Parks & Recreation Magazine April 2019

APRIL 2019 W W W. N R PA . O R G

CONSERVATION ISSUE Is Recycling Dead? | Adding Resiliency to Boston’s Waterfront | Parks as a Climate Solution

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contents april 2019

ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

volume 54 | number 4 | www.parksandrecreation.org

FEATURES

50 Recycling Is Dead. Now What?

Richard J. Dolesh

Is recycling as we know it really dead? In a word, yes. This is a shocking development to park and recreation agencies that have promoted recycling to the public and staff as a means of taking personal and organizational responsibility for the trash they create and to meaningfully reduce their impact on the environment. Learn why this change came about, the impact on parks and recreation and what we can be doing now to create new solutions.

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56 The Vision Plan for Boston’s Moakley Park

Amy Whitesides, Elaine Stokes and Alex Marchinski

Boston, Massachusetts’ Moakley Park is the largest city park located along Boston Harbor. In 2018, the Boston Parks and Recreation Department launched the Moakley Park Vision Plan to transform the park and take advantage of the site’s significant social and environmental potential. Learn how Boston Parks and Recreation is fulfilling this vision of climate resiliency and social equity advancement while reconnecting the community to the harbor.

Play never told me you can’t or don’t or you shouldn’t or you won’t.

Play never said be careful!

You’re not strong enough.

You’re not big enough.

You’re not brave enough.

Play has always been an invitation.

A celebration.

A joyous manifestation.

Of the cans and wills and what ifs and why nots.

Play isn’t one thing. It’s everything. Anything.

Play doesn’t care what a body can or cannot do.

Because play lives inside us. All of us.

Play begs of us: Learn together.

Grow together.

Be together.

Know together.

And as we grow older.

As the world comes at us with you can’t or don’t or you shouldn’t or you won’t.

We come back to what we know.

That imagination will never fail us.

That words will never hurt us.

That play will always shape us.

©2019 Landscape Structures Inc. All rights reserved.

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contents april

columns

departments

8

12 Research

10 Editor’s Letter Every Little Bit Helps Sonia Myrick

Assess Your Agency with the 2019 NRPA Agency Performance Review Kevin Roth, Ph.D.

14 Park Pulse Role of Parks and Rec During Natural Disaster Response

30 Advocacy FEMA Funding for Building Nature-Based Resilient Communities Rowan Schmidt, Johnny Mojica and Jordan Wildish

16 People for Parks NRPA Welcomes Its New CEO: Kristine Stratton 16 What Constitutes a Resilient Park? 17 Lori Robertson

34 Law Review Crude Racist Skit Tests First Amendment James C. Kozlowski, J.D., Ph.D.

18 Community Center F. unding for Green Initiatives and Sustainability Programs Is Within Reach Stacy Mehlhoff

40 Future Leaders Using Intrinsic Motivation to Increase Employee Engagement Jennifer Meunier and Michael J. Bradley, Ph.D.

22 Member to Member .Louisville ECHO: A West Louisville Outdoor Recreation Initiative 22 Bennett Knox and Erin Wagoner Diversity Is Key to a Resilient Future Forest 26 Lauryn Stalter

62 NRPA Update Miami Innovation Lab 62 Saving the Future of Outdoor Recreation 64 Use Your Power of Persuasion 66 Saving Pollinators: One BioBlitz at a Time 67 Host a Kids to Parks Day – May 18 68 Upcoming Dates for the New Playground Maintenance Course 68 What Does It Mean to Be CAPRA Accredited? 70 Promote Water Safety in May 71 NRPA Returns to the Winners’ Circle 71 Connect Hot Topics 72 Member Benefit: Fun Express Has You Covered for Summer Camps & Events 72 Member Spotlight: David Mayer 73 Parks & Rec Crossword 74 Directors School 76 Professional Development Calendar 77

Perspectives Developing Healthier, Safer, More Prosperous Communities Jack Kardys

42 Health & Wellness Parks as a Solution to Climate Change Taj Schottland

46 Social Equity Our Nation’s Demographic Shift Rafael Payan, Ph.D.

78 Operations Regenerative Land Management: Restoring Nature’s Balance 78 Sonia Myrick and Richard J. Dolesh LED Lighting and IoT 81 Sonia Myrick

82 Products 87 Advertiser Index 88 Park Bench 3D Printing Michele White 6

Parks & Recreation

Cover image: Ahmed Areef/ Alamy Stock Photo

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IMAGE BY UNSPLASH

84 Park Essentials

Page 30

P E RS P E C T I V E S A M E S S A G E F R O M N R PA’ S L E A D E RS

Developing Healthier, Safer, More Prosperous Communities So, how did the concept of parks as agents of adaptation and community resilience take root in today’s challenge to adapt to climate change? Most of us remember the Benefits-Based Programming (BBP) model, where the primary objective for our afterschool programming was the development of resilient children by improving their health, self-confidence, self-efficacy, optimism, coping ability, personal responsibility and goals orientation.

We learned to build programs around these outcomes and measure success, equipping generations with a set of skills that are inevitably reflected in how they organize and live their lives as good, productive citizens.

According to psychologists, resilience is what gives people the psychological strength to cope with uncertainty, stress and hardship. It is the mental reservoir of strength that people can tap into to carry them through certain difficulties without falling apart.

Resilient individuals are better able to handle such adversity and rebuild their lives after a catastrophe.

So too are resilient communities, which are more likely to survive and thrive in the face of the impacts and natural disasters triggered by climate change. In the wake of traumas, such as terrorist attacks, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts and wildfires, many individuals and communities, especially those with resiliency and emergency management protocols, demonstrate resilient behaviors.

Resilience, in the changing paradigm of our profession, refers to the ability of a park-centric public realm to stand up to shocks or changes from climate change and maintain an acceptable level of function and performance using a variety of green infrastructure interventions. Similarly, adaptation refers to adjustments to limit the negative effects, or to take advantage of the positive effects, of climate change.

Resilience and adaptation measures may include 8

Parks & Recreation

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changes to our green spaces, the built environment, restructuring financing and insurance instruments and reorganizing social networks.

NRPA’s Resource Guide for Planning, Designing and Implementing Green Infrastructure in Parks describes parks as providing “ideal opportunities…as they are often already highly visible, multifunctional public spaces that typically include green elements. Combining green stormwater infrastructure into park retrofits and new park development with a goal of increasing social equity can help ensure that open space is used to its full potential.” These high-performance landscapes and park facilities, designed as green infrastructure, provide the maximum amount of co-benefits to communities in the form of health gains through recreation, economic growth, flood, fire and drought mitigation, education, social empathy, improved water and air quality, heat island mitigation, stress relief and relaxation, wildlife habitat, green jobs and post-disaster centers for relief and community organizing.

As park professionals, we should recognize that the interconnectivity of climate resilience, climate change, adaptability and vulnerability require social, economic, technological and political strategies that must be implemented in all sectors of our communities. To that end, NRPA’s best practices for green infrastructure include site design with multidisciplinary teams, listening to and empowering the community, understanding and communicating the benefits, designing for equity and inclusivity, planning for connectivity and accessibility, and ensuring projects are biddable and buildable. Constructing walkable cities with energy-efficient buildings and integrating natural ecosystems with high-performance landscapes serving as green infrastructure are strategies park professionals must deploy to develop healthier, safer, more prosperous communities.

JACK K ARDYS NRPA’s Chair of the Board of Directors

2 2377 Belmont Ridge Rd. | Ashburn, VA 20148 703.858.0784 | www.nrpa.org

NRPA’S MISSION: To advance parks, recreation and environmental conservation efforts that enhance the quality of life for all people.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Chair of the Board of Directors Jack Kardys J. Kardys Strategies Miami, Florida

Chair-Elect Michael Kelly Chicago Park District Chicago, Illinois Treasurer Xavier D. Urrutia

City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation San Antonio, Texas

Secretary Karen Bates Kress

Jack Kardys

J. Kardys Strategies Miami, Florida

Michael Kelly

Chicago Park District Chicago, Illinois

Karen Bates Kress Park Advocate Emigrant, Montana

Joanna Lombard

University of Miami School of Architecture; Miller School of Medicine Department of Public Health Sciences Miami, Florida

Carolyn McKnight, CPRP

Park Advocate Emigrant, Montana

Former BREC Executive Director East Baton Rouge, Louisiana

President and CEO Barbara Tulipane, CAE

Joshua Medeiros, CPRP, AFO

National Recreation and Park Association Ashburn, Virginia

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Michael Abbaté, FASLA

Formerly of Portland Parks & Recreation Portland, Oregon

Jesús Aguirre, CPRE

Seattle Parks and Recreation Seattle, Washington

Leon T. Andrews, Jr.

National League of Cities Washington, D.C.

Neelay Bhatt

PROS Consulting Indianapolis, Indiana

Hayden Brooks

American Realty Corporation Austin, Texas

Kong Chang

City of Bristol Parks & Recreation Bristol, Connecticut

Herman Parker

City of San Diego, California, Parks and Recreation Department San Diego, California

Ian Proud

Playworld Systems Williamsport, Pennsylvania

Nonet T. Sykes

Atlanta Beltline, Inc. Atlanta, Georgia

Xavier D. Urrutia

City of San Antonio Parks and Recreation San Antonio, Texas

Greg A. Weitzel, CPRP

City of Idaho Falls Parks and Recreation Idaho Falls, Idaho

LIFE TRUSTEES Beverly D. Chrisman

City of Saint Paul Parks and Recreation Saint Paul, Minnesota

Lexington, South Carolina

Carol Coletta

Fort Mill, South Carolina

Anne S. Close

Memphis River Parks Partnership Memphis, Tennessee

James H. Evans

Kevin Coyle

Rosemary Hall Evans

National Wildlife Federation Washington, D.C.

Jose Felix Diaz Ballard Partners Miami, Florida

Victor Dover

Dover, Kohl & Partners Town Planning Miami, Florida

Richard Gulley

City of San Diego Parks and Recreation Department San Diego, California

Roslyn Johnson, CPRP

Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission Greenbelt, Maryland

New York, New York

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Sugar Hill, New Hampshire

Earl T. Groves

Gastonia, North Carolina

Charles E. Hartsoe, Ph.D. Richmond, Virginia

Harry G. Haskell, Jr.

Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania

Kathryn A. Porter

Mendham, New Jersey

Perry J. Segura

New Iberia, Louisiana

R. Dean Tice

Round Hill, Virginia

Eugene A. Young, CPRP Baton Rouge, Louisiana

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EDITOR’S LETTER PRESIDENT AND CEO Barbara Tulipane, CAE

Every Little Bit Helps When I moved from Boston to the Washington metropolitan area back in the late 1980s, tornadoes were not on my radar. I knew there was an area of the country nicknamed “Tornado Alley,” but in my mind, it wasn’t something I really needed to worry about.

As time has gone on, however, tornadoes are no longer a rarity here and their frequency, in my opinion, seems to be increasing.

Is this the result of climate change? Depending on who you ask, the level of certainty can range from a resounding “Yes, it definitely is!” to “There’s no such thing!” No matter where you fall on the spectrum, we all need to look for ways we can possibly help put Mother Nature in a much better mood. When you look at the severity of the fire season out West, which seems to be lasting longer and burning hotter than ever before, and the rising cost of disaster relief — in response to the 2017 weather events, total federal disaster spending was more than $130 billion — if collectively we do small things, like using paper straws instead of plastic or remembering to take reusable bags to the grocery store, maybe we could start to see some improvement.

Of late, the mainstream media has been ringing the death knell for the recycling industry. China recently ended its 25-year practice of accepting plastic waste from many developed countries and it’s estimated that 111 million metric tons of plastic waste will be displaced by 2030. As a result, there’s growing concern about where this trash will now go. But, is recycling really dead? On page 56 of this, our Conservation Pillar issue, Rich Dolesh, NRPA’s vice president of strategic initiatives, poses this question in the “Recycling Is Dead. Now What?” article and offers some recycling solutions and suggestions on what park and recreation agencies can do to help themselves and the public recycle in smarter ways.

Also, in the news recently are the devasting floods affecting at least five Midwestern states. Fires, floods, sea-level rise: what’s being done to make our communities more resilient to these weather events? Parks and recreation is already on the forefront of this issue and on page 50 in “The Vision Plan for Boston’s Moakley Park,” contributors Amy Whitesides, Elaine Stokes and Alex Marchinski share the vision plan for Moakley Park, which, combined with Fort Point Channel, is part of the flood pathway for portions of the city’s South End and Roxbury neighborhoods. This vision not only incorporates the park as an important part of the city’s coastal resiliency strategy, but also includes upgrades to the park’s facilities and programs that will benefit some highly vulnerable communities, addressing access and equity for all.

The story of how parks and recreation helps enhance not only the physical, but also the environmental health of communities is an exciting one that we should take every opportunity to share.

Every little bit — even if it’s simply switching from plastic to paper straws — helps. And the work you, our members, do each and every day, some of which is highlighted in this issue, is a bright light in what may at times seem like a not so rosy global outlook. So, thank you for all you do and keep up the great work!

SONIA MYRICK Executive Editor

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VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLISHING, AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Gina Mullins-Cohen gcohen@nrpa.org EXECUTIVE EDITOR Sonia Myrick smyrick@nrpa.org ASSOCIATE EDITOR Lindsay G. Collins lcollins@nrpa.org EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTOR Suzanne Nathan snathan@nrpa.org PUBLICATION DESIGN Kim Mabon/Creative By Design CreativeByDesign.net SENIOR SALES MANAGER EASTERN REGION AND EUROPE Kip Ongstad 703.858.2174 kongstad@nrpa.org SENIOR SALES MANAGER WESTERN REGION AND ASIA Michelle Dellner 949.248.1057 mdellner@nrpa.org SALES COORDINATOR Meghan Fredriksen 703.858.2190 mfredriksen@nrpa.org PHOTOGRAPHY Dreamstime.com or NRPA (unless otherwise noted) MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS Michael Abbaté, FASLA Anthony-Paul Diaz Ryan Eaker Robert García Kathleen Gibi Paul Gilbert, CPRP Tim Herd, CPRE Brian Johnson, CPSI Michele Lemons Sam Mendelsohn Maria Nardi Lisa Paradis, CPRP Gil Peñalosa Paula Sliefert Shonnda Smith, CPRP, AFO Anne-Marie Spencer Stephen Springs

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RESEARCH Assess Your Agency with the 2019 NRPA Agency Performance Review

By Kevin Roth, Ph.D.

T

he NRPA Research team is proud to announce the release of the 2019 NRPA Agency Performance Review (APR), our annual review of data and insights for U.S. park and recreation agencies. Delivered with this month’s issue of Parks & Recreation magazine, the report (www.nrpa.org/apr) summarizes the key findings from NRPA Park Metrics (www.nrpa.org/metrics), our benchmarking tool that assists park and recreation professionals in the effective management and planning of their operating resources and capital facilities.

2019 NRPA AGENCY PERFORMANCE REVIEW PARK AND RECREATION AGENCY PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS

• Staffing (typical full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) counts, key staff responsibilities) • Budget (operating expenditures amounts and purposes) • Agency Funding (sources of funding, cost recovery, capital spending) • Agency Policies (permitting the use of tobacco and alcohol, admission and park fees)

A Snapshot of Parks and Recreation This year’s APR features 23 charts and tables on financial and performance metrics collected from the survey responses of 1,075 park and recreation agencies.

These charts and tables cover: • Park Facilities (parks and nonparks, indoor and outdoor facilities) • Programming (team sports, fitness, enhancement classes and programs for children, seniors, people with disabilities) • Responsibilities of Park and Recreation Agencies (spanning from operating parks and facilities to programming types) 12

Parks & Recreation

We see the APR as serving two purposes: first, as an annual almanac highlighting the vast offerings of park and recreation agencies and how these important institutions deliver on their mission, and second as a starting place to compare your agency’s performance against their peers. For example, this year’s APR tells us that the typical park and recreation agency: • Manages 10.1 acres of park land for every 1,000 residents they serve • Has one park for every 2,181 residents • Is most likely to offer summer camps (82.4 percent) and playgrounds (94.4 percent) for local children

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• Has operating expenditures per capita of $78.69/year • Has cost recovery to the equivalent of 27.3 percent of their annual operating expenditures • Has a workforce with 8.3 FTEs for every 10,000 residents they serve

Comparing Your Agency to Its Peers As much as these findings inform policymakers and the public about how park and recreation agencies impact their communities, they do not say what is best for your agency.

Why? Because the APR does not include “national standards,” and the benchmarks do not represent any sort of “standards” against which every park and recreation agency should measure itself.

Instead, the report presents most of the data in the APR with medians, along with data responses at the lower quartile (lowest 25 percent) and upper quartile (highest 25 percent). The data allows for insights into not only where your agency stands compared to “typical” agencies, but also compared to the full spectrum of agencies at both the high and low quartiles. Many metrics include the top-line figures, as well as certain cross tabulations of jurisdiction population or population density. You can find an even more comprehensive set of cross tabulations as a set of interactive tables at www.nrpa.org/metrics.

You can go further by building a customized benchmark report based

on a peer group you define. Go into NRPA Park Metrics to filter the data by agency type, size and geographic region. You can enhance this experience even further by entering your agency’s data into NRPA Park Metrics, after which you can generate reports that compare your agency’s data with the key metrics of agencies throughout the United States.

Policies This year’s survey and APR also included a new set of questions that explored the prevalence of certain agency-level policies. Now, you can see how your agency’s policies compare with those of your peers across the nation. For example, we learned that 3 in 4 park and recreation agencies have policies that prohibit the use of tobacco products in their parks and at their facilities and grounds. Other takeaways from the policy questions are that most park and recreation agencies: • Have a policy that allows the consumption of alcohol by legal-aged adults at some of their premises (67 percent) • Provide healthy food options at their concession stands (67 percent) • Provide healthy food options in their vending machines (65 percent) Fewer agencies, however, sell alcohol (46 percent), charge admission fees (17 percent) and charge parking fees (14 percent) at any of their premises.

Only You Can Make Park Metrics and the APR Better Taken together, the 2019 NRPA Agency Performance Review and NRPA Park Metrics represent the most comprehensive collection of park and recreation-related benchmarks and insights that inform pro

2019 NRPA AGENCY PERFORMANCE REVIEW

KEY FINDINGS

OPERATING

$

$

EXPENDITURES

PER CAPITA:

$

$

1,000 RESIDENTS:

10.1

RESIDENTS

PER PARK:

EXPENDITURES:

27.3 PERCENT

$78.69/YEAR ACRES OF PARK LAND PER

REVENUE-TO-OPERATING

FULL-TIME

EQUIVALENT EMPLOYEES (FTES)

PER 10,000 RESIDENTS: 8.3

2,181

AGENCIES OFFERING

94.4%

82.4%

AGENCIES WITH

PLAYGROUNDS:

SUMMER

CAMPS:

AGENCIES THAT BAN THE USE OF TOBACCO PRODUCTS AT PARKS AND FACILITIES:

73.7%

2019 NRPA AGENCY PERFORMANCE REVIEW

fessionals, key stakeholders and the public about the state of the park and recreation industry. However, it does not happen without the data contributions made by park and recreation professionals like you.

Even though we have published this year’s APR, it is not too late to enter your agency’s data. Not only does entering data give your agency

5

the most customized comparisons available, but you would also be benefiting the 10,000-plus agencies across our nation that want to learn what their peers are doing. Whether you are entering your agency’s data or using the reporting tools, please let us know how we can help.

Kevin Roth, Ph.D., is NRPA’s Vice President of Professional Development, Research and Technology (kroth@nrpa.org).

