Luxuriant Confusion

The magic on the Buckeye Trail occurs, off the hardscape, on the hard-won trails to the buckeye grove, the confluence of White Rock Creek with the Trinity River, and (if you dare) the bois d’arc bottoms along White Rock Creek. Comprising over 6,000 acres, the Great Trinity Forest is the largest urban bottomland forest in the US.

The trail is located in a succession forest which emerged after intervening logging and agriculture use. Aside from scattered old-growth pecan, ash, cottonwood, and bois d’arc trees (and a magnificent bur oak named Ned) which were preserved for nuts and shade for livestock, the current forest has arisen since the 1960s when the bottomland ceased being used as a pasture for Metzger’s dairy. The property lay fallow for decades as business, governmental, and environmental groups fought over the future of the Trinity and its bottomlands.

In this fertile limestone clay soil, top-dressed by alluvial sandy loam, wind and flood-borne seeds of fast-growing ash, hackberry, and elm have thrived and now dominate the canopy of the forest as they compete for sunlight. The forest floor surrounds the trail with ephemeral wetlands, lush understory trees and shrubs which don’t mind their feet wet, and wild rye grass and other forbs.

The privilege of being enveloped by green in this bottomland forest is to be surrounded by the luxuriant confusion of nature.

1. 1. 1. Be Nature-Safe (the Buckeye Way)
      2. Circles
      3. Edible and Medicinal Plants
      4. Indigenous People of the Trinity Basin
      5. Luxuriant Confusion
      6. The Joy of Forest Bathing
      7. Trees