Before Mattie Parker was the mayor of the nation’s 10th-largest city, she was a young girl growing up on a ranch under great sunsets and the dark night sky.
Now, she and Fort Worth experts want to preserve open space for future generations.
How to accomplish this while supporting the growing city’s economy was the topic of a Candid Conversation hosted by the Fort Worth Report at Texas Wesleyan University on May 21.
Parker evoked a few lines from Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” a soundtrack of her youth: “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone? They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.”
Despite Fort Worth’s rapid growth, a significant swath of paradise remains. The city is “only half-developed,” but it is also developing at a rate of 50 acres per week, Parker said.
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker gives opening remarks during the Fort Worth Report’s Candid Conversation event on green space May 21, 2026 at Texas Wesleyan University. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
Developed land is not the only concept growing over time. Land is becoming more expensive, said Carrie Kasnicka, the Texas project manager for Trust for Public Land. Taking advantage of opportunities now for the creation of green space is vital, she said.
Dedicating land to green space benefits business in the long run, and it is also an important public good, panelists said.
Green space is “a core piece of infrastructure” and should help attract businesses, said Allison Docker, greenspace initiatives manager for the city of Fort Worth.
“People want to live, work and play where they can have access to the outdoors and the outside and to nature, and businesses know this,” she said.
Paxton Motheral, vice president of Cassco Development Co. and vice president of the Tarrant Regional Water District board of directors, used Klyde Warren Park in Dallas as an example of how green space can draw in businesses.
He also emphasized the role of collaboration between the private sector and public entities such as the city and the water district to preserve green space.
“Being thoughtful about what’s being developed, where it’s being developed, how that infrastructure is going to impact the community, is just something that’s going to take a lot of work, and everybody rolling up their sleeves and working together,” he said.
In addition to recreational use, open space also filters water and air, said Rachel Seets, North Texas acquisitions manager for the Native Prairies Association of Texas.
Open space can also help to prevent flash flooding by absorbing rain water into the ground, she added.
“You’re talking about billions of dollars of infrastructure from engineers that’s just free and here if we can conserve it,” Seets said.
Managing nature compared to typical parkland takes a different approach, Docker noted, highlighting the city’s new natural land area management policy.
Seets also highlighted the role of collaboration with private landowners when it comes to preserving prairieland in a state for which the vast majority of land is privately owned.
Kasnicka said maintaining green space is a responsibility shared by all who benefit from it.
“It’s really a burden for all of us, but it’s one that’s worth having,” she said.
McKinnon Rice is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Her position is supported by a grant from Texas Health Resources. Contact her at mckinnon.rice@fortworthreport.org.
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