Ft. Worth (WBAP/KLIF News) – On Saturday, the mayor of Fort Worth will attend the dedication of a park along a creek within Alliance Town Center.
Bluestem Park will feature 50 species of native plants and 500 native trees and shrubs. The park will also include trails with educational signs.
“We rounded up all of the experts we could, agronomists, ecologists, geologists,” says Hillwood Development Executive Vice President Russell Laughlin.
Laughlin says Hillwood also worked with the Corps of Engineers and Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center to try to restore the area to the way it might have looked before the Metroplex became so heavily populated. The 14-acre site aims to recreate the blackland prairie.
“We reached out to them and said we’d like to restore this back to what it looked like at the turn of the century, both in form and function, really provide an interactive platform.”
Laughlin says 75,000 people now work and live around Alliance Town Center. He says the addition of a park aims to keep the area from becoming overgrown but also keep give people recreational options. He says Hillwood and the city want to prevent people from feeling like they must travel somewhere else to shop or have fun.
“We have daytime employees here who needed a place that was integrated, so you can live here, you can walk to work and you can walk to go shopping.”
The park will open Saturday at 3 pm; a dedication ceremony starts at 4. Formal events continue until 7.