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13

WE ASKED THE PUBLIC:

Which roles are most important for local park and recreation agencies to play in disaster response and recovery, such as wildfires, hurricanes and floods?

Two clear answers emerged:

NRPA PARK PULSE

Depending on region, respondents selected different priorities during an emergency.

Would look to recreation/community centers to be used as shelters during/after disasters:

66%

OF AMERICANS THINK IT’S MOST IMPORTANT FOR LOCAL PARK AND RECREATION AGENCIES TO SERVE AS AN EMERGENCY DISTRIBUTION CENTER

68% VS.

57% More likely to look to local park and rec agencies for equipment and personnel to respond to immediate threats:

62%

OF AMERICANS THINK IT’S MOST IMPORTANT FOR LOCAL PARK AND RECREATION AGENCIES TO PROVIDE SHELTER DURING AN EMERGENCY

53% VS. 46%

Each month, through a poll of Americans that is focused on park and recreation issues, NRPA Park Pulse helps tell the park and recreation story. Questions span from the serious to the more lighthearted. The survey was conducted by Wakefield Research (www.wakefieldresearch.com).

Visit www.nrpa.org/Park-Pulse for more information.

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2019

ANNUAL CONFERENCE SEPTEMBER 24–26 | BALTIMORE, MD

SEPTEMBER 24-26

OPERATIONS PEOPLE FOR PARKS NRPA Selects New President and CEO

By Heather R. Williams, MPS

N

RPA is proud to announce the selection of Kristine Stratton as the next president and CEO of the organization. Stratton, who currently serves as senior vice president of operations at Earthjustice, the nation’s largest nonprofit environmental law organization, will begin her new role as NRPA president and CEO, June 5, overseeing the day-to-day operations of NRPA, including the NRPA Board of Directors and staff, headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia.

“I am truly honored and excited to join NRPA,” says Kristine Stratton. “Parks and recreation centers are the lifeblood of communities across the country. Advocating alongside the thousands of professionals who make these critical places stronger every day is a dream come true.”

Kristine Stratton

16

Parks & Recreation

A staunch advocate for environmental conservation and equity issues, Stratton believes strongly in NRPA’s mission. Her belief that everyone has the right to clean water and a healthy environment aligns well with NRPA’s vision that everyone deserves a great park. Looking ahead, Stratton will draw on her rural Maine roots and years of work in the environmental movement in cities across the country to advance NRPA’s mission.

“On behalf of the entire NRPA board and staff, I want to congratulate Kristine and welcome her as the next president and CEO of NRPA,” says Jack Kardys, chair of the NRPA Board of Directors.

“Her wealth of experience in nonprofit management, coupled with her passion for environmental justice issues and strategic planning, makes her the perfect candidate for this position. We look forward to working with her to further advance our organizational goals and mission.”

Prior to her role as senior vice president of operations at Earthjustice, located in San Francisco, California, Stratton served as the executive director of Waterkeeper Alliance in New York, New York, and before that she was vice president of operations at the

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Conservation Law Foundation in Boston, Massachusetts. She also served in several administrative and senior management roles at WGBH Educational Foundation, a public broadcasting station in Boston, Massachusetts. Stratton holds a Master of Arts degree in environmental policy and planning from Tufts University and a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Boston University.

Stratton will replace NRPA’s current president and CEO, Barbara Tulipane, CAE, who announced her retirement in June 2018. Tulipane, a lifelong champion of parks and recreation, experienced great success during her 10-year tenure.

Under her leadership, NRPA’s revenue doubled, membership increased from 17,000 to 60,000, and NRPA adopted the three strategic pillars of Conservation, Health and Wellness, and Social Equity.

“The future for NRPA looks bright,“ says Tulipane. “Our members have much to look forward to under Kristine’s leadership.”

Tulipane will remain in her current position until Stratton is onboard June 5.

NRPA members will have the opportunity to meet Stratton in-person at the 2019 NRPA Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, where she will address attendees during the event’s opening general session.

Heather R. Williams, MPS, is NRPA’s Senior Manager of Public Relations (hwilliams@nrpa.org).

What Constitutes a Resilient Park?

By Lori Robertson

P

“

arks will save the world!” exclaimed Miami-Dade County Parks Commissioner Maria Nardi in her closing remarks at NRPA’s most recent Innovation Lab in Florida. This Innovation Lab focused on the role of parks in building climate resiliency, and with Miami-Dade County as the backdrop, the event brought to bear pressing challenges faced by park departments in at-risk communities.

It also highlighted how one of the most vulnerable coastal areas in the world is maximizing the value of parks and open spaces for resilience.

As predominant landowners within communities across the nation, park and recreation agencies are on the front lines of climate change and should be key players in developing resiliency strategies. We see examples of this in projects like The Estuary Commons in San Leandro Bay and Living Breakwaters in Staten Island, that involves natural infrastructure and the creation of new and needed public space.

These projects integrate approaches such as living shorelines, establishing wetlands and new coastal habitat with the creation of greenways and recreational amenities designed to shift and transform during periods of extreme weather and flood. In large urban centers, where land is at a premium and public amenities are in high demand, this dualpurpose approach makes sense. It also helps address social resilience by creating neighborhood gathering places and opportunities for diverse community members to interact, prior to and after a disaster.

Lower Manhattan’s Big U project, winner of Rebuild by Design’s Hurricane Sandy Design Competition, approached the resilient park concept with this dual-purpose method until recently when the project drastically changed form. Originally, the

East River Park portion called for protecting the surrounding areas from storm surge and sea-level rise via a bridge berm at the back of the park. The new design would raise the entire park 8–10 feet, creating the park atop a berm and protecting the surrounding homes and buildings, the park and its amenities, and the critical programming and community use of the park in the aftermath of a disaster.

For many in the park and recreation field, this change is understandable. Often millions of dollars are invested in these types of largescale, high-profile resiliency projects. But, what is commonly left unaddressed is the need to increase the park departments’ capacity and budget accordingly to properly maintain and care for these spaces over the long term. While money seems to flow freely for capital improvements, funding for maintenance and operations is often less tangible and less appealing. For this reason, park professionals may prefer the “parkon-a-hill” approach over “repair and improve” following every big weather event. It’s important to note, however, that the updated design of the Big U East River Park project increased the price tag by $700 million. A missed opportunity? Perhaps.

This conundrum does raise an interesting question which was brought up by Amy Chester, Rebuild by Design’s managing director, during this event. What exactly is a resilient park? What and whom are we trying to protect? Should we design parks to absorb the impacts of climate-related weather events and natural disaster, or should we focus on protecting the parks themselves? This question was not resolved during the Innovation Lab, but, it did spark some interesting conversation and thought among participants.

Park and recreation agencies’ ability to act on and prioritize climate resilience as part of their mission largely depends on the availability of resources; creative funding approaches to maintenance, operations and programming; and the willingness of leaders to prioritize and include parks in resilience conversations. Park agencies must be at the table as these decisions are being made, raising their concerns, collaborating on solutions and working across departments. There is a great opportunity for parks to “save the world,” but there are still some fundamental questions we need to answer first.

This conversation is certainly far from over, and we would love to hear your thoughts on the subject. How do you define a resilient park? Join us on NRPA Connect www.nrpaconnect.org during the month of April to share your thoughts. We look forward to hearing from you.

Lori Robertson (she, her, hers) is NRPA’s Director of Conservation (lrobertson@nrpa.org).

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COMMUNITY CENTER Funding for Green Initiatives and Sustainability Programs Is Within Reach

By Stacy Mehlhoff

W

“

e’re facing cutbacks this year.” “We’ve got to do more with less.” “I wish we could start that project, but our budget is just too restrictive.” “There’s been a shortfall in funding.”

Does any of this sound familiar to you? Maybe it was an answer you received after submitting an idea to enhance your green space or facility with sustainability features?

Justifications and Performance Information report shows a twoyear decline in funding authority.

Fortunately, there are nonprofits partnering with and financially supporting community parks and local green spaces to improve the health of our planet.

PHOTO COURTESY PARK DISTRICT OF OAK PARK: PATTI STALEY, DIRECTOR OF HORTICULTURE FOR PARK DISTRICT OF OAK PARK

All too often, local park and recreation departments across the United States are having to get creative when it comes to funding improvement projects and green initiatives because funding can be difficult to secure. In fact, the National Park Service’s Budget

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Parks & Recreation

A Leader in Transforming the Planet The Green Mountain Energy Sun Club® (www.gmesunclub.org) is one of several nonprofits working to make changes for our environment. Its mission is to invest in nonprofits to advance sustainability for people and for the planet, and it’s delivering conservation programs and sustainability solutions to like-minded nonprofits that want to change the effect people have on the planet.

Sun Club understands how instrumental nonprofit organizations are to the well-being of communities. It also understands an organization’s funding is generally dedicated to expenses that help achieve the organization’s mission. So, Sun Club offers sustainability solutions to help nonprofit organizations operate more sustainably without taking away resources that otherwise would have gone to the community. Its sustainability solutions are geared to help nonprofits lessen their carbon footprint, and often, these sustainability upgrades result in a cost savings that allow the nonprofit to do even more.

Since its founding in 2002, the Sun Club has been donating sustainability grants to nonprofits in communities where Green MounTwo of Illinois’ Oak Park Conservatory’s five cisterns that repurpose up to 4,500 gallons of rainwater collected from its greenhouse roofs for the plants grown there and planted throughout the parks.

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“Making a long-term difference in communities and setting an example to future generations about the power of sustainability is a great investment.” tain Energy® does business (mainly in Texas and Illinois and along the Northeast). Green Mountain, the nation’s longest-serving renewable energy retailer, offers consumers and businesses 100 percent pollution-free electricity made from renewable sources (www.green mountainenergy.com).

Thanks to donations from loyal customers, dedicated employees and Green Mountain Energy, the Sun Club is funding grants to nonprofit organizations that want to execute sustainability projects promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency, resource conservation and environmental stewardship.

“Making a long-term difference in communities and setting an example to future generations about the power of sustainability is a great investment,” says Mark Parsons, president for the Sun Club.

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Stats Making an Impact Sun Club made quite a difference in 2018, hitting major milestones and preventing a significant amount of CO2 emissions: • $1.5 million was donated, bringing its total to $6.9 million (since 2002) • More than 2.9 million pounds of CO2 was avoided, raising the total to nearly 16 million pounds (since 2002) • It celebrated its largest donation: $400,000 • Twelve projects were completed, bringing its total to 111 (since 2002) • It completed its first fuel-conversion project, using vegetable oil to power a bus

Grant Recipients Setting an Example, Making a Difference

Evelyn’s Park (evelynspark.org) Thanks to a $313,500 sustainability grant from the Sun Club, Evelyn’s Park, near Houston, Texas, is considered one of the most sustainable parks in the nation. Five acres of historic land were transformed

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COMMUNITY CENTER

into a natural green space, where the community can connect with nature amid an energetic urban landscape.

“Education is key for us. It’s the only way we can be sustainable,” says Patricia King-Ritter, acting director for the park. “Your quality of life is based on the ecosystems around you.

So, the idea was to build a park that’s an example to the community — a place where people can gather and learn how to be environmentally responsible in their own lives.”

Frick Environmental Center (pittsburghparks.org/frickenvironmental-center) Built at one of the historic entrances at Frick Park, the Frick

PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM FLAHERTY

Rooftop solar panels (far roof) at Evelyn’s Park are responsible for helping the park achieve net-zero energy status. Its dayto-day energy use is equal to the amount of renewable energy created on-site.

The Sun Club helped the park achieve net-zero energy status for day-to-day operations by using solar power. It also funded a rainwater capture system that reduces the park’s water consumption by 40 percent. And, on-site tumbler composters (for fruit- and carbohydrate-based food waste, coffee grounds and food packaging) help the on-site café minimize waste production while creating nutrient-rich soil for the park.

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Environmental Center, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is another Sun Club recipient, receiving a $63,400 grant. This innovative eco-center is one of the greenest municipally owned buildings in the world and serves as a living laboratory, where visitors can experiment and learn about sustainability, resource conservation and the power of nature.

“From the onset, we anticipated using this building as a living classroom where we could educate within and about nature, introduce green design and exemplify a positive interconnectedness between humans and the environment,” says Camila Rivera-Tinsley, di-

rector of education and the Frick Environmental Center for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. “We want people to feel inspired that solutions do exist and that they can be part of the solution to complex environmental issues.”

The sustainability grant funded a portion of the solar array, which assisted the facility in meeting the Living Building Challenge and LEED Platinum standard for energy efficiency. Last year, solar panels produced 122 percent of the facility’s power, and a rain capture system collected 235 percent of the facility’s water. In 2018, the Environmental Center saw a cost savings of more than $11,000 on energy usage alone and was able to sell surplus energy back to the local electric utility. These sustainability features complement the ecological landscape of the park while preserving its historical integrity.

Park District of Oak Park (pdop.org) Oak Park Conservatory is one of three historical sites in Oak Park, located near Chicago, Illinois.

It features three indoor rooms showcasing Mediterranean, tropical and desert flora and fauna, along with Illinois’ native ecosystems in the outdoor gardens.

It has been awarded $100,000 in Sun Club funding.

“Sustainability is one of the Park District’s values, so we constantly look at how we can advocate for it,” says Jan Arnold, executive director for the Conservatory. “It’s imperative to identify projects that will have the largest impact for helping Mother Earth.”

Solar panels, water-harvesting

tanks, compositing sites and beehives will be added to the Conservatory as a result of Sun Club funding. Each eco-improvement plays a significant role in reducing the organization’s carbon footprint.

“Our beehives will be used for honey production, but also as an educational component,” Arnold adds. “It’s important for visitors to learn about the material role bees play in our ecosystem and how we all need to work to protect them.”

Solar panels will help the Conservatory save more than $2,000 a year in electricity costs, offsetting its electrical demand by 16 percent. The 5,000-gallon cistern will collect 80,000 gallons of water a year for watering needs, helping conserve resources while educating visitors. Signage depicting how the tanks function will help visitors learn about water-conservation techniques that lessen the impact on our environment.

Montgomery Parks Foundation (montgomeryparksfoundation.org) Through fundraising support, Montgomery Parks Foundation strengthens the park system in Montgomery County, Maryland.

And with a $96,000 grant from Sun Club, it will fund two of the seven requirements for a Sustainable Education Every Day (SEED) classroom located in Black Hill Regional Park (Boyds, Maryland). A SEED classroom is self-sustaining and transportable and puts hands-on sustainability education in the forefront, focusing on responsible construction of school buildings and facilities.

Sun Club contributions are funding the net-zero energy and

Need Funding and Access to Sustainability Experts?

Sun Club accepts grant applications year-round at gmesunclub.org and selects recipients on a quarterly basis. Nonprofit organizations can apply for funding for projects that support clean transportation, sustainable agriculture, energy efficiency, renewable energy, resource conservation, and education and awareness. Nonprofits are encouraged to apply for grants if community programs operate in the following states: • New York • Illinois • Pennsylvania • Maryland • Texas • Massachusetts • New Jersey

water requirements for the classroom. Inverters, LED light fixtures, sensors, and other controls and equipment are needed to ensure a net-zero electricity designation. And, to achieve a net-zero water status, the same grant will fund materials and equipment needed for a composting toilet, a rainwater metering/filtration system and lab sink stations.

Bring Sustainability Solutions to Your Community Sun Club is continually looking for partners to help cultivate long-term sustainability and environmental stewardship among communities. If your park system or recreational department is interested in implementing sustainability best practices, Sun Club would like to hear from you.

Through funding support to local nonprofits, Sun Club is working to change the way people impact the planet.

Stacy Mehlhoff is the Executive Director for Sun Club (stacy.mehlhoff@greenmountain.com).

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MEMBER TO MEMBER Louisville ECHO: A West Louisville Outdoor Recreation Initiative Creating ‘cradle-to-career’ access to nature and green space for underserved communities

By Bennett Knox and Erin Wagoner

PHOTO COURTESY OF BUD DORSEY

Note: Louisville Parks and Recreation (Louisville Parks) and the Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District (Louisville MSD) are working together to implement green infrastructure improvements within west Louisville’s Chickasaw Park — improvements that advance community resiliency goals and support the NRPA Great Urban Parks Campaign. Louisville is committed to being a resilient city, one that creates a culture of equity, compassion and trust to address structures and systems preventing residents from achieving their full human potential. Building on community engagement, Louisville will be a city where every resident has opportunities to thrive, including the opportunity to experience the beauty of vibrant natural spaces.

Engagement of Lousiville Outdoor Recreation Initiative Community Council members, meeting at left, will help improve public accessibility to Chickasaw Park.

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The Natural Areas Division of Louisville (Kentucky) Parks is increasing equitable access to nature through its Louisville Is Engaging Children Outdoors (Louisville ECHO) initiative. The department is addressing social determinants of health by expanding environmental education and outdoor recreation programming within underserved communities, including communities of color in west Louisville, and the program has expanded steadily since its inception in 2008.

“It’s become a holistic, multipartner initiative that’s creating “cradle-to-career” access to nature and green space for nearly 2,500 youth through complementary, age-appropriate activities, including nature play, school field trips, out-of-school time outdoor recreational programming and summer youth employment,” says T Gonzales, interim director of Louisville Metro’s Center for Health Equity, a key partner since 2012 whose health equity data has been instrumental in identifying Louisville ECHO’s focus neighborhoods.

Creating a New Generation of Park Users Louisville ECHO is the programming component of the West Louisville Outdoor Recreation Initiative (WLORI), a conceptual

master plan that’s guiding expansion of outdoor recreation infrastructure in parks adjoining the Ohio River, including Chickasaw Park. The WLORI includes green infrastructure for improved water quality and educational programming; soft-surface trails for hiking and biking; boating, canoeing and fishing access to neighborhood waterbodies; and areas for nature play.

It calls for construction of a regional facility, the Shawnee Outdoor Learning Center in Shawnee Park, to serve as a base for expanding Louisville ECHO programming.

The goal is to create a new generation of park users, exploring and advocating for natural spaces in

their backyard and beyond.

Since 2016, Louisville has been participating in the Cities Connecting Children to Nature Initiative (CCCN), a multi-city collaborative led by the Children & Nature Network and the National League of Cities. The current scope of Louisville ECHO’s programming is the direct result of that participation.

Creating equitable access to nature includes issues that extend beyond expanding programming. Critical issues in west Louisville include: • impairment of Chickasaw Pond, west Louisville’s only flatwater resource • health disparities in Louisville highlighted by a 12-year life ex-

pectancy difference between west Louisville neighborhoods and Louisville’s affluent neighborhoods • a lack of safe access for residents to interact with the Ohio River along Chickasaw Park due to a severely eroding riverbank — the result of increasingly frequent and severe flooding • inequitable opportunities for youth of color to gain employment in the field of environmental education and ecological stewardship and implementation of green infrastructure • discharge of Chickasaw Pond and its small watershed into Louisville’s combined sewer system

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PHOTO COURTESY OF LOUISVILLE PARKS AND RECREATION

MEMBER TO MEMBER

Frequent, severe flooding events have eroded the Chickasaw Park riverbanks and created hazardous conditions that threaten the park’s infrastructure.

Local agencies, such as Louisville Parks and Louisville MSD, must work collaboratively over a sustained period with residents and other community stakeholders to address historic community issues.

Only then will we create neighborhood-level opportunities for families to safely explore nature within parks along the Ohio River.

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Establishing Meaningful Partnerships The support from NRPA’s Great Urban Parks Campaign (GUPC) helps activate a meaningful partnership with Louisville MSD, which manages the city’s stormwater, wastewater and flood protection services, monitors the health of its waterways through an expansive stream monitoring network and improves the community’s water resources. Louisville MSD works to achieve a vision of safe, clean waterways in Louisville Metro. Louisville

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Parks and Louisville MSD work collaboratively, designing enhancements within Chickasaw Park that will improve water quality, habitat and ecological function. Through robust community involvement, including engagement of residents in decision making, this project will improve public accessibility to a valuable urban water resource and historic Frederick Law Olmsteddesigned park.

