Dallas: White Rock Lake conservation honored.

[crispini]

This stiory really made me happy and proud to live in Dallas, near our gem of a lake.

White Rock conservation honored

07:09 AM CDT on Wednesday, May 11, 2005

By KATIE MENZER / The Dallas Morning News

Refusing to mow the grass for a year would usually draw sneers from neighbors and angry calls to the city's code-compliance department. Janet Smith and other parkgoers are getting the chance to enjoy White Rock Lake Park's original landscape. But at White Rock Lake, it's gotten city officials a prize.

The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department is giving Dallas a Lone Star Land Steward Award, which honors groups for outstanding efforts at wildlife conservation. White Rock is the first city park to receive the 10-year-old award that is usually bestowed on ranches and private property in rural areas.

The city has been working for years with local biologists and environmentalists to preserve and restore White Rock's acres of blackland prairie – the area's original landscape – while still serving the needs of park visitors.

About 250 of the 2,115 acres have returned to their natural state, where native grasses such as little bluestem, Indian grass and Eastern gama grass reign.

Nest boxes for wood ducks, purple martins and bluebirds have been built along the lake's shore. There's a bat house. And the city has been nabbing poachers and hunters who illegally take or kill animals.

more...
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/051105dnmetwildlife.96358279.html

There's actually DEER in the park! In the middle of our city! How wonderful.