A ribbon cutting was held in November for the new WFAA Trail at the Kiest Park Conservation Area. From left, John Jenkins, Dallas Park and Recreation Director; Arun Agarwal, Dallas Park and Recreation board president; Ryan Wood, WFAA director of Community Impact; Izzy Izagurrie, WFAA anchor; Grady McGahan and JR Huerta, Park and Recreation board members. Courtesy of the city of Dallas.
If you've been looking for a new natural area to explore, check out the new trail at the Kiest Park Conservation Area in Dallas.
In November, the city of Dallas held a ribbon cutting for the WFAA Creekside Trail, which offers three additional miles of soft-surface trails at the Oak Cliff natural area. Other upgrades include a new trail entrance, an educational kiosk, benches and interactive trail markers.
The upgrades were funded by a $75,000 grant from WFAA awarded to Greenspace Dallas to create the new nature trail. Friends of Oak Cliff Parks spearheaded the project.
LAND DONATION
Totaling 260 acres, Kiest Park was established in 1930 and is the largest park in Oak Cliff.
According to Friends of Oak Cliff Parks, the land was donated by Edwin Kiest, who owned and published the Dallas Daily Times-Herald, later the Dallas Times Herald, until he died in 1941. He gave the land as a memorial for his artist wife who died in 1917.
“When it got donated at the time, it was farmland,” said Brett Johnson, wildlife biologist and conservation manager at Dallas Parks and Recreation.
The land was not the easiest to farm, which contributed to its preservation, he said.
Early features of the park included bridle paths and stables to allow for recreational horseback riding. In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration built stone structures.
Today, Kiest Boulevard divides the park into two sections. The north side is a more traditional city park with sports fields, a playground and picnic tables. The south side features a 78-acrea wooded area along Five Mile Creek, known as Kiest Park Conservation Area.
“There’s the tennis complex but beyond that we’ve got one of the larger natural areas found in Southwest Dallas,” said Johnson.
DECLINE AND RENEWAL
Johnson said up through the 1960s, there were still several nature trails that ran through the Conservation Area. However, due to crime in the area at the time, the trails fell out of use.
“People weren’t using the trails,” Johnson said. “Over the years, they just kind of disappeared.”
Luckily, those issues have now been resolved.
A new kiosk shows the trail system at Kiest Park Conservation Area. The new WFAA trail is designated in blue. Photo by James Fairchild.
Around 2009, Friends of Oak Cliff Park began advocating for preserving the south side of Kiest Park as a natural area. The group applied for and was awarded a grant to reestablish one of the WPA trail sections with help from a coalition of volunteers and local nonprofits.
In 2014, the Parks Department officially named the section, the Kiest Park Conservation Area.
In 2016, after Johnson was hired by the city of Dallas, the Friends of Oak Cliff Parks acquired more funding for restoration. This time, they brought in Groundwork Dallas, now Greenspace Dallas, who implemented modern trail-building techniques.
“They re-established the trail coming up from the wildflower area, up behind the tennis court,” Johnson said.
In addition, the bridal trail was also redone. This all took place on the west side of the creek.
According to Johnson, about a year and a half ago, both Friends of Oak Cliff Parks and Dallas Greenspace began working applying for a grant to work on the old trails on the east side of the creek.
“After they got the grant, we worked with Greenspace on minimizing the overall impact of doing trail building," said Johnson. "Greenspace went in and started working on re-establishing those trails, putting in some new ones.”
FUTURE UPGRADES
More upgrades are in the works for the Conservation Area.
Ryan Wood, WFAA; Caorlyn Mungo, WFAA general manager; Cheryl McCallister, WFAA communjty impact liaison; Carolyn King Arnold, Dallas City Council District 4; and Arun Agarwal, Dallas Park and Recreation board president helped dedicate the new WFAA Trail in November. Courtesy of the city of Dallas.
“Eventually, there’s gonna be a bridge connecting the east side and the west side. Currently, we have the new trails that are on the east side, and there’s some established picnic areas with benches and picnic tables that are along the new trails,” said Johnson.
There are also longterm plans to eradicate some of the privet that is choking out sections and making it uninhabitable for wildlife.
Amy Martin, local trail expert and author of Wild DFW, applauded the effort, saying it’s a victory for not only conservation but for dirt trail lovers as well. She said she’s heard great feedback from Oak Cliff residents about the trails.
“Greenspace Dallas, who sponsors the Lone Star Trail Building School, did a superb job,” said Martin, a longtime dirt trail advocate. “The strong reaction amplifies my message that Dallasites want more dirt trails where they can truly commune with nature. We’ve got skilled trail pros who can do just that. If parks would scale back their excessive mowing, the funds saved could pay for trail making.”
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