George Bush Park occupies about 7,800 acres on Houston’s far west side within Barker Reservoir, combining recreation with an active role in flood control along Buffalo Bayou. Much of the land remains undeveloped forest and grassland that can store floodwater, though flooding sometimes closes the park. Its facilities include sports fields, playgrounds, pavilions, ponds, trails, a dog park, and the Boardwalk, a wooden bridge built in 2004. The land once lay in the Stephen F. Austin colony, later served ranching and farming, and became parkland in the mid-1940s with the reservoir’s construction. Renamed in 1997 for George H. W. Bush, it also saw a major wildfire in 2011.