Land&People, Vol. 33, No. 1 - Spring/Summer 2021

SPRING/SUMMER 2021 A BENEFIT TO MEMBERS OF THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND

IF NOT FOR PARKS 6 NEW YORKERS ON HOW THE OUTDOORS SUSTAINS US— THROUGH THE PANDEMIC, AND BEYOND

+ ATLANTA'S NEW CLIMATE-SMART PARK + THE YUROK TRIBE RECLAIMS ITS HOMELAND

with future generations.

Three ways to improve parks and open spaces tomorrow, while enjoying retirement savings today: 1. Those aged 72 or older must take a Required Minimum Distribution from their IRAs in 2021. Distributing these funds directly to The Trust for Public Land is a tax-wise way to give.

2. Donors aged 70½ and older can make a Qualified Charitable Distribution of up to $100,000 directly from their IRAs to The Trust for Public Land and save on taxable income.

3. Name The Trust for Public Land as the beneficiary of your IRA or other retirement plan, which would otherwise be taxed heavily if passed on to your heirs.

learn more about the benefits of designating your retirement funds to the trust for public land at

tpl.planmygift.org or contact our office of planned giving at

202.856.3748 or plannedgiving@ tpl.org

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“We’re not complete until we gain back that land.” ~ ƫ ƨ Ƭ Ƣ ƞ Ɯ ƥ ƚƲ ƛ Ʈ ƫ Ƨ Ƣ Ƨ ơ ƞ ƚ ƫ ƭ ƥ ƚ Ƨ Ɲ Ʃ Ơ Ƃ ſ

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FE AT U R E S

Heartland 30 The Yurok Tribe reclaims its ancestral territory in Northern California.

How We Coped 42 Six New Yorkers reflect on life during the pandemic, and how the outdoors helped see them through.

Before and After 54 In the wake of a neighborhood tragedy, can a new park help a community rebuild?

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Through uncertain times, monthly donors sustain our work protecting land for people today, tomorrow, and for generations to come. Become a monthly donor today.

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Board Spotlight · 13

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From the President · 11

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TPL .ORG · 9

O FFICERS president and chief e xecutive officer

Diane Regas vice president and d i r e c t o r o f c o n s e r vat i o n f i n a n c e

Will Abberger s e n i o r v i c e p r e s i d e n t, g e n e r a l c o u n s e l , a n d c o r p o r at e s e c r e ta r y

D. Malcolm Carson senior vice president of field progr ams

Jeff Danter senior vice president of p o l i c y a n d g o v e r n m e n t r e l at i o n s

Bill Lee v i c e p r e s i d e n t a n d a s s o c i at e gener al counsel

Margaret Madden senior vice president and c h i e f f i n a n c i a l a n d a d m i n i s t r at i v e o f f i c e r

James Obendorf vice president and direc tor of finance and accounting

Michelle Pandori vice president and direc tor of human resources

Carrie Speckart senior vice president and c hief m a r k e t in g a nd co mm u ni c at i o n s o ffi c er

I Ling Thompson

our mission:

THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND CREATES PARKS AND PROTECTS LAND FOR PEOPLE, ENSURING HEALTHY, LIVABLE COMMUNITIES FOR GENERATIONS TO COME.

senior vice president and chief phil anthropy officer

Patricia Watson v i c e p r e s i d e n t, p h i l a n t h r o p y

Rebecca Weaver

h o w yo u c a n h e l p : Our work depends on the generous support of people like you. d o n at e: Use the envelope inside this magazine, or visit tpl.org/donate for other easy ways to give. l e a r n m o r e: Get timely updates on our park and conservation work near you.

Sign up for our e-newsletter at tpl.org/enews. s h a r e: Help us make the case for parks and open space. When you’ve finished reading this issue, pass it on!

Land&People magazine is a benefit to members of The Trust for Public Land.

10 · L A N D & P E O P L E · S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 2 1

from the president

nichol as lea bruno

ALL IN FOR THE OUTDOORS throughout the pandemic, our parks and public lands have been there for us. And when the worst of the COVID-19 crisis is safely behind us, it will be time to return the favor. publisher Eliza Sarasohn managing editor Julia Busiek designers Rachel Barnes Miya Su Rowe Ben Whitesell media produc tion manager Elyse Leyenberger d i g i ta l produc tion Jennifer Ramsey Jeremy Sammons

In this issue of Land&People you’ll read unforgettable stories of everyday New Yorkers who, when the virus was raging, turned to their city’s great outdoors to find solace and strength.

While parks will eventually shed their peculiar role as the safest place to avoid and endure the virus, they’ll never stop being a crucial component of community health. Studies show a strong

benefits of parks and open space—and voting to

connection between green space and physical

strengthen them. In the 2020 elections, voters

activity, reduced stress, sharpened concentration,

from Montana to Massachusetts approved 31 ballot

and heightened sense of well-being.

measures put forward by The Trust for Public

And yet, more than 100 million Americans, including 28 million kids, do not have a park within a 10-minute walk of home. What’s more,

All rights reserved. 10-Minute Walk, Conserving Land for People, Conserving Nature Near You, Creating Parks and Protecting Land for People, Fitness Zone, Land for People, Land&People, LandVote, Northwoods Initiative, Our Land, Outside For All, Parks for People, Parks Unite Us, ParkScore, The Trust for Our Land, The Trust for Public Land, TPL, and The Trust for Public Land and LandVote logos and all other names of The Trust for Public Land programs referenced herein, as well as their logos, are registered or commonlaw trademarks of The Trust for Public Land.

Land that together will generate over $3 billion for land, water, wildlife, parks, and trails.

The fabric of American society and the future

Trust for Public Land researchers analyzed

of the planet demand that we build on this

census data from 14,000 American cities and

momentum. That’s why The Trust for Public

towns and found that parks serving low-income

Land, backed by supporters like you, is leading a

communities and people of color are smaller

coalition of more than 200 environmental and

and more crowded than parks in predominantly

community organizations to urge Congress to

white neighborhoods.

© 2021 The Trust for Public Land.

More and more Americans are recognizing the

invest in local parks and close the park equity

It’s time to right these generational wrongs.

gap. On page 25, a coalition partner shares why

It’s time to build new parks, and to invest more

she’s joining our campaign for the Parks, Jobs,

equitably in those we already have. As we do,

and Equity Act, which would create a one-time

we’ll create jobs and economic opportunity, and

investment of $500 million that our parks and

energize our ailing economy, since parks and

communities need right now.

conservation projects return $4 to $10 for every dollar invested.

Meanwhile, climate change is unleashing ever more menacing wildfires, heat waves, and

If you agree, visit tpl.org/parks-jobs-equityact and sign our petition to urge investment in the parks and open spaces we all love. As you’ll see in this issue of Land&People, the work we

storms. On page 54, read about a new park in

are doing together is making a life-changing

Atlanta that’s protecting people from floods,

difference for people and communities nation-

keeping the Chattahoochee River running clean,

wide. Thank you for being the engine that

and creating opportunities for neighbors to

powers this incredibly important mission.

connect. And on page 30, you’ll meet members of the Yurok Tribe who are regaining ownership of their ancestral Northern California homelands and putting those lands to work to avert

Diane Regas

climate catastrophe.

president and ceo T P L . O R G · 11

MEET YO UR MATCH

This year, an anonymous donor will generously match your gift—dollar-for-dollar—if you send it before May 31. Your donation will go even further to help The Trust for Public Land protect more parks, gardens, and other natural places. That’s one good thing made that much better.

Give your EarthShare.

12 · L A N D & P E O P L E · S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 2 1

An EarthShare payroll deduction is one simple way to donate to The Trust for Public Land or more than 400 other environmental and conservation charities. Many corporate and government employers support EarthShare payroll giving. If yours doesn’t, ask them to start. If they do, simply decide on a single deduction or a recurring small one from every paycheck. Then designate us, member number 11440, as one of your conservation charities. For more information visit earthshare.org or email donor.outreach@tpl.org.

terray sylvester

800.714.5263 · donor.outreach@tpl.org · tpl.org/match

Get to know

board spotlight

Whitney Hatch whitney was a founder and chairs the

sar a cozolino

BOA R D O F DIREC TORS

board of Issue One, the leading crosspartisan political reform group in Washington uniting Republicans, Democrats, and independents in the movement to fix our broken political system. He worked as New England director

chair

at The Trust for Public Land from 1998 to 2011

Thomas S. Reeve

and as vice president of regulatory affairs at

Stephen W. Baird

GTE Corporation. Whitney chairs the John

George Bell

Merck Fund and Conservation Law Foundation’s

Page Knudsen Cowles

(CLF) Massachusetts advisory board and serves on the boards of CLF, Rx Foundation, and the

Mickey Fearn

Ipswich Electric Department. Previously he Jody S. Gill

served on the boards of the School for Field

F. Whitney Hatch

Studies (founder), American Rivers (chair), Management Assistance Group (chair), and the

Ben Jealous

Massachusetts DCR Stewardship Council (chair).

Christopher G. Lea Joseph E. Lipscomb Ignacia S. Moreno

I BELIE VE IN PROTEC TING L AND AND CRE ATING

health, equity, and climate benefits to our commu-

PARK S BEC AUSE … everybody needs a place to play,

nities, we take our lead from our partners—helping

Caroline P. Niemczyk

a place to recreate, and natural places to roam

clarify their vision and then bringing it to reality.

Michael Parish

where we connect back to ourselves and to each

David Poppe Diane Regas Jeffrey A. Resnick

other. Those lands, playgrounds, gardens, and

THE KE Y CHALLENGE FACING THE TRUS T FOR PUBLIC

park benches should be there when we need

LAND IS … amassing the resources and collaborations

them—available, maintained, and nearby to all.

necessary to bring our work to scale. Ensuring our communities continue as healthy, livable, and even

I SUPPOR T THE TRUS T FOR PUBLIC L AND BEC AUSE …

beautiful places for future generations is a mighty

Laura Richards

there is no more effective organization helping

task, but with our strong and growing phalanx of

Lex Sant

communities and neighborhoods develop partner-

philanthropic partners, we will deliver that outcome.

ships, conserve land, raise funds, and create parks.

Lucas St. Clair Sheryl Tishman F. Jerome Tone Taylor Toynes Keith E. Weaver Susan D. Whiting

The organization’s track record is as awe-inspiring

I FIRS T FELL IN LOVE WITH THE NAT UR AL WORLD

as it is vital to the health of our country.