With input from the project’s neighborhood council, Louisville Parks will identify the level of sediment contamination within the pond footprint and Louisville MSD’s design team will create engineering and design documentation for a reconfigured pond. Restoration of the pond will eliminate low-level contamination that classifies it as an impaired waterbody that’s included on Kentucky Division of Water’s Clean Water Act Section 303d list. While reconstruction of the pond is currently not funded, the GUPC grant will move us closer to reactivating Chickasaw Pond for safe community use, including fishing, canoeing instruction and environmental education.

The current project will implement green infrastructure improvements to remediate stormwater drainage at the pond’s western end. This discharge will pass through a series of bioswales, and step pools will be sized to treat stormwater discharge from the full project site. Once pond reconstruction is complete, stormwater from the watershed will be disconnected from the combined sewer system. Young adults participating in Louisville ECHO’s summer job component will assist in installation and further improve stormwater in-

Young adults participating in Louisville ECHO’s summer job component will assist in installation and further improve stormwater infiltration through ecological restoration activities. filtration through ecological restoration activities. As they assist summer environmental education programming at Chickasaw and other neighborhood parks, these young adults will build their résumés by mentoring children from partnering community centers.

A final project piece involves designs for stabilization of the riverbank within Chickasaw Park. Extreme erosion from frequent and severe flooding events has created hazardous conditions and threatens the integrity of the park infrastructure.

Resolving this issue will protect park resources and allow the community to reclaim natural space within the park and provide a place to enjoy the grandeur and serenity of the river.

We look forward to sharing our experiences and learning from others through participation in the Great Urban Parks Campaign. We hope to share our endeavors with the broader park and recreation community at the NRPA Annual Conference in Baltimore in September.

Bennett Knox is Parks Administrator of the Louisville Parks and Recreation Departments Natural Areas Division @loukyparks and @JMforest (bennett.knox@louisvilleky.gov).

Erin Wagoner is an Engineer and Project Manager with Louisville MSD @louisvillemsd (erin.wagoner@louisvillemsd.org).

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MEMBER TO MEMBER

Diversity Is Key to a Resilient Future Forest

By Lauryn Stalter

I

f you should find yourself wandering through some of Pittsburgh’s parks, you may notice trees with bands of white tape that read, “Ash Tree Conservation Project.” The tape marks the city’s last remaining ash trees, hardy survivors that recently underwent treatment to protect them from the destructive emerald ash borer (EAB). ally starving it. To date, this invasive insect has killed approximately 68,000 ash trees in Pittsburgh’s park system — nearly 16 percent of the entire tree canopy.

It’s no accident that this small population of ash trees in Pittsburgh survived the destruction of EAB. Since 2011, through routine, three-year inoculations, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and the city of Pittsburgh have protected this select population of about 130 ash trees. They were chosen for

PHOTO BY JOHN ALTDORFER

The Survivors First spotted in southwestern Pennsylvania woods in summer 2007, EAB has proven to be a formidable ecological threat. For four months of the year, the beetle deposits its tiny eggs along the trunk and lower branches of ash trees, as well as inside cracks and crevices. Hatched EAB larvae then tunnel into the host tree, making S-shaped galleries that ultimately destroy the tissues needed to move water and nutrients through the tree, eventu-

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their health and age, and the seeds these survivor specimen trees produce are key to repopulating this native species in our region. In the future, these seeds will be collected for research in the hopes of creating EAB-resistant ash trees.

Ultimately, we hope to protect these trees until it’s possible for this unique species to become resilient enough to once again take root in our region’s woods.

Importance of Urban Forest Diversity Biodiversity is critical to healthy Volunteers plant trees, grown from seeds from a pool of resilient parent trees, in Pittsburgh’s Highland Park.

parks and forests. In our changing climate, voracious pests and sneaky diseases that gain a slight foothold within parklands can spread like wildfire before they can be noticed, caught and quarantined. It’s possible for common species, like those ash trees, to be all but eliminated in a decade or less.

Whether plant, animal, virus or bacteria, all living organisms are locked in a battle with the pathogens, pests and parasites in their surrounding environment. Using the tools and tricks that nature has equipped them with keeps them in the game. One of the oldest, strongest tools in this arsenal is the ability to adapt, then pass along that element of survivability to the next generation.

The founders of Pittsburgh’s parks left quite the legacy, not only in the consideration that they gave to the design and preservation of parkland, but also the impressive diversity of the urban forests.

While it may be impossible to stop pests and diseases from invading, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy aims to give park trees a fighting chance by carrying on this important effort to increase biodiversity.

A Diminishing Gene Pool Surrounding the popular community space of Schenley Plaza, near the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, is a stand of large, regal London plane trees. These massive trees don’t just offer shade on sunny summer days. They ring an alarm on a national level.

“When London plane trees were first introduced to the United States,

PHOTO COURTESY OF PITTSBURGH PARKS CONSERVANCY

A Young Naturalist measures the diameter at breast height (DBH) of a tree, which helps to estimate its volume, biomass and carbon storage.

one nursery had a tree that did very well,” says Parks Conservancy Director of Horticulture and Forestry Phil Gruszka. “But they couldn’t get it to reproduce from seed, so they started getting cuttings to grow out.

Then they released it to the trade and named that cultivar ‘Bloodgood.’”

Selected for its superior resistance to the fungus anthracnose, the Bloodgood cultivar (a plant chosen for its particular genetic makeup) has been spread around now for about 30 years, dominating nursery stock of London planes. Plane trees bought from nurseries have identical genetic material to every other plane tree. In short, they have not been grown from seed from two parent trees: They’re clones. “Today, if I wanted to replace a London plane,” continues Gruszka, “I can only buy the cultivar Bloodgood.”

However, a study conducted by Gruszka and Dr. Cynthia Morton, formerly of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, found some-

thing surprising about the Schenley Plaza trees: They are all genetically different. The trees, planted before Bloodgood started to gain popularity, are much more diverse than the current nursery stock. Of nearly 200 such trees that have been planted over the years in Pittsburgh’s parks, 100 are of a strong, diverse population, toughened from years of fighting off pests and disease.

Were these study findings true only for London planes? Gruszka and Morton widened their net to test Pittsburgh’s park tree diversity against trees sold around the country. After polling nurseries from various parts of the country, they found that 10 common trees used all over the United States were clones — tree stock from major nurseries across the country is diminishing the tree gene pool.

Creating Greater Genetic Diversity Because a large majority of trees

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MEMBER TO MEMBER

PHOTO BY MELISSA MCMASTERS

PHOTO BY LAURYN STALTER

The “X” on this ash tree trunk marks the telltale emerald ash borer S-shaped galleries that ultimately destroy the tissues needed to move water and nutrients, eventually starving it.

28 Parks & Recreation

sold in nurseries are clones (i.e., genetically identical), a threat to the health of one of these trees could threaten them all. Thriving, mature trees are a sign of a strong genetic makeup that is well-suited to the region where they’re growing. These trees are part of Pittsburgh’s plan to grow a stronger urban forest.

Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy horticulturalists currently are gathering seeds from a pool of parent trees that exhibit signs of resilience to conditions around the city. After collection, these seeds are taken to the Tree Pittsburgh Heritage Nursery where they are scarified, germinated and grown to a two-gallon container size. Once big enough, they will be transplanted into a new tree research grove in one of our large regional parks, where our horticulturalists will care for the trees and carefully monitor them for disease and deformity.

This new research grove will provide a space to plant native seeds from trees in our parks and identify those that thrive. It will likely take seven to 10 years for the trees to fully mature within the grove. Trees that

Once a tree has been treated to protect it from the destructive emerald ash bore, it is tagged with a metal disc.

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are unsuccessful will be removed and transplanted as restoration trees in park woodlands, while those that present as ideal candidates for landscape plantings will be made available to the public at nurseries for future plantings in our region.

Through this effort, a new, diverse pool of trees will be introduced to our city. Once we ensure that these trees are fit to survive Pittsburgh’s climate conditions, they will be available to all.

Conclusion Trees, like human beings, are genetically diverse. Faced with threats, they fight and adapt, passing along their strongest traits to the next generation. Greater genetic diversity is one of the strongest defenses our urban forest can hope for, as an increasing number of diseases and non-native insects threaten at least 60 percent of our tree canopy.

Upon learning so many trees from major nurseries were cloned and sold nationally, Gruszka and Morton presented their findings in the United States and abroad. They discovered that this sort of cloning practice is also followed in parks and nurseries worldwide.

As climate change shifts the norm in the cities, we rely more and more on the air-cleansing, city-cooling, carbon-sequestering, stormwater-soaking benefits provided by our local trees. For our future woodlands, and our future cities, we would do well to nurture an urban forest with the ability to change, adapt and be resilient.

Lauryn Stalter is the Engagement Coordinator for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy (lstalter@pittsburgh parks.org). @pittsburghparks

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FEMA Funding for Building Nature-Based Resilient Communities

The Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge wetlands in Olympia, Washington, help protect the shores, reduce the impact of floods, absorb pollutants, improve water quality and provide habitat that supports diverse animal and plant life.

By Rowan Schmidt, Johnny Mojica and Jordan Wildish

N

atural disasters are increasing in frequency and severity. Since 1980, the United States has been hit by 219 weather and climate disasters that exceeded $1 billion in damages. In 2017 alone, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, along with the California wildfires and other disasters, caused more than $306 billion in damages, eclipsing the $215 billion record of 2005. Hurricane Maria caused more than 3,000 deaths in Puerto Rico.

Across the country, parks, open spaces and conservation lands help to buffer communities from some of the damages caused by these natural disasters. Riverfront trail systems can capture and store water during floods, areas managed for vegetation can serve as wildfire buffers, coastal wetlands can reduce coastal storm damage and urban trees can reduce the impacts of dangerous heatwaves. Economic studies have 30 Parks & Recreation

shown that these “nature-based solutions” can be more cost-effective than traditional man-made solutions, like levees or seawalls, while providing multiple community benefits. Put simply, parks and open spaces are an important component of resilience planning.

FEMA Funding Opportunities Most of the budget for the Federal Emergency Management Agen-

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cy (FEMA) is allocated to disaster response. However, FEMA also spends billions of dollars on “hazard mitigation,” assistance to communities to reduce or eliminate longterm risk to people and property from natural disasters. For example, following a presidentially declared disaster, such as Hurricane Harvey in 2017, FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) was made available to help communities in affected areas implement hazard-mitigation measures, such as targeted buyouts, structure elevation, flood-risk-reduction projects, and long-term planning.

Increasingly, FEMA has begun to recognize the role of nature-based solutions for building

IMAGE BY MAX PIXEL

ADVOCACY

community resilience and mitigating the impacts of floods, wildfires and drought. These advances are reflected in recent policy updates that recognize the economic value of these kinds of investments and have made it easier to access FEMA mitigation funding for land conservation (especially in floodplains) and other nature-based solutions, such as post-wildfire restoration of forested lands, aquifer storage and recovery, wetland and riparian restoration, and green infrastructure. Furthermore, cities, park agencies and private nonprofit land trusts are eligible to apply for these funds.

FEMA is also placing greater emphasis on proactive investments before disasters occur, underscored

by the 2018 Disaster Recovery Reform Act (DRRA), which passed in Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support (https://tinyurl. com/y2elqqz6). The DRRA significantly increased the amount of funding for “Pre-Disaster Mitigation” (PDM), another important mitigation program under FEMA. The new PDM Program (www.

College students help replant loblolly pine seedlings in Bastrop County, Texas, in an area that was ravaged by wildfire.

fema.gov/pre-disaster-mitiga tion-grant-program) will likely result in the availability of hundreds of millions of dollars (perhaps even a billion dollars) for hazard mitigation projects each year. The PDM

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There is growing recognition that ecosystem restoration and conservation is crucial to cost-effective hazard mitigation,

Program is an annual, nationally competitive program that is not tied to any specific disaster, like HMGP. The grant application process is expected to open in late 2019.

Navigating These Funding Opportunities Overall, these advances have expanded funding opportunities for local projects that have overlapping recreation, conservation and disas32 Parks & Recreation

ter risk-reduction benefits. Earth Economics, a nonprofit focused on quantifying and valuing the benefits of ecosystems, supported the economics behind FEMA’s 2013 and 2016 policies and, since 2017, has been supporting partners in California, Texas, Washington and the Carolinas to navigate these opportunities. In partnership with land trusts and park agencies, Earth Economics has provided support on FEMA applications and benefit-cost analysis for several innovative projects that utilize nature-based solutions to achieve

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hazard mitigation. These projects, still in review, include: • A project in Houston that identified several large parcels of open space in the floodplain along a bayou that could be acquired and restored for the purposes of flood-risk reduction. Traditionally, FEMA has done buyouts of properties with homes that flood frequently but not of open space. Our economic analysis showed that by acquiring and restoring these parcels to native tallgrass prairie, the land itself would hold a lot more water during flood events, reduc-

ing damage to downstream structures — effectively making it part of the flood storage infrastructure for Houston. And, when the land is not flooding, it can be used for recreation along the river.

• A project in California proposed acquisition of a large parcel of land next to an urban area that burned hot and fast during the 2017 fires because of the presence of many invasive grasses and caused nearly 400 homes to burn.

The homes are already being rebuilt, but the area is still considered to have very high fire risk.

Our partner proposed acquiring the parcel, restoring it to native oak woodland (which burns cooler and more slowly), creating de-

fensible space next to the homes, and removing hazardous fuels.

The land would also be opened to recreation, in an area with relatively few hiking trails.

For cities, agencies or land trusts interested in pursuing or learning more about FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation funding opportunities, the first stop is their state Emergency Management agencies — for example the California Office of Emergency Services or Texas Department of Emergency Management. These agencies process FEMA applications, establish state priorities, and provide support and training for local FEMA applicants. Earth Economics is also available to

discuss project ideas or questions.

Resilience is an important priority for state and local governments, and there is a growing recognition that ecosystem restoration and conservation can play a crucial role in cost-effective hazard mitigation.

FEMA’s recent policy changes open the door for more cities, park agencies and land trusts to create parks and open spaces that not only create recreational spaces and natural areas, but also build longterm community resilience.

Rowan Schmidt is the Program Director for Earth Economics (rschmidt@eartheconomics.org). Johnny Mojica is a Research Lead for Earth Economics (jmojica@eartheconomics.org). Jordan Wildish is a Research Analyst for Earth Economics (jwildish@ eartheconomics.org).

The Latest Park and Recreation News and Trends

On the Go

Available on iTunes and Google Play

www.openspaceradio.org

The Official Podcast of NRPA

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LAW REVIEW

Crude Racist Skit Tests First Amendment

By James C. Kozlowski, J.D., Ph.D.

If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other, it is the principle of free thought — not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.

— Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U.S. 644 (1929) In February 2019, there was widespread condemnation and calls for the immediate resignation of the governor and attorney general of Virginia after both men admitted to engaging in racist “blackface” conduct and caricatures in their youth, decades earlier. Compare the political commentary and judgments about government officials in the court of public opinion, which surrounded 34 Parks & Recreation

this recent controversy, to the 1993 federal appeals court opinion described herein. This 1993 federal appeals court opinion may provide a thought-provoking perspective on the First Amendment in the current age of social media, political punditry and a 24/7 news cycle.

In the case of Iota Xi Chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity v. George Mason University, 993 F.2d 38661 USLW 2702, 83 Ed. Law Rep. 43 (4th

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Cir. 5/10/1993), the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (one step below the Supreme Court of the United States) considered the scope and applicability of the First Amendment to university sanctions imposed on a fraternity and its members following public outcry about an “ugly woman contest” with racist and sexist overtones.

Facts of the Case For two years, Sigma Chi (the Fraternity) had held an annual “Derby Days” event, planned and conducted both as entertainment and as a source of funds for donations to charity. The “ugly woman contest,” held April 4, 1991, was one of the “Derby Days” events. The Fraternity staged the contest in the cafeteria of the student union. As part of

the contest, 18 fraternity members were assigned to one of six sorority teams cooperating in the events.

The involved fraternity members appeared in the contest dressed as caricatures of different types of women, including one member dressed as an offensive caricature of a black woman. He was painted black and wore stringy, black hair decorated with curlers, and his outfit was stuffed with pillows to exaggerate a woman’s breasts and buttocks. He spoke in slang to parody African-Americans.

There was no direct evidence concerning the subjective intent of the fraternity members who conducted the contest. The Fraternity later apologized to university officials for the presentation and conceded the contest was sophomoric and offensive.

Following the contest, several students protested to the university that the skit had been objectionably sexist and racist. Two hundred forty-seven students, many of them members of the foreign or minority student body, executed a petition, which stated: “We are condemning the racist and sexist implications of this event in which male members dressed as women. One man in particular wore a black face, portraying a negative stereotype of black women.”

On April 10, 1991, the dean for student services discussed the situation with representatives of the objecting students. That same day, the dean met with student representatives of Sigma Chi, including the planners of and participants in the “ugly woman contest.” He then held a meeting with members of the student government and other student leaders. In this meeting, it

was agreed that Sigma Chi’s behavior had created a hostile learning environment for women and blacks, incompatible with the university’s mission.

The dean met again with fraternity representatives on April 18, and the following day advised its officers of the sanctions imposed.

They included suspension from all activities for the rest of the 1991 spring semester and a two-year prohibition on all social activities, except pre-approved pledging events and pre-approved philanthropic events with an educational purpose directly related to gender discrimination and cultural diversity. The university’s sanctions also required Sigma Chi to plan and implement an educational program addressing cultural differences, diversity and the concerns of women. A few weeks later, the university made minor modifications to the sanctions, allowing Sigma Chi to engage in selected social activities with the university’s advance approval.

Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit On June 5, 1991, Sigma Chi brought legal action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Section 1983) against the university and the dean, requesting nullification of the imposed sanctions as violative of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Under federal civil rights law, Section 1983 provides as follows: Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, priv-

ileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress. 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

In its federal civil rights claim under Section 1983, Sigma Chi claimed the university-imposed sanctions effectively deprived fraternity members of their free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. (The First Amendment applies to the federal government, but it is applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.)

Sigma Chi submitted affidavits (written sworn statements) explaining the nature of the “ugly woman contest,” including photographs of the fraternity member depicting the offensive caricature of the black woman, as well as photographs of the other participants as they appeared in the skits.

In its federal civil rights claim under Section 1983, Sigma Chi claimed the university-imposed sanctions effectively deprived fraternity members of their free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

The university presented an affidavit from the dean explaining his meeting with student leaders.

An affidavit from the university president included the “mission statement” of the university, which read, in pertinent part, as follows: George Mason University is committed to promoting a culturally and racially diverse student body. Education here is not limited

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LAW REVIEW

to the classroom. We are committed to teaching the values of equal opportunity and equal treatment, respect for diversity, and individual dignity. Our mission also includes achieving the goals set forth in our affirmative action plan, a plan incorporating affirmative steps designed to attract and retain minorities to this campus.

An affidavit from the university vice president characterized the behavior of the members of Sigma Chi as “completely antithetical to the University’s mission, as expressed through its affirmative action statement and other pertinent University policies, to create a non-threatening, culturally diverse learning environ36 Parks & Recreation

ment for students of all races and backgrounds, and of both sexes.”

According to the vice president, the university’s ongoing progress in attracting and retaining minority students could not be maintained “if behavior like that of Sigma Chi is perpetuated on this campus.”

