Stephen Montoya
The Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge hosted a ribbon cutting event in honor of Earth Day to usher in its new $3 million boardwalk expansion, Monday. The newly opened Marty Leonard Lotus Marsh Boardwalk took place in the cool spring sunshine in front of a crowd of onlookers that included the boardwalk’s namesake, mayor Mattie Parker, and Texas Parks and Wildlife commissioner Bobby Patton, to name a few.
This new multi-million-dollar expansion was funded by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, Meta, Friends of the Fort Worth Nature Center, gas lease funds, the nature center’s capital projects fund, and the City’s general capital projects fund. These funds went to create an expansion in the Nature Center’s Marsh Boardwalk area that includes a circular deck path and giant awning feature overlooking the Lotus Marsh section on the West Fork of the Trinity River.
When asked what she thinks about the new expansion, longtime Nature Center supporter Marty Leonard says it’s “a dream come true.” Founder of the Leonard’s Museum and daughter of Leonard’s Department Store co-founder Marvin Leonard, Marty is excited to see this project come to fruition.
“I love it myself personally, because I'm a nature lover and a nature person,” Leonard says while taking in the view. We're so fortunate in our community here and communities around us to have this as a place to take refuge.”
Stephen Montoya
Besides this new boardwalk expansion, this year also marks the 60th anniversary for the Nature Center, which was originally named the Greer Island Nature Center & Refuge but was changed in 1972 when other parcels of land were gradually added to the park.
This natural habitat measures 3,650 acres and attracts 80,000 visitors annually. The complex ecosystems that make up the Nature Center includes natural habitats such as forests, prairies, and lakes, with an equally diverse animal life. Visitors to this natural preserve will see deer, alligators, birds, and of course snakes on any given hike or walk. Besides the forest and marsh areas, this center also hosts a pasture specifically dedicated to its bison herd.
But this center’s history is only a portion of its story, according to Richard Zavala, director of Fort Worth's park and recreation department.
“What we're doing today is we're saying to those of the past, we have fulfilled our responsibility to you because we stand on your shoulders. And if you think about this facility 60 years ago, [in] 1964, the first 381 acres were set aside and we're about to reach 4,000 acres out here,” he says.
“We're also meeting our obligations to the people of the present. We're saying to you, this is important, and we owe that to you. But most importantly … we're doing our duty for the people in the future.”
Stephen Montoya
This sentiment was upheld by Texas Parks and Wildlife commissioner Bobby Patton, who was the second speaker at the ribbon-cutting event.
“I grew up here in Fort Worth, I still live here. My family lives here and there’s nowhere else in the world I'd rather be,” Patton says. “I was just blown away that this great park was here five years ago when I first visited it, and I just hope everybody is aware of it and uses it.”
Patton verified that since 1965, Texas Parks and Wildlife has given over 250 million to city projects like this, which can be quite the lengthy process.
In 2021, according to the City’s website, the City Council voted to rename the Lotus Marsh Boardwalk in honor of Leonard, who has dedicated time and energy over the years to conserving nature and the environment, in Fort Worth and beyond.
“It's been surreal, to see this now and still of course, envisioning where we can go from here,” Leonard says. “Our number one priority is to protect what we've got here. That's our goal always. But with doing that, we can make improvements like this and give people the opportunity to get out and see things that they've never ever seen anywhere else.”
