Please see the below announcement from the office of Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker.

Mayor Parker Announces Good Natured Initiative to Preserve Greenspace

Initial goals will add acres of greenspace, grow park system across Fort Worth

Fort Worth – Oct. 6, 2023 – Today, Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker has announced her creation of Good Natured, a Fort Worth Greenspace Initiative. The efforts seeks to bring public and private partners together to shape and enhance greenspace investment in Fort Worth for the next 100 years in a city that loses roughly 50 acres of natural open space per week to development.

Mayor Parker, who serves as Chair of Mayors for Parks Coalition, a project of the City Parks Alliance, and signed Fort Worth onto the 10- Minute Walk Program shortly after being elected as Mayor in 2021, has set two initial goals for Good Natured initiative: grow and enhance Fort Worth’s park system collaboratively with the support of private and public sector partners and preserve at least 10,000 acres of open space over the next five years.

“Fort Worth is the fastest-growing city in America and is also currently half-developed. We must meet this moment,” said Mayor Parker. “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.”

According to data from the Trust for Public Land, Fort Worth lags behind other major cities in both park investment per capita and percent of residents living within a 10-minute walk to a park. The Good Natured initiative will seek to increase park investment, in part by aiming to drastically increase private organization participation, which currently accounts for only one percent of park investment per person in Fort Worth.

Mayor Parker is bringing alongside numerous passionate community members in the effort to provide guidance in reaching the initiative’s short- and long-term goals, including Elaine Petrus, Bill Meadows, and Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation Director of Investments and Conservation Finance Merrill Gregg. George Bristol, who has spent decades leading the charge to increase funding for state parks and whose conservation advocacy efforts led to the successful increase dedicated sporting goods tax revenues for the Texas Parks and Wildlife program, has also joined the initiative.

“Parks are an essential part of a community,” said Bristol. “Conserving the beauty and heritage of our natural greenspaces gives every resident a pride of ownership that they deserve, and Fort Worth is in a moment in its history where the opportunity is now to have a generational impact.”

The effort will build off of the decades of greenspace and blue space investment by City of Fort Worth and Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD), and work to further collaboration opportunities between the entities around recreation, conservation, stormwater management, and water quality.

“TRWD has had the honor of being the champion for the Trinity River and the beloved Trinity Trails for nearly 100 years, and I look forward to exploring the ways we can strengthen our partnership with City of Fort Worth to do even more to protect and preserve the open spaces and waterways that contribute to the wellbeing and sustainability of our community,” said TRWD Board President Leah King.

To lead this focus on greenspace issues for the City of Fort Worth, City Manager David Cooke has named Mark McDaniel, a 35-year veteran of municipal public service, as the City’s Greenspace Champion.

The Good Natured initiative was able to get off the ground through a generous seed donation from Oncor of one million dollars to be distributed over five years and facilitated by Streams & Valleys.

“Oncor is proud to have a longstanding partnership with City of Fort Worth and is committed to being part of the community’s successful future,” said Oncor Vice President - Fort Worth Customer Service Richard Casarez. “We are glad to have the opportunity to support the launch of Mayor Parker’s Good Natured Greenspace Initiative and look forward to seeing the positive impact it will have on the lives of the people who live, work, and explore in Fort Worth for years to come.”