The federal district court granted summary to Sigma Chi on its First Amendment claim. The university appealed.

Skit Sufficiently Expressive?

On appeal, the university claimed the federal district court had erred in not conducting further trial proceedings to determine whether “the Fraterni-

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ty’s intent in staging the contest” was sufficiently “expressive” to warrant First Amendment protection. Moreover, the university claimed it could demonstrate “the harm the contest caused to its educational mission.”

The issue on appeal was, therefore, whether Sigma Chi’s “ugly woman contest” was sufficiently expressive to entitle it to First Amendment protection. As characterized by the federal appeals court, the “obvious sophomoric nature” of the “ugly woman contest” was admittedly “the Fraternity’s crude attempt at entertainment”: From the mature advantage of looking back, it is obvious that the performance, apart from its charitable fund-raising features, was an exercise of teenage campus excess.

With a longer and sobering perspective brought on by both peer and official disapproval, even the governing members of the Fraternity recognized as much.

Citing Supreme Court precedent, the federal appeals court acknowledged “First Amendment principles governing live entertainment are relatively clear: short of obscenity, it is generally protected”: Entertainment, as well as political and ideological speech, is protected; motion pictures, programs broadcast by radio and television, and live entertainment fall within the First Amendment guarantee.

Expression devoid of ‘ideas’ but with entertainment value may also be protected because the line between the informing and the entertaining is too elusive.

Accordingly, in this instance, the federal appeals court had to “determine if the skit performed by Sigma Chi comes within the constitutionally protected rubric of entertainment.”

As noted by the court: “Unquestionably, some forms of entertainment are so inherently expressive as to fall within the First Amendment’s ambit regardless of their quality.” In addition to music and motion pictures, the court acknowledged: “Even crude street skits come within the First Amendment’s reach...[A]n actor participating in even a crude performance enjoys the constitutional right to freedom of speech.”

Similarly, the federal appeals court acknowledged: “nude dancing is expressive conduct entitled to First Amendment protection” without any distinction between “lowand high-grade entertainment.”

As noted by the court, the U.S Supreme Court had held “dance is inherently expressive entertainment, as it conveys emotions and ideas.” In so doing, the Supreme Court had “refused to distinguish ‘high’ art from ‘low’ entertainment on the asserted basis that low entertainment fails to communicate a defined intellectual thought.” On the contrary, the Supreme Court had concluded: “nude dancing communicated a message of eroticism and sensuality, understood by its viewers as such...notwithstanding its artistic quality.” As a result, the Supreme Court had held “nude dancing was sufficiently expressive to entitle it to First Amendment protection.”

While the entertainment afforded by a nude ballet at Lincoln Center to those who can pay the price may differ vastly in content (as viewed by judges) or in quality (as viewed by critics), it may not differ in substance from the dance viewed by the person who wants some ‘entertainment’ with his beer or shot of rye.

Low-Grade Entertainment Protected?

Accordingly, based on Supreme Court precedent, the appeals court found “the low quality of entertain-

ment does not necessarily weigh in the First Amendment inquiry.”

Similarly, in this instance, “even as low-grade entertainment,” the federal appeals court concluded “the

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Fraternity’s skit” was “inherently expressive and thus entitled to First Amendment protection.”

On appeal, the university had argued further trial proceedings were necessary to “demonstrate that the contest does not merit characterization as a skit but only as mindless fraternity fun, devoid of any artistic expression.” Specifically, the university argued: “entitlement to First Amendment protection exists only if the production was intended to convey a message likely to be understood by a particular audience.”

Based on the pretrial record, the university claimed it was “impossible to discern the communicative intent necessary to imbue the Fraternity’s conduct with a free speech component.” The federal appeals court rejected the university’s argument. In the opinion of the court, “the First Amendment protects the Fraternity’s skit because it is inherently expressive entertainment.”

Based on the university’s pretrial sworn statements, the federal appeals court found “University officials sanctioned Sigma Chi for the message conveyed by the ‘ugly woman contest’ because it ran counter to the views the University sought to communicate to its students and the community.”

Intent to Convey Particularized Message?

As cited by the court, the test for determining the expressiveness of conduct requires “an intent to convey a particularized message 38 Parks & Recreation

and a great likelihood that the message would be understood by those who viewed it.” Further, the court acknowledged: “the intent to convey a message can be inferred from the conduct and the circumstances surrounding it.” In the opinion of the court, the skit in this instance “qualifies as expressive conduct.”

In reaching this conclusion, the court cited the university’s pretrial sworn statements, which conclusively established “the punishment was meted out to the Fraternity because its boorish message had interfered with the described University mission”: The affidavit from the University’s Vice-President...stated that the message conveyed by the Fraternity’s conduct — that racial and sexual themes should be treated lightly — was completely antithetical to the University’s mission of promoting diversity and providing an educational environment free from racism and sexism.

[The Dean] in his affidavit stated that the University does not and cannot condone this type of on-campus behavior which perpetuated derogatory racial and sexual stereotypes, tends to isolate minority students, and creates a hostile and distracting learning environment. Such behavior is incompatible with, and destructive to, the University’s mission of promoting diversity within its student body and sends a message to the student body and the community that we are not serious about hurtful and offensive behavior on campus.

According to the court, these statements conclusively established “the University officials thought the Fraternity intended to convey a message.” Similarly, the court

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found “[t]he Fraternity members’ apology and post-conduct contriteness suggest that they held the same view.”

That being said, the court found no evidence suggesting “the Fraternity advocated segregation or inferior social status for women.”

On the contrary, the court found “the Fraternity’s purposefully nonsensical treatment of sexual and racial themes was intended to impart a message that the University’s concerns, in the Fraternity’s view, should be treated humorously.” As a result, based on the Fraternity’s conduct and the circumstances surrounding it, the federal appeals court had “no difficulty in concluding that it intended to convey a message.”

Likelihood Viewers Understood Message?

Having found an intent to convey a particularized message, the federal appeals court then considered the second prong of the test for determining the expressiveness of conduct; i.e., “a great likelihood that the message would be understood by those who viewed it.” Under the circumstances of this case, the court found “there was a great likelihood that at least some of the audience viewing the skit would understand the Fraternity’s message of satire and humor.” While the Fraternity “did not anticipate… the reaction to their crude humor by other students on campus and University officials who opposed the racist and sexist implications of the Fraternity’s skit,” the court noted: “Some students paid to attend the performance and were entertained.”

The federal appeals court, there-

fore, concluded the Fraternity’s “ugly woman contest” satisfied the First Amendment test for expressive conduct. In so doing, the federal appeals court cited Supreme Court precedent, which had held the First Amendment does not permit the imposition of “special prohibitions on those speakers who express views on disfavored subjects.”

As noted by the court: “The First Amendment generally prevents the government from proscribing expressive conduct because of disapproval of the ideas expressed.”

Based on the university’s pretrial sworn statements, the federal appeals court found “University officials sanctioned Sigma Chi for the message conveyed by the ‘ugly woman contest’ because it ran counter to the views the University sought to communicate to its students and the community”: The mischief was the University’s punishment of those who scoffed at its goals of racial integration and gender neutrality, while permitting, even encouraging, conduct that would further the viewpoint expressed in the University’s goals and probably embraced by a majority of society as well.

Alternatives to Viewpoint Punishment?

On appeal, the university had further urged the court “to weigh Sigma Chi’s conduct against the substantial interests inherent in educational endeavors.” In response, the appeals court acknowledged: “The University certainly has a substantial interest in maintaining an educational environment free of discrimination and racism, and in providing gender-neutral education.” The court

found “equally apparent” that the university “has available numerous alternatives to imposing punishment on students based on the viewpoints they express”: We agree wholeheartedly that it is the University officials’ responsibility, even their obligation, to achieve the goals they have set. On the other hand, a public university has many constitutionally permissible means to protect female and minority students. We must emphasize, as have other courts, that the manner of its action cannot consist of selective limitations upon speech.

As noted by the federal appeals

court: “The First Amendment forbids the government from restricting expression because of its message or its ideas.” Accordingly, the court held: “The University should have accomplished its goals in some fashion other than silencing speech on the basis of its viewpoint.” The federal appeals court, therefore, affirmed the decision of the district court to grant summary judgment in favor of the Fraternity.

James C. Kozlowski, J.D., Ph.D., is an Attorney and Associate Professor in the School of Recreation, Health and Tourism at George Mason University (jkozlows@gmu.edu). Webpage with link to law review articles archive (1982 to present): http:// mason.gmu.edu/~jkozlows.

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FUTURE LEADERS

Using Intrinsic Motivation to Increase Employee Engagement

By Jennifer Meunier and Michael J. Bradley, Ph.D.

W

hile pay, benefits and other extrinsic factors remain elements that motivate employees in the workplace, in recent years, intrinsic factors have gained equal footing in the importance of employee engagement.

In order to be a successful manager and leader in today’s workplace, it is important for the manager to create an environment where all employees may flourish.

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Author Kenneth Thomas, in his “The Four Intrinsic Rewards That Drive Employee Engagement” article, published in the Ivey Business Journal, explains that extrinsic rewards are associated with, but different from, the actual work itself. Employees do not have control over their size or whether they are granted. Whereas, intrinsic rewards are feelings (“psychological rewards”) that employees experience because of successful completion of work they find meaningful.

The five ways intrinsic motivation can be used to increase employee engagement in the workplace are

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creating a safe environment and creating a sense of purpose, trust, belonging and achievement.

Various scholarly articles agree that what motivates employees and what work is deemed meaningful will vary based on each individual’s expectations and personality.

In order to be a successful manager and leader in today’s workplace, it is important for the manager to create an environment where all employees may flourish.

Creating a Safe Environment This can be achieved through clearly establishing behavioral and communication expectations of the team, and what the team can expect from the manager. Such an approach will help foster trust and

teamwork, help assure employees that they are valued members of the team and create the foundation for individuals and the team to flourish. These actions are not only identified through the theories of physiologists Abraham Maslow (Hierarchy of Needs) and Clayton P. Alderfer (Existence, Relatedness and Growth or ERG), but are also frequently presented as a matter of high importance in employee satisfaction studies.

Creating a Sense of Purpose For employees to feel a sense of purpose and be positioned to succeed in contributing to meaningful work, managers must increase employee engagement by clearly communicating goals and objectives. Showing how identified tasks relate to the organization’s overall vision or mission allows employees to experience the intrinsic reward of knowing their efforts directly tie in to the big picture.

Creating a Sense of Trust Making a concerted effort to build rapport with employees provides the manager with an opportunity to learn the myriad ways individuals on the team are motivated. It also helps employees feel valued and build trust with their manager and elicits intrinsic rewards, such as a stronger sense of belonging, job security and overall job satisfaction among employees. Expanding on the rapport built between the manager and individuals on the team, when the manager facilitates interactions among team members, creates opportunities for employees to feel a sense of belonging and social connectedness that some individuals need.

Creating a Sense of Belonging Knowing employees’ skills and attributes can help managers to better engage them when faced with mundane or less rewarding tasks by creating a collaborative approach where employees work together to finish a task.

This approach may allow for one employee to train others or simply reduce the time each person spends on the task. When the task is complete, the employees may experience a sense of teamwork and belongingness.

Creating a Sense of Achievement Throughout team development and when working on projects, it is imperative that managers recognize skills and contributions made by individual employees, as well as by the team. Celebrating a job well done as a group, and specifically recognizing individual contributions and achievements along the way, is essential to create the sense of pride and accomplishment all employees seek.

Along these lines, it is important that regular feedback be given to employees, especially in a formal setting. This helps facilitate opportunities for special recognition of accomplishments and to identify any professional development or desired training to help the employee to remain engaged in the workplace.

Employees seeking new or more challenges may be well-positioned for a manager to delegate a task or responsibility. The act of delegation builds trust and enhances the employee’s engagement in the workplace through

Knowing employees’ skills and attributes can help managers to better engage them when faced with mundane or less rewarding tasks by creating a collaborative approach where employees work together to finish a task. the sense of pride that comes from the trust and the opportunity to demonstrate knowledge and/or to learn new skills.

These are but a few examples of how managers can use intrinsic motivation to engage employees in the workplace. Considering the numerous theories of motivation, the opportunity for managers to use intrinsic motivation factors is nearly endless. It is more a matter of managers being actively engaged with their team and keeping abreast of changing demands in the work environment. Being cognizant of environmental shifts and possessing a perceptive and adaptable leadership style will aid with perpetuating a culture that creates an engaged and motivated team.

Detailed references for this article are available at www.nrpa.org/ parks-recreation-magazine/2019/ april/using-intrinsic-motivation-to-in crease-employee-engagement.

Jennifer Meunier is an Undergraduate Student in the Department of Recreation and Park Administration at Eastern Kentucky University @jenminyer (jennifer_meunier@mymail.eku. edu). Michael J. Bradley, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Recreation and Park Administration at Eastern Kentucky University @mikeisoutside (michael.bradley@eku.edu).

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Aliso Park in Los Angeles, California.

PHOTO BY ANNIE BANG. PROVIDED COURTESY OF THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND

H E A LT H & W E L L N E S S

Parks as a Solution to Climate Change Creating healthy, prepared communities with climate-smart parks

By Taj Schottland

C

limate change has emerged as the world’s most critical environmental issue, as well as one of the most pressing social, economic and health challenges of our time. While it is a global issue, its impacts are felt most acutely at the local level. From families that are displaced by flooding to elderly grandparents who are hospitalized because of health complications from extreme heat, the impacts of climate change are very real and very personal.

The statistics prove it. For example, heat waves in the United States have almost tripled compared to the long-term average, and now kill more people in cities than all other weather-related events combined.

Extreme heat is a public health hazard that’s driven by climate change, but it’s not the only health hazard. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified eight ways climate change is impacting human health, resulting

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in increased respiratory illnesses, mental health impacts, cardiovascular failure and more.

How Can Parks Be a Climate Solution?

While the impacts of climate change are daunting, there is growing recognition that parks can be part of the climate solution. Parks reduce harmful carbon pollution that is driving climate change; they protect people and infrastructure

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from increasingly severe storms, sea-level rise, heat waves and droughts; and they also directly reduce some of the primary public health challenges that are exacerbated by climate change. Below are a few examples of how parks can be a climate solution.

Cooling Urban Heat Islands Parks and trees are one of the most effective ways to combat extreme heat. A recent study in Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., showed that on one of the hottest days last summer, parks were a cooling oasis — as much as 17 degrees cooler than parts of the city lacking trees and green space.

In addition, the cooling benefit of parks can extend as far as a half-

FIGURE COURTESY OF THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (WWW.CDC.GOV/ CLIMATEANDHEALTH/EFFECTS/)

This figure shows the impact of various climate change conditions on human health.

mile from park boundaries, helping cool the neighborhood and reduce heat stress for residents.

Minimizing Flooding and Improving Water Quality

Cleaning the Air Urban tree canopy in parks and along city streets is estimated to remove 711,000 metric tons of air pollution annually (a $3.8 billion value) and sequester more than 90 million metric tons of carbon (CO2 equivalent). That’s the equivalent of removing more than 19 million cars from the road for one year. Urban trees also filter particulate matter from automobiles and other vehicles, further cleaning the air.

parks can provide multiple benefits. The Trust for Public Land’s Climate-Smart Cities program has laid out four objectives for parks as multi-benefit climate solutions: Cool: Shady green spaces reduce the “heat island” effect to protect people from heat waves

and reduce summer energy use.

Absorb: Water-smart parks, playgrounds and streetscapes absorb rainfall, reduce flooding and recharge drinking water supplies, while saving energy for water management.

Protect: Strategically placed

Historic Fourth Ward Park in Atlanta, Georgia.

PHOTO BY DARCY KIEFEL. PROVIDED COURTESY OF THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND

Parks that incorporate watersmart landscaping features (called “green infrastructure”) can reduce flooding and protect water quality. Green infrastructure can filter as much as 95 percent of major pollutants out of stormwater runoff. Research has also shown that green infrastructure features, such as rain gardens, can reduce stormwater runoff by as much as 90 percent, reducing the likelihood of costly flooding.

Designing to Protect Communities While parks inherently provide climate and health benefits, there are opportunities to design them in a way that provides maximum climate and health benefits. The first step is identifying where

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H E A LT H & W E L L N E S S

PHOTO BY ANNIE BANG. PROVIDED COURTESY OF THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND

Benito Jaurez Park in Los Angeles, California.

and managed parks and natural lands buffer cities from rising seas, coastal storms, inland flooding and wildfires.

Connect: Trails, greenways and park systems provide carbon-free transportation options and link res-

idents to popular destinations and to one another.

While each of these objectives is robust in isolation, to maximize positive climate and health outcomes, it’s important to develop and implement strategic green in-

Useful Resources The 10-Minute Walk Campaign (www.10minutewalk.org/) is a growing nationwide movement to ensure there’s a great park within a 10-minute walk of every person, in every neighborhood, in every city across America. More than 230 mayors have signed on to this growing campaign.

Check the website to learn more and get your mayor to take the pledge.

NRPA’s Great Urban Parks Program (www.nrpa.org/greeninfrastructure) is helping advance green infrastructure stormwater management projects within parks. Check out its Resource Guide for Planning, Designing and Implementing Green Infrastructure in Parks.

Parkology™ (www.parkology.org/) is a comprehensive online resource and community of experts dedicated to improving access to close-to-home, quality parks. Check out the knowledge section for tips on how to design climate-smart parks. This site is managed jointly by The Trust for Public Land, City Parks Alliance and NRPA. The Trust for Public Land’s Climate Smart Cities Program (www.tpl.org/how-we-work/ climate-smart-cities) helps cities use people and data-driven decision making to maximize social, health and climate benefits of new and proposed parks.

Field Guide for Parks and Creative Placemaking (www.tpl.org/field-guide-creative-place making-and-parks) lays out how to create parks that serve as cultural assets that build social cohesion and social capital — key ingredients in creating resilient, prepared communities.

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frastructure networks that stack these benefits at the site, neighborhood and city scales. It might seem obvious, but it’s worth stating: Projects that provide multiple benefits — cooling, absorbing, protecting, connecting — will generally provide a greater return on investment than single-purpose projects.

In addition to siting projects strategically, it’s important that park development and programming build social cohesion. A community’s ability to withstand climate disasters and come back stronger is determined, in large part, by the social fabric of the community. In times of hardship, this social cohesion can define the successes or failures of a community. Parks and open space directly improve environmental resilience, but they also build social and economic resilience, particularly if they are developed and stewarded in a collaborative, community-driven approach.

Finally, it is important to remember that climate change impacts everyone, but it is often low-income communities that are hit first and hit the hardest. It is critical to prioritize park investments in underserved communities that lack access to high-quality parks.

Are you ready to act? Keep these guiding principles in mind and check out the resources included at left to get started helping your community deploy parks as a climate solution.

Detailed references for this article are available at www.nrpa.org/parks-rec reation-magazine/2019/April/parks as-a-solution-to-climate-change.

Taj Schottland is the Climate-Smart Cities and Green Infrastructure Program Manager for The Trust for Public Land @TajSchottland (taj.schottland@tpl.org).

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SOCIAL EQUITY

Our Nation’s Demographic Shift Enhancing inclusion as we face significant demographic change

By Rafael Payan, Ph.D.

T

he Pew Research Center projects that in 2045, the United States will become a majority-minority nation. When this happens, all Americans will statistically become minorities, as no ethnic or racial group will compose 50 percent or more of the nation’s overall population. The Brookings Institution (Brookings) forecasts that during that year, whites will comprise 49.7 percent of our nation’s population in contrast to 24.6 percent for Latinos, 13.1 for blacks, 7.9 percent for Asians and 3.8 percent for multiracial Americans. California, Hawaii, New Mexico and Texas have already reached majority-minority status. Other states will soon follow this trend.

