The people behind the Friends of Oak Cliff Parks are quietly improving our neighborhood

Trails do not simply appear out of thin air. Bamboo does not stop growing. Mulch does not spread itself, and an eroding hillside does not repair itself.

Someone shows up with gloves and tools.

Then they come back and do it again.

That kind of care unfolds quietly across some of Oak Cliff’s most historic parks, much of it through partnership with the Friends of Oak Cliff Parks (FOCP), a grassroots volunteer organization founded in 2002 to help restore horticulture and preserve the neighborhood’s historic green spaces.

For current FOCP President Ellen Fitzsimmons, it began with a view from her window. After retiring from Wisconsin, Fitzsimmons and her husband initially spent winters at Lake Cliff Tower. She remembers looking across at Lake Cliff Park and seeing people cutting roses in the winter.

“I thought, ‘Oh, well, that’s something I can do,’” she recalled.

Years later after moving to Oak Cliff full time, Fitzsimmons is still showing up. She describes FOCP’s mission as restoring and improving horticulture in Oak Cliff’s historic parks, places she says have “beautiful bones” and “history worth keeping.”

FOCP has roughly 50 supporting members and many more who casually join volunteer activities, Fitzsimmons says, with about 10 to 15 people forming the core of the group’s volunteer efforts. A typical FOCP workday is generally held on Tuesday and Saturday mornings and might include weeding, mulching and trimming. They rotate among Kiest Memorial Garden, Kiest Conservation Area, the Lake Cliff Park Gardens and the Japanese Garden at Kidd Springs Park.

FOCP volunteers add another layer of stewardship to the maintenance work managed by the City park employees, Fitzsimmons says, by spotting problems, tending gardens and connecting community resources to places that need them. She describes the relationship with City park employees as collaborative and is quick to credit them for the work they do alongside volunteers.

Beyond the Dallas Park and Recreation staff, FOCP works with a network of groups, including Greenspace Dallas, Master Gardeners, Master Naturalists, Scouts, youth organizations, businesses and other volunteers.

At Kiest Conservation Area, FOCP partnered with Greenspace Dallas, which brought trail-building expertise and equipment, and Scouts, with their youthful energy, to an ongoing trail development project in the park.

The FOCP also works with the City and volunteers on restorative initiatives, such as the Kidd Springs erosion-control project, which is designed to slow runoff toward the lake. The FOCP collaborated with City employees, now-disbanded Scout Troop 2012 and the City biologist.

Those projects reveal something Fitzsimmons repeatedly emphasizes: “We could never do this alone.”

For many volunteers, the work offers something simple: a chance to get outside, meet people and make a visible difference in a place they enjoy. Fitzsimmons says FOCP is also seeing younger volunteers get involved, including people with remote or flexible work schedules who are looking for community and a reason to spend time outdoors. Some arrive knowing a great deal about plants. Others simply show up ready to learn and help. There is room for both. A few hours spent pulling weeds, planting, trimming or working alongside someone new can leave a garden looking better, a park feeling more cared for, and a volunteer with a stronger connection to the community.

Park stewardship has become more important to the neighborhoods as Oak Cliff grows. At Kidd Springs, Fitzsimmons regularly hears visitors compliment the garden.

During a recent Master Gardeners tour, she repeatedly heard another reaction: “I had no idea there was anything like this in Oak Cliff.”

Maybe that sense of discovery helps explain why people keep returning.

Beyond volunteer activities, FOCP organizes educational activities such as nature walks that introduce visitors to the trees, wildflowers and wildlife found in the parks.

The next time you see the improved plant beds at Kiest Memorial, walk through the Japanese garden at Kidd Springs, explore the trails at Kiest Conservation Area, or pause beneath the trees at Lake Cliff, the work behind that experience may be invisible.

That is, in many ways, the point.

To learn more or volunteer with Friends of Oak Cliff Parks, visit friendsofoakcliffparks.org.

Alexander Kwapis lives in Oak Cliff’s Elmwood neighborhood, where he walks the local trails, visits the parks, and catches up with neighbors. He founded Outside in the Wild, an outdoor storytelling project. His writing has also appeared in Flow Trip, Forbes and Fast Company.