Welcome to the

GREATER FORT WORTH SIERRA CLUB

Next monthly meeting in Fort Worth is detailed below.
Also, check out the Outings and Events pages for other Club activities.

Concerned about the environment?  Want to find some like-minded friends?  Join the National Sierra Club and you automatically join the Lone Star Chapter and the Greater FW Sierra Club group (first year $15 membership)! 

May Club Meeting:  Trinity River water studies 

Join us on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at 7:00 PM at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden to hear AP Environmental Science students from the Texas Academy of Biomedical Sciences share original research from the Meter Hero project, a collaboration with the Tarrant Regional Water District and the City of Fort Worth. Using real household data from the MyH2O portal, students investigated how Winter Storm Fern impacted daily water use across Fort Worth, comparing storm conditions to a typical weekend.

Members will also hear from students in the Texas Academy of Biomedical Sciences Insect Club as they present a follow-up to their original 2024 study on the invasive plant bastard cabbage (Rapistrum rugosum) along the Trinity River. Using field observations and citizen science data from iNaturalist, students are documenting which insect species utilize this widespread plant and comparing their 2026 findings to previous results.

Pre-Meeting Refreshments!

If you would like to satisfy your savory or your sweet tooth cravings, please bring a light dish to share (APPETIZERS, SALAD, MUNCHIES or a DESSERT) to our meeting. And don't forget to bring your own non-alcoholic drink of choice.

We encourage guests to arrive early, between 6:35-6:45 PM, to partake of food prior to the start of the meeting, but if you just want to attend the meeting, come at 7:00 PM for our presentation.

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The Fort Worth Botanic Garden is located at 3220 Botanic Garden Blvd, just north of I30 on University Drive.  All are welcome!

Please RSVP on either Facebook or  Meetup.  Admission is free.  Be sure to join us!  This meeting will be in-person only.  

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Dinosaur Valley State Park, the Paluxy River and the surrounding Chalk Mountain region near Glen Rose, Texas are at risk due to planned development projects including a hyper-scale data center, gas power plants, and close-proximity power lines.   Help us team up to safeguard the prehistoric heritage and natural wonder of these treasured and important ecosystems.

Our Sierra Group is engaging with Protect the Paluxy Valley, a Paluxy community-driven advocacy group focused on real action to protect the Paluxy Valley environment. Link to their website to learn more and see specific actions to take to support and join their efforts.

In addition, we are engaging with The Dinosaur Valley - Paluxy River Protection Alliance, an alliance of local businesses and community stakeholders with specific focus on redirecting the path of the planned Oncor power lines in close-proximity to the State Park. Link to their website for actions from this alliance that focus on the power line placement specifically.

image courtesy Texas Parks & Wildlife
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Birding the Paluxy River Valley

thanks to Joy Havner for this account!

The drive southwest from Fort Worth along HWY 377 takes about 50 minutes. It's the beginning of the Hill Country and closer than I realized.

Our guides, Terry McIntire - FWAS member, Joanne Carcamo, and Jarred Hopson, all locals, welcomed our group onto private properties along the Paluxy corridor, native landscapes that may not look the same much longer.

The birding did not disappoint. In just an hour of birding we had recorded the songs of Golden-cheeked Warblers, an endangered species that nests only in Texas, singing from the Ashe juniper-oak slopes. Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and White-eyed Vireos worked the brush. Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmice (hybrids), and both Bewick's and Carolina Wrens kept up a constant chorus in the understory. On the wing we spotted a Great Blue Heron, Red-tailed Hawks, and Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures. American Crows, Greater Roadrunner, and Wild Turkeys rounded out our list.

The warblers weren't the only remarkable find. Two Monarch butterflies, a candidate for the threatened species list, momentarily stopped at plants. On the ground, we found Antelope Horn Milkweed in bloom, a native plant that Monarchs depend on for breeding and survival. Also present was the Glen Rose Yucca, a species considered vulnerable and found in only a handful of locations in the world, this valley among them. Perhaps most striking, and not just because it landed on my shoulder and hung out in my hair for a bit, was an American Bumblebee, an imperiled native bee in North America and also a candidate for threatened species listing. These findings together paint a picture of just how ecologically significant this stretch of the Paluxy really is.

