April 2, 2009

Mark Your Calendar: Fort Worth Prairie Park, Saturday, April 4

GPRC Fort Worth Youth are working on restoring native tallgrass prairie to the pipeline cut at the Fort Worth Prairie Park this Saturday, April 4. Volunteer opportunities are available for the public, as this will be a large, ongoing project.

February 25, 2009

Tuesday March 3, 2009

Ittleson Foundation Funders’ Breakfast NYC 8;30-10 a.m.

February 24, 2009

Feb 13-21, 2009

Houston Endowment just completed a fact-finding trip through the Texas Plains that included visits to GPRC West Texas project areas, as well as to Fort Worth, where they observed a Youth InterACTION session and later visited the Fort Worth Prairie Park.  Out at Caprock Canyons, State Park, GPRC secured agreement on release of the first three buffalo bulls for our new 12,000 acre Cynthia Ann Parker Wilderness Recovery Project. Also identified was the first backcountry site for creation of a large, very remote prairie dog town that will be protected for a very long time. Needed now: Mesquite and cedar removal.

February 23, 2009

Saturday, Dec 19, 2009

Plains Youth InterACTION Christmas Party 6-9 p.m at GPRC headquarters., sponsored by Judge Maryellen Hicks.

November 25, 2008
Youth trip Nov. 15 2008 to Old Fort Parker, where Cynthia Ann was first abducted by Comanches

Youth trip Nov. 15 2008 to Old Fort Parker, where Cynthia Ann was first abducted by Comanches

November 12, 2008

GPRC Youth InterACTION Fort Worth kids will travel to the Fort Parker site in Limestone County, TX

GPRC Youth InterACTION Fort Worth kids will travel to the Fort Parker site in Limestone County, TX Saturday November 15th, where Cynthia Ann Parker was born, and taken from her Anglo family to live with the Comanches. (Cynthia Ann is the namesake of GPRC’s new 12,000 acre project in West Texas).

On Saturday we  will learn and understand the start of Cynthia Ann’s story, the frontier Anglo presence on the tallgrass Blackland Prairie (now almost extinct), and the Black slave/ (and rare freedmen) presence too on this once fertile, wild Texas area. Youth will see how the story arc continues out to our Cynthia Ann Parker Wilderness Recovery Project 200 miles northwest of Fort Worth, where they have begun active restoration.

October 28, 2008

Fort Worth Jaycees and GPRC have agreed to a formal partnership, and will jointly work to permanently protect the 2,000 acre Fort Worth Prairie Park as our primary goal.

Fort Worth Jaycees wants to help raise $5.5 million within the next 6 - 8 months toward this goal, $5 million which will go toward direct acquisition of this endangered prairie tract, and $500,000 of which will go toward GPRC’s programs and efforts in support of the Prairie Park and its emerging Ecological Health movement.

The public is enthusiastically encouraged to participate in this campaign. For further information, please contact  GPRC at 817 838 9022 or the FWJC at http://fortworthjaycees.com or 817-713-0358.

September 24, 2008

FORT WORTH PRAIRIE PARK HIGHLIGHTED AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

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.

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September 16, 2008
September 11, 2008