The demographic shift is especially reflected in our nation’s youth. According to Brookings, because minorities tend to be younger than whites, the tipping point

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where minorities become a majority has already arrived for younger Americans. The United States Census Bureau reports that on July 1, 2015, the number of the nation’s

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racial or ethnic minority babies reached 50.2 percent, becoming the first group of Americans to reach majority-minority status.

The Bureau adds that the 2014– 2015 school year marked the first time minority student enrollment in public schools surpassed that of white students. These young Americans are our industries’ patrons, and some will become our future employees and leaders.

The rapid demographic shift is attributed to several factors, including the simultaneous decline in the birth rate and an increase in the

Adapting Our Parks, Recreation and Resource Conservation Organizations There has been quite a bit of research, discourse and implementation of programs that focus on the “graying of America.” However, we must also consider the other end of the age spectrum. How the “re-browning of America” will affect our organizations is and will continue to be, in great part, dependent on how we prepare and respond. For some, this societal change may cause discomfort; for others, it creates a welcomed opportunity to enhance our relevance to extant and future generations.

Although some communities may be somewhat buffered, demographic change will affect all Americans in varying degrees.

Like our educational, medical and research institutions, our industry has the potential to influence our nation’s socioeconomic, environmental, physical and mental health. We must be inclusive and

establish policies and practices that enhance all Americans’ well-being.

To not do so may compromise our nation’s future.

Our reach must include populations that have been or may be overlooked. Our industry has successfully challenged and overcome social and physical barriers through its alignment with laws that abolished “separate but equal” practices and through the implementation of inclusionary legislation, including Title IX and the Americans with Disabilities Act. We must continue to remove barriers that intentionally or unintentionally limit services. This includes rethinking and adapting our parks and programs to ensure they are relevant to our changing customer base. Thankfully, many of our nation’s premier parks, recreation and resource conservation agencies have a robust tradition of offering high-quality opportunities to their broad-based constituencies.

They recognize that the integrated investment of time, personnel and financial resources — especially focused on youth — can yield high-quality results.

Someone took the time when we were younger to teach each of us how to toss a ball, camp or love nature, thereby influencing how we live, work and play today. If we do not teach our nation’s youth, particularly its increasingly demographically diverse child population, how to cherish this land and how to participate in healthful activities, we should not be surprised if they do not vote to fund park, recreation and natural resource protection initiatives when they become part of the electorate.

Inclusion Through Transportation Grants Along California’s Central Coast, the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District (District) is embarking on an initiative that provides

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BIG SUR LAND TRUST

death rate among whites. This trend sharply contrasts with higher birth rates among Americans of African, Asian, Latino, Native-American and multiracial descent. Legal and illegal immigration also influences our nation’s demographic fabric. In the past, numerically large, diverse populations were typically found in our coastal and industrial metropolitan communities. Now, small towns across rural America are also experiencing a significant demographic shift.

Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District is providing schoolchildren along California’s Central Coast with access to nature and science-based opportunities.

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SOCIAL EQUITY

Youth, who may not have had much experience in nature, participate in an overnight camp and day hike in Monterey, California.

the region’s schoolchildren with access to nature and science-based opportunities. This annualized transportation and entry-fee grant program, financed through the department’s general fund, will help the region’s school districts and not-for-profit organizations underwrite transportation and user fees.

Rather than limiting participation solely to District properties, grant funds will make access to other jurisdictions’ beaches, aquariums, youth-based science camps and parks possible. The goal is to enhance environmental literacy and outdoor activity for every schoolaged child residing in the region, irrespective of physical ability or socioeconomic status.

This grant program will touch the lives of children living in some of this nation’s wealthiest, as well 48 Parks & Recreation

as some of its most impoverished, communities. California’s Central Coast is one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions.

Thus, its local communities include a substantial resident and migrant farm-worker population. Although some farm workers live within 10 miles of Monterey Bay and redwood-forested canyons, many of their children have never been to a nearby beach, seen a breaching humpback whale or stood beneath some of the world’s tallest trees.

This grant program will strive to reverse this situation. Every child’s experiential growth makes us a better, stronger and smarter nation.

The state of California is introducing a companion initiative: Assembly Bill 556, known as the “Outdoor Experiences: Community Access Program: Grant Program.” Designed especially for youth in low-income and disadvantaged communities, this initiative will develop and implement a community access program

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focused on engagement programs, technical assistance or facilities that maximize safe and equitable physical admittance to natural or cultural resources, community education programs or recreational amenities.

It authorizes development of a grant program for transportation projects to provide diverse, disadvantaged and low-income youth access to outdoor experiences.

Our nation and the parks, recreation and resource conservation industries have a history of successfully adapting to planned and unexpected change. Because there is no indication that the trends guiding our nation’s demographics shift will reverse anytime soon, we can expect that adaptation will be key to our respective industries’ success. Few industries can influence our nation’s and world’s future. Ours can. Ours must.

Rafael Payan, Ph.D., is the General Manager for the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District (payan@mprpd.org).

Advocate for Parks and Recreation Without Going to Capitol Hill

Sign up to become a Park Champion, then use NRPA’s resources to guide you through asking your U.S. representative and U.S. senators to support federal policy that helps parks and recreation in your community.

nrpa.org/Park-Champions

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By Richard J. Dolesh

I

s recycling as we know it really dead? In a word, yes. For a variety of reasons, some global in nature, the way we once collected and disposed of recyclable trash is over. This is a shocking development to park and recreation agencies that have promoted recycling to the public and staff as a means of taking personal and organizational responsibility for the trash they create and to meaningfully reduce their impact on the environment.

What’s the Problem; How Did We Get in This Mess?

In the early 1970s, the environmental movement embraced recycling to live more sustainably and responsibly. Since then, generations of Americans learned to recycle and believed it was their contribution to a cleaner, more sustainable environment. Park and recreation agencies began to develop “behind-the-counter” internal recycling programs, and, gradually, included public participation in recycling by placing recycle

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FELIX LIPOV / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Suddenly, costs for recycling are doubling, tripling and quadrupling, and many waste haulers and municipal governments are refusing to even pick up recyclables any longer.

City after city is announcing it will no longer collect curbside recycling, and those municipalities that continue to collect recyclables may have no place to recycle such waste and will be forced to divert it to landfills or send it to waste incinerators to burn, thereby creating harmful emissions and toxic fly ash.

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Clearly identified recycling containers at outdoor special events provide an important message to the public about an agency’s commitment to recycle.

As a result, prices for disposing of recyclables are skyrocketing. The Atlantic recently reported that Franklin, New Hampshire, which was paid $6 per ton for recyclables, has been informed by its local transfer station that it will now have to pay $125 per ton to recycle, or $68 per ton to incinerate the same waste. Hundreds of cities and towns facing dramatically higher recycling costs are ending curbside pick-up of recycling altogether or are simply landfilling or incinerating their recycled waste. bins in parks, community centers and recreation facilities.

In the 1990s, however, waste haulers and municipal governments began to move toward single-stream recycling. In this method of recycling, instead of separating recyclables, such as plastics, glass, cardboard, paper, metal and organic waste, at the source into individual containers, all recyclables are commingled in one waste receptacle.

Waste haulers promoted single-stream recycling because it significantly reduced hauling costs and increased profits. Municipal governments embraced it because it was cheaper and eliminated problems caused by multiple-stream waste pre-sorting, including separate containers, separate storage and greater expense.

This mutually profitable arrangement came crashing down in February 2018 when the Chinese government, in response to growing waste contamination and effects of pollution, issued a proclamation, titled “The National Sword,” a declaration that China would no 52 Parks & Recreation

The Impact on Parks and Recreation

Simple, clear graphics, such as these on East Bay Regional Park District’s indoor recycling bins, help the public easily understand what waste should go in which bin.

longer accept 24 classes of imported waste and would, henceforth, only accept those materials that met extremely strict standards for contamination. U.S. paper waste is, on average, 25 percent contaminated by food, grease, glass or other materials. China’s new standard for paper waste is .3 of 1 percent contamination.

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The crisis in recycling has not yet penetrated the consciousness of park and recreation agencies. However, realization will come soon as prices to recycle rise exponentially and waste haulers refuse to take recycled waste, except for exorbitant fees.

Beyond the impacts of current market forces, if recycling in park and recreation facilities is to be successful in the future, it will require re-educating the public about what is recyclable and what is not. Ana Alvarez, deputy general manager of East Bay Regional Park District in the San Francisco Bay region, says, “It will require a different message to the public in the future. It will be about reducing the amount of waste you generate, packing it in and packing it out, and reducing your carbon footprint.”

One problem in getting the public to recycle effectively has been the confusing instructions on recycling bins. Alvarez agrees that problem continues. “The public is still confused about sorting. Even

5 Things Your Agency Can Do Now to Recycle Smarter though we have been successful in encouraging people to recycle, they still don’t know how to sort what they throw away.”

Such confusion has led to “wishful recycling” or as it is sometimes called, “aspirational recycling.”

People who are entirely well-intentioned, but don’t know what trash to put in what bin, throw all their waste into the recycle bin and feel satisfied they are doing their part to improve the environment. What they may be inadvertently doing, however, is contaminating tons of perfectly recyclable waste with their mixed trash.

Separating consumer waste sounds simple, but The New York Times recently identified six items that people incorrectly think are recyclable, including greasy pizza boxes (oil saturates the cardboard and ruins it for recycling), disposable paper coffee cups (which are lined with a non-recyclable polymer coating), yogurt cups (which are made of non-recyclable plastic), plastic trash bags (which clog trash sorting machines), oily plastic food containers (which are like the aforementioned pizza boxes) and dirty diapers (which need no explanation). Even Amazon, the biggest shipper of packages worldwide recently got it wrong when it changed from using recyclable cardboard to non-recyclable plastic mailers to reduce packaging volume in trucks and planes. The company claims it will release a fully recyclable paper mailer at an unspecified future date.

Single-use plastics, which constitute a large percentage of our waste, are some of the most pervasive and long-lasting plastics in our environment. These include plastic utensils, beverage bottles, food wrappers, plastic bags, coffee

cup lids, straws, six-pack holders, cigarette filters and more. Banning or taxing single-use plastics has been a strategy for some cities, but it requires strong public and elected support. Seattle has banned plastic straws and single-use plastic utensils. Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle have banned plastic grocery bags. Other jurisdictions have taxed plastic bags and direct the proceeds into environmental restoration funds. Some park and recreation agencies have required vendors to use only recyclable or biodegradable utensils and packaging in concession operations but have not yet attempted agency-wide bans.

There Are Solutions China’s decision to ban many classes of materials may paradoxically have the net effect of stimulating innovation and competition for recyclables in the United States.

Producing cleaner products with less non-recyclable waste will be at the heart of gaining competitive advantage, says TOMRA, a Norwegian-based company that specializes in laser and optical sensors for waste sorting. Uncontaminated recycled paper and cardboard waste, for example, might still find markets in China, but what’s more likely is that the United States may develop local markets for such recyclables.

Technological improvements in waste hauling and distribution are already reducing costs of routing trucks and optimizing hauling using fleet-based tracking systems.

Such technology can provide real-time interactions with municipal and corporate customers, and reduce the cost of hauling, according to WasteDive, an industry news source. By linking individual ve-

Recognize the crisis and act now. Prepare for what is happening. If you haven’t formed a Green Team yet, now is the time.

Activate and empower employees to devise better ways to improve recycling and reduce waste.

1

Review your recycling contract. Look for alternatives to current practices that send recycled materials to a landfill or incinerator. Consider consolidating contracts, building in greater flexibility to meet changing conditions and seek help for writing a smarter recycling contract.

2

Look to reduce waste at the source.

Set goals for reducing landfill or incinerator waste and track the amount of waste you divert from landfills as you track the amount of waste you recycle. Perform a trash audit and incorporate findings into your sustainability goals. Improve purchasing procedures to reduce packaging and eliminate unnecessary waste.

3

Consider a food waste composting program. You can start small but plan with an eye to the future on how you can ramp up. Organics composting is a great way to partner with community organizations and a great soil amendment to use in your own gardening programs and landscaping, thereby reducing costs and providing new ways to educate the public.

4

Make your recycling bins “future ready.”

If the labeling on current bins is not perfectly clear to the public, consider updating and replacing graphics. If you are purchasing new bins, make them as adaptable as possible for new waste-stream separation.

5

Want to hear more about recycling issues and solutions? Listen to a lively exchange by Chicago Park District’s Brendan Daley and NRPA’s Richard Dolesh on NRPA’s podcast, Open Space Radio, Episode 034: http:// nrpaopenspace.libsyn.com/.

Links: Responsible Purchasing Network (RPN): www.responsiblepurchasing.org/

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hicles with smart-cities’ data hubs, more efficient hauling can lead to significantly reduced costs.

Plastic bottles present a recycling challenge all their own. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic is one of the most ubiquitous waste materials in our environment. It is now found in abundance in every ocean and in both polar regions.

Globally, it is estimated that more than 500 billion plastic bottles are produced each year, but only 14 percent are recycled. The rest are landfilled, burned or discarded in our environment. It is a staggering and depressing amount of waste that could be reduced and re-used.

But, there may be good news on the PET front. An enzyme that breaks down PET plastic was accidentally discovered by an international team studying bacteria in a landfill in Japan that has naturally evolved to eat plastic. PET plastic, made from oil, “is incredibly resistant,” says Professor John McGheehan, the project leader. Scientists hope that the newly isolated enzyme can be optimized to break down PET plastic faster and on a larger scale than ever before.

There is more good news. A recycling plant in Lawrence, Ohio, has recently been licensed to re-process polypropylene plastics, which, up till now, could only be recycled into a lesser grade of grey or black plastic of significantly less value. The new pyrolytic process can produce high-quality, almost clear polypropylene plastic from lower-grade plastics. This technological breakthrough could make recycling of low-grade scrap polypropylene highly profitable, while reducing wastes and costs.

These are only a few examples of potential breakthroughs. There is no magic bullet, however, to rescue us from the waste we produce, but technological advances such as these show real promise, even if they are still a long way from achieving economies of scale.

What Parks and Recreation Can Do Park and recreation agencies have an extraordinary opportunity to educate the public regarding recycling. Possibly some of our greatest contributions toward recycling goals will not be the weight and

volume of what we recycle, but the impact we have on changing public behavior.

Today, virtually all park and recreation agencies have some type of public-facing recycling program, and some are quite extensive. Kyle Lowe, assistant division chief for the Natural and Historical Resources Division of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in Prince Georges County, Maryland, says, “In 2018, we created the ‘One-Million More Challenge’ with a goal of going from 1.7 million pounds, our 2017 recycle number, to at least 2.7 million pounds of waste that we diverted from landfills or recycled or re-used. In 2018, with an all-agency effort, we topped that number and recycled 3.2 million pounds of materials. We achieved it through a rollout of new indoor recycling containers, new signage and expansion of recycling in outdoor park sites, with a long-term goal to have 100 percent participation in recycling at all parks.”

Park and recreation agencies serve millions of meals per year in afterschool and summer programs.

The food waste from these meals is mingled with trash. Brendan Daley, director of strategy and sustainability at the Chicago Park District (CPD), notes that his agency alone serves tens of thousands of meals to children in its summer food nutrition program. “Until now,” he says, “all the food waste from these meals has been consolidated with other trash. We are looking at nine park sites to develop a pilot for a comprehensive food composting

A trash audit can provide valuable info on what is being disposed of in your trash barrels and recycling bins to inform your recycling and education efforts.

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program.” Chicago Park District is now getting quotes from vendors that can compost food waste.

To begin, CPD plans to compost fruit, vegetables, cardboard boxes and possibly bread, but not meat or dairy. That is not all. The district is working with its meal supplier to evaluate menus and how meals are packed with an eye to reducing waste up front. In addition, it will begin a staff training program and is planning how to adaptively manage the program once underway.

Matthew Norton, sanitation recycling supervisor for East Bay Regional Park District (EPRB), says that in recognition of a changing landscape for recycling, EPRB utilized a consultant to help develop a multiyear contract, which includes provisions for trash, recyclables and organics at one of its large regional parks. In other parks, it uses local haulers and as many as 10 different firms at a cost of $0–$316 per ton, depending on the location and the park.

EPRB also contracts with a California-based crew of the Student Conservation Association (SCA) to collect recyclables from trailside containers on its extensive trail network, and the SCA keeps the proceeds it realizes from recyclable waste.

Some East Bay parks also collect organic materials, including food scraps and paper towels for composting either on-site or to be hauled to off-site composting.

Park-generated and community-based food composting is clearly an innovative recycling effort that can provide solutions to reducing the number of contaminated recyclables and to diverting waste from landfills.

Certain recyclable materials are no longer profitable, yet others re

Instead of single-stream recycling, separating all recyclables at the source may be key to effective recycling.

tain high value. Glass, for example, is not just unrecyclable, it has negative value and many waste haulers no longer even want to pick it up.

Aluminum, however, is 100 percent recyclable and there is excellent value in recycling it. It is also a great way for park and recreation agencies to engage with volunteer and community groups to realize a return on recycling.

There is new hope that returning to mixed-stream recycling can make recycling profitable again.

“Clean-stream” and “Pay-as-youthrow” recycling may offer hope for the future and, in fact, may open new domestic markets for recyclable wastes that were formerly shipped to foreign countries. Returning to dual-stream and multistream recycling is a way forward for agencies and communities to make recycling work. In parks, it can be more than just a better way to recycle: It can also be an effective way to educate the public on how to recycle at home.

It will take a collective effort to recycle in smarter ways. Agencies may need to commit to some self-hauling of recyclables to a processing center. Other specific actions to reduce waste or divert it from landfills include upcycling formerly discarded materials; reducing unnecessary packaging in purchasing, eliminating single-use PET water bottles and installing water filling stations.

The messaging to the public about recycling is vitally important.

We may have to do things a different way, and, perhaps, it won’t be quite as easy as it has been, but the benefits will be greater, and the

impacts even more significant, in a climate-changing world.

Ana Alvarez told a surprisingly moving story about how she came to understand how people can change their ways regarding waste and recycling. “I came from Orange County and we had big Easter programs. I always thought you can’t have an Easter egg hunt without plastic Easter eggs, right? In the city of Santa Fe Springs, they do it differently by choice. They carpet the grass with many pieces of folded paper. Children collect the pieces of paper and open them to find a sticker inside and run to a central gathering place for a prize. It was hard for me to imagine an Easter egg hunt without the Easter eggs. I had to be taught. I learned that the magic was still there, but it was with pieces of paper not plastic eggs.”

If we believe that parks and recreation contributes to sustainable communities and that our actions matter for the health of our environment, we must step up and act.

“We are the ones holding on to the values,” says Alvarez. “We can create the messages that we need.”

Richard J. Dolesh is NRPA’s Vice President of Strategic Initiatives (rdolesh@nrpa.org).

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The

Vision Plan M

oakley Park in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest city park located along Boston Harbor.

Constructed in the early 1900s and named after South Boston native-turned U.S. Rep. Joe Moakley, it is accessible to a wide range of the city’s population. It’s within 15 minutes of a diverse set of Boston’s most socially vulnerable neighborhoods and is served by two Red Line T stops and highway access for visitors from across Boston and the region.

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Designing resilience and recreation into a Boston waterfront park

By Amy Whitesides, Elaine Stokes and Alex Marchinski

Boston’s Moakley Park provides access to new active recreation opportunities and the Boston Harbor from a diverse set of neighborhoods and adjacent open spaces.

