Trinity River Crew: Year Two

The Trinity River Crew program returned for its second year this Summer and made a huge environmental impact throughout the Trinity River Corridor.

The Trinity River Crew is a conservation education experience for high school students that educates and inspires the next generation of environmental leaders while supporting conservation efforts along the 10,000 acres of the Trinity River Corridor. With the guidance and expertise of Trinity Park Conservancy and Greenspace Dallas, crew members lead volunteers in the stewardship of this area by supporting the habitat restoration efforts of the City of Dallas and other local partners.

The crew explored most of the Trinity River’s forks in order to complete environmental initiatives that help local ecosystems in DFW. Initiatives like turtle trappings with Texas Turtles, alligator nest hunting with the Fort Worth Nature Center; plus documentation of over 500 different species of plants and wildlife in Dallas and surrounding areas through iNaturalist. The group of students played a very important role in our local wildlife research efforts.

“I’ve loved going out to the different locations and everything we’ve gone out to do, it’s very diverse. Every time we went out to a different place it was also something different to learn something that would be impossible if it wasn’t for this program.” – Valerie Reyes 

 

Additional conservation efforts include making over 1,000 propagations, removing invasive species, and environmental clean-ups. Bio-assessments were conducted along the Trinity River forks and several Dallas urban parks in order to impact and bring awareness to the importance of conservation.

Lastly, the Crew learned several professional development skills such as financial literacy, resume writing, networking, and presentation skills. 

As the program concluded, our group of students headed back to school having learned a greater appreciation and understanding of our local watershed and ecosystems as well as skills and tools preparing them for their professional careers.

To learn more about Trinity River Crew or future volunteer opportunities be sure to follow Trinity Park Conservancy and Greenspace Dallas social media channels for ongoing updates.