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Fort Worth residents are upset after ATV tire tracks have damaged wildflowers at Tandy Hills Nature Area\u2019s Broadcast Hill as wildflower season nears.<\/p>\n
Samuel O\u2019Neal<\/p>\n
soneal@star-telegram.com<\/p>\n
Friends of Tandy Hills, a group that works to protect a 220-acre native prairie in Fort Worth, will receive a financial boost from the Plant Society of Texas to pay interns to man the park this year.<\/p>\n
The Plant Society of Texas will give Friends of Tandy Hills<\/a> a grant worth several thousand dollars to pay interns $20 an hour to keep trail paths managed, remove invasive species, and ensure all wildlife that call the prairie home are protected.<\/p>\n More recently, Tandy Hills experienced issues with ATVs<\/a> being driven through the park and damaging wildflowers, sparking outrages on social media from people who demanded the city take action. But an even quieter problem the park faces is a large number of commercial photographers coming into the park and damaging flowers and other plants, said Don Young, president of Friends of Tandy Hills.<\/p>\n The grant money will hopefully make managing those problems easier by compensating interns for their work, Young said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a never ending maintenance project,\u201d Young said. \u201cThere\u2019s a constant need for land management. We have to remove invasive species constantly. We used to do all volunteers that would come in once or twice a year but just not enough was getting done and it was taking forever.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to the Plant Society of Texas, Friends of Tandy Hills will also receive grants from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Fash Foundation and the David L Tandy Foundation this year.<\/p>\n Money from those grants will cover not just labor costs, but also equipment like chain saws, herbicides, tools and bags, Young said.<\/p>\n With more consistent paid help, made easier through grant money, Young hopes his group can better keep the park protected and maintained.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem is really with these commercial photographers,\u201d Young said. \u201cThey are really a bigger problem now than anything else because so many come here every single day of the week, and they have seriously damaged the park in a couple of major places.\u201d<\/p>\n Tandy Hills is home to dozens of rare species that are not found in other areas of the country. Naturalists and other scientists frequently visit the prairie to research those species. The park is also home to a number of rare wildflowers.<\/p>\n In addition to ATV and photographer damage, Tandy Hills has been impacted by trucks from maintenance companies, horses and bicycle riders. Some residents access the park through entrances from their homes that border the natural area, so catching those who ride in the natural area can be a challenge for police.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s Park and Recreation Department keeps tabs on the park, with help from the Police Department, but officers can\u2019t be at the park at all times, especially in the later hours, to catch riders consistently.<\/p>\n The city added the 50-acre Broadcast Hill<\/a> to expand Tandy Hills in June 2020, costing about $600,000 to acquire. Broadcast Hill was the first purchase under the city\u2019s Open Space Conservation Program<\/a>, which was created to preserve natural spaces in the city as it is expected to grow exponentially over the next decade.<\/p>\n As far as future goals for the park, Young hopes to improve trail maintenance, build new trails and close bad ones, and keep hosting shows and other events at the park that will allow more residents to explore a \u201cone of a kind\u201d place right in the backyard of Fort Worth, he said.<\/p>\n