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ALL IMAGES ©2019 STOSS LANDSCAPE URBANISM

for Boston’s Moakley Park

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Roadway connection via Columbia Road, once envisioned to be the final link in Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace, connects Moakley Park to an incredible network of parks that serve many of Boston’s neighborhoods. Combined with Carson Beach and the South Boston/Harbor Point waterfront, Moakley Park could be part of Boston’s longest, most diverse and most spectacular stretch of waterfront parks. In 2018, the Boston Parks and Recreation Department launched the Moakley Park Vision Plan to transform and take advantage of this site’s significant social and environmental potential as part of a larger harborwide vision for climate resiliency tied to social equity.

The Moakley Park Vision Plan builds on Boston’s harborwide planning for coastal resilience, set forth

by Mayor Walsh. With 36 inches of sea-level rise, Moakley Park, combined with Fort Point Channel, becomes the flood pathway for portions of the city’s South End and Roxbury neighborhoods during a 1 percent

storm event, like a 100-year flood. By elevating areas of the park and integrating those areas into a flood-protection berm, Moakley Park can become an important component of a citywide strategy to protect neighborhoods and critical assets from future risk. In fact, the park is particularly important to the city’s resiliency strategy because of the highly vulnerable populations impacted by this flood pathway. Directly adjacent to Moakley Park are two low-income housing projects, one of which is the oldest existing in Boston. The residents of these areas are subject to significant financial strain, which would be exacerbated by future flood risks. Protecting these neighborhoods is a priority for the region and the city.

The re-envisioned Moakley Park takes on impending climate change threats, upgrades existing facilities and adds new programs and activities to attract new users. In addition, it creates a more ecologically diverse and sustainable landscape and explicitly addresses issues of equity and access to the harbor for all.

The long-term vision transitions the current roadway between Moakley Park and Carson Beach into a waterfront promenade, safely linking the park plaza and the beach.

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Engagement Process How the city empowers residents to become active participants in the co-creation and continued stewardship of Moakley Park is an important element of the vision plan’s future success. The city and the design team, led

by Stoss Landscape Urbanism, held a multifaceted community-engagement process throughout the duration of the project. Stoss and its partners, ONE Architecture and Urbanism and Nitsch Engineering, worked with the parks department to generate a community engagement strategy that would gather community input on the future of the park, help develop a vision plan that addresses major community concerns and interests, and garner support for the final vision plan. The strategy was broad based and geared toward getting input from a variety of Boston residents. Presentations, visual communication and physical models were utilized across multiple engagement strategies to communicate ideas to a diverse audience. The team also collaborated with city agencies and officials to begin

Moakley Park rendering showing the location of various park amenities.

generating implementation strategies.

The foundation of this engagement was a series of open houses and onsite events. DISCOVER Moakley! was a daylong event dedicated to bringing fun and energy to Moakley Park. Boston Parks and Recreation Department, Greenovate Boston, Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, Boston Harbor Now, The Trust for Public Land and the Department of Conservation and Recreation teamed up to demonstrate how simple activation of the park can connect people to the space for a diverse range of activities.

The event spanned beyond Moakley’s perimeter and involved closing a portion of William Day Boulevard and portions of Carson Beach to further introduce the idea of connecting the community, the park and the beach.

In addition to enjoying a beachthemed inflatable installation, live music, acrobatics on the beach, exercise classes in the park, local food and beer, skateboarding and parkour, visitors were also asked for input on the Moakley Park Vision Plan and to participate in activities that exhibited green infrastructure and coastal resilience strategies.

One-on-one interviews were held with participants who wanted to talk in greater depth about their experiences, memories and aspirations

for the park. DISCOVER Moakley! showed participants how the park could evolve into a multifunctional urban waterfront park that combines athletics with resiliency efforts and new programs to better suit and connect its diverse community.

In addition, an interdepartmental group, composed of city agencies, worked with the design team to consider broader implications and coordinate efforts relative to other city initiatives. A Community Advisory Group, composed of community leaders and residents, represented the community’s interest in smallgroup conversations and guided the design team on program organization. This group provided an opportunity for the city to hear from community members who have lived in the South Boston neighborhood for generations, but also incorporate new voices with varied interests that will use the park in the future.

The Vision In the initial weeks of the project, the design team conducted broadbased regional and local analysis to understand site opportunities and constraints. This research process included site visits, evaluation of local planning documents, flood maps, ownership and existing vege-

tation surveys, as well as recreation analysis. Several key observations emerged from this work: • The site is well-situated from a regional transportation context but is disconnected from and unsafe to access by its local neighbors.

• The park’s proximity to the waterfront is not easily understood.

A lack of topography in the park, except for the stadium area and bridge crossing over Old Colony Avenue to the west, prevents visual connection to the beach.

• Climate projections threaten the park on several levels. Projected sea-level rise will perpetuate flood risks through future coastal flooding. Increases in precipitation are likely to exacerbate the existing issues of flooding fields.

• The surrounding context is undergoing significant development.

Currently approved and planned developments will nearly double the surrounding population.

These observations and the design process, carried out over approximately one year, helped the team to develop a plan for the future of Moakley Park that is a vision for: • protecting the residential communities inland of Moakley from future flood events and climate change impacts

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• retaining and enhancing Moakley as a key active recreational amenity for South Boston and the entire city through elevated ball fields, a revamped stadium, and destination sport courts and play areas with improved stormwater management • creating equitable access to Boston’s greatest natural resource

Recreation and Resilience Since its inception, Moakley Park has been dedicated to active recreation and play. The vision plan seeks to retain and enhance this function, placing active use in combination with resiliency measures to create new, unique recreation opportunities. The upgraded sports facilities create premier fields through improved field layout, lighting and integrated stormwater management, while also offering harbor views. The fields and sport courts are organized into the following primary areas: • softball and Little League fields • baseball field • track and field • sport court complex • soccer and multiuse fields Embedded in these areas are numerous additional opportunities

for active play, including an adventure playground, sledding hill, BBQ area, flexible fields, water play, field houses with community space and a waterfront cafe offering a premier location for events or just relaxing with refreshments after a game.

The design and programming of these recreational spaces are organized through the development of a park-wide coastal flooding protection system, a berm running the length of the park and connecting to high points in the surrounding context at either end. The berm is strategically placed close to the front of the park but not immediately at its waterfront boundary. The goal of connectivity and continued access to the waterfront leads the team to a strategy of pushing and pulling the berm back and forth from the waterfront edge. Doing so creates a dynamic experience that brings the community close to the water, provides views of the harbor and creates large, slightly raised yet protected areas in which fields could be placed. The result is greater community access and the creation of a variety of field conditions, providing diversity in playing experience throughout the year and in different climate conditions.

This new sports court area will act as secondary holding capacity for stormwater in extreme cases.

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Stormwater Management Moakley Park is already subject to flooding from rainfall. With even small rain events, the playing fields are flooded and unusable. Stormwater management is, therefore, both a critical component of improving playing fields at Moakley Park, as well as an important component of developing a resilient Boston Harbor.

Currently, most stormwater that collects in the park is generated by land surfaces in or directly adjacent to Moakley Park. The vision plan provides ample opportunities to manage stormwater in large underground chambers beneath the soccer and multiuse fields, as well as the baseball and football fields.

Using highly efficient chamber systems in these areas could provide almost 5 million cubic feet of subsurface storage for stormwater management. Additional ecological systems-based strategies include stormwater wetland systems, porous pavement in parking areas and swale systems along adjacent streets that will provide an additional 700,000 cubic feet of storage.

Preliminary calculations indicate that these storage volumes could collect, infiltrate and detain storm events up to the projected “16-inch” or 500-year rainfall event in 2100, as described by the Boston Water and Sewer Commission’s “Wastewater and Storm Drainage Facilities Plan,” published in 2015. Together, these methods will keep fields dry, keep stormwater from flowing directly to the harbor and provide the means for creation of new ecological systems within the park. In addition, areas of stormwater collection integrated into play and recreation areas provide an opportunity for the community to learn about stormwater management.

Planting Moakley Park currently exhibits low landscape diversity through its vast expanses of grass and minimal trees. This limited diversity of vegetation does little to contribute to the area’s ecological value.

Increased quantity and variety of vegetation proposed in the vision plan will help to achieve a level of ecological diversity that would make for a healthier environment for people, plants and wildlife. This increased vegetation also serves the larger goals of citywide climate resilience, as increased shade in the park will help to combat the increasing temperatures and number of predicted hot days. Importantly, this shade and respite from the heat will be provided directly adjacent to many of the city’s most underserved populations and to areas with low-vegetative cover and subsequently high-heat index.

Reconnecting the Community to the Harbor Boston Harbor is one of the city’s greatest assets. A generation ago, it was a degraded, toxic landscape.

Spectacle Island was a landfill, the industrial waterfront was suffering from decades of decline and disrepair, and it was understood that contact with the water was dangerous to your health. Decades of work and billions of dollars in public and private investment have made the harbor and The Harbor Islands safe and enjoyable. Today, the islands are the largest recreational open space in Eastern Massachusetts. Just minutes from downtown Boston, the harbor islands provide Bostonians and visitors with incredible views, history and recreational opportunities.

Moakley Park is a gateway to Boston Harbor and The Harbor Is

The highest point of the coastal protection berm becomes a sledding hill in winter, providing year-long activity in Moakley Park.

lands; however, in its current condition park goers are hard pressed to feel any connection. Lack of topography in the park results in little to no visual connection to the water and multiple lanes of traffic make physical access to the water less desirable and dangerous. The Moakley Vision Plan seeks to minimize these challenges and increase the linkages between the communities adjacent to the park, the harbor and the islands beyond.

This goal is achieved largely through topography and the creation of the coastal protection berm. Careful coordination of access points leading up to the top of the berm help make it a point of connection and not separation. The central-most point of access to the park connects directly to the adjacent residential housing and brings visitors along a sloping ramp, at the top of which they enjoy an expansive view of the harbor while sitting at a cafe or standing on the overlook.

Below, a waterfront plaza provides free programming and water play.

And, over time, William Day Boulevard will be transformed into a pedestrian promenade activated by people, beach-side basketball courts and street festivals, once again reconnecting the community with the Boston waterfront. The berm and raised landscapes do more than simply protect the community, they provide significant social and rec-

reational opportunity and provide physical and visual access to the waterfront. Access that is of great importance for populations with limited resources and space and for whom the park and waterfront serve as their backyard.

Next Steps The Moakley Vision Plan is an exciting new stage in Boston’s relationship to the harbor, one that includes celebrating Boston Harbor’s cleanliness through community access and protection from the future dangers proximity to the harbor presents. It’s also an exciting new space where the South Boston community can gather, play and celebrate life.

As team members wrap up the vision plan this month, they will be sharing it with the community and elected officials, getting overall feedback and impressions that will help them shape the next steps of the design process. With this feedback, Boston Parks and Recreation Department plans to embark on further detailed design studies and generate a phasing plan that will allow for implementation to begin, while retaining active recreational uses during construction. Exciting things are coming to Moakley Park!

Amy Whitesides is a Studio Director for Stoss Landscape Urbanism (aw@stoss.net). Elaine Stokes is a Project Designer for Stoss Landscape Urbanism. Alex Marchinski is a Senior Landscape Designer for Stoss Landscape Urbanism. @stosslu

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NRPA UPDATE Miami Innovation Lab

By Richard J. Dolesh

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f you were asked to identify one way that a changing climate was affecting your park and recreation system, what would you pick? Would it be sea-level rise, drought, coastal and river flooding, extreme heat, invasive species, ice storms, hurricanes, more frequent and intense thunderstorms or deluge rain events?

The list goes on, but it is a pretty sure bet that everyone in the field of parks and recreation has a story to tell about how a changing climate is affecting their parks, their workers, their programs and the people in their community. And, for some, the shocks and stresses have been unbelievable — 50 inches of torrential rain within four days in Texas; blazing wildfires in California that scorched hundreds of thousands of acres of land, driving people and animals before wind-driven flames in a desperate flight to avoid being

burned to death; daytime temperatures in Arizona over 100 degrees for three months straight and no relief at night because the temperature never goes below 90 degrees; and most recently, catastrophic spring floods in Nebraska, Iowa and other Upper-Midwest states.

Weather events and weather patterns come and go, but long-term changes in climate are starting to profoundly change our environment. Parks are on the front line of these changes, and they must become more resilient to meet the

challenges we all now face.

Making parks more climate resilient was the topic of NRPA’s latest Innovation Lab, held January 2019, in Miami in partnership with the Miami-Dade Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces department.

NRPA’s Innovation Labs have quickly gained a national reputation for thoughtful treatment of challenging issues by a gathering of experts and director-level professionals to do a deep dive on issues as diverse as the impact of technology and the challenges of dealing with homelessness in parks.

The two-day lab consisted of panel presentations, an interactive workshop on “Parks Leadership in Climate Adaptation,” tours of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, visits to Miami-Dade County’s parks that are under the greatest threats from sea-level rise and coastal flooding, and a special tour of the University of Miami’s Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, where lab participants had an opportunity to walk around, over and under UM’s hurricane simulator and see it cranked up to demonstrate the impacts of a Category 5 hurricane.

Some 50 participants from around the country participated in the Miami Lab, where they heard expert presenters in the opening session give a national perspective on the resilience landscape in America. Amy Chester, managing At the University of Miami’s Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Innovation Lab participants got to see UM’s hurricane simulator in action.

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director of Rebuild by Design, a project of the Van Alen Institute in New York City; Jason Hellendrung, vice president for Tetra Tech, a worldwide design and engineering firm; Kokei Otosi, project manager of Keeping Current, a solutions-oriented initiative targeting South Florida; and Jordan Wildish, a research analyst at Earth Economics, a think tank that applies market-based solutions to environmental problems, gave their thoughts on how cities must use a systems approach to first assess vulnerabilities, not just of physical infrastructure, but also of the health and well-being of vulnerable populations that are often the most affected by extreme events.

Parks play a prominent role in a systems approach that seeks to provide multi-benefit solutions because of their recreational, public health, community development, economic health and environmental benefits through living shorelines, green infrastructure stormwater management and flood-control benefits.

On the second day of the lab, a second panel, composed of Na’Taki Osborne Jelks, chair of the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance and professor at Spellman College; James Murley, the chief resilience officer for Miami-Dade County; Sonia Succar Rodriguez of the Nature Conservancy; and Tom O’Hara, a former managing editor of several newspapers and now project editor for The Invading Sea, spoke on the economic, environmental and social dimensions of resilience.

Key takeaways from this session highlighted the environmental and social injustices of vulnerable populations that often have the least

Innovation Lab participants toured the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Florida.

means to deal with acute shocks from extreme events, such as hurricanes, storms and drought. Presenters agreed that parks play a vital role in developing resilient communities because they are so strategically located within communities.

Osborne-Jelks noted that “process is as important as results.” To gain community buy-in, planners and implementers of resiliency solutions must have a community-centered approach and engagement at every level — in planning, preparing and implementing solutions.

One of the highlights of the Innovation Lab was an interactive workshop, led by Joanna Lombard, a professor at the University of Miami’s School of Architecture, that was organized around a Design Thinking Process that focuses on human-centric solutions. Working at tables on chosen climate resiliency topics, participants worked through a collaborative process to learn about their partners as they would learn about their own communities. It led to constructing a point of view based on user needs, to brainstorming and coming up with creative solutions and to building representations of their ideas through a prototype. Finally, the Thinking By Design exercise let participants test their ideas and share them with their partners. It was a highly stimulating and productive way to think about resilient parks and what it takes for them to become so through a full community effort.

Maria Nardi, director of Miami-Dade Parks, Recreation and

Open Spaces department said it best in her summary of how Miami-Dade approaches making parks more resilient: “First, develop a master plan that is holistic and includes a system-wide approach to resiliency. Second, evaluate the impact of climate change to the entire system, which allows greater ability to prioritize individual sites and assess the natural and built environment. Third, implement a Design Thinking approach that builds a strong partnership network necessary to develop and implement collective efforts. Park professionals play a key leadership role in providing climate solutions, and I believe there is no one better at bringing people and communities together than parks. Parks will save the planet!” she says. “We will make sure of that.”

To learn more about resilient parks, log in to the March 14 webinar, “The Day After Tomorrow: Making Parks Climate Resilient” on the webinar archive page at https://learning.nrpa. org/webinars-archived.

— Richard J. Dolesh, NRPA’s Vice President of Strategic Initiatives

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Saving the Future of Outdoor Recreation

By Cort Jones

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ou may have noticed that we’ve been talking a lot about the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) lately. Well, thanks to your tireless support, LWCF reauthorization passed Congress in February, and last month President Trump signed the bill to permanently authorize this critical program.

LWCF was enacted in 1965 to help preserve, develop and ensure access to outdoor recreation. Since then, the LWCF State Assistance Program has provided funding for more than 40,000 projects, a total of more than $4 billion going to states, territories and local communities. In fiscal year 2017 alone, the LWCF State Assistance Program provided more than $110 million in funding to states and localities.

This included $12 million going directly to urban areas.

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NRPA and our members have been fighting for years to help secure a permanent reauthorization of LWCF, as well as a guaranteed 40 percent in funding for the LWCF State Assistance Program — which is included in this bill.

This is a huge, long-fought victory for NRPA members and the communities you serve.

The widespread bipartisan support and the president’s signing of this bill — formerly known as the Natural Resources Management

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Act, but renamed the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act — puts us one step closer to making access to great parks a reality for all.

But, the work isn’t over…

We still need to make sure that when Congress makes spending decisions, it sticks to the agreement the president signed in March and that it fully funds the program.

President Trump’s fiscal year 2020 budget request is, yet again, asking Congress to make deep cuts to the program, and we will need your help in the future to ensure these cuts aren’t made.

Along those same lines, President Trump has proposed slashing funding for LWCF in previous budgets, but because of broad bipartisan support for LWCF, his cuts haven’t been enacted into law.

In other words, we don’t need to lose any sleep over the proposed cuts just yet, but soon we’ll be asking you to remind Congress why LWCF is important to you and your community.

So, for now, give yourself a nice, big pat on the back. You spoke up and your voice was heard. You showed the power of advocating for something that you truly believe in — and something that is benefiting communities nationwide.

Together, we really can save the future of outdoor recreation — and it’s because of your dedication that that future is extremely bright.

— Cort Jones (he/him/his), NRPA’s Communications Manager and Host of Open Space Radio

Top 5 Ways to “Get Fit”

#NRPAFAMILYFITDAY

With Parks and Recreation

SPONSORED BY:

Family Health and Fitness Day is June 8, 2019.

J U N E 8, 2019

TAKE A WALK

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GO FOR A SWIM

2

3

ENROLL IN A FITNESS PROGRAM

4

PLAY OUTSIDE

CREATE YOUR OWN EXERCISE ROUTINE

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Share your photos and videos online using #NRPAFamilyFitDay. https://www.nrpa.org/familyfitness

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Use Your Power of Persuasion How to justify your trip to the 2019 NRPA Annual Conference

By Matt Brubaker

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ur field depends on enthusiastic people like you to continue to learn, innovate and lead us into a bright future. Attending the 2019 NRPA Annual Conference is the best way to absorb the new ideas and strategies you need to continue to make your community a great place to live, work and play! But sometimes budgets can be tight, and it might take a little persuasion to convince your employer it is valuable for you to attend the NRPA conference. Here are some key talking points to help you get approval:

rience and a sincere passion for our industry. Not only will you learn things that you can implement immediately at your agency, you will also make long-term connections that will help you well into your career.

Learn from the Best

Comprehensive Education

Describing the NRPA conference speakers as subject matter

experts is an understatement.

The hundreds of speakers who present bring lifetimes of expe-

With a dozen education tracks and more than 200 sessions, you can attend sessions covering leadership, aquatics, marketing, revenue development, customer relations and much more. There are also sessions geared specifically to director-level leaders, young professionals and students.