WHEN … I sat on a stinging ant hill in Vermont and refused, as an easily embarrassed young boy,

M Y PROUDE S T ACCOMPLISHMENT A S A BOARD

to lower my pants to “de-ant” in view of my grand-

MEMBER WA S … being elected to our board after

mother. Once the pain of nature’s bite subsided

serving 13 years on staff, and being asked to chair

I sat (elsewhere!) to take in the beautiful summer

the conservation committee, through which we

evening colors over the Green Mountains and

began to define priorities and programmatic lenses

Taconics—so peaceful and so soothing.

for our work. That effort ultimately resulted in our terrific 2020–2025 Strategic Plan.

?

THE TRUS T FOR PUBLIC L AND’S WORK IS UNIQUE BEC AUSE ... while we dedicate ourselves to deliver

WHAT ABOU T YOU? Tell us how you connect with nature.

Join the conversation on Facebook: facebook.com/thetrustforpublicland T P L . O R G · 13

ƜƨƧƭƫƢƛƮƭƨƫƬ

Anna V. Smith

Paul Robert Wolf Wilson

Tianna Faulkner

story:

story:

Heartland

Before and After

story:

Heartland 30

54 30

Anna V. Smith is an award-winning

Paul Robert Wolf Wilson is a photographer

Tianna Faulkner is a freelance journalist

journalist from the Pacific Northwest,

based in his ancestral territories of

in Atlanta, Georgia. She covers arts and

where she writes and edits for High

Southern Oregon and Northern California.

entertainment, business, health, and

Country News as assistant editor on the

He is a member of the Klamath and Modoc

lifestyle features. In her free time, Tianna

Indigenous affairs desk. Her work has

tribes, and his works focus primarily on

enjoys reading, writing, traveling, volun-

appeared in outlets such as the New York

visual sovereignty and land practice, the

teering, cooking, and spending time with

Times, Audubon, Undark, and Slate.

intersections of peoples and place.

her friends and family.

@annavtoriasmith

maqlaqsmedia.com

Ʃơƨƭƨ Ƭ ƚ Ʀ ƠƞƫơƤ ƞ

Ʃơƨƭƨ ƩƚƮƥ ƫƨƛƞƫ ƭ ưƨƥƟ ưƢƥ ƬƨƧ

Ʃơƨƭƨ ƭƨƦƦ Ʋ ƜƨƥƥƢƞƫ

WANT EVEN MORE LAND&PEOPLE? The digital edition of Land&People includes all the stories you love, optimized for your device—plus bonus content like video, easy social media sharing, and instant links to learn more.

Explore the digital edition at tpl.org/magazine.

Wherever you see the pointer icon in this issue, you’ll find bonus content in the digital edition. Go online to dive deeper into the difference you make as a Trust for Public Land donor.

ƥƞƚƫƧ Ʀƨƫƞ @ TPL.ORG/MAGAZINE

14 · L A N D & P E O P L E · S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 2 1

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We want to know what you think of the stories, artwork, and photographs you’ll find in this issue of Land&People magazine. Drop us a line at mailroom @ tpl.org.

Outside voices

+ I’m not generally a writer of

Reactions to our latest issue,

letters to magazines. But COVID

which explored equity in parks

has led us all to do new things, or

and conservation.

old things in new ways. Kudos for

+ One of the things I like best

2020. I particularly was taken by

an important issue in Fall/Winter about the magazine is the

the stories about “Unlikely Hikers”

coverage of your work of creating

and others who have not always

parks and open space in urban

been noticed or recognized along

areas. In the 2020 election, my

the trails. Hooray for those who

city passed a funding measure to

are advocating to help everyone

encourage the creation of parks,

get out and enjoy this beautiful

open space, and the preservation

world, whether in a city park or a

of historic landmarks. A win

national park.

for conservation!

Nancy Arny Pi-Sunyer

Paul Winters

T P L . O R G · 15

ƜơƫƢƬ ƛƞƧƧƞ ƭ ƭ

LAND&PEOPLE IS LISTENING!

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that these lands provide for us. We’ve already lost so much that we didn't know we had until it was gone. Please preserve and create new spaces for the future.

Patricia Armstrong

+ Great buckets of fish, there are some good people in our government.

Especially you who worked tirelessly to get this win and also to the senators and representatives who understood

Your Maine squeeze

+ I grew up loving that region, spending

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every summer at the foot of Katahdin.

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All good news about the trail, lakes,

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and the Katahdin area being cherished

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and protected is of interest. Thank you!

the major importance of these outdoors areas. Everyone give yourselves and the one standing next to you a great big well-earned pat on the back.

Brenda Hixenbaugh

Patricia Chandler

+ I hiked through here at the start of a backwards hike of the Appalachian

A job well done

Trail when I was 14. I remember it like

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yesterday … some of that hike made

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me who I am today. And I’m just fine

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with a small pile of dirty grandchildren

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that think barefoot and trails are

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“way better than TV.” Thank you all.

OLQH LQ VXPPHU ƋƉƋƉ

Tim

+ Thanks to those at The Trust for Public Land who have persisted and ƬƢƦƨƧƞ Ʀƚƫ ƭƢƧ Ƨƞ ưƛƞƫƫƲ

who have done the work that not everyone can do full-time. For quality of life for all—the quality not possible without our public lands and outdoors—

1,078 likes

we thank you, and also salute who you

Now more than ever, kids need safe and high quality outdoor spaces. Thank you to our partners @trustforpublicland for this incredible playground renovation.

Court artwork by @timothygoodman.

are and what you've accomplished.

Polly Hart

+ This bill is important to each American for multiple reasons. We owe our children’s children the right to visit open, preserved lands. We owe our own health, both mental and physical, 16 · L A N D & P E O P L E · S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 2 1

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t u r n t h e pa g e f o r … f u t u r i s t i c fa r m s c r e at i v e c l a s s r o o m s massive mur al s

sometimes it’s worth risking it all for a dream only you can see.

ƜơƫƢƬ ƛƞƧƧƞ ƭ ƭ

megan r apinoe

Trust for Public Land supporters are connecting Clevelanders to the outdoors along the Lake-Link Trail, which follows the Cuyahoga River through the heart of the city to its mouth at Lake Erie, passing by parks, schools, and businesses along the way.

F I R S T L O O K · 17

ƞƝƢƛƥƞ ƨƮƭƝƨƨƫƬ

Home sweet home

Ʃƞƚƫƥ ƟƚƫƦ ƥƨƮƝƨƧ Ƨƞư ơƚƦƩƬơƢƫƞ

picture, if you will, a maple sugar

otherwise need to be boiled off. “That

days, The Trust for Public Land is

harvest. It’s a storybook scene: a snowy

cuts down significantly on our fuel,”

helping the Town of Loudon protect

forest, a bucket hanging on every tree,

Pearl says. “And I can make as much in

Pearl’s farm from development and

and a vat simmering sweetly over a fire.

an hour using osmosis as it would take

create opportunities for public recre-

“Nope, mine doesn’t look like that at

me in a whole day of boiling.”

ation on his land.

all,” says Howard Pearl, whose family

But maple technology isn’t the only

The sale of the easement will help

has been farming the same land in

change that’s come to Loudon since

Pearl stay in business, and make for a

Loudon, New Hampshire, since the late

Pearl was a kid. “There used to be six

smoother financial transition to the

1800s. “What we’ve got going is a much

farms along our road, and throughout

next generation of farmers who will

more technological type of operation.”

my lifetime, they’ve all gone,” he says.

care for this land. This stability is

Pearl’s farm is a proving ground for

In Loudon and across New England,

especially important for maple growers,

maple industry innovation. Each of his

more small producers like Pearl are

says Pearl, noting that trees don’t

11,000 taps is connected by a network

struggling to make ends meet, and many

even start producing sap until they’re

of vacuum tubing—450,000 feet in all—

have been forced to sell their farms.

40 years old. “I’ve spent a lot of my life

that induces the tree to produce more

“As close as we are to Concord and

planting, weeding, and cultivating.

sap and pipes it to a centralized location.

Boston, we’re growing very fast,” says

There’s just now a lot of growth potential

The collected sap then passes through

Julie Robinson. She chairs the Loudon

here,” he says. “The next generation

a reverse osmosis system that filters

Conservation Commission, which has

after me is going to have one hell of

out 80 percent of the water that would

saved family farms across town. These

an orchard.”

“There used to be six farms along our road, and throughout my lifetime, they’ve all gone,” says Howard Pearl.

Trust for Public Land supporters are helping secure the future of Pearl's farm.

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ƥƞƚƫƧ Ʀƨƫƞ # TPL.ORG/PEARL-FARM F I R S T L O O K · 19

THINKING OUTSIDE

the classroom HOW OUTDOOR LEARNING HAS HELPED STUDENTS AND TEACHERS THROUGH THE PANDEMIC sophia yuen eyed the skyline, practicing her perspective

Whether in the heart of New York or the woods of Vermont,

drawing while sketching a tree and two apartment buildings

outdoor learning has become a public health necessity in

across the street from her schoolyard in Manhattan. This

the age of COVID-19. But students’ experiences have varied

was art class COVID-style at P.S. 184, where a recently

widely: of the 90,000 public schoolyards in America, as few

renovated schoolyard was providing a welcoming, flexible

as one percent are designed with green space, play areas, and

space for students and teachers to take learning outside. “It’s

curriculum-friendly features like outdoor classrooms.

nice to get fresh air when you’re stuck inside for months,”

So we’re scaling up our work to transform underused outdoor

said 12-year-old Yuen.

space at public schools across the country into healthy,

Outdoor school looks a little different up in Huntington,

welcoming public parks for all to enjoy. By 2025, we’ve

Vermont, where we recently helped create the Huntington

pledged to expand our schoolyards program to 20 more

Community Forest. The 245-acre public forest is right next

school districts—and it’s all thanks to supporters like you.

door to the local school, giving students and teachers a great big outdoor classroom where they can learn about the natural world throughout the year.

huntington communit y forest, vermont 20 · L AND&PEOPL E · SPRING/SUMMER 2021

WATCH THE FILM @ TPL.ORG/HUNTINGTON

p.s. 184 in manhat tan ƥƞƟ ƭ Ʃƞ ƭ ƞƫ ƜƢƫƢƥƥƢ ƫƢƠơƭ ƚ ƥƞ Ʊ ƚ ơƨƲ ƞƫ

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25 YEARS since THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND’s first conservation finance campaign

604

Successful conservation funding campaigns since 1996

$83.9 BILLION

“Suddenly, the gate had a lock on it, and you couldn’t get through.”

