green Branch Library
9619 Greenville Ave, Dallas, TX 75243 (correct address, ignore Facebook map)

Friendship Force Dallas

The Great Trinity Forest 

In the early ’70s, a business and political crony campaign to straighten and channelize the Trinity River from east Fort Worth to the Gulf of Mexico included plans to level much of the immense woods between I-45 and US 175. Ned Fritz, who was leading the anti-canal movement in North Texas, knew that the forest needed to be named in order for people to care about it. The name that arose among activists, attributed to Campbell Reed of First Unitarian, was the Great Trinity Forest (GTF). The 6000 acres of urban bottomland hardwood forest is the largest swath of such an ecosystem in the nation.

Learn about the GTF’s ecology and natural treasures. Discover where to hike it, from refined and paved trails to utterly wild hikes. Find out about Ned’s efforts to familiarize people with the GTF by leading annual March walks to view the Texas buckeye blooms, and how these were carried on by Jim Flood and continue today via Kristi Kerr Leonard on the officially named Ned and Genie Fritz Texas Buckeye Trails. Understand the ongoing threats to the GTF’s autonomy and speculate on why it’s never been officially named or defined.

Photo of Texas buckeye blooms by Stalin SM.