Great Plains Restoration Council “Serving our Youth, Protecting our Prairie Earth.”
Great Plains Restoration Council “Serving our Youth, Protecting our Prairie Earth.”
ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS BULLDOZES PRISTINE CREEK WILDERNESS NEAR FORT WORTH PRAIRIE PARK, TARGETS MORE
ALERT:
ON national public land belonging to every American, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Benbrook Lake Office has bulldozed a mile-long "road to nowhere" through virgin riparian forest and tallgrass prairie bottomland along Rock Creek in Rocky Creek Park, between Lake Benbrook and the tallgrass Fort Worth Prairie Park near Fort Worth, TX, damaging rare plant communities, important wildlife habitat, and an old-growth riverine ecosystem that conservationists say is rare for its pristine nature and took thousands of years to create. [Please see photos below.]
'Infection' of this climax ecosystem by invasive species is now a risk. Erosion is also a threat.
The Corps plans to bulldoze an additional half mile south upstream to the edge of the Fort Worth Prairie Park -- the trees are already flagged -- as well as bulldoze miles of additional "roads to nowhere" northward up through the pristine "Benbrook Lake Natural Area - Richardson Area".
Roadless wildands are exceptionally rare, particularly in already endangered tallgrass prairie/riparian forest complexes.
American taxpayers are working to stop the Corps' bulldozers from continuing, with demands they repair what's already been damaged. This is national public land and must be kept in wilderness condition.
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Action Alert:
We are asking that the Benbrook Lake Office of the US Army Corps of Engineers:
Message:
PLEASE POLITELY (BUT STRONGLY) CALL AND EMAIL YOUR CONCERNS TO:
LOCAL:
U.S. Army Engineer District, Fort Worth
(817) 886-1306
www.swf.usace.army.mil
EMAIL TO:
bobby.d.faucett@usace.army.mil AND ceswf-od-bb@usace.army.mil AND CC richard.j.muraski@usace.army.mil AND Charles.L.Burger@usace.army.mil AND hq-publicaffairs@usace.army.mil AND matthew.s.orenstein@usace.army.milThe actual office that did the damage:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Benbrook Lake Office
Fort Worth District
Phone: (817) 292-2400
ceswf-od-bb@usace.army.mil
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BACKGROUND:
On Monday, January 17, 2010 it was learned that the Benbrook Lake Office of the US Army Corps of Engineers bulldozed nearly a mile of pristine creek wilderness -- in one of the rarest ecosystems complexes (roadless tallgrass prairie/climax riverine forest) in North America, near Lake Benbrook just outside Fort Worth, TX. No Environmental Impact Statement was prepared.
In one day, they destroyed thousands of years of climax perfection, down to the ancient soil crust. The national office of the US Army Corps of Engineers has an initiative against invasive species; meanwhile the local Benbrook Lake Office is now replacing exceptional botanic diversity with weeds and invasive species in the heart of one of our wildest remaining areas of Tarrant County.
This is national public land that belongs to every American.
The bulldozers are not done. They must be stopped immediately. They are using your tax dollars to do this damage.
The bulldozers, if allowed to continue, will go right up to the NW corner of the priceless Fort Worth Prairie Park, one of the largest and biologically richest remaining tracts of native Fort Worth Prairie left, a unique tallgrass prairie ecosystem that exists nowhere else in the world, as well as up east along the lake through "Benbrook Lake Natural Area - Richardson Area".
The Rock Creek forest wilderness and tallgrass Fort Worth Prairie Park provide a complete ecosystem. The Fort Worth Prairie Park was recently featured in the January 2010 issue of Texas Monthly.
Old-growth trees, ancient living soil, hundreds of native plant species, and habitat for dozens of rare and sensitive wildlife are all in danger. Dozens of wild turkeys, hawks, and resident and migratory birds including Indigo and Painted Buntings nest in the forest canopy or lush understory. Tracks of a mountain lion have even been seen, which may be the last mountain lion left alive in Tarrant County.
Regarding Benbrook Lake Natural Area - Richardson Area, Texas Parks and Wildlife writes on their website:
"For the adventurous, a hike along the eastern shore of Benbrook Lake can produce Wood Ducks, Little Blue Herons, and many other species including the Rio Grande Turkey, which at one point was extinct from the area. Visitors to the Richardson Area will get a glimpse into what pristine Texas looked like. Over the last sixty years of Army Corps of Engineers ownership, this land has been well-preserved, having been neither cultivated nor significantly grazed over this time."
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/wildlife_trails/pineywoods/piney_west/clearfork/
Roadless wildands are exceptionally rare, particularly in already endangered tallgrass prairie/riparian forest complexes.
For three years our inner city youth and many local and statewide citizens have been helping keep the Fort Worth Prairie Park safe. Now your national wildlands adjacent to it need your help.
There is no reason to build this road; this is a wild creek and this stretch was so pristine it could've qualified for National Wild and Scenic Designation. What's left still can.
If the Benbrook Lake Office of the Army Corps of Engineers has taxpayer money to burn in order to "justify" next year's budget allocation, why don't they hire local people who need jobs, including youth, to perform restoration ecology projects on already damaged land in the District? Or improve public facilities, including the decrepit and shut-down campground, around Lake Benbrook?
There are many good folks at the US Army Corps of Engineers, and Chief Engineer Van Antwerp in Washington, D.C. appears to be trying to impart a level of ecological and social consciousness in this federal agency, but the Lake Benbrook field office in Texas has committed a grievous wrong against this important refuge, land that belongs to each and every American citizen.
On the Corps' main website, they write about protecting against invasive species. Meanwhile, the local office just tore open a gashing wound that will expose the heart of the roadless Rock Creek wildland to infection by invasive species. Immediate action must be taken to stop and close the road and repair the damage already done.
"We live in a world of so much chaos and violence, and have so little refuge left, so few pristine wild places, especially in America's prairie region, that it blows the mind that a field district office of the US Army Corps of Engineers would use American taxpayer dollars to voluntarily and arbitrarily do so much harm," said Jarid Manos, Chief Executive Officer of Great Plains Restoration Council.
"The bulldozers must be stopped, and even though we can never replace the perfection that took thousands of years for God and Earth to create, we can and must close this road to nowhere and work to begin healing the damage now."