— Janet Drake

Janet Drake has hunted in Arizona’s Sky Island mountains for 25 years.

But she lost access to 40,000 acres of public land in the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness when an adjacent private ranch changed hands a decade ago,

Public funding generated for trails, parks, clean water, and climate resilience

100 % Our success rate in 2020 (31 for 31!)

and the new owners gated their road. We’re working to transfer the Cross F Ranch to the Bureau of Land Management, so people like Drake can once again reach the wild country that lies beyond.

ƥƞƚƫƧ Ʀƨƫƞ # TPL.ORG/CONSERVATION-FINANCE

F I R S T L O O K · 21

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OUR LOS ANGELES COMMUNIT Y ORGANIZER ON NAVIGATING CHANGE.

What’s your approach to organizing for change?

How has the pandemic changed the way you work?

What was it like to start organizing virtually?

As a Trust for Public Land staff member,

Early on, I shifted the time we’d

There’s a digital divide in Los Angeles—

I can go directly to a council member

normally spend on our projects—like

many people don’t have internet at

or even the mayor and tell them what

building a tool lending library to

home or a big enough data plan to

I think. But I am not the expert in

support our community clean-up

do video calls. So a big part of my job

what South Los Angeles communities

days—to pandemic response and

this past year has been learning and

need—people who live, work, and raise

wellness check-ins. Our meetings went

teaching these tools, ensuring we

families in the neighborhood are

all-virtual and became a platform

continue to be as inclusive as possible

the experts. So my goal is to bring

for residents and service providers

in our engagement and outreach …

community members to the tables

to connect with each other to meet

even if it means taking extra time to

where decisions are made, as opposed

people’s immediate needs, be that

answer tech questions or reaching out

to speaking on their behalf.

renter’s rights, access to food, navigat-

to individuals for their feedback.

ing the unemployment system,

What difference does it make for residents themselves to be at the table?

tracking down stimulus checks, or remote schoolwork. Recently, we've

We’ve actually been able to reach more

It means our work for parks becomes

also been able to help many of our

people, especially young people. In the

a pathway for people who are the

community members get a COVID-19

future I imagine more of a hybrid model

most affected by disinvestment and

vaccine. That is a big deal, considering

of organizing, sort of like what people

inequities of all kinds to gain access to

that families in South Los Angeles have

are envisioning for the future of schools.

the power it will take to change the

disproportionately low access to the

system—regardless of their status in

vaccine, even as they’ve been among

What has been challenging?

this country today.

those most impacted by the virus.

I still feel like digital engagement is

22 · L AND&PEOPL E · SPRING/SUMMER 2021

sharing ideas for helping kids with

Are there benefits to digital organizing?

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The pandemic hit the city hard, and the

than getting together in person! As an

What are some park projects you’ve been working on?

organizer, I can be more attentive to a

We have a lot of work left to do toward

many of whom are women of color and

community’s needs in person. Nothing

equitable parks in Los Angeles, but if

immigrants—have faced disproportion-

replaces human contact and being

the number of people who’ve shown up

ate impacts. But from my own personal

physically present with each other.

to our Zoom meetings is any indication,

experience going to parks with my

there’s such a desire for projects like

family and seeing how busy they’ve

What hasn’t changed?

the network of green alleyways we’re

been, and from the continuing enthusi-

It’s still my job to listen to what the

helping create in South Los Angeles, or

asm of our community leaders, I know

community’s needs are and be respon-

our Urban Orchard project, a future

that the work we’re doing to ensure

sive to how those needs change. When

park on the banks of the Los Angeles

everyone in Los Angeles has access to

we initially scoped it in late 2019, for

River in the city of South Gate. Residents

the outdoors—and feels a sense of

instance, the tool lending library was

have helped come up with features like

belonging and ownership of their public

going to be much larger, so more people

a fruit orchard, paths, fitness equip-

spaces—is essential to our communities'

could join clean-up days. Now our

ment, and a playground honoring the

mental health and well-being.

members want to make sure partici-

history of the Tongva, the Indigenous

pants are protected from the virus. So

people of this area.

about a hundred times more difficult

community leaders we work with—

we’re redirecting funds to stocking up on PPE. It’ll mean equipping fewer people, at least in the short run, but doing so in a safer way.

Has it been tougher to rally support for parks during the pandemic?

Clockwise, from left: Bradly Green Alley in Pacoima.

Community clean-up day in South Los Angeles.

When it’s complete, the 30-acre Urban Orchard will transform the L.A. River in South Gate.

FIRST LOOK · 23

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I GIVE TO …

finish what he started jim ellis

if you’ve taken a hike anywhere

president of the Greenway Trust and

within an hour’s drive of seattle,

donor to The Trust for Public Land. “He

chances are, you have Jim Ellis to thank

always deflected credit, and he always

for it. A legendary civic leader who

told the best stories.”

passed away in 2019 at age 98, Ellis was

McClelland, Ellis, and many others

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the force behind an extraordinary

worked together for decades to call

range of public projects throughout the

attention to the region’s wildlands—and

Puget Sound region. As a young lawyer

to their shared vision for a greenway

leading to 95 miles of existing trails. To

in the 1950s and 60s, Ellis led the

that would ensure public access as the

make more of these projects possible,

drive to clean up Lake Washington.

region’s population grew. The Trust for

The Trust for Public Land and the

He rallied support for public invest-

Public Land helped launch the

Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust

ments in city parks, pools, and transit

Greenway Trust 30 years ago, and we’ve

recently launched the Jim Ellis Fund

throughout the 70s and 80s. And in the

since ensured public access to over

for Land Conservation.

early 1990s, he headed up the creation

10,000 acres within the greenway.

McClelland supports The Trust for

of the Mountains to Sound Greenway

Ellis worked hard to preserve most

Public Land in part to see Jim’s greenway

Trust, the nonprofit that stewards a

of the large open lands within the

vision through, and also to honor his old

100-mile corridor of public lands and

greenway—places like the Raging River

friend’s model for making change. “In

trails stretching from Seattle to the city

State Forest and the Middle Fork

today’s world when we all find so many

of Ellensburg in the eastern Cascade

Snoqualmie River Valley. The next

reasons to divide ourselves, it’s just as

foothills.

generation’s task? Conserving the

important to perpetuate the spirit of

Whatever the task, “Jim worked

smaller properties that could make a

collaboration and hard work that Jim

incredibly hard behind the scenes and

big difference for public access, like a

brought to every project,” he says.

figured out how to bring people

five-acre parcel on Tiger Mountain that

together, get beyond labels, and find

The Trust for Public Land preserved last

common ground,” says Doug McClelland,

year, making space for a new trailhead

24 · L A N D & P E O P L E · S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 2 1

ƥƞƚƫƧ Ʀƨƫƞ # TPL.ORG/JIM-ELLIS-FUND

A force for nature

insight

We asked policy expert Jessica Wahl Turner how she makes the case for park equity and public lands in Washington, DC. For more than a decade, Jessica Wahl Turner has been working behind the scenes of government, nonprofits, and outdoor industry brands, building a political force to be reckoned with.

She started her Beltway career on the inside, with roles at

the landmark law that guarantees full and dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and allocates more than $9 billion to fix the maintenance backlog on federal land. And now, as American families grapple with widening economic disparities supercharged by the “COVID recession,” Turner’s group is one of more than 200 backing The Trust for

the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of the

Public Land’s push for the Parks, Jobs, and Equity Act. The

Interior, before going to work as chief lobbyist for the Outdoor

bipartisan bill introduced in Congress in March would allocate

Industry Association, and today she directs a coalition of

$500 million in federal funding for local parks in the most

outdoor trade groups called the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable.

underserved communities. This critical funding could save

The Trust for Public Land worked closely with organizers

100,000 at-risk seasonal jobs or create 8,000 new ones, while

like Turner to advocate for the Great American Outdoors Act—

generating $1.37 billion in economic activity.

We sat down with Turner to talk about the economic benefits of public lands and how our deeply divided nation can find common ground in the Great Outdoors.

T P L. O R G · 25

Why is it an important time to be investing in parks and public lands?

From oil and gas drilling to coal mining to timber harvesting, the industries that have been the foundation of many rural economies are waning. So rural communities are looking around for what resources they do have: dense forests, big mountains, rivers, lakes, wildlife … the elements that lay the foundation for an economy powered by outdoor recreation.

Can outdoor recreation make up for the decline of these more traditional economic drivers?

Outdoor recreation is a major economic engine in America. It accounts for 2.1 percent of GDP, 3.3 percent of U.S. employees, and 5.2 million jobs—many of which are in the rural communities whose economies are in transition. It contributes $788 billion to the economy, which is more than utilities, mining,

Jessica Wahl Turner

or agriculture. That’s not to say that these traditional industries are going to go away overnight—they’re still very important parts of rural economies. But by investing in outdoor

Why d Wh do you support the h Parks, P k JJobs, b and d Equity Act?

recreation, communities can smooth the transition to a new,

First of all, investing in local parks just makes people’s lives

more sustainable economy.

better. As elected leaders restricted travel this past year because of COVID-19, they also said, “Hey, get outside close to

What's behind the push to assign a dollar value to nature?

home, use your local parks for exercise, and do your gather-

If it’s your first term in Congress, and you’re weighing spend-

ings outdoors where the virus is less transmissible.” But a

ing your constituents’ tax dollars on public lands, especially

lot of leaders seemed to ignore the fact that over 100 million

with so many competing priorities for limited resources,

people don’t have a park close to home. That disparity is

then this data is crucial to your making an informed choice

appalling, and this year was a real wake-up call to the fact that

and defending it. Ten years ago, the government didn’t have

the park gap contributes to the health gap.

that data. Outdoor industry and public lands groups worked to change that, so decision makers could have an apples-to-

What data are you using to make the case for this bill?

apples way to compare investments in recreation with invest-

State and local budgets are in really bad shape because of

ments in any other industry, be it oil and gas or manufactur-

the economic downturn caused by the pandemic. We saw it

ing or whatever. This data has changed the game for public

during the Great Recession, and we’re seeing it again now:

lands and the outdoor industry when it comes to prioritization

when cities and states have to cut their budgets, parks and

and policy development.

recreation are the first things to go—even though parks are key drivers of public health, and they contribute to local busi-

How does good data inform good policy?

nesses and power local economies. Federal stimulus spending

I worked on the substance of the Great American Outdoors Act

on parks could have so many health and economic benefits

in one job or another for over a decade before it passed. Once

that can help our society bounce back from COVID-19.

economic data became available, we could finally educate our

2 6 · LAND &PE OPL E ·SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

coalition about how this bill could affect their livelihoods,

Is everyone embracing these changes?

employees, and local economies. So when the time came for

There have been growing pains, and the pandemic has put

concerted advocacy, thousands of business owners—from a

that into overdrive in some places. Especially in ski towns,

motorcycle manufacturer in Wisconsin to a hiking apparel

housing prices are skyrocketing, and families who’ve lived

company in Colorado—could talk in very specific terms to

there for generations are getting priced out. People who’ve

their representatives about how meaningful investment in

lived all their lives in small towns are asking, “Where are

our public lands benefits their business and their customers.

all these people coming from? You’ve never paid us any attention before.”

