{"id":811826,"date":"2026-05-21T08:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/811826\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T08:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:48:16","slug":"daytripper-host-highlights-texas-conservation-in-pbs-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/811826\/","title":{"rendered":"Daytripper host highlights Texas conservation in PBS series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plano and its stellar parks have set a new record in 2026 as the 13th best park system in the country \u2014 and the No. 1 best in Texas, according to the just-released ParkScore Index<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Every year, land conservation nonprofit Trust for Public Land rates the park systems in the 100 largest American cities with regard to their accessibility, equity, acreage, investment, and amenities.<\/p>\n

Plano’s No. 13 ParkScore ranking is a new all-time high for the Dallas suburb; it appeared 17th nationally in 2025<\/a>, ranked 16th for the two<\/a> years<\/a> before that, and was 15th in 2021<\/a> and 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The majority of Plano residents (85 percent) live within a 10-minute walk of a park, compared to the 76 percent national median. About 10.5 percent of land within the city limits is dedicated to parks. The city also spends far more to maintain its park system \u2014 about $228 per resident \u2014 than the national median $198 per resident.<\/p>\n

\"Plano Dallas suburb sets new record for best parks in the U.S. Plano Parks and Recreation\/Facebook <\/p>\n

The city’s hard work is paying off: in March, Plano Parks and Recreation reopened Glen Meadows Park<\/a> after extensive renovations, which included a new pavilion, updated playground, more seating, and new trails.<\/p>\n

Another Dallas-area neighbor that deserves high praise is Irving<\/strong>, which Trust for Public Land said was the nation’s biggest gainer this year. Irving’s park system jumped 28 places, from No. 99 last year to No. 71.<\/p>\n

“Irving\u2019s rise was driven by increased investment from the ‘Let\u2019s Play Irving’ initiative, which funded several important projects scheduled for completion in 2026 and 2027,” a release said.<\/p>\n

Dallas<\/strong> proper ranked 38th this year after previously ranking 34th in 2025.<\/p>\n

“Over the past 10 years, Dallas has connected an impressive 330,000 residents to a park, trail or greenspace within a 10-minute walk of their home, and the city is poised to make further progress next month, when it opens the Bushmills Neighborhood Green as part of the Dallas Greening Initiative,” the report said.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere across the Metroplex, Frisco jumped seven spots and now ranks 30th, and Arlington moved up one spot as No. 45. Garland ranked 64th (up from No. 67) and Fort Worth soared to No. 58 (up form from No. 72).<\/p>\n

Molly Morgan, the Texas State Director and Associate Vice President of Trust for Public Land, said in the release that Texas’ high-scoring performance in the annual index has proved that it is making park accessibility a statewide priority.<\/p>\n

“Cities across the Lone Star State are making serious investments, opening new parks, partnering with school districts, and closing gaps that have existed for decades,” Morgan said. “They\u2019re showing what\u2019s possible when Texas gets serious about parks.”<\/p>\n

Morgan added that there’s still more work to be done to increase park accessibility to the 9 million Texans that don’t have a park within a 10-minute walk of their homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plano and its stellar parks have set a new record in 2026 as the 13th best park system…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":811827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,4788,1596,945,407,1759,23967,159,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5352],"class_list":["post-811826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-conservation","tag-dallas","tag-ecology","tag-education","tag-nature","tag-pbs","tag-science","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-videos"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}