The Columbia Tap Trail is finally complete, and Kirksey put on some final revitalizing touches this past weekend, planting 300 trees during its 28th annual tree planting event. The Columbia Tap was a railway that opened in 1856 through the Third Ward and became part of the Union Pacific network. It fell into disuse, but Mack Fowler and Bill Coates spent 10 years acquiring the land and locking in federal and local funding to convert a four-mile section from Dixie Drive to Dowling Street into a trail. That opened in 2009, but it left four blocks missing.

Last year, a coalition led by Alan Atkinson privately constructed the missing link, and now the Columbia Tap Trail runs continuously from the Dynamo Stadium to the Med Center. That’s particularly thrilling for bicyclists going between the two business centers, but it also provides a nice route for children commuting to nearby elementary and middle schools, and to the adjacent DeBakey High School for Medical Professions. Over the last three decades, Kirksey employees have planted more than 9,300 trees in Houston.