What about the people who don’t want to work in tourism?

Communities that are making this transition successfully are

What are some ways to mitigate those growing pains?

using the lure of recreation as a recruitment and retention

Not every place is vying to be the next Moab. Look at Farming-

tool for a diversified workforce. We’re not just talking about

ton, New Mexico. Their coal plant is closing, so by 2022 they’ll

guides or local retailers that sell outdoor gear. Those are great

lose 1,800 jobs. These are good-paying jobs that are going away,

jobs, but the potential for economic growth doesn’t stop at

and so as they retool and retrain, the community has started

visitor-facing roles. We’re also talking about the evolution of

to home in on the Bureau of Land Management lands in

remote work, and the number of people who are flocking to

their backyard. They’re working with the agency to improve

mountain towns for the access to the outdoors. Between 2010

those places for bikes and ATVs. But beyond recreation access,

and 2016, counties with more outdoor recreation opportuni-

they’re working to get an ATV manufacturer to relocate to

ties saw faster wage and job growth and attracted more new

Farmington and make their product right there in town. This

residents than their counterparts.

multifaceted transition to a recreation economy is being driven by residents, thoughtfully, in a way that’s authentic to that community.

T P L. O R G · 27

What can state and federal policymakers do to help

session in the afternoon with the cabinet officials to address

places like Farmington?

a group of students who live in downtown Los Angeles. I was

Another thing that Farmington has going for it is New Mexico

chatting with the kids before the members showed up, and

Senator Martin Heinrich, who’s very supportive of public

to break the ice I asked them, “Which do you like better, the

lands and outdoor recreation, and Axie Navas, the state direc-

mountains or the beach?” When the students looked at me

tor of outdoor recreation. New Mexico is one of 18 states that

like I had three heads, I realized very quickly that many had

have created this new role in state government. Traditionally,

never been to either the mountains or the beach, even though

that responsibility rested in a natural resources agency or a

they lived within forty minutes of both. Growing up, I took for

parks department. But outdoor recreation crosses so many

granted the fact that my family spent a lot of time outdoors,

silos: transportation, labor and workforce development, trea-

in state and national parks. But meeting those students made

sury, and public health, to name a few. The ability to coor-

clear for me the amount of work we have left to do to create

dinate those sectors within each state—and for state leaders

the equitable access to the outdoors that every kid in this

to share information and best practices with each other and

country deserves.

with the federal government—has been an important force in thoughtfully expanding outdoor recreation to more people

We’re working to bring more parks to more people

and places in just the past five years.

in more places, and we need all hands on deck. Tell Congress that you’re all in for the outdoors—sign the

How do you navigate conflicts between public lands

petition for a $500 million investment in local parks at

user groups?

tpl.org/parks-jobs-equity-act.

At the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, we only work where there’s common ground. And there’s so much. In the business community, we understand that we all need sustainable recreation systems, we all want safe, healthy experiences for customers, and we all value beautiful, accessible places. Even “trailhead conflicts” among user groups are rooted in some kind of agreement: that these are amazing resources, and we love these places and want to spend time here.

Trailhead conflicts are about fighting for your slice of the pie. What if we could make the pie bigger and better? If the maintenance backlog is eradicated so you’re guaranteed a quality experience on public lands, and we’re opening access to more public lands to users of all kinds, everyone has access to the activities that bring them joy. When we invest in public lands and recreation infrastructure, I think we’ll see those fights over the slices of pie diminish.

Pushing for policy change can be grueling. What motivates you?

A decade ago, I was on a public lands policy tour with cabinet members to Los Angeles. I spent the morning in the San Gabriel Mountains and then headed to the beach before a listening 2 8 · LAND &PE OPL E ·SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

"Federal spending on parks can help our society bounce back from COVID."

rachid dahnoun

BE A LEADER. Become a Conservation Champion and help The Trust for Public Land connect even more people to nature. With your annual leadership-level contribution of $2,000 or more, you will receive insider updates on our park and conservation strategies.

Learn more about the impact you will have as a Conservation Champion.

Contact Emily Falk at 415.800.5193 or champions@tpl.org.

co ns er vat i o n ch ampi o ns t p l .or g / c hampi o n s | champi o n s@tpl.o r g

T P L. O R G · 29

The Klamath River meets the Pacific Ocean on the Yurok Indian Reservation in remote Northern California. ·SSSPR ·SP SPPPRR ING I NG NG G///SUMMER SU SUM SSUMM UMM U UM MM M M ER MER E R 22021 021 002 21 3 0 · LLAND 30 AND AAN ND N D& &PPPEE OPL &PE O PL P L E ·SPR

The Yurok Tribe reclaims its ancestral territory in Northern California.

By Anna V. Smith Photography by Paul Robert Wolf Wilson

T

he Klamath River runs like an artery through the ancestral homelands of the Yurok Tribe. From its headwaters in the foothills of southern Oregon’s Cascade

Mountains, the river courses past rocky cliffs and sloping

coastal forests, crossing the Oregon-California state line as it flows through six dams, eventually spilling out into the Pacific Ocean at a wide, rocky beach in far Northern California.

The Yurok Tribe’s lands—which once spanned over a million acres—are now centered on the Klamath; their reservation runs 44 miles along the river’s lower reach, extending a mile from the Klamath’s banks on either side.

In a boat heading down the river, you pass by gravel bars and fishing holes that would be unidentifiable to an outsider, but that hold generations of stories and meaning to Yurok tribal members, descendants of the name-holders. Places like McCovey Riffle or Brooks Riffle. Stories of parents teaching children how to fish, or grandparents—as children in the 1940s—fishing at night to avoid game wardens. As Yurok tribal member and attorney Amy Cordalis says, “If you know the river, you know the people.”

T P L. O R G · 31 TP

3 2 · LAND &PE OPL E ·SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

who learned from his own dad, at their family’s fishing

hole at Pecwan Creek. Myers, who lives in Weitchpec—a small upriver community on the reservation—has filled a variety of roles with the tribe over the last 20 years: He worked in the tribal fisheries department during a devastating fish kill in 2002,

when the tribe says 60,000 dead salmon washed up on the riverbank, and then he led the ensuing advocacy efforts to remove four dams on the Klamath. He served as a tribal heritage preservation officer. He testified before Congress on the climate crisis.

޵

F

rankie Joe Myers grew up on the Yurok Reservation, sans

electricity or telephone, and learned to fish from his dad,

If your culture has been deemed illegal, that really plays into how we view ourselves as individuals, as people, as a community.

And since 2018, he’s been vice chair of the Yurok Tribe. Over Myers’s lifetime, the tribe has expanded its land ownership from around 5,000 acres to 60,000 acres.

And that number is still growing. This spring, the Yurok

The Yurok Tribe’s push to regain their land base is nested

Tribe partnered with The Trust for Public Land to acquire

within a national effort to return lands to Indigenous stew-

more than 2,000 acres of forestlands and prairie surrounding

ardship. That effort has been led by activists within the

Ke’pel Creek, a remote tributary of the Klamath River. “Ke’pel

decentralized Land Back movement and supported by climate

Creek is prime for hunting and gathering and ceremonial use,”

scientists who are increasingly recognizing that Indigenous

says Rosie Clayburn, a member of the Yurok Tribe who works

land management is critical to maintaining biodiversity and

as the tribal heritage preservation officer. And Ke’pel Creek is

carbon stores. Myers says that for the Yurok, the reclamation

a piece of the larger puzzle of Yurok ancestral lands, Clayburn

of dispossessed lands is a way to reaffirm cultural lifeways

says. “We’re not complete until we gain back that land and

while also building financial resilience through the carbon

gain back the ability to manage that land.”

storage market.

Importantly, tribal members will be able to hunt, fish, and

This era of expansion marks a shift from just a few decades

hold ceremonies at the Ke’pel Creek property without trespass-

ago, when Myers was learning to hunt, fish, and gather while

ing on private timberlands or facing intrusions from tourists or

growing up on the reservation. In those days, the surround-

park rangers on public lands. For example, the tribe has to go

ing land was almost entirely owned by private landowners or

through a permit process and request a partial closure in order

timber companies. “To access these lands, we had to break

to hold ceremonies in Redwood National Park. “It’s always hard

the law. We had to cut gates. We had to go at night. We were

having to explain why your religion is important, or why your

criminals,” Myers says. “If your culture has been deemed ille-

ceremony is important, or why you existing is a higher priority

gal, that really plays into how we view ourselves as individu-

than someone’s vacation,” Myers says.

als, as people, as a community.”

Yurok Tribe vice chair Frankie Joe Myers at Ke’pel Creek. The Trust for Public Land and the Yurok Tribe worked together to protect 2,000 acres of timberland here.

T P L. O R G · 33

Today, the Yurok Indian Reservation encompasses 60,000 acres of forests, streams, and mountains surrounding the lower Klamath River.

T

he history of tribal lands in what is now California is

assigned tribal citizens plots of land within reservations—and

complicated, and painful. Until 1871, treaties were the

opened the rest up as “surplus” for settlers.

primary means for the federal government to legally

Nationwide, 60 million acres of reservation lands were

claim Indigenous lands, which tribes ceded in exchange for

taken from tribal nations and given or sold to non-Natives

reservations and other agreements. In California, 134 Indig-

and corporations by the federal government. The General

enous bands and tribes signed treaties with federal agents

Allotment Act was, according to the Indian Land Tenure Foun-

starting in 1851, but the Senate refused to ratify the treaties

dation, “the single most destructive piece of legislation aimed

as settlers poured in during the Gold Rush. Instead, the Sen-

at tribal land.” For the Yurok, that meant that of the 55,000

ate put an injunction of secrecy on the treaties, which lasted

acres that made up their reservation at the time of allotment,

for the next half century. As a result, Indigenous signatories

fewer than 30,000 were allotted to tribal members.

received neither the lands nor support the treaties guaranteed.

