More than a thousand corporate volunteers have spent thousands of hours learning about the Trinity River, while also helping to restore and preserve its natural beauty. North Texas corporations find their staff drawn to return and work within the 20 miles of land along the Trinity for their service days.
“Volunteers usually see these areas for the first time and they are awestruck by the beautiful natural resources available in Dallas,” said Trinity Commons Foundation Executive Director Craig Holcomb.
Director of Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability for VHA and Novation Terri Scannel agrees, adding that many volunteers specifically ask to return to the river to work on service projects. VHA and Novation are Irving-based health care services companies and in 2014, they sponsored 27 service events in North Texas with over 5,000 of their employees volunteering their time.
For the Trinity, James McIntyre from Novation and Ernie Shippey from VHA and Novation led volunteers in 2013 along Cedar Creek and in 2014 along the Trinity Skyline Trail. For the 2014 event, volunteers from VHA and Novation added native plant species under the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge and helped restore the Dallas Floodway. The plantings will improve the overall aesthetics, create quality wildlife habitat and fight erosion.
The afternoon was spent learning about the area near the Trinity Skyline Trail, planting 300 native plants and broadcasting native seeds such as sand love grass over a quarter acre. The mature plants came from seeds or cuttings harvested along the Trinity River and grown at the Lewisville Aquatic Ecosystem Research Facility in Denton. The Denton facility’s staff led the planting and worked with the Trinity Commons Foundation and the City of Dallas in support of the volunteer day.