Tandy Hills Natural Area is a special place simply because it is still here in 2017. The fragile beauty revealed in its biological diversity survives today because a vocal minority spoke up, insistently, at critical times during its 57 year history. Over 99.5% of all native prairies, in the USA, is gone – even more in the DFW Metroplex. Tandy Hills is adjacent to I-30 and surrounded by a neighborhood in the heart of Fort Worth, a place crawling with developers and gas drillers.
For this biological oasis to have survived all that plus the plow and grazing is more than remarkable, it’s a precious gift to the world. The 160-acre natural area, acquired by the City of Fort Worth in 1960, is a living textbook/museum, a postage stamp-sized snapshot of what the entire region once looked like before settlers arrived in the 1800’s.
The number of wildflower and grass species that cover the hilly terrain at THNA is wildly more than anyplace else in north Texas, except maybe another prairie remnant. In 1880 when the population was less than 1% of the current 700,000+, people still remembered the natural beauty of the land they settled and nicknamed Fort Worth, “Queen City of the Prairie.”
Those days would soon end, taking with them the very thing that drew settlers here, namely, the prairie and its rich cornucopia of life. The good news is, we still have Tandy Hills. The spring wildflowers are more breathtaking here than anyplace else in the north Texas, attracting lovers, families and butterflies. In the fall, tall native grasses sway mysteriously in the wind, inspiring poets, painters and philosophers. The sunsets and moonrises seen from the tops of the many hills are often jaw dropping. The sky above THNA is filled with birds and swarms of migrating, Monarch butterflies. If you’re lucky, you can even catch a glimpse of a rabbit, fox, lizard, wild turkey, roadrunner or bobcat scampering across the landscape.