Meanwhile, Congress ceased the treaty process with all tribal nations in the U.S. (Hundreds of “unrecognized” tribes, who did not sign treaties or cede their land and are not recognized as tribal nations by the federal government, remain today.)

Beginning in 1890, the federal government reserved millions of acres in California for national forests and parks.

Elsewhere in the state, settlers claimed land and set up commercial operations of logging, fishing, and mining on Indigenous lands illegally taken by the U.S. government. “I am not surprised that as far as possible the whole matter has been kept secret,” wrote one director in 1905 at the Northern California Indian Association (NCAI), a non-Native organization that advocated for the just compensation of lost tribal lands. In the early 1900s, NCAI searched for the missing treaties in the records of the Department of Interior with the help of some congressional members. “Even Congressmen seem to have had some shame," the NCAI director concluded of the scandal.

Congress never ratified its treaty with the Yurok Tribe, though the federal government did establish the 55,000-acre Yurok Indian Reservation by executive order in 1855. A generation later, in 1887, Congress passed the General Allotment Act, which broke up tribal ownership of reservations. The act

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yurok indian reservation

T P L. O R G · 35

3 6 · LAND &PE OPL E ·SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

޵ We’re not complete until we gain back that land and gain back the ability to manage that land.

That number declined drastically over the following century.

In 2007, the tribe owned roughly a quarter of the reservation’s original land base. Another quarter of the reservation’s lands were privately owned, and the timber company Green Diamond owned most of the rest. As Myers told members of Congress in a 2019 hearing on the climate crisis: “In a matter of 130 years, the Yurok people lost over 1.49 million acres of land.”

From that history came a resolve to regain what was lost,

he Yurok Tribe has used its newer land acquisitions

a bedrock principle. And in the years since, the tribal govern-

T

ment has made strides in fulfilling their constitutional pledge.

of agricultural land, with plans to use it to grow food, as the

In 2006, for example, the tribe partnered with Western Rivers

effects of the COVID-19 crisis have caused food shortages and

Conservancy to buy back ancestral lands from Green Dia-

economic havoc. The tribe is also leading an effort with state

mond, including the watershed of Blue Creek, a vital cold-

and conservation group partners to reintroduce the California

water refuge for salmon. The tribe completed the deal in 2019,

condor to the Pacific Northwest, and is one of the primary

gaining ownership of 50,000 acres that they’re beginning to

forces behind undamming and restoring the Klamath River.

Myers says now. When the Yurok Tribe wrote their constitution in the 1990s, reclaiming a tribal land base was included as

manage as a salmon sanctuary and community forest.

to tackle present-day problems facing its citizens and the greater community—from food insecurity to

climate change. In late 2020, the tribe bought a 40-acre parcel

And with thousands of acres of forest under their care, the

“As Yurok people who have been literally locked out of these

Yurok have joined the fight against climate change. Through

lands, some for up to a hundred years, just the ability for our

California’s cap-and-trade market, the tribe has sold offsets for

members to go out and to access these lands and to harvest

the carbon that’s sequestered by forests they sustainably man-

and gather, interact with the forest; the shift in land man-

age. That helps the state meet its emissions reduction goals,

agement itself, to allow Indigenous people back onto their

while generating funding that the tribe has used to repatriate

landscapes ... I think that’s absolutely key,” says Myers.

both land and cultural items.

Left: Ke’pel Creek threads through a thriving forest before it flows into the Klamath River. Above: Yurok Tribal Heritage Preservation Officer Rosie Clayburn.

T P L. O R G · 37

“I would say the Yurok has really been one of the most strategic tribes in the Lower 48 to use both carbon finance and a lot of different mechanisms for recovering ancestral territory,” says Brian Shillinglaw, managing director of New Forests, Inc., a forestry company that has worked alongside the Yurok and other tribal governments across the U.S. to use the California carbon market to protect and enhance forests for their climate benefits.

In 2018, 7,000 acres along Ke’pel Creek went up for sale.

New Forests bought the tract, intending to repatriate the 2,424 acres of Yurok ancestral land within it to the tribe. With technical support from The Trust for Public Land, the Yurok Tribe applied for funding from the State of California to fund the acquisition. The tribe officially regained ownership of the land this spring.

“It’s a privilege to be able to partner with the Yurok Tribe and support their strategic efforts to acquire and manage more lands within their ancestral territory,” says John Bernstein, a California project manager at The Trust for Public Land. “The Yurok are the original stewards of these lands and resources, and their forestry expertise and vision for the future of this area benefits the health of land, water, resources, and the environment for all Californians.”

The Ke’pel Creek project is the latest in the organization’s long history of partnership with tribes. With help from The Trust for Public Land, the Nez Perce Tribe acquired a 10,000acre ranch in Oregon’s Wallowa Mountains in 1996. In 2007, the organization helped the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Indian Nation reclaim fishing grounds at the confluence of the Columbia and Klickitat Rivers in Washington State. And in Northern California in 2015, The Trust for Public Land transferred 688 acres to the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians

޵

to create the Kashia Coastal Reserve.

The Yurok are the original stewards of these lands and resources.

3 8 · LAND &PE OPL E ·SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

Above: The patchwork of land ownership in the lower Klamath River basin poses challenges for forest management. Left: Ke’pel Creek tumbles steeply from ridgetop to river’s edge.

The organization has worked with more than 70 tribes and Indigenous groups to conserve some 200,000 acres across the United States. These days, The Trust for Public Land is partnering with the Native Hawaiian–led Ala Kahakai Trail Association to preserve three properties on the Big Island and working alongside the Klamath Tribe to create a green schoolyard at an elementary school on the tribe’s ancestral land in Chiloquin, Oregon.

The Ke’pel Creek tract is remote and mountainous, reaching from the banks of the Klamath River to the top of the ridge. Much of the land is coated in Douglas fir, plus a mix of bear grass, tan oaks and their acorns, coast redwoods, and salal, each offering materials and foods that are important to the Yurok Tribe. An expanse of open prairie along the creek, bowl-shaped and grassy, is perfect for playing a Yurok traditional stick game (a mix of “lacrosse and mixed martial arts,” as Myers puts it). That’s special, says Myers, since there are few places upriver that are big enough to hold a playing field.

T P L. O R G · 39

A ceremony site and gathering place at the mouth of the Klamath River.

From relatively small parcels used for agriculture all the way up to the 50,000-acre acquisition at Blue Creek, the Yurok approach to stewardship puts the people back in the landscape. Access for tribal members to hunt, fish, and gather on lands reacquired by the tribe is paramount, Myers says, balanced with ceremonial needs, habitat restoration, active fire management, and some logging. “Whether through our carbon sequestering program or a forestry program or a watershed restoration program or fisheries program, we now have dozens of members who are making their livelihoods off of this land again, like they always did, traditionally.”

The tribe’s reclamation of land goes hand in hand with efforts to buy back cultural items from private collectors and repatriate objects from museums, says Clayburn. Over the years, the tribe has reacquired hundreds of woven basket caps, condor feathers, funerary objects, ancestral remains, and traditional clothing like white deerskins and headdresses made of bright red woodpecker feathers. So much of the Yurok identity—language, ceremony, food—is inseparable from the land they persist on, Clayburn says. “The whole foundation of repatriation and that movement is to bring things home,” Clayburn says. “My world is repatriation and the repatriation of sacred objects. I look at land as the same thing.”

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Yurok Tribe Natural Resources Director Tim Hayden manages a rapidly growing team of foresters, ecologists, and biologists who are stewarding and restoring the tribe‘s lands and waters.

“EVERY GREEN, NATURAL PLACE WE SAVE SAVES A FRAGMENT OF OUR SANITY AND GIVES US A LITTLE MORE HOPE THAT WE HAVE A FUTURE.” — WALLACE STEGNER

THE PLACES YOU LOVE Ensure healthy land and livable communities for all by naming The Trust for Public Land as a beneficiary of your will, living trust, retirement account, or donor advised fund.

For more information visit our website at tpl.planmygift.org Or contact our Office of Planned Giving at 202.856.3748 or plannedgiving@ tpl.org

4 2 · LAND &PE OPL E · SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

SIX NEW YORKERS REFLECT ON LIFE DURING THE PANDEMIC, AND HOW THE OUTDOORS HELPED SEE THEM THROUGH.

BEFORE IT WASHED OVER THE COUNTRY IN

and to nature to endure this harrowing time. They applauded

THE SPRING OF 2020, THE CORONAVIRUS WAVE

from their balconies each night, covered their front sidewalks

BROKE ON NEW YORK CITY FIRST. In March experts

in blooming chalk artwork, and played music on their rooftops.

advised anyone who could to shelter in place, leaving millions

And they sought out the little pockets of green close to home,

of people stuck in small apartments, stewing in fear, illness,

reacquainting themselves with the neighborhood spots that had

and grief. Some left town. Others ventured out each day into

always been important—but which had now become lifelines.

an eerily silent city, risking exposure to the virus to carry out their essential work.

New Yorkers turned to their families, to their communities,

From a city with so many stories, we met six New Yorkers whose ties to the outdoors saw them through the pandemic.

This is what they had to say.

BY LISA W. FODERARO PHOTOGRAPHS BY TARA RICE

T P L. O R G · 43

ROWSHANARA RAFIQUE VAN CORTLANDT PARK THE BRONX

4 4 · LAND &PE OPL E ·SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

his year, nature was Rowshanara Rafique’s solace. She’d

Ten minutes later, a coworker told Rafique the patient was

always been an avid hiker, venturing into the Hudson

crashing. Her pulse oximeter reading had plunged, and a doctor

Valley with friends on weekends, visiting places like Bear

agreed she needed to be placed on a ventilator. That required a

Mountain and Harriman State Park. But as the pandemic

spot in the intensive care unit, but only one room was available,

tightened its grip on New York City in the spring of 2020,

and three patients needed it. Rafique made an impassioned plea

Rafique, a registered nurse, started working 16-hour shifts

for her patient to get the bed, and the doctor approved.

at her hospital. She didn’t have enough time for weekend

The next day, she arrived at work and went to check on her

getaways, and at any rate it didn’t seem safe to leave the

patient, only to find the room empty. The patient had passed

city. So she began to rely on the nature that flourishes in her

away overnight. Rafique was crushed. Many months later,

native Bronx.

relating the episode brings her to tears.

