PRESS RELEASE
September 21, 2008
For Immediate Release
Contact:Coletta Strickland (817) 838-9022 or info@grpc.org
Great Plains Restoration Council
FORT WORTH PRAIRIE PARKHIGHLIGHTED AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCEGPRC
Youth Leader Kabongo “KB” Kabuta (age 17) and Jarid Manos to speak FORT WORTH, TX - Fort Worth Prairie Park - Our own “Prairie Rainforest”, a 1,983 acre remnant of Fort Worth’s unique and endangered tallgrass prairie ecosystem and the local non-profit, Great Plains Restoration Council (GPRC), are being featured at the 2008 International Urban Parks Conference being held in Pittsburgh, PA Sept 21-23, 2008 - www.UrbanParks08.o rg or www.gprc.org
GPRC was asked to attend and present because of its leadership role in protecting the Fort Worth Prairie Park. GPRC’s approach is considered unique because it works to heal and strengthen human health through the action of healing and strengthening the prairies and plains.
The Fort Worth Prairie Park is southeast of Lake Benbrook and the State of Texas General Land Office wishes to sell it for development. A coalition of elected officials, churches, community groups and non-profits support protecting this original prairie habitat as an urban park because of it’s G1/G2 “globally endangered status”, its very high plant diversity, its nesting grounds for Western Hemisphere migrating grassland birds and monarch butterflies, and the health and educational services it provides to a local populace with very little access to native prairie open space. GPRC’s efforts were supported by a unanimous resolution of the Tarrant County Commissioners Court.
Jarid Manos, Founder and CEO of Great Plains Restoration Council, and Kabongo Kabuta (age 17), who is a student at Arlington Heights High School and one of the senior youth leaders in GPRC’s Plains Youth InterACTION program, will present during two panels:
“Young Voices in the Parks”
“Building a Truly Democratic Urban Parks Movement”
With attendees from over 500 governmental, business and NGO representatives from across the country and internationally, this is the largest urban parks conference this year. Great Plains Restoration Council is the only non-profit being featured both days. Local Associate members of the Conference are Streams & Valleys and Carter & Burgess, Inc.
Mr. Manos and Mr. Kabuta are also invited guests at the Teresa Heinz dinner and the book signing by famed Last Child in the Woods author Richard Louv, who will speak on the rising deterioration of children’s health and development that is due to the destruction of the Earth’s natural ecosystems and children’s increasing alienation from and lack of interaction within wild nature. Mr. Manos will also host a book signing for his book - Ghetto Plainsman - a story of survival and renewal that has implications for everyone and our endangered Earth.
# # #
3 years ago
•
Notes