Fort Worth Prairie Park and Southern Great Plains Conservation & Recreation Area

Great Plains Restoration Council (GPRC) is a non-profit organization based in Fort Worth, Texas with a mission of helping people take care of their own health through restoring and protecting native ecosystems, particularly damaged prairies, plains, and waters. Grant funding will support their work to protect old-growth native prairie inholdings adjacent to the Fort Worth Prairie Park complex. GPRC will also work in partnership with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to secure conservation of at least 5,000 acres in West Texas. This is a first step that will build towards GPRC’s and TPWD’s goal of establishing what will one day become a landscape-scale Southern Great Plains Conservation and Recreation Area on the Llano Estacado shortgrass prairie region of the Texas Panhandle. These lands will provide habitat for endangered Texas bison along with pronghorn, prairie dogs, burrowing owls, swift fox, elk, and other species of concern. The Confluence grant will be used to launch a diverse campaign aimed at raising national awareness, inclusion and engagement, and to hire a Comanche or Kiowa organizer to ensure Indigenous voices are centered. Funding will also be used to train and employ formerly incarcerated Black and Brown/POC youth currently excelling in GPRC’s Restoration Not Incarceration™ program.