Great Plains Restoration Council

Great Plains Restoration Council

Great Plains Restoration Council is the founder of the national Ecological Health education model that blends social work with ecological recovery and protection. Our once 1.3-million-acre Fort Worth Prairie ecosystem is now one of the most endangered ecosystems in North America.  The Fort Worth Prairie Park (FWPP), Great Plains Restoration Council's flagship initiative - an effort to preserve the last of the Fort Worth Prairie ecosystem. Located in the Upper Clear Fork of the Trinity River watershed, this ancient 10,000-year-old tallgrass/mixed grass prairie support remarkable biodiversity on the Southern Flyway, including endangered species such as Monarch butterflies and Texas horned lizards, rare pollinators like American and Southern Plains bumblebees, declining grassland nesting birds like Grasshopper Sparrows, Northern Harrier hawks, and Eastern Meadowlarks, aquatic fish like the Plains orange-throat darter and the spotted sucker, a listed Species of Greatest Conservation Need, Silphium plants, and ancient colonies of Comanche harvester ants.  Great Plains Restoration Council (GPRC) serves as a primary non-profit partner with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers federal public lands that form the Park's core and is working with local and state officials to conserve remaining private lands for a potential total of several thousand acres - what would become the largest tallgrass prairie preserve within a major metropolitan area.

Central to GPRC's model is its Restoration Not Incarceration™ youth program which provides paid stipends (more than double the Texas minimum wage), outdoor green jobs-training and natured-based work therapy in prairie restoration for youth facing life challenges. Supported by mentors, program youth restore the native prairie, learn life and technical skills, lead public tours, and benefit deeply from a reciprocity model of work in and for nature within the Fort Worth Prairie Park. 

Prairie restoration work involves clearing trees and overgrown brush, seeding with native species, stream restoration, and conducting burns while advancing through Three Tiers of Ecological Health education that fortifies then with tools in Processing and Adaptation, Communication, Unbreakability, Critical Thinking tools and much more.

GPRC supports youth who might have fallen through the gaps or not fit well within the public education system.

Great Plains Restoration Council's Ecological Health work as a model has been case-studied in tow published books, Environmental Social Work (Routledge Press, London, 2012) and Ecologies of Justice [Rutgers University Press, November 2026].

GPRC's work supports broader public well-being. The Fort Worth-Dallas Metroplex is park-poor when it come to large wild natural area for extended hiking, outdoor recreation, etc., which people in cities like Denver, Alburquerque, and Los Angeles take for granted.

The FWPP cleans, filters, and protects the watershed around Benbrook Lake and the Clear Fork of the Trinity River which serves as a major drinking water source.

These efforts also deliver powerful climate benefits: restored native prairie can sequester 1.2-1.8 tons of CO2 per acre annually for up to 100 years, sore carbon in soil for a millennia, absorb copious rainfall during storm events, and buffer the urban heat island effect.

Phase 4 of the FWPP Restoration plan is targeted for completion by summer of 2027.

Looking ahead to 2027, with supporting funds and other collaborators, GPRC will continue to provide Fort Worth Prairie Park program support, stipends, training, and support for local youth facing social & emotional stress. GPRC will also continue public education and advocacy for the important community values of taking care of the Fort Worth Prairie as a matter of our own health.