Making Mother River Proud

It’s certain kayaking, fishing, or trail running would have ruined her prim mid-century coif, yet this didn’t stop Phyllis Tilley from metaphorically jumping into the Trinity River — with all its problems, pollution, and politics.

They may have called her “Mother River,” but she never actually got in the water.

The story goes as Phyllis was driving over the 7^th Street bridge in the late 1960s, she looked at the mess that was the Trinity River and bluntly declared, “This is a ditch.” The levees built following a 1949 flood had slowed the water to a trickle, creating stagnant pools of trash and sludge. For the next several years, Phyllis enlisted the Junior League and the City to jumpstart the creation of Streams & Valleys, a nonprofit dedicated to educating the community about the river, advocating for environmentally sound development projects, and keeping the Trinity and its trails beautiful and accessible.

Planting trees along the Trinity
Photo courtesy of Streams & Valleys

In 1971, Phyllis asked the Junior League to help her start “the Mayfest,” a celebration of their initial success and a way to support future river-related efforts. Fast-forward 53 years, and Mayfest is one of Fort Worth’s most cherished traditions.

If you’ve enjoyed the Trinity River in any way over the last 50 years (or even just a Mayfest corn dog), you have Phyllis to thank, as well as a lot of other people, organizations, and city leaders who caught her vision. Maintaining life by the river became a community effort for the entire city to enjoy for almost 55 years.

No one is more eager to champion the communal aspect of the river than the woman who is the modern-day face of Streams & Valleys – Stacey Pierce.

“I think the river is big enough both physically and metaphorically to accommodate and welcome anyone and everyone all the time,” Stacey said. “It’s the best visual I know for equity. But we’ve got real work to do in our neighborhoods that still need access to the river and trails.”

Stacey Pierce
Photo courtesy of Streams & Valleys

Sitting in her office, Stacey gave me the in-a-nutshell version of where things stand today. Did you know the Trinity River is the only rivershed entirely in the state of Texas? Its 710 miles snake from Archer County in the north to the Gulf of Mexico, winding through Fort Worth, Arlington, and Dallas. The grand plan of Streams & Valleys is to leverage this natural connector and create a 250-plus milelong riverside trail network that will knit the neighborhoods of each city together. “The trails were a huge resource for people during the pandemic,” Stacey explains. “This is a health club with no fee. How do we get people there who don’t have reliable access to transportation?”

The answer? Bring the trails to them.

Working alongside the City of Fort Worth and the Tarrant Regional Water District, Streams & Valleys raises funds to finish projects with grant writing, old-fashioned fundraising, and advocacy. The organization is not politically affiliated but exists to be the “super glue” (as Stacey puts it) to provide continuity that will transcend the terms of elected officials. “We’re the keeper of the vision,” she says, hearkening back to the Streams & Valleys slogan: Every river has a mouth. The Trinity River has a voice.

This public-private partnership is crucial to success in Stacey’s mind, and with a vision of adding miles and miles of trails to the riverside, Stacey is patient with the process. “It’s taken us a half-century to get this far. You measure progress in decades, not in months or years.”

I can tell Stacey admires Phyllis Tilley and the early women who pulled together in those days, many of whom still work Mayfest even in their 80s. She wants to take a similar roll-up-our-sleeves approach. “If you talk to anybody involved back then, they are so proud of what they did as a group. How cool to take the next step and bring the community back again and have that civic pride?”

According to Stacey, getting the younger generation excited is vital to this goal, whether it’s Girl Scout troops, National Charity League chapters (Cowtown Chapter is currently a Streams & Valleys partner), or Eagle Scouts looking for projects. All up-and-coming, community-minded groups are welcome, but so are individuals who can volunteer for Flyfest, Mayfest, or Fort Worth’s Fourth, all of which are events that benefit Streams & Valleys.

“If you want to work on the river, there’s a place for you,” says Stacey. “It belongs to all of us; if we follow it, the River will lead us forward.”

Mother River would be proud.