Parks

Arcadia Trail Park North

Dedication

1994

Size

177.2 acres

Additional amenities

Shelters with picnic tables
Backstop
Bike Rack
Electricity
Fitness Station
Parking lot
Pet Station
Playgrounds
Shelters
Stand Alone Swings
Tennis court
Soccer
Parking lot

Fun facts

Arcadia Trail Park North is a linear park in north Fort Worth that follows Whites Branch Creek and was assembled through a series of parkland dedications from the development of adjacent neighborhoods. The park covers 177 acres running almost 4 miles in northwest-south and eastward directions. The park is accessible from various streets and the amenities listed above are not all located at the physical map address for the park. Arcadia Trail North Park connects with two other parks with similar names: Arcadia Trail Park and Arcadia Trail South Park.

Recreation

Recreational highlights of the park (north of North Tarrant Parkway) include miles of paved hike and bike trails that run the length of the park connecting a multitude of neighborhoods. Playgrounds and picnic tables can be found along the trail adjacent to the creek. South of North Tarrant Parkway, the park continues into the mitigation area. There is not a paved trail through the mitigation area but mowed portions and neighborhood sidewalks provide access to the creek and pond. This is a great place to explore native wildlife species and look for wildflowers. Heading south beyond the mitigation area, paved walking trails criss-cross the park and lead to pavilions, tennis courts, and a wildflower meadow. There are areas maintained for frisbee golf, and free-play soccer.

Geology

The geology of the park is in the Pawpaw Formation,Weno Limestone and Denton Clay. Pawpaw is a calcareous ledge-forming marl interbedded with limestone and clay. The east side of the park is in the Fort Worth Limestone and Duck Creek Formation of the early Cretaceous. This formation exhibits ancient marine burrows and Pecten, oyster, echinoid, and ammonite fossils.

Soils

The soils at the park are predominately Slidell Series, which is a calcareous clay soil. Frio Series soils are calcareous loamy and clayey soils found in floodplain alluvium.

Ecology

A portion of the park along Whites Branch Creek serves as a mitigation site as required by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Nationwide Permit 14 for the North Tarrant Parkway interchange and roadway projects in 2003. Mitigation was required due to construction of new culverts that impacted the waters of the United States. The mitigation plan required that development restrictions be placed on 1,455 linear feet of Whites Branch (3.34 acres) for a wetlands mitigation area. The permit required that mitigation take place on City property with similar soil make up and wildlife habitat as the corridor of White Branch Creek that was being impacted by road construction.

In the mitigation area, trees were planted every 30 feet on each side of the creek to create a riparian corridor buffering the creek and providing wildlife habitat. Photos show the mitigation site at the beginning of the project and the site as of 2021 via a Google Earth image.

The ecology overall within the park is a mix of wooded riparian and prairie uplands. There are interspersed naturally-occurring wetlands and some constructed ponds.

See what plants and animals have been observed at Arcadia Trail Park North and help contribute to citizen science by reporting your observations by using the iNaturalist link in the sidebar.

Reserve this park on ActiveNet