Originally Published on July 22, 2026 by The Fort Worth Report
A positive resource. An economic engine. A benefit to recreation and quality of life.
This is how the Trinity River is perceived today by local stewards.
But it wasn’t always that way.
On a warm June morning, Teresa Patterson walked up from the riverbank to the trailhead where the Clear and West forks of the Trinity River meet and discarded a piece of plastic trash she had found in the river.
A longtime advocate of waterways, the Colorado native has stewarded — and paddled — the Trinity since 2008.
“You can’t be in nature without learning to care about nature,” Patterson said.
Patterson is a member of the Trinity Coalition, a group that was instrumental in getting the river nationally recognized as a paddling trail.
She’s observed the Fort Worth portion of the river — spanning hundreds of miles to the Gulf Coast — evolve from what once was a far less pleasant environment than it is today.
The Trinity River was not always seen as the asset it is today.
But over the years, work by community members, organizations, government agencies and self-appointed stewards invested in the Trinity’s well-being has enhanced the public’s perception of the river.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act in 1972 led to a major makeover, implementing more standards for water quality and pollution. The introduction of infrastructure rerouted the river’s flood-prone sections, steering water away from downtown Fort Worth and making the Trinity more hospitable to boaters and kayakers.
The results have been transformational.
Read the full article at The Fort Worth Report.
