Dozens of Fort Worth residents are hoping for action from the city after tire tracks from ATVs have damaged wildflowers in recent days at Tandy Hills Natural Area and Broadcast Hill.
ATVs and other motorized vehicles are prohibited in the park, which is designed for pedestrians only. Horse riding, biking and other non-foot traffic activity is banned in the natural area, according to the city of Fort Worth.
Fort Worth residents are upset after ATV tire tracks have damaged wildflowers at Tandy Hills Nature Area’s Broadcast Hill as wildflower season nears. Samuel O’Neal soneal@star-telegram.com
Friends of Tandy Hill, a group that works to protect the 220-acre native prairie in Fort Worth from ongoing issues like misuse and vandalism, has met with the city three times about this issue in the past year, said Don Young, the group’s founder and president.
Young said those meetings were important, but there is still more work to be done in ensuring Tandy Hills is protected the way it should be.
“The proof is in the pudding for me,” Young said. “Let’s just say it’s still a work in progress. It’s going to take some major backbone to do what has to be done for Tandy Hills, and money too. That’s the other part.”
Issues with ATVs and wildflower damage at Tandy Hills is not a new problem. Young said he has been experiencing it for well over 20 years. But it is just especially amplified this time of year because wildflower season is nearing, he said.
Fort Worth residents are upset after ATV tire tracks have damaged wildflowers at Tandy Hills Nature Area’s Broadcast Hill as wildflower season nears. Samuel O’Neal soneal@star-telegram.com
Young said he has heard from several concerned parkgoers in recent days about the damage.
“The city likes to say they have 300 or something parks and that Tandy Hills is just one of them,” Young said. “But I would like to point out that Tandy Hills is not a park. It’s actually a natural area and requires a different set of rules, a different set of maintenance schedules, and a different way of looking at it. Because if it’s not protected, you can’t just build a new one. This is a one of kind thing here.”
In addition to ATV damage, Tandy Hills has been impacted by trucks from maintenance companies, horses, bicycles and commercial photographers. Some residents access the park through private entrances from their homes that border the natural area.
Fort Worth residents are upset after ATV tire tracks have damaged wildflowers at Tandy Hills Nature Area’s Broadcast Hill as wildflower season nears. Samuel O’Neal soneal@star-telegram.com
Catching those who ride in the natural area can be a challenge for police, Young acknowledged. The city’s Park and Recreation Department keeps tabs on the park, with help from the Police Department, but officers can’t be at the park at all times, especially in the later hours, to catch riders consistently.
Police officers have visited the homes of some residents who live close to the park and could have private entry points to the park. But given how many homes there are in the area, it has become difficult to manage, Young said.
“The police can’t always be here to catch them in the act,” Young said. “It’s more difficult to charge them if you don’t catch them in the act.”
The city officially added the 50-acre Broadcast Hill property to the Tandy Hills Natural Area in June 2020, costing about $600,000 to acquire. Broadcast Hill was the first purchase under the city’s Open Space Conservation Program, which was created to preserve natural spaces in the city as it is expected to grow exponentially over the next several decades.
“Preserving key open spaces before they are developed is vital to ensuring that current and future residents have access to a large and connected network of open space, trails, and parks,” the city wrote in a statement when it first announced the program. “Conserving these natural areas now will also help the City better plan economic strategies that leverage outdoor recreation and trail-oriented development.”
A month after the city purchased Broadcast Hill, it announced it was closed to all vehicles, including cars, trucks, four-whelers, bicycles and motorcycles. Pedestrians must stay on the trails. If wildflowers are trampled, they cannot be pollinated and produce seed, which will reduce the future number of wildflowers.
Broadcast Hill is also now connected to Tandy Hills by natural-surface trails, which wasn’t the case when Broadcast Hill was first purchased by the city.
“I was heatbroken yesterday when I walked at Broadcast Hill for the first time in almost two weeks,” wrote a member of the Meadowbrook Neighborhood Group in a Facebook post. “We need more signs posted at all possible access points for four-wheelers. It looks like one more bad year for the beautiful wildflowers.”
A spokesperson for the city did not immediately respond to the Star-Telegram’s request for comment.
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Samuel O’Neal is a local news reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram covering higher education and local news in Fort Worth. He joined the team in December 2025 after previously working as a staff writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He graduated from Temple University, where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the school’s student paper, The Temple News.