For participant and local, Joanne Carcamo, the morning was both joyful and sobering:

"Being out in the Paluxy at 7:00 AM with our babies, just quiet and bird watching together, was so special. Only twenty minutes into our walk, we heard and then spotted the Golden-cheeked Warbler, it was truly incredible.We were standing only 100 feet from the fence line of the proposed Sailfish Comanche Circle project when we found it.  Seeing this endangered bird species so close to that line made it clear how much is at stake.  It is so important to my family that we do everything we can to protect this endangered species and the wildlife that shares this land with Dinosaur Valley State Park. We want to make sure this stays as beautiful and peaceful as it is today for our children to grow up in. After all, this is our home.  Losing 2,600 acres to industry would be detrimental to the wildlife and the families of the Paluxy who have always called this home. It's so important that we protect this habitat before it's gone."

Terry McIntire, who has long, deep, family roots in the area since the 1850s says "We've treated the land here as an extension of our family.  We've tried to be good stewards, especially along the river".  I can see how this long relationship of good will with the land makes the development of 2,600 acres feel very personal.

What's the Threat

Two proposed projects would change this valley. Developer Ryan Hughes, Sailfish Investors LLC, has proposed Comanche Circle, Project Panther, and Project Lion a data center complex spanning roughly 2,600 acres near the Hood-Somervell county line, made of nine campuses with up to five gigawatts of capacity, larger than the city of Glen Rose itself. The site sits in a recharge zone for the Upper Trinity Aquifer and within the Paluxy River watershed, with full buildout potentially consuming more than one million gallons of water per day.

Alongside it, Oncor's proposed Dinosaur–Longshore transmission project would run 765-kilovolt lines through Somervell County, with towers up to 140 feet tall on routes that would partially encircle the Dinosaur Valley State Park.

The Fight, and Where It Stands

Local opposition has been fierce. Hood County's own Development Commission recommended a one-year moratorium on large projects like Comanche Circle, but commissioners voted it down twice 3-2, in February, after a state senator threatened legal action against any county attempting such a pause. Over 120 residents rallied at the Somervell County Courthouse against the power lines, and the Public Utility Commission of Texas has received roughly 150 protest comments on proposed transmission routes. TCEQ has received over 11,000 comments opposing the NRG Tolar gas plant permit #181591, which is co located with Comanche Circle.

The fight continues at the state regulatory level and that's where your voice matters now.

How to Help

Protect the Paluxy Valley (protectpaluxy.com) list the action steps (below) and their websites will walk you through them:

Submit comments to the TCEQ opposing air quality permits for the project and requesting a Contested Case Hearing.  
Contact the Public Utility Commission of Texas opposing the Oncor transmission routes near the park
Attend the April 15 talk at Fort Worth Botanic Garden (7 PM), Sierra Club speaker Rita Beving on the impact of data centers across Texas - sierraclub.org/texas/greater-fort-worth
The warblers are still singing. But the private lands Terry, Joanne, and Jarred showed us, the native habitat that buffers the park and shelters the birds, and the bees, the butterflies, and the rare plants, are what's at stake.

Another bird walk in this same area will take place on Wednesday May 13th. Want to join or know more? Contact tdmcintire@gmail.com

Resources:

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/16/texas-state-park-energy-transmission-line/

https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/10/texas-hood-county-rejects-data-center-development-pause-ai/

https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/power-line-project-looms-over-world-famous-dinosaur-tracks-in-texas-state-park/

https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/hood-county-commissioners-reject-data-center-moratorium-again-3-2-vote-residents-call-for-resignations/

https://txswap.org/explore/species/31857

https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/21215172/21215281

https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22721692/181039629

https://tpwmagazine.com/archive/2013/mar/scout3_florafact_antelopehorn/

https://www.fws.gov/species/monarch-danaus-plexippus

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