GOAL 6
DALLAS PROTECTS AND ENHANCES ITS ECOSYSTEMS, TREES AND GREEN SPACES THAT IN TURN IMPROVE PUBLIC HEALTH.
Targets
33%, 37% AND 40% OR MORE CANOPY COVER CITYWIDE BY 2030, 2040, 2050, RESPECTIVELY.
20%, 50% AND 75% REDUCTION IN URBAN HEAT ISLAND INDEX BY 2030, 2040, 2050, RESPECTIVELY.
80%, 90% AND 95% OF THE POPULATION LIVES WITHIN MILE WALK TO A PARK OR TRAIL BY 2030, 2040, 2050, RESPECTIVELY.
In Dallas, there are 388 parks totaling 27,038 acres, plus the roughly 6000-acre Great Trinity Forest. These green spaces are not evenly distributed and in fact, only 60% of Dallas residents live within a half-mile walk of a park. Openn spaces including parks, urban forests, and prairies can deliver multiple benefits including reducing the urban heat island effect, sequestering carbon, managing flooding, and providing beneifts to urban and migrating speciies in the form of habitat proteciton and biodiversity. Ecosystem health, in turn, protects human health by providing benefits such as opportunities for activities that reduce stress and increase overall mental and physical wellness. This sector seeks to strengthen ongoing initativies to increase tree canopy, improve and increase park spaces, and promote community stewardship in partnership with other organizations.
Resources for Residents
Branch Out Dallas
Help combat urban heat and help the City increase its urban tree canopy by planting a free tree provided by Branch Out Dallas.
WaterWise Landscape Tour
Want to learn more? Join the WaterWise Landscape Tour to visit community gardens and learn how your neighbors grow native plants, compost their food waste, grow pollinator gardens, and use stones to create cool landscapes among other things.
Texas SmartScape
Use the TexasSmartScape tool to design and plant your own pollinator garden to attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds.
Citizen Foresters
Join the Citizen Forester program to help restore our urban forest. Learn about the benefits of trees and skills such as tree identification, planting, and pruning. Upon graduation, citizen foresters can become the eyes, ears, and hands for the City Arborists and support public safety.
Resources for Businesses
Volunteer
Volunteer your time with Texas Trees Foundation to plant trees and help keep your community cool.
Plant Trees
Increase planting, green areas, and trees on your property!
FOCUS ON: ECOSYSTEMS & GREEN SPACES
Urban Forest Master Plan
The City of Dallas has a vast urban forest, including approximately 6,000-acre Great Trinity Forest. City of Dallas Forestry staff maintains existing trees, plants new trees, and provides trees to citizens to plant in their yards or along their street. In 2021, through a partnership with the Texas Trees Foundation, the City adopted its first Urban Forest Master Plan. It is designed to move Dallas towards a sustainable and resilient urban forest by proactively managing, preserving, caring for, and growing the city’s tree canopy
Branch Out Dallas
The Branch Out Dallas program was started as an effort to reduce the Heat Island Effect and to increase the overall tree canopy in the City. Each tree planted helps the City get closer to meeting these goals. Trees benefit everyone by cooling temperatures and improving air quality. Homeowners who plant a tree in their yard benefit by saving energy, cooling the air and the trees also provide shade. The annual fall program gives Dallas residents a free 5-gallon tree for their yard.
Green Stormwater Infrastructure for Urban Flood Resilience
The goal of the Green Stormwater Infrastructure for Urban Flood Resilience study was to identify areas in Dallas where green stormwater infrastructure (GSI)- engineered plant and soil systems that recreate natural hydrological processes to enhance stormwater management- can most effectively enhance urban flood management when considering capacity, cost, and future impacts of climate change. When combined with additional data and planning objectives, the findings may help to prioritize green stormwater interventions to achieve multiple goals, including community health and resilience, improved water quality, urban heat island mitigation, and ecological function.
This analysis was led by TNC and Texas A&M Agrilife Extension in collaboration with the City of Dallas and the Trust for Public Land and was made possible with funding from Lyda Hill Philanthropies. The executive summary can be found here.