She hoped that breathing in fresh air would keep her lungs

“My manager was like, ‘You did good for her,’ and I was like,

healthy. And the peace she found in the parks soon became

‘Yeah, but she passed and those two other patients passed,’”

an important counterweight to her night shifts in the acute

recounted Rafique, her voice catching. “The doctor called the

medical surgery unit at the hospital, which was swamped

family because he saw I was too distraught to speak to them.”

with very sick patients.

Rafique lives with her mother in the Bronx. On top of the

“It was very calming,” she said of her near-daily walks

stresses of her job, she worried constantly about her mother’s

through Van Cortlandt Park. “In March, it was cold, but you

health. Because Rafique was exposed to COVID-19 day in and

saw things blooming and the sun was on your skin. It’s just

day out, she carefully orchestrated time in the kitchen to avoid

so nice to be in nature and feel something living. I didn’t

close contact with her mother.

hear any codes going off or coworkers asking, ‘Can you

Rafique found that spending time in nature was remark-

get me this, can you get me that?’ Those walks gave me

ably healing. She’s become a regular on the 40-minute bus

strength. I felt, ‘Okay, I can do this.’”

ride from her own neighborhood to Van Cortlandt Park in

Before COVID-19 upended life in the city, she would go

the northwest Bronx. She usually walks the trail around the

months without seeing a patient die, since her unit handles

park’s parade ground, where residents play cricket, soccer,

relatively mild cases and routine surgeries. But last year her

and baseball on weekends.

unit became overwhelmed, and death became a constant,

She has also taken to volunteering on her days off in parks

frightful reality. One patient in particular still haunts her,

across the Bronx, picking up trash, removing invasive species,

a woman in her late 40s whom Rafique cared for late last

and planting bulbs. Throughout this devastating year, Rafique

spring. She recalls checking on the patient and then calling

says volunteering and spending time in her local parks have

the woman’s husband and daughter to say she was doing

kept her grounded and given her hope. “It’s the opposite of

fine—breathing normally and able to walk on her own to

what I saw and experienced at the hospital,” she said. “It was

the bathroom.

bringing life.”

T P L. O R G · 45

RUBEN RAMALES THE QUEENSWAY 4 6 · LAND &PE OPL E ·SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

hen Ruben Ramales goes for walks with his pit bull, Lily, they head for the network of trails that winds through the eastern end of Forest Park.

Forest Park—165 acres of tulip trees, scarlet oaks, shagbark hickories, and black cherry trees—is one of the largest open spaces in Queens. Considering he can walk there in about 15 minutes from his home in the borough’s bustling Woodhaven neighborhood, Ramales says the forest is surprisingly wild … a place where Lily can sniff and explore and where Ramales can escape the hubbub and step out of his newly circumscribed life of Zoom meetings.

“What I love about Forest Park is that it does have a lot of untouched space, meaning you actually have real nature,” said Ramales, who’s executive director of the Queens chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Their regular route to Forest Park runs not far from an overgrown viaduct, which holds the forgotten tracks of the Rockaway Beach branch of the Long Island Rail Road. The line once ferried people across Jamaica Bay and onto the Rockaway

The Trust for Public Land and Friends of the QueensWay

Beach peninsula, but the tracks have sat silent for nearly six

published a study in 2014 that presented a vision for the trail

decades. Now the rusting structure snakes behind tidy homes,

as a hub for walkers, bicyclists, and yes, foodies. “It’s kind

past auto parts stores, alongside schools, and right through For-

of the beauty of Queens: different cultures, ethnicities, and

est Park. Its rail bed is covered with weeds, but also handsome

languages,” says Ramales, who helped move the plan for the

oaks and Norway maples, self-sown over decades.

QueensWay forward when he worked at The Trust for Public

Today the abandoned railway is an empty slash through

Land from 2014 to 2018. “When I’m in this area, there’s no

Ramales’s neighborhood. But when Ramales looks at it, he

way I’m not going to try Guyanese and Trinidadian food.”

sees the potential beneath the weeds. He sees over three

If the vision for the QueensWay is ever realized, it will likely

miles of public right-of-way and 47 acres of city-owned land.

be long after the pandemic has receded into memory. The

He thinks of the 322,000 people who live within a mile of the

joint study estimated a $120 million cost to build the park. But

railway’s path through Queens—many of whom don’t cur-

the project’s backers say its grand scale is exactly the point—

rently have a park close to home. In the abandoned railway,

that Queens has been too long overlooked for investments

Ramales sees a future park with tons of potential to connect

from the ambitious to the ordinary. The devastating effects of

people to the outdoors throughout Queens.

decades of underinvestment and structural racism can be seen

He believes the so-called QueensWay could be his borough’s

in the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak in Queens, where

answer to the High Line, the elevated park that runs through

a crowded housing market and an inadequate health care

some of the priciest neighborhoods in Manhattan. But the

system have contributed to disproportionately high rates of

QueensWay would offer park access to low- and middle-

infection and death from the virus.

income families in areas like Ozone Park, Woodhaven, Rich-

“Queens has a clear need for equitable investment of all kinds,

mond Hill, and Rego Park. Ramales, who’s on the board of the

including in parks, which offer significant health and economic

nonprofit Friends of the QueensWay, says that the linear park

benefits,” said Carter Strickland, state director for New York

would be twice as long as the High Line and have seven times

and New Jersey at The Trust for Public Land. “It’s a big job, but

its acreage.

it’s no less than what every kid growing up in Queens deserves.”

T P L. O R G · 47

JEN NELSON, KRISTIN SEDIVEC, AND CHARLIE SEDIVEC-NELSON PROSPECT PARK, BROOKLYN

4 8 · LAND &PE OPL E ·SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

f you think sheltering in place during the worst of COVID-19

for their long months of indoor isolation. First thing in the

was difficult, you should try it with a one-year-old.

morning, they’d head to the Nethermead, a large meadow in

So say Jen Nelson and Kristin Sedivec, who live in Brooklyn with their son, Charlie. Charlie’s first birthday was March 4, 2020,

the heart of the 526-acre park, which boasts waterfalls, woodlands, bridle paths, and stone arches.

and as winter turned to spring, the family was looking forward

“We would always set up our blanket under the same tree

to his first steps. Nelson and Sedivec had big plans to bring him

and there was a stump or log there so he had things to climb,”

to Prospect Park, a 10-minute walk from their apartment, so he

Sedivec said. “He could run as far as he could run and he still

could run across meadows and spot painted turtles.

wasn’t close to being within 20 feet of people.” Later in the

Two weeks later, as the extent of New York City’s outbreak

day, the meadow would fill with other people seeking a patch

became horribly clear, the governor ordered all nonessential

of sun or a relatively safe way to hang out with friends and

services to close and urged New Yorkers to mask up. But

loved ones. But in the quiet hours of the early morning, the

because Charlie was too young to wear a mask, Nelson and

family cherished the sense of solitude. “It felt like we had an

Sedivec holed up for two months instead, unsure whether it

acre to ourselves,” Sedivec said—something especially pre-

was even safe to venture outside.

cious for people living in the nation’s densest metropolis.

“We were definitely on lockdown in our apartment from the middle of March until May,” said Sedivec, a bookkeeper.

Nelson, a nanny, massage therapist, and doula, explained that their concern was as much for others as themselves. “We felt Charlie was not protected,” she said, “but he also could have been asymptomatic and exposing people in our building.

We started to get really, really pent up.”

Still, the pandemic took its toll. It wasn’t only the anxiety surrounding the disease. It was also the interruption of the rhythms of their life together.

Nelson’s solution? Watching the sunrise in Coney Island most days of the week last summer.

She’d catch the first Q train of the morning and ride it twenty minutes south. At that hour, Coney Island’s famous

On Mother’s Day, in an act of desperation, they rented a car,

amusement park and boardwalk evinced an eerie stillness—

wiped down every inch of it in Clorox, and drove to Westchester

and beauty. “I would watch the sun rise on the beach because

County, just north of the city. There, they visited Croton Point

it was the only thing that helped me stay out of my head,” she

Park, a 508-acre peninsula that juts into the Hudson River.

remembered. “Things were just really gloomy and nature defi-

Charlie had indeed taken his first step in the early weeks of

nitely played a huge part in bringing me out of my fog.”

quarantine, a moment his moms say was one of the bright spots in an otherwise terrifying time. But the trip north

The family says they’ve survived the long months of the pandemic by sticking together and by savoring deep-green vistas,

yielded another long-awaited milestone. “That was the first

the scent of wet leaves on a spring breeze, the crash of waves at

time Charlie ever walked on grass,” Sedivec recalled.

daybreak. “Parkland,” Nelson said, “was a saving grace.”

As spring turned to summer, COVID-19 cases fell in New York City, making it safer to venture outside. Prospect Park beckoned, and the three went almost every day, making up

T P L. O R G · 49

SHAUN COMMODORE EAST HARLEM FITNESS ZONE® EXERCISE AREA MANHATTAN 5 0 · LAND &PE OPL E ·SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

ven before COVID-19 shuttered indoor gyms around the country, too many people in East Harlem faced barriers to exercise. In a 2019 survey of five public housing communities

sanitized the equipment and handed out gloves, masks, and hand sanitizer,” Commodore says. “There was a chain on the gate and we opened it back up.”

in the neighborhood, residents reported lower rates of regular

Commodore says exercise helped him maintain his equi-

physical activity than the city as a whole and higher rates of

librium during the difficult months of the pandemic. He is a

conditions linked to physical inactivity, including diabetes and

finance manager for Metropolitan Hospital’s welcome center,

hypertension. Community members cited cost and competing

and during the worst of the outbreak, he encountered many

responsibilities as obstacles to exercise. “I tried to go to the

victims of COVID-19. Meanwhile, by January 2021, five of his

gym,” one respondent said. “But it was too expensive.”

Carver Houses neighbors had died from the virus, including a woman in her 50s who lived in his building. Many others have been hospitalized.

Amid so much despair, Commodore turned to his family to stay centered. His wife, Kayona, is an assistant teacher, and the couple have two children, a 6-year-old girl and a 13-yearold boy. “I would go home from work and see my family and it would turn my day around,” he said.

He relied on the new Fitness Zone area as well, both to boost his spirits and to stay healthy. “It’s convenient,” he said.

“It’s right there and you don’t have to pay for a gym membership. It gives our residents somewhere to go and relieves stress.

We can bond with each other and motivate each other.”

