Southwest Airlines is teaming up with the Trinity Trust Foundation and City of Dallas to create the Trinity River Conservation Corps. With the help of a three-year, $150,00 grant, this new program will help clean up and conserve the Trinity River Corridor.
About 130 volunteers spent Friday morning pulling weeds and other invasive species and replacing them with native plants, an example of what’s to come with the new program.
Ginger Hardage, Senior Vice President of Culture and Communication for Southwest Airlines said this effort will ultimately help the city, allowing four clean-up projects during the year.
“It adds an area for tourism. It allows for recreation and leisure, and it will allow volunteer activities as well,” Hardage said. "And it helps bring a wonderful environmental impact to the city of Dallas.”
Lynde Dodd, Research Scientist for the University of North Texas, said adding the native plants will make a difference. The new vegetation includes Yellow Indiangrass, buffalo grass, perennial wine cup and prairie verbena.
"Those plants will be able to handle the harsh conditions of North Central Texas and they won't have to be handled as much, so they'll produce see and spread," Dodd said.
