150 Volunteers Restore Dallas’s Trinity River Corridor
Earlier this spring, SCA teamed up with national supporter Southwest Airlines for Message to the Field — a series of service events bringing together Southwest employees, friends, and family to beautify communities across the nation. As a culmination of this spring service campaign, SCA and Southwest joined up on Monday for the largest event yet, restoring Dallas’s Trinity River Corridor in celebration of Earth Day.
Over 150 Southwest employees and SCA volunteers came together on the Trinity River Corridor to pick up litter, remove invasives, and plant new native species to help the wetlands thrive. Against the backdrop of the Dallas skyline and the lush Trinity River flood plain, CEO Gary Kelly spoke about Southwest’s dedication to serving communities: “As a proud partner with SCA, we share a commitment to conservation and preserving the Trinity River Corridor for future generations.”
Southwest CEO Gary Kelly and SCA President Dale Penny then rolled up their sleeves alongside SCA members and Southwest employees to pull ragweed and bastard cabbage and replace them with native species such as wine cup, dewberry, and love grass. Along the way, they encountered mockingbirds, yellow-throated sparrows, a western rat snake, butterflies, dragonflies, and other species that use this critical habitat.
By the end of the morning, volunteers had removed 3,000 pounds of litter and invasives, and planted 115 native shrubs and a quarter of an acre of love grass. And Southwest employees will be back to continue volunteer stewardship of the Trinity River Corridor. With over 29,000 employee volunteer hours devoted to the Dallas community last year alone, Southwest Airlines shares SCA’s commitment to conserving public lands #fromtheheart.
See more photos from this event and read the press release.
