Trinity River Audubon Center
Visit the website at trinityriver.audubon.org6500 South Great Trinity Forest Way
Dallas, TX 75217
Fresh Air - Birding - Hiking Adventure. Find it along the Trinity River and in the forest. Take I-45 South and Exit on Loop 12 East to experience an emerging portion of the forest at the Trinity River Audubon Center located at 6500 South Loop 12. The center is open Tuesday through Sunday and the admission for adults is $6.00 and for children it is $4.00. The third Thursday of each month is free admission from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Visitors can enjoy more than four miles of hiking on boardwalks and soft surface trails leading to emergent wetland ponds, vistas of restored Texas Blackland Prairie, bottomland hardwood forest, and the Trinity River.
In October of 2008, the Trinity River Audubon Center opened in the Great Trinity Forest boasting 120 acres, nine emergent wetland ponds, four miles of hiking trails, and a lookout over the Trinity River. Today, it proudly displays a LEED Gold Certification, the first of its type within the Dallas Parks and Recreation System. The $14 million Antoine Predock designed building is the Texas Audubon Society's flagship facility with $1 million of the funds from a Meadows Foundation grant for the Discovery Garden.
The site of the Trinity River Audubon Center represents a $37 million restoration and capital improvement project that was funded and built by the City of Dallas when it was court ordered to clean up the land that had long been used an illegal construction landfill site. Now, the land is owned by the City and the center is operated by the National Audubon Society. This is a true success story of land restoration and innovation in architecture. The center plays host to 25,000 school children annually for its science and educational initiatives in North Texas. The beautiful center hosts international visitors and locals alike providing a restorative place in the forest for everyone to visit and enjoy.
Bird Watching and Ecotourism
Bird watching draws many people to Texas to see peak migrations in March/April and mid-September through late October. Another benefit of the Trinity River Audubon Center will be the growing trend of ecotourism in Texas, already a $1 billion industry. A major part of that trend is birding.
Tourism is the third largest industry in Texas, after oil and gas production and agriculture. Birding in Texas generates more than $350 million per year from 2.2 million participants, approximately one-quarter of which travel here from outside of the state.
The addition of the Trinity River Audubon Center to the Great Trinity Forest allows visitors come into Dallas with the chance to see one of 50 resident species.
Because of where the Trinity River is located in Texas, it's the largest fresh water inflow into Galveston Bay. The Trinity River is critical for birds because it's a migratory pass between the northern and southern hemispheres. More than 600 migratory species come into Texas, the most of any state in the country.