Save on Attendance Demonstrate your fiscal responsibility by showing your employer all the ways you can save money on attendance. NRPA members automatically get a discount. Register by the early-bird deadline to save hundreds of dollars. NRPA Premier Member agencies that purchase four full-package registrations, receive the fifth registration for free.

Those are only a few of the points you can use to help persuade your employer. To find even more tips and a justification letter template, visit www.nrpa.org/conference/ about/justification-tips.

Don’t miss this opportunity to attend the largest park and recreation conference in the world. Registration opens May 13. For more information, visit www.nrpa.org/conference.

— Matt Brubaker, NRPA’s Director of Marketing 66 Parks & Recreation

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Saving Pollinators: One BioBlitz at a Time

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ccording to a recent NRPA Park Pulse Poll, most Americans agree that promoting pollinator health should be a conservation priority across the United States. However, many people don’t know where to begin. To help provide some direction, NRPA, in partnership with The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation, is encouraging agencies to host a pollinator-focused BioBlitz this June during Pollinator Month as part of the Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz campaign.

Why pollinators? Pollinators are a vital component of our ecosystem and an essential link to the world’s food supply. According to the

White House’s Pollinators Health Task Force, over the past 30 years, the United States has seen a steady decline of pollinators (such as bees, bats and butterflies) at the alarming rate of 30 percent annually — making it vital to act on pollinator protection. Educating your community through a pollinator-focused event can inspire them and give them the tools to take action.

What’s a BioBlitz? It’s an event where parks staff and members of the community work together to create a snapshot of the variety of life that can be found in a designated area. It can be carried out anywhere there is wildlife. For the Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz, we

will be using the iNaturalist platform. Participants can download the app on a smart device and use it to take pictures during the event.

It’s a fun event for the whole family!

Any agency that signs up online and then hosts a BioBlitz event in June through NRPA’s campaign on the iNaturalist platform will be entered into a sweepstakes to win $1,000 to support pollinator enrichment activities at their agency. In addition, three Scotts Miracle-Gro prize packs will also be given to randomly selected participants.

You can sign up and learn more about hosting a Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz at www.nrpa.org/ parks4pollinators-bioblitz.

HELP RAISE POLLINATOR AWARENESS. Invite your community to a BioBlitz this June and your agency could win $1,000.*

www.nrpa.org/parks4pollinators-bioblitz

*See official rules for details

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Host a Kids to Parks Day — May 18

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e’re proud to once again partner with the National Park Trust to celebrate Kids to Parks Day, Saturday, May 18. Kids to Parks Day is a nationwide celebration of the great outdoors and is designed to connect kids and families with their local, state and national parks and public lands. Through discovery and exploration of our parks and public lands, kids across the country can learn about park stewardship, outdoor recreation, the importance of physical activity, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and much more. And, teaching our kids to appreciate and enjoy our parks and public lands can fos-

ter future outdoor enthusiasts and create the next generation of park stewards and caretakers of these important places.

By offering a wide variety of park activities and events on a single day, Kids to Parks Day attracts first-time park visitors, as well as existing park enthusiasts. Together we will be able to protect and preserve our country’s public lands and waters by cultivating passionate park advocates and stewards.

For more information, or to host a Kids to Parks Day event or find an event near you, visit www.parktrust.org/kids-to-parks-day/.

We’ve also put together a helpful toolkit so that your Kids to Parks

Day event can double as a Park Champion event. We encourage you to invite your elected officials to join in on the celebration! You can find the toolkit at www.nrpa. org/ktp.

Upcoming Dates for the New Playground Maintenance Course

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ore than 24,000 children are injured on playgrounds each year, with falls being the No. 1 cause. And, according to John Damyanovich, owner of Playground Police: “About 40% of playground injuries are due to poor maintenance practices and

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lack of inspections.” NRPA, to help reduce the number of injuries, developed a one-day Playground Maintenance Course, recommended for maintenance and recreation staff, university seniors and any individual responsible for playgrounds who is 18 years of age or older.

The Playground Maintenance Course (PMC) covers playground safety standards and guidelines, owner responsibilities and maintenance discussions on playground equipment, surfacing and site items. Participants will also learn about the methods of establishing proper record-keeping practices and participate in a site visit to a local playground to expand on the information presented in the course via hands-on learning. Upon com-

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pletion of the course, they will receive the Playground Maintenance Course Certificate.

Following are some upcoming dates for Playground Maintenance Courses:

APRIL 2019 04-11 04-12

Bangor, Maine Yarmouth, Maine

MAY 2019 05-02 05-10 05-23

Mesa, Arizona Sierra Vista, Arizona Rolling Meadows, Illinois

To learn more on how to attend a course in your area or how to host a Playground Maintenance Course, visit www.nrpa.org/certif icate-programs.

Dive Into New Opportunities Become a Certified AFO

Aquatic Facility Operator Certification THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE OPERATORS CERTIFICATION Responsible operators understand the entire pool system.

The AFO Certification will prepare your staff to run all types of aquatic facilities safely, efficiently and confidently.

SIGN UP FOR A COURSE NEAR YOU nrpa.org/AFO

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What Does It Mean to Be CAPRA Accredited?

By Jennifer Schleining

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n paper, CAPRA technically stands for the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies. But, for the nearly 170 park and recreation agencies from 38 states, including seven military installations, that have achieved this mark of excellence, it means so much more. It means they’re meeting, or exceeding, standards maintained by park and recreation leaders and strengthening the value of the programs, facilities and experiences they provide their communities. According to Stephanie Stephens, with the California Park & Recreation Society — home to four CAPRA-accredited agencies — “We already know that we perform best practices within our agency but being CAPRA accredited really ensures that we are doing the right thing for the right reason and in the right ways.”

These agencies reflect this concept in all aspects of their operations, policies and procedures, programming and strategic plans.

As a result, they enjoy the benefits of CAPRA accreditation, including, but not limited to:

Acknowledgement of Excellence.

CAPRA accreditation is a mark of excellence and allows your agency to stand apart from other non-accredited agencies in your community. According to Pepe Chavez with Mecklenburg

“We already know that we perform best practices within our agency but being CAPRA accredited really ensures that we are doing the right thing for the right reason and in the right ways.”

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County, in North Carolina (accredited since 2009), “Once you have accreditation, it gives you that credibility among peers and other professional organizations that you are following certain standards and you are trying to be the best agency that you can be within your neighborhood, your community and across the country.”

Positive Marketability.

CAPRA accreditation is a great way to catch the attention of your elected officials and demonstrate the value of your department.

“The elected officials are very happy that we are accredited,” says Kira Peters with the city of Scottsdale, Arizona (accredited since 1994), “because if you were the mayor or council person, what better way to show off your community than by mentioning the park system is accredited.”

CAPRA-accredited agencies are provided a comprehensive marketing toolkit to promote their accomplishment to the community and elected officials.

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A National Network.

Once you decide to become CAPRA accredited, your agency becomes part of the CAPRA community — an active group of professionals from high-performing agencies nationwide. During the initial application process, and while maintaining accreditation, this network can provide guidance, support and advice. All firsttime and renewing agencies are matched up with a mentor agency to help provide direct assistance in preparing self-assessment reports, hosting site visits and all aspects of the accreditation process.

“The network of now-accredited agencies is growing and growing every year,” says John Sefton with the city of Peoria, Arizona (accredited since 2014). “I would encourage any agency to take the opportunity to go through the self-assessment to explore the benefits of accreditation. The process itself is a step toward improvement.”

To learn more about CAPRA, visit www.nrpa.org/CAPRA. — Jennifer Schleining, NRPA’s Accreditation Manager

Vertical Logos:

Promote Water Safety in May It’s National Water Safety Month

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he busy summer swim season is around the corner.

As temperatures rise, many community members will turn to their local pool for relief. So, the Association of Pool and Spa Professionals, the American Red Cross, the World Waterpark Association and NRPA are hosting the annual National Water Safety Month in May to raise awareness about water safety and highlight the importance of ongoing public education around safer practices for kids and adults around the water.

As primary providers of swimming and aquatic opportunities, park and recreation agencies can celebrate National Water Safe-

ty Month by hosting educational events, sharing water safety tips and participating via social media.

All the resources you need to help educate your community about water safety — from event ideas and tips on how to host those events to information about the American Red Cross Swim App and much more — can be found at www.na tionalwatersafetymonth.org.

Also, save the date and help celebrate the 10th anniversary of the World’s Largest Swimming Lesson™ (WLSL), scheduled for June 20, 2019. This event continues to build awareness about the vital importance of teaching children to swim to help prevent drowning. On

June 20, waterparks, pools and other aquatic facilities around the globe will host local WLSL lessons to emphasize the message that Swimming Lessons Save Lives™! For more information, visit www.wlsl.org.

So, before pool season kicks into high gear, start planning now to help promote National Water Safety Month in May and WLSL on June 20. NRPA will post water safety-related messages that can be easily shared on social media, along with other opportunities promoting water safety.

NRPA Returns to the Winners’ Circle

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e’ve added another medal to our Parks & Recreation cover!

NRPA’s Marketing and Communications (MarCom) team brought home two gold and a silver medal from the 2018 Association TRENDS All Media Contest. This year, our work was selected from among nearly 300 entries.

The TRENDS All Media Contest is an annual competition, held exclusively for associations, recognizing the most creative and effective communication vehicles developed in the industry over the prior year. Out of a possible 23 categories, each of which is judged by a panel of experts, NRPA received the following awards: • Conference Promotion Pack

age – America’s Back Yard – Gold Award • Monthly Trade Association Magazine – Parks & Recreation – Silver Award • Social Media – November 2018 Parks & Recreation cover contest – Gold Award The MarCom team is also a finalist in several categories for the Maggie Awards, which for the first time this year, were open to all content creators across the globe, not just those located in the Western United States. The Maggie Awards, the longest tenured media awards program, are dedicated to celebrating excellence in publishing and media, from print, online and social to digital and video media. Maggie Awards winners will

be announced May 3, and we’ll share this news in an upcoming issue of the magazine.

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Hot Topics

The weather is heating up and so are the conversations on NRPA Connect. Check out one of the current Hot Topic discussions: Dog Park Rules – Does your community dog park prohibit non-neutered or non-spayed dogs from using the park? How do you enforce that specific provision? And, what about annual dog passes, including fees?

More than 37 NRPA members have chimed in with their ideas, including: We do have a $30 annual fee (+$20 the first time only as a deposit for a key fob) for our dog park and owners must provide verification of current rabies, distemper and Bordetella vaccines each year. Dogs don’t need to be spayed/neutered but cannot be in heat or sick at the park.

Our off-leash parks are operated on an honor system and self-policed by the users. However, if there is an issue or incident, contact information for the authorities is posted at each site, along with rules and regulations.

Other thoughts shared include: Requiring dogs to have their annual license tag and dog park tag always attached to the collar and worn.

Requiring a $45 per year fee, closing the park in the winter due to snow and mud and, this year, not providing permits to non-residents.

Exploring a locking, self-closing gate with a code.

Using a locking gate and having members scan in. Our city clerk verifies the dogs are licensed, vaccinated and fixed.

Log in to NRPA Connect, www.nrpaconnect.org, today to see resources in the discussion, including examples of dog park policy and procedures.

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Fun Express Has You Covered for Summer Camps & Events

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ired of winter and the snow? Ready for sun and for summer camp? So are we! Here at Fun Express, we’ve brought in thousands of new items for the 2019 camp season!

We’ve got you covered for summer camp or any other event or program you are planning for. Whether it’s arts and crafts, toys and novelties, party decorations, bulk candy, costumes or STEM/STEAM, we have more than 40,000 items to choose from! We also have the name brands you know and trust, including Crayola and Elmer’s.

Let’s talk T-shirts. Did you know Fun Express prints custom T-shirts? Just send us your logo and we’ll make it happen. We have strong, strategic relationships with Fruit of the Loom, Gildan and Hanes and can print any quantity you need. We never charge a set-up fee and shipping is always free on orders over $125. We’ve also partnered with NRPA to promote the 2019 Park and Recreation Month in July. This year’s theme is GAME ON!, so contact us directly for your GAME ON! swag.

Fun Express, the corporate accounts subsidiary of Oriental Trading Company, extends a 20 percent dis-

count off the Oriental Trading Company retail price.

Found a better price? No problem. We’ll beat any advertised price you can find!

We’ve also eliminated the need to search for coupons or discount codes. Our Fun Express website has the prices already reduced to make it easier for you to shop and save money!

Need a catalog, product samples or help planning for camp or identifying the right product for your programs?

You can always contact Josh Mason, your dedicated park and recreation representative at Fun Express, at 402.939.3053 or jmason@ funexpress.com. He’s always here to help.

How do you get your 20 percent discount? Visit www.funexpress.com/corporate and request a password. You can also contact Josh and he will get you logged onto our Fun Express website immediately!

Remember — when it comes to fun, we’re all business!

Learn more at www.nrpa. org/fun-express/.

Member Spotlight: David Mayer

By Vitisia Paynich

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eventeen years ago, David Mayer launched his professional career as a landscape architect, focusing on public open space and trail design.

“In fact, the past 10 years of my career,” Mayer notes, “over 80 percent of my work had to deal with parks and recreation itself.”

In 2016, the Bismarck Parks & Recreation District (BPRD) posted a job opening for an operations director. “When the opportunity presented itself for this position, I felt that this transition just seemed right,” he adds. Today, Mayer’s responsibilities include serving on BPRD’s executive team, as well as overseeing the management of the operations division. This comprises parks and open spaces, outdoor recreational complexes, properties that BPRD manages for other entities, all parking lots, 80 miles of trails and land owned and managed by the park district.

Parks & Recreation magazine recently spoke with Mayer to find out how his park district enlightens the community about conservation, how his background influenced his park and rec role, and an unusual encounter he’s experienced since joining BPRD. Parks & Recreation: As a park district, what are you doing to educate your patrons about the importance of conservation?

David Mayer: When the opportunities arise for us to discuss many amenities, outdoor opportunities, parks, trails and green spaces that we have, we take the time to educate our community on the range of properties that BPRD owns and manages — whether it’s riverfront trails and parks, the bluff

lands that overlook the river area, our creek-side trail system or our open green spaces. They are all [critical to] educating the public on the importance of open spaces in our community. We are currently working with partner groups to establish native prairie and pollinator gardens in one of our more urban parks, as well as re-establishing and preserving one of our urban forests for the future. So, we take a variety of approaches [and] a lot of it has to deal with creating a built-in environment for people to experience and appreciate what we do as a park district to preserve and conserve these outdoor spaces for the future.

P&R: Coming to the park district, do you think your background as a landscape architect gave you a better understanding of conservation?

Mayer: I’d like to think that I have a broader perspective on conservation. However, it never ceases to amaze me the sheer knowledge and background of BPRD’s trained park and recreation professionals. They take a holistic approach. Whether it’s the facilities and program side of a park district or the operations staff, there is just a variety of backgrounds and different perspectives. And, I think it works well and plays well together. I feel that I’m another piece of

the puzzle to keep us moving the way we are and to be a successful park district.

P&R: Tell us one funny or unusual encounter you’ve had working in parks and recreation.

Mayer: After accepting the position, I found myself at one of the parks I had designed for the park district for the community to use. Now, years later, working with staff, we were discussing how to maintain the park and talking with our park planner about future things we could do with that park. It was interesting to now have both perspectives on it. And, while everything is interesting here at the park district, I think that was the most surreal thing that I’ve encountered.

— Vitisia Paynich, Freelance Writer for Parks & Recreation magazine

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©MYLES MELLOR

Parks & Recreation Crossword

Across 1 Sheltered area 4 Recreation area with fountains but no standing water, goes with 5 down 8 Close friend 9 Practice attempt of a new procedure, 2 words 10 The P in PBC 13 Internet address, abbr.

14 Application ____ 15 Little ____, baseball orgs. for kids 17 Celebrity, abbr.

19 Big coffee pot 21 Overall goal 22 College internet address ending 24 Pittsburg’s state 25 Landscaping perennials that beautify parks and provide shade 26 Flowers that only last a year 27 Archipelago member 28 Government help 29 National ___ Medal Award 32 Atlantic fish 33 Capable of being preserved and able to survive well

Down 1 Color in the U.S. flag 2 City official that can gain support for parks’ local funding 3 Marching parade instrument 4 Tree juice 5 See 4 across 6 Request 7 50th state 11 Yeses from a Spaniard, 2 words 12 Every kid deserves the opportunity to enjoy this park offering 14 Water sources where kids can have fun 16 Holiday lead-in 18 Incorporated gradually, 2 words 20 Pine tree’s debris 21 Encouragement 23 Venus __ Milo 24 Place, for short 29 Soccer goal in Mexico 30 Flowery verse 31 Peach state 32 Trucker’s radio

Complete the crossword and visit www.nrpa.org/crossword to verify your answers and to enter into a drawing for some NRPA swag, including a “I’m a Park and Rec Kid” T-shirt. A winner will be randomly selected April 30, 2019.

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Protect Your Playgrounds.

protect your agency.

Get Certified.

Certified Playground Safety Inspectors (CPSIs) help ensure children have safe places to play.

Not only that, becoming a CPSI opens the door for career advancement and increased job mobility.

www.nrpa.org/CPSI

N R PA U P DAT E

NRPA Directors School — A Truly Unique Experience

By Josh Yavelberg

I

n 2018, NRPA relaunched the NRPA Directors School with a new, innovative curriculum. This year, the NRPA Directors School builds on that momentum as park and recreation leaders come together for a truly unique experience. This pinnacle school represents top-tier learning and a capstone experience for the park and recreation professional’s journey.

The NRPA Directors School, located at the beautiful Hyatt Lodge in Oak Brook, Illinois, is an exclusive two-year professional development opportunity that prepares new and potential park and recreation directors to be effective leaders. In year one, students investigate the role of the park and rec-

reation director. In year two, they expand this knowledge to gain an appreciation for their role in having a lasting impact on the mission of parks and recreation.

The curriculum encourages learning tied to experiential, teambased, case study projects and covers industry-identified topic areas.

An all-star cast of instructors delivers content focusing on budget and finance, leadership and development, politics, the director’s functions, strategy and communications. These are all topic areas that provide directors with the ability to meet the needs of our ever-changing communities. This year, the

Above, NRPA Directors School instructors deliver industry-identified content. At right, a class of NRPA Directors School gradutates.

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enhanced curriculum is even more interactive, providing intentional conversational experiences that introduce graduates to an exclusive, life-long network of industry peers.

The Hyatt Lodge is close to both O’Hare and Midway airports in Chicago. The classrooms and lodging are situated on a serene, wooded campus that complement the collaborative engagement between park and recreation leaders from across the country.

If you are ready to take the next step in your park and recreation career — join us August 18–22 at the 2019 NRPA Directors School.

To learn more about the school, the Toro Scholarship opportunity and to register, visit www.nrpa.org/ directors. But hurry, because this school sells out every year.

— Josh Yavelberg, NRPA’s Director of Professional Development

NRPA is dedicated to providing learning opportunities to advance the development of best practices and resources that make parks and recreation indispensable elements of American communities. Find out more at www.nrpa.org/education.

SCHOOLS AND CONFERENCES

ONLINE LEARNING WITH NRPA EDUCATION Are you concerned about your career trajectory and gaining knowledge relevant to your career? Do you find it difficult to travel to events to obtain professional development? NRPA has you covered! NRPA provides a wide variety of online learning content you can engage with from any location.