Even his children like to use the equipment. His 6-yearold is partial to the elliptical machine, while his 13-year-old practices pull-ups and push-ups on the bars. Shaun does it all, spending about 45 minutes to an hour going through the entire circuit a few times a week.

Before the exercise area opened, residents improvised ways to keep fit. Commodore said some of his neighbors used to use scaffolding as a pull-up bar, and others headed a few blocks over to Central Park to run around the Reservoir. But as New York

So The Trust for Public Land teamed up with residents of

City’s parks filled up with people seeking space during the pan-

the Carver Houses, a public housing community home to

demic, and with indoor gyms off limits, the new Fitness Zone

2,500 people in East Harlem, to lower a few of those barriers.

exercise area at the Carver Houses proved its worth.

In early 2020, the community celebrated the grand opening of

“When we first opened, there were five or six people using it,”

the new East Harlem Fitness Zone® exercise area—an outdoor

Commodore noted. “Then last summer, there’d be ten to fifteen

gym complete with an elliptical machine, a stationary bike, a

people at a time.” He’s used to seeing people of all ages—from

push-up station, a rowing machine, and plyometric steps.

young teenagers to seniors—using the gym throughout the day.

The fitness area was an immediate hit, says Shaun Commodore, president of the Carver Houses Resident Association. But

In recent years, stationary exercise equipment has popped up in city parks, drawing fitness buffs and curious onlookers. But

just two months after it opened, COVID-19 forced its closure.

the East Harlem Fitness Zone exercise area was the first in New

So Commodore formulated a plan for his community to

York City to open in a public housing community. “That’s what

regain access. “A group of us came out and power-washed and

makes it so dope,” Commodore said with a proud chuckle.

T P L. O R G · 51

DIANE CARDWELL ROCKAWAY BEACH, QUEENS

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n a still morning in mid-January, Diane Cardwell decided to go surfing. The waves at Rockaway Beach in Queens

walking on the beach at sunset, the glassy ocean surface mirroring the peach and silver sky. “I have seen that sense of com-

weren’t huge, but the beach was empty and the sky clear.

munity play out during the pandemic as well. There are mutual

She pulled on her burliest wetsuit, grabbed one of her six

aid networks and people connecting through WhatsApp, with

surfboards—foam, royal blue, 9'8" long—and strolled to the

messages like ‘Rite Aid on 108th Street has toilet paper.’”

water’s edge.

But mostly, surfing the Rockaway waves has helped Cardwell

With seven miles of public beach on the Atlantic Ocean,

cope with the uncertainty and feelings of confinement brought

the Rockaways have long been New York City’s favorite sum-

on by COVID-19. The expansive views, close encounters with

mer playground. While much of the city is hyperkinetic and

dolphins and whales, and the fresh air and sunshine were

densely populated, the Rockaways feel more like a small town.

salves to the anxiety brought on by the pandemic. “Surfing

Neighbors know one another by name and meet up after

allows you to experience nature in a very different way than

work at local taverns or go beachcombing together in the

almost anything else,” she says.

spring and fall, after the summer crowds disperse.

Every Sunday night, she scopes out the week by checking

“We get whales, we get seals,” said Cardwell, a former New

the surf forecast, figuring out which days hold promise. “I see

York Times reporter. “It’s the most amazing wilderness. I’ve

when there might be some waves I can handle,” she said, “and

valued it so much ever since I discovered it and moved here.

when the wind would be good.” With the empty waves, the

But since the pandemic, it has become a real lifesaver.”

still beach, and the intense color of the sunsets, she loves to

Cardwell moved from the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn to a century-old bungalow a block off Rockaway

surf in winter. But she looks forward to the cacophony of summer, especially this year as the pandemic slowly retreats.

Beach in 2012, shortly before Hurricane Sandy steamrolled the

“There’s this social cohesion that happens because everybody

city. She chose the Rockaways in part because of her new-

is having a good time,” she said. “Part of what makes it work

found love of surfing. A longtime runner, Cardwell discovered

is that it’s a public beach; you can take public transportation

the sport in her mid-40s while reporting a story in Montauk,

to get here. There are so few places where people of all dif-

at the tip of Long Island. In her new memoir, Rockaway: Surf-

ferent backgrounds—socioeconomic, race, religion, politics,

ing Headlong Into a New Life, she writes that the sport helped

whatever—hang out in proximity with each other, and specifi-

her find a joyful path forward after her divorce.

cally to have a good time.”

Hurricane Sandy also made her appreciate the tight-knit

No matter the season, she intends to keep surfing, unde-

community she had adopted as her new home. The storm,

terred by occasional mishaps like a broken ankle or shoulder

which killed 43 people across the city, wiped out the mechani-

injury. “I’m always working my way back,” she says. “But surf-

cals in her house, leaving her without hot water, heat, and

ing just brings me so much joy and makes me feel so centered

electricity for weeks.

and kind of at one with the universe in a way that almost

“Part of what Sandy did was bring us all together,” she said,

nothing else can.”

T P L. O R G · 53

B Y TIA N N A FAU L KN ER PHOTOG RA PHS B Y A L EX JACKSON

5 4 · LAND &PE OPL E · SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

C H E RYL HO O D Vi n e C it y re sid e nt

I N THE WAKE OF A NE IGHBO R HOOD T RAGEDY, CAN A NE W PARK HELP A COMMUNITY REB UILD?

C

heryl Hood says the day of the flood started out like any other. “It was a Saturday afternoon. I had gone to the

grocery store because I was getting ready to cook for Sunday dinner,” she remembers. She was at home on Tyler Street in Atlanta’s Vine City neighborhood, looking after a rambunctious group of eight grandkids, hers and her best friend’s. “It had been raining for about three days at that time, but it was just a regular rain,” she says.

She was getting ready to put the grandkids to bed when the waters started to rise. First she watched out the window while a trash can floated down the street. Then water started to seep into her home through the gap under the front door. “I took a quilt and put it there to draw the water, but by that time water was coming through every drain in the house—the sinks, the bathtubs, the dishwasher, the washing machine— everything,” Ms. Hood remembers.

Before long, her home was surrounded in six feet of rising floodwaters. Two neighbors came by and broke down the door, and Ms. Hood’s two eldest grandkids helped shepherd her and the other children to safety. “One got one arm, and the other got the other arm, and I had two babies on my hips, and they got me out,” she says.

It was September 21, 2002. Tropical Storm Hanna had been lashing the Southeast with heavy rainfall for days, when a sudden cloudburst overwhelmed the sewer system in Vine City, a residential neighborhood just west of downtown Atlanta.

Thankfully, no lives were lost, but the flood—a toxic mixture of stormwater and untreated sewage—damaged hundreds of homes, many beyond repair. In the aftermath, city leaders decided the cost of rebuilding the flooded homes was too great—and the likelihood of future flooding was too high. So Ms. Hood’s house was among the 60 properties that the City razed after helping residents relocate. It would be nearly a year until she settled down in a new permanent home—this one a few blocks south of the home she’d owned on Tyler Street.

Today, the 16 acres where Cheryl Hood’s house once stood—where tragedy ruined homes, changing the course of life for dozens of local families—are virtually unrecognizable.

This spring, Vine City celebrated the opening of a brand-new park—Cook Park. It’s a gleaming new space of trees sprouting and gardens of native grasses and plants filling in their beds.

Walking paths wind past new playground and exercise equipment centering a two-acre pond ringed with wildlife-friendly wetlands. The Trust for Public Land led fundraising and community engagement and managed construction over five yearss to bring the new park to life.

Reverend Leroy Wright is senior pastor of First Thessalonian Missionary Baptist Church, just across the street. Wright says the “beautiful” new park will serve as a “focal point” for investment that residents hope will lead to a thriving future for Vine City.

R EV I TA L IZATIO N Co o k Park blu ep ri n t

5 6 · LAND &PE OPL E · SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

RE REVERE ND LEROY LE WRI WR GH T Fi rst First Th The e ssa s lo nia n M i sssi s onary Ba p ti t st Ch u urrch

I

n the late 1860s, on the southern end of Vine City, builders laid the foundations for what would become the nation’s

largest and oldest group of historically Black colleges and universities. These institutions—including Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Spelman College—have helped anchor the area as a home for generations of Black scholars, business owners, and activists.

Atlanta’s west side was likewise a center of gravity for activism and leadership during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Maynard Jackson, who’d become Atlanta’s first Black mayor in 1973, lived a block away from present-day Cook Park as a kid. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived nearby with his family in the 1960s, not far from the family home of Julian Bond, who helped create the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee while he was a student at Morehouse in the early 1960s.

But alongside the neighborhood’s proud history, the lives and livelihoods of Vine City residents have been shaped by the same forces of discrimination and disinvestment that people like King fought to overcome. Today, the neighborhood has among the lowest incomes and worst public health outcomes in Atlanta. Abandoned buildings and vacant lots share blocks with occupied homes. Despite its world-changing legacy, more recent memories reflect the outcomes of decades of disinvestment and inequality, residents say.

Through the 1960s, racist housing policies known as “redlining” legally codified housing discrimination. As a result, Black homeowners throughout Atlanta were largely relegated to the

infrastructure. Together, the community identified the land that is now Cook Park as an area of vast potential.

The plan they put forth is another example of west side resi-

lower-lying areas along the creeks, putting them at increased

dents driving the change they know their communities need.

risk during heavy storms.

“There has been a history of activism around environmental

That’s the case in Vine City, which occupies low ground

issues in Atlanta, from illegal dumping to water quality,”

along Proctor Creek. Surrounded by parking lots and mega-

says Dr. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks. She chairs the West Atlanta

structures, Proctor Creek rises in the heart of downtown

Watershed Alliance, a community-based nonprofit that works

Atlanta where the landscape is so heavily paved, it’s almost

for environmental justice and stewardship. The organization

impossible for the ground to absorb and slow stormwater.

cut its teeth in the mid-1990s with a campaign to overturn the

During storms, runoff rushes downstream, picking up dirt, oil,

sort of discriminatory development and wastewater treatment

and other pollutants. Those floodwaters then rush into streets,

practices that led to the 2002 flood.

yards, and even homes in low-lying areas of Vine City and nearby English Avenue.