The online learning catalog currently includes a growing list of informational webinars, grant-funded initiatives, online courses, NRPA Live conference sessions, certificate programs and certification preparation that will help guide your career path in parks and recreation. This content is steadily becoming more engaging as online learning products are tied in with NRPA Connect discussion forums to foster communities of practice. While there are many career pathways within parks and recreation, NRPA Education seeks to provide content that’s relevant to you and connects you with professional networks to help you on your journey. Learn more about our offerings through learning.nrpa.org and engage today!

Anchorage, Alaska Commerce City, Colorado Auburn, Washington Roseville, Minnesota Murrysville, Pennsylvania Little Rock, Arkansas Sunrise, Florida San Jose, California

APR

2-3 4-5 8-9 8-9 8-9 11-12 16-17 17-18 18-19 25-26 25-26

Hyatt Lodge, Oak Brook, Illinois www.nrpa.org/Directors

September 24–26, 2019 Baltimore, Maryland www.nrpa.org/Conference

November 3–7, 2019 Wheeling, West Virginia www.nrpa.org/SMS

Denton, Texas Eastvale, California Orange, California Tucker, Georgia Hershey, Pennsylvania Miami, Florida Medford, Oregon Fife, Washington Lynnwood, Washington Littleton, Colorado Derby, Kansas

www.nrpa.org/education

2-3 Reno, Nevada 13-14 Durango, Colorado

5-7 Hillsboro, Oregon 18-20 San Francisco, California

www.nrpa.org/CPSI

MAY

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AFO PROGRAM

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August 18–22, 2019

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OPERATIONS Regenerative Land Management: Restoring Nature’s Balance

By Sonia Myrick and Richard J. Dolesh

I

ncreasingly, park and recreation agencies across the country are hearing from community members concerned about the use of pesticides and herbicides in their local parks. They want these products banned, particularly the use of Roundup, because studies have shown that some of these herbicides are “probably carcinogenic to humans.” agriculture, according to the Environmental Working Group. However, a number of credible studies are documenting a possible link between glysophate and a number of severe health problems, including cancer, according to the World Health Organization. Public concern is reaching unprecedented levels about the safety of these pesticides and herbicides.

Parks & Recreation magazine re-

PHOTOS COURTESY OF TALLEY LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS, INC.

Glysophate, the active ingredient in Roundup, was introduced to the consumer market in the 1970s as a broad-spectrum herbicide. Its effectiveness at killing weeds and grass is unparalleled and, if applied correctly, makes the task of maintaining weed-free lawns, plant beds and agricultural fields much less labor intensive. In fact, Roundup is the most heavily applied weed killer in the history of chemical

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cently sat down with Merrie Talley, PLA, LEED, principal of Talley Landscape Architects, Inc., to learn from her about a method she’s spent the past 10 years learning how to do and that she calls “regenerative land management” (RLM). Following is an excerpt of that conversation: P&R: People across the country and around the world are calling for the removal of one of the most effective weed-killing products. What do you say to those who wonder what they would use instead?

Merrie Talley: I have two answers to that: First, it really puts the onus on us as [landscape] designers to think in terms of what kind of plant communities we can grow.

That’s part of the reason to plant native species. They will thrive in the climate they developed in.

We’ve had to over use weed killers and synthetic fertilizers when we try to plant exotic plants, because they’re not thriving, necessarily, in a non-native place or they take over and become invasives.

Finding plant communities that fit the landscape is one challenge and then there are many less unwelcome plants, called weeds, to manage.

The next challenge is educating

The lush landscape of Houston’s Mandolin Gardens Park, a former detention basin, is a chemical-free, biologically diverse functioning ecosystem.

L-shaped bed of clover, which is called a nitrogen fixer, provides a natural fertilzer in the soil for the summer grasses.

the public on what is a real living landscape. We have come to determine that a perfect bed is one where you never see the plant material look scruffy or go to seed, because we have developed a cultural expectation that it must look perfect year-round. That’s the reaction we receive when we use native grasses and wildflowers. We get a joyous clamoring from the public as soon as the big blooms start and a disgruntled one as it fades — ‘It looks messy, please mow right now.’ The normal life cycle of plants is that they mature, bloom beautifully and then those blooms turn to seed, so they can drop seeds and grow as wildflowers the next year. We get a lot of impatience in public spaces if we allow plant material to show us their life cycle, and it takes education, via signage, newsletters and public speaking, to counter this.

It is important to tell clients/ community members what to expect. At certain times your landscape may not look perfect, but we’re waiting on the seeds to dry and fall to the ground, so we’ll have a beautiful wildflower area again next year. We do a lot of interpretive signs about the pollinators they will see and the life cycle of the plants. Our pollinators are wasps and bees and butterflies. We try to design habitat islands and say, ‘This area is reserved for our wildlife friends,’ or something like that.

And, if there’s [a body of] water, we put them out on an island, so they can be isolated away from the public but still provide habitat and value and beauty.

Then, it’s finding the right plants, and educating the public about what to expect. This includes education about our turfgrass. For example, we often overseed in winter with clovers (legumes that fix nitrogen nodules in the soil). As they die in the warmer weather, they leave the nitrogen behind for the summer grasses. We always have to write a couple of articles explaining this or post in the local news letters where [our company] is working on a project, to let the community know we’re creating a meadow, not a monoculture. So, when we welcome these other plants (a diverse palette) that will join in with the turfgrasses, you’ll start to see all this insect life and life in the soil, and people feel the energy from it.

P&R: You’ve designed some award-winning parks that have been billed as ‘chemicalfree’ parks. So, what is the

definition of regenerative land management and what has been your experience in designing completely herbicide- and pesticide-free parks? How do you go about accomplishing that?

Talley: We regenerate land by having more plants…there should be something green on that site at all times. Mama Nature does not like bare ground! That’s why having a mixture of evergreen and deciduous is important. We’re dealing with complex systems, and we need to learn how to take the next step, from ‘Now, we’ve done no harm,’ to regenerating, or think, ‘How are we helping this park’s soil become healthy and creating a cycle that helps it get healthier and better?’

In a regenerative system, all parts create the whole — Everything is welcome: insects, critters and people. In life, diversity is critical, good and important, and it’s the same in the plant community. It’s the same

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OPERATIONS

The entrance to the chemical-free Mandolin Gardens Park, which also features 2 miles of fully accessible trails.

in the soil community. We have to get away from (1) these monocultures and exotics and (2) our cultural practices of mowing too low. We also need to reframe from ripping up swaths of ground on a routine basis to replant annually to meet that picture-perfect cultural expectation, when we could manage the progression of plants that occur as the landscape matures.

To me, regenerative is the way we’ve learned to put minerals down [into the soil], a sub-layer, when we first build a new park. Then we’re coming in and redistributing any existing topsoil (seedbank), then inoculating with a liquid biological extract (LBE). Compost tea is good, but LBE is more than compost tea. We’re trying to set up living communities that have diversity enough in their biological makeup that we’ve got a full spectrum of microbes — the ones that will eat 80 Parks & Recreation

and take organic matter down into the soil for the plants as they go through their life cycle and the ones that eat others to provide nutrition.

When they excrete and secrete, they are putting out calcium, magnesium and other things that plants need.

We also actively incorporate mycorrhizal fungi, because the fungi is an important aspect of the communication between the microbes and the plant root. And, we are also changing our cultural practices. For example, encourage park departments not to mow their grass down really low. They think by doing so, it kills the weeds, but the weeds are stronger than the turf, so they pop up faster. We recommend cutting the grass higher because your roots become deeper and stronger relative to the top growth. They can support the plants, hold more moisture and survive stressful events, such as drought and flooding in a living

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system. Then it all comes back to photosynthesis, the key to life. We sequester carbon and transfer nutrients to the soil via photosynthesis if the biology is there to synthesize it.

I now look at weeds differently.

This has only been a decade of learning for me…an oversimplified example is learning that when I see certain kinds of asters, my calcium isn’t available to the plants.

They’re an indicator of this lack of calcium, they have sent roots down and pulled up (mined) calcium and when they die, they leave that behind. So, I think, “OK, in our mineral mix that we’re going to put out this fall, we need to add that.

Learning to read all of what a site is saying will take me a lifetime, but many farmers, scientists and authors have left texts for us. This is old knowledge re-applied.

So, we need to start thinking about our parks as places where every aspect works well with the whole life cycle of everything.

Regenerative land management is about managing our landscapes to thrive. It’s thinking about parks holistically as nourishing spaces for ALL and how to set these systems up to nourish themselves and the life that teems within over time….

To read the entire conversation with Merrie Talley, visit www.nrpa.org/ parks-recreation-magazine/2019/ regenerative-land-management-restor ing-natures-balance.

Sonia Myrick is NRPA’s Executive Editor of Parks & Recreation magazine (smyrick@ nrpa.org). Richard J. Dolesh is NRPA’s Vice President of Strategic Initiatives (rdolesh@ nrpa.org).

LED Lighting and IoT

By Sonia Myrick

I

n an article on IoTforall.com, author Calum McClelland provides the following definition of “The Internet of Things” (IoT): [It] is about extending the power of the internet beyond computers and smartphones to a whole range of other things, processes and environments.

Those ‘connected’ things are used to gather information, send information back, or both.” And, that ability to be connected — “to send and/or receive data,” he says, makes things “smart.”

Across many industries, including the lighting industry, this is a growing trend. Light emitting diode (LED) technology has been around for roughly 50 years, and as the quality of the light LEDs emit has improved and the cost has decreased, they are now ubiquitous in outdoor and indoor settings. The higher brightness, increased energy efficiency and longer life span of today’s LEDs is driving that growth, which, according to a report published by Zion Market Research that gives a global perspective for this industry, is “likely to cross $54.28 billion by end of 2022.”

In an October 2018 LEDs Magazine article by Martin Wittman, titled “The next wave in outdoor lighting is built on smart cities” (http://tinyurl.com/y6zv3clm), there are some interesting applications of the technology that are either already available or on the horizon. “We need to change the way customers see light,” Wittman says, “from light as mere utility to light as a smart solution that can add real value in a wide array of areas.... technologies exist to make this happen. With proper application, these technologies will empower outdoor lighting to profoundly improve the way people live, work, and play.”

An example of this smart LED

LEDs connected to the internet could be controlled from a user’s device or programmed, for example, to track sunrise and sunset, turning on or off lights and providing the right level of lighting, automatically. application can be seen in parking facilities, office buildings and even on city streets. In each case, the use of smart motion-sensing technology coupled with the ability to control illumination levels can not only reduce the amount of energy needed to provide safe light levels, especially during nonpeak times, but can also lead to cost savings over the long term. LEDs connected to the internet could be controlled from a user’s device or programmed, for example, to track sunrise and sunset, turning on or off lights and providing the right level of lighting, automatically. A blog, titled “How IoT is changing the face of LED lighting” (http:// tinyurl.com/yxd8gu4a), posted on

The Future of Things website, lists the following benefits of IoT in LED lighting: • faster deployment • reduction in maintenance cost • enhancement of public safety • conservation of energy Wittman sees LED lighting being used in creative ways: “…it can provide helpful information and messaging to people in public spaces. How would this work? A street lighting fixture could project all sorts of messages, from an advertisement on the sidewalk to an accident alert on the road.” He goes on to say that sensors in street lights could help monitor carbon dioxide and air-quality levels.

As with any new technological advancement comes the need to be wary of those who look for ways to hack into and disrupt systems.

However, the possibilities for the application of IoT-connected LED lights are promising.

Sonia Myrick is the Executive Editor for Parks & Recreation magazine (smyrick@nrpa.org).

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PRODUCTS Quick Application Pool Paint RAMUC’s DS Water-Based Acrylic Pool Paint was created for aquatic facilities that need to paint their pools fast.

The paint can be applied to damp surfaces, as well as previously painted, chlorinated and synthetic rubber surfaces. Pools can be filled within three days after final application. This specially formulated water-based acrylic is color-fast and UV resistant. It is self-priming, dries to a matte finish and has no solvent vapors. It also cleans with soap and water and has a service life of up to two years.

This product is ideal for aquatic facilities and for pool service professionals looking to get their maintenance done quickly and their pools opened fast. RAMUC POOL AND DECK PAINT, 800.745.6756, WWW.RAMUCPOOLPAINT.COM

Imager-Based Barcode Readers Banner Engineering, provider of technology for industrial automation, announces the release of ABR Series imager-based barcode readers for solving a wide range of track-and-trace applications. ABR Series barcode readers can be configured using the onboard Smart Teach interface or Banner’s Barcode Manager software. This free software provides a flowchart programming environment and a wide range of configuration options. The ABR Series can be used to track and trace products, parts and components through production and the supply chain for quality assurance, high-speed process control, work-in-progress monitoring, automated line changeover, sortation, shipping and similar applications. BANNER ENGINEERING, 888.373.6767, WWW.BANNERENGINEERING.COM

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Spray Features for Toddlers Water Odyssey’s Aqua Spouts™-themed water play features were created specifically for little ones. Perfect for any aquatic play setting, Aqua Spouts are designed to complete any theme. These durable, low-level spray features keep toddlers in mind with a variety of gentle water effects.

There are more than 50 brightly themed, hand-detailed standard designs to choose from, including nature, ocean, pirate, transportation and desert themes, as well as custom designs. Ideal for aquatic facilities looking to offer an easy renovation upgrade. WATER ODYSSEY, 512.392.1155, WWW. WATERODYSSEY.COM

Plant Nutrient Optimizer SiteOne Landscape Supply introduces LESCO CarbonPro™-G. Now in granular form, CarbonPro-G is a microbial and carbon-based plant health nutrient optimizer that can be applied with a standard broadcast spreader to turf and landscape plantings. The multi-solution product uses soil conditioning to deepen and strengthens roots, help with turf recovery, increase nutrient uptake and efficiency, assist with seed establishment and reduce operation costs spent treating turf stress. Its bio-charged carbon structure holds water, making it available when needed by the plant.

When applied, CarbonPro-G, regulates soil pH balance to be more neutral, and is an ideal option to repair damaged turf from winter salt damage. SITEONE LANDSCAPE SUPPLY, 800.748.3663, WWW.SITEONE.COM ®

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Portable Pickleball GARED, a full-service sports equipment manufacturer, is excited to introduce its new Portable Pickleball System.

This lightweight system is designed for indoor and outdoor recreational use and easily sets up in less than 10 minutes. The frame is constructed of steel tubing with a green powder coat finish for maximum protection in outdoor conditions. In addition, the frame is designed with wide, bent legs for increased stability and support. The system includes a black-mesh net and nylon carrying case with handles for easy transport. Just bring your paddles and balls and you’re ready to play!

GARED, 800.325.2682, WWW.GARED SPORTS.COM

Collegiate-Licensed Table Covers Kwik-Covers, a company specializing in fitted table covers, announces its new Collegiate-Licensed Table Covers. Kwik-Cover’s plastic-with-elastic edging holds the cover in place, and the fitted vinyl table cover stays tight, even when it’s windy out. Collegiate Kwik-Covers are great for tailgating events, team celebrations, alumni events, backyard parties and any other event where you would like to show off your school spirit. All Kwik-Cover products are made strong enough to clean and re-use or can be disposed of, making clean-up a breeze. KWIKCOVERS, 866.586.9620, WWW.KWIKCOVERS.COM

LEADERSHIP CERTIFICATE Learn the skills necessary to be a great leader, with the flexibility of easy-to-manage online courses.

This program navigates through the latest in leadership principles, including four courses on Strategic Thinking, Human Capital Management, Operational Leadership, and Diversity and Cultural Awareness. Whether you come from a large or small agency, the NRPA Leadership Certificate will prepare you to handle any decision that comes your way.

www.nrpa.org/Leadership-Development

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park essentials

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BCIBURKE.COM/ELEVATE Trademarks are the property of BCI Burke Company. All rights reserved. Apple and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

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Kay Park Recreation................................................................................. 85

Amish Country Gazebos.......................................................................... 84

Landscape Structures Inc.........................................................................5

Aquatix by LSI............................................................................................. 31

Livin the Dog Life/Gyms For Dogs........................................................ 85

BCI Burke Playgrounds............................................................................ 84

Milbank......................................................................................................... 25

Bright Idea Shops, LLC............................................................................. 85

Most Dependable Fountains.................................................................. C2

Columbia Cascade..................................................................................... 23

Pilot Rock/RJ Thomas Mfg. Co................................................................37

DOGIPOT......................................................................................................... 19

Playcore/Play & Park Structures.......................................................... C4

Easi-Set Buildings..................................................................................... 84

Polly Products............................................................................................ 86

Ephesus Lighting........................................................................................ 11

Scoremaster Goals................................................................................... 86

Excel Industries/Hustler Turf Equipment............................................. 7

Shade Systems..............................................................................................1

Green Flush Technologies.........................................................................9

Willoughby Industries............................................................................. 86

Greenfields Outdoor Fitness............................................................... 2, 3

The Wood Carver, Inc./Goldenteak....................................................... 86

advertiser index

AGCO Corp./Massey Ferguson............................................................... 85

(ISSN 0031-2215) is published monthly by the National Recreation and Park Association, 22377 Belmont Ridge Rd., Ashburn, VA 20148, a service organization supported by membership dues and voluntary contributions. Copyright ©2019 by the National Recreation and Park Association. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Opinions expressed in signed articles are those of the writers and not necessarily those of NRPA. Issued to members at the annual subscription price of $30, included in dues. Subscription: $46 a year in the U.S.; $56 elsewhere. Single copy price: $7. Library rate: $58 a year in the U.S.; $68 elsewhere. Periodical postage paid at Ashburn, Virginia, and at additional mailing offices. Editorial and advertising offices at 22377 Belmont Ridge Rd., Ashburn, VA 20148. 703.858.0784. Postmaster, send address changes to Parks & Recreation, 22377 Belmont Ridge Rd., Ashburn, VA 20148.

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Park Bench

Sustainability and advances in technology are what keep us on our toes and thinking about what the next big thing is. 3D printers have been all the rage lately in makerspaces and community labs. Using this technology, people are building things that only a few years ago would have been nearly impossible. This technology has so many applications, ranging from simple designs to large-scale infrastructure, and some parks are already testing the waters.

One of the most sustainable approaches to using this technology comes from a company in Holland, The New Raw. Through its “Print Your City” initiative, it uses the city’s plastic waste to build public space with robotic 3D printing and the involvement of citizens. The 3D-printed street furniture has integrated extra functions that promote a healthy and environment-friendly lifestyle in the city. Each object can be customized to include features like a bike rack or a mini gym, a tree pot or even a dog’s feeding bowl or a bookcase. The furniture is not only 100 percent recyclable but created from about 25 pounds of recyclable materials. Talk about sustainability!

U.S. agencies already using this technology include Summit Metro Parks in Summit County, Ohio, and Socrates Park in Long Island City, New York. Summit Metro Parks’ naturalist staff are 3D printing replicas of delicate nature items, such as shells, skulls and bones, so its patrons can handle them, and they do not need to be kept behind glass. Socrates Park uses 3D printing to create functioning sculpture chairs that fit in with its sculpture-themed park.

3D printing also is being applied to infrastructure projects, such as metal and concrete bridges, around the world! Recently, the longest 3D-printed concrete pedestrian bridge (86 feet) was completed in a Shanghai park, resulting in an estimated 33 percent savings over conventional methods. The U.S. Army is exploring this application by 3D printing barracks and footbridges that could be used in remote or disaster areas. While research is still being done on the performance of these new materials and methods, it’s something to keep an eye on for the future!

— Michele White, CAE, NRPA Program Manager, Conservation

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PHOTO COURTESY THE DESIGNERS, SOCRATES SCULPTURE PARK AND THE ARCHITECTURAL LEAGUE OF NEW YORK; PHOTO BY ZACHARY TYLER NEWTON

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