In the years after the 2002 tragedy, residents teamed up to ensure the devastation Ms. Hood and her neighbors experienced would never happen again. Through dozens of community events, meetings, and in-depth conversations over 18 months, residents articulated their priorities for future public spending on flood prevention, identifying nine sites throughout the neighborhood that could be transformed into public

“ Th ere h a s b een a h istory o f act iv is m a ro u n d en v iro n m en ta l iss u es in At la n ta , f ro m illega l du m pin g to wat er q qual ua lit it y.”

green space that could double as stormwater management

N A 'T ' TA KI O OSB SB O R NE JE L LKS, K PHD West Atla n ntta Watershed Wate r Allli a n ce

Addressing the causes of flooding—like an archaic combined sewer and stormwater system that can’t handle the burdens of a growing population and bigger, more frequent rainstorms associated with climate change—calls for big investments. And The Trust for Public Land and the City of Atlanta are working hard to prioritize those investments where they’re needed most. But how, exactly, can new parks help stop the flooding that had so long plagued the neighborhood?

“Instead of only building big vaults and installing pipes and drain inlets, which are expensive and really only serve the aim of flood control, we look for opportunities to use parks and natural systems to manage flooding and improve water quality,” says Jay Wozniak, landscape architect and Georgia director of urban parks at The Trust for Public Land. He’s talking about “green infrastructure,” or stormwater management systems that rely on natural processes to reduce flood risk, while providing all the other benefits of a great city park.

5 8 · LAND &PE OPL E · SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

TH E T R U ST FO R PU B LIC LA N D'S VI SI ON F OR AT LANTA 1

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2

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4 Kimberly Community Schoolyard

With a trusted history of connecting people to the great outdoors, we're working to make sure every Atlanta resident has access to the benefits of nature.

L E ARN M O R E @

tpl.org/georgia

To see the effects of well-designed green infrastructure in Atlanta, all you need to do is look a few miles east. In the 1990s, Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward, a neighborhood just east of downtown, was struggling with frequent flooding. Engineer and community organizer Bill Eisenhauer saw a win-win solution in vacant land in the floodplain of Clear Creek. He envisioned a system that would channel stormwater into a pond—which would in turn form the centerpiece of a brandnew park, all while bringing beautiful green space to a neighborhood that sorely needed it.

The Trust for Public Land helped the city buy the property, and by 2010, Historic Fourth Ward Park was managing stormwater—and welcoming neighbors to play—throughout the neighborhood. “Community activism changes public policy,” says Eisenhauer of the years-long campaign to create the park.

“The City of Atlanta is dedicated to managing stormwater, and we’ve invested significantly in green infrastructure to support these goals across the city,” says Todd Hill, a deputy commissioner with the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management. Hill’s department was planning a green infrastructure project to reduce flooding in Vine City, and joined forces with the Department of Parks and Recreation to create a space that would meet the neighborhood’s need for a park, too. Guided by the plan put forward by English Avenue and Vine City residents,

Explainer Explainer

in 2015, the parks department approached The Trust for Public Land to tap the organization’s proven expertise with community engagement, fundraising, and construction management.

Just like Historic Fourth Ward Park, green infrastructure features are imbued throughout Cook Park’s design. Rain gardens provide natural, porous areas where stormwater can absorb into the soil. Around the boundary, planters capture runoff from the surrounding neighborhood. And the two-acre pond isn’t just a beautiful spot to meet up for a walk with a friend—it’s part of an engineered system that can store up to nine million gallons of stormwater from 160 surrounding acres that would otherwise flood streets and overflow sewers.

Reducing flood risk is just one benefit that the new park will offer to Vine City and English Avenue residents. “As a community, we were concerned about what would be in the park,” says Linda Adams, vice chair of the Vine City Civic Association. Adams was among the hundreds of residents who came forward to share their ideas and perspectives about the future park throughout the multiyear planning process.

But The Trust for Public Land “listened to what the residents would like to see in the park,” she said.

6 0 · LAND &PE OPL E · SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

“When you include residents in a meaningful way, it ensures that people won’t get disconnected, [and that the park] will be a benefit to them,” Dr. Osborne Jelks says. “The goal is that it is created for the community, as it draws on their needs and desires by listening and acting on their concerns.”

D. Aparicio Thompson works for CHRIS180, a community services organization that works on the west side of Atlanta.

He helped make sure neighborhood youth had a say in the park’s creation. In 2018 students in the organization’s afterschool program teamed up with professional rock climbers to help design a pair of custom climbing boulders, made possible by a partnership with The North Face. “When they get older, they can always go back to the park and say that they had a part in it and can show what they are a part of and can see what they contributed,” Thompson says.

For her part, Ms. Hood says she’s looking forward to spending a lot of time in the new park. “I have some books I want to set out and read, and communicate with nature,” she says.

Still, watching the decades-long transformation of the neighborhood where she spent most of her life in Atlanta has been “bittersweet,” she says. “The bitter is because of the flood. But seeing the wonderful creation that has been made out of our devastation, I am so inspired.”

D. APARI A PA C IO T HOM HO P S O N Yo u tth h se rv iicce s lea leade de r

Member Center When you become a member of The Trust for Public Land, you join a community of outdoor advocates who care deeply about protecting the places that make our country special—from small neighborhood parks to vast wilderness escapes. As a member, you’ll receive benefits including: • Insider updates on our work in your community and beyond • A subscription to Land&People, the awardwinning magazine for people who love the land Join or renew your membership today!

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Donate $2,000 or more annually and

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See more giving options at tpl.org/ways-to-give.

6 2 · LAND &PE OPL E ·SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

CHARITABLE SOLICITATION DISCLOSURE A copy of our latest financial report may be obtained by writing to The Trust for Public Land, 101 Montgomery, 9th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104. Telephone number (415) 495-4014. The Trust for Public Land has been formed to facilitate the transfer of privately held land into protective public and not-for-profit ownership, and to promote other ways to ensure healthy livable communities for generations to come. If you are a resident of one of these states, you may obtain financial information directly from the state agency: FLORIDA – A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES

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T P L. O R G · 63

ƭƫ ƚƢƥōƬ ƞƧƝ

GONE BACK INTO THE EARTH We’re remembering author Barry Lopez, who passed

and played her oboe before a storm we could see hanging

away in December. His 50-year career explored the

over Nevada. Sterling Smyth, who would return to program-

ways people connect with the land and how each

ming computers in 24 hours, created a 12-string imitation of

shapes the other. Here’s an excerpt from his 1988 essay

the canyon wren, a long guitar solo. David Darling, revealed

collection, Crossing Open Ground, which recounts a

suddenly stark again against a white lightning sky, bowed

rafting voyage down the Grand Canyon with a group of

furious homage to the now overhanging cumulonimbus.

musicians making an album along the way.

In the morning we touched the far shore of Lake Mead, boarded a bus and headed for the Las Vegas airport. We were still wrapped in the journey, as though it were a Navajo blanket. We departed on various planes and arrived home in various cities and towns and at some point the world entered again and the hardest thing, the translation of what we had touched, began.

I sat in the airport in San Francisco, waiting for a connecting flight to Oregon, dwelling on one image. At the mouth of Nankoweap Canyon, the river makes a broad turn, and it is possible to see high in the orange rock what seem to be four small windows. They are entrances to granaries, built by the Anasazi, who dwelled in the canyon more than a thousand years ago. This was provision against famine, to ensure the people would survive.

I do not know, really, how we will survive without places a lifetime, even, is enough. To feel the stripping down, an ebb of the press of conventional time, a radical change of ekol ar a /istockphoto

proportion, an unspoken respect for others that elicits keen emotional pleasure, a quick, intimate pounding of the heart.

the last evening it rained. We had left the canyon and

Some parts of the trip will emerge one day on an album.

been carried far out onto Lake Mead by the river’s current.

Others will be found in a gesture of friendship to some

But we stood staring backward, at the point where the

stranger in an airport, in a letter of outrage to a planner of

canyon had so obviously and abruptly ended.

dams, in a note of gratitude to nameless faces in the Park

A thought that stayed with me was that I had entered a

Service, in wondering at the relatives of the ubiquitous wren,

private place in the earth. I had seen exposed nearly its oldest

in the belief, passed on in whatever fashion—a photograph,

part. I had lost my sense of urgency, rekindled a sense of what

a chord, a sketch—that nature can heal.

people were, clambering to gain access to high waterfalls

The living of life, any life, involves great and private pain,

where we washed our hair together; and a sense of our endless

much of which we share with no one. In such places as the

struggle as a species to understand time and to estimate the

Inner Gorge the pain trails away from us. It is not so quiet

consequences of our acts.

there or so removed that you can hear yourself think, that

It rained the last evening. But before it did, Nancy Rumbel moved to the highest point on Scorpion Island in Lake Mead 6 4 · LAND &PE OPL E · SPR I NG /SUMMER 2021

you would even wish to; that comes later. You can hear your heart beat. That comes first.

reprinted by permission of sll /sterling lord literistic, inc. © 1988 by barry holstun lopez.

like the Inner Gorge of the Grand Canyon to visit. Once in

t h at ’s a l l f o r t h i s i s s u e o f l a n d & peo pl e, e xc ep t a g r e at b i g

thank you.

Ʋ ƨ Ʈ Ʀ ƚ Ƥ ƞ ƭ ơ ƞ Ƭ ƞ Ƭ ƭ ƨ ƫ Ƣ ƞ Ƭ ƩƨƬƬƢƛƥƞ ƭƨ ƬƮƩƩƨƫƭ ƨ Ʈ ƫ ư ƨ ƫ Ƥ Ư Ƣ Ƭ Ƣ ƭ t p l .o r g /d o n at e .

t h a n k yo u f o r a l l yo u d o t o c r e at e pa r k s a n d p r o t e c t l a n d for people.

For almost 50 years, we’ve relied on members like you to protect 3.7 million acres of land, develop 2,000 miles of trails, create nearly 500 parks, and transform 250 public schoolyards into healthy, green havens for play and learning.

Together, we’ve generated over $80 billion in public funding for parks and conservation, and

ƛƫƨƨƤƞ ƛƫ ƚƠƠƞƫ ƩơƨƭƨƠƫ ƚƩơ Ʋ

fought for the policies that will ensure America’s magnificent public lands stay whole, healthy, and thriving for generations to come.

Because a just and vibrant society is built on

l and for people. e ast l ake park chat tanooga , tennessee

nonprofit us postage

National Office 101 Montgomery St. Suite 900 San Francisco, CA 94104

paid

TA K E A STAND Ou ur pub ubli licc lan a dss are e the he prid riide of the he e natio ion n. Butt pow n. o erfu full pol olittic cians ians are re working g to con onve vert rrtt thiis publi ub bl c pro ope pertty to pri riva ivat vva ate te profit fit. We belie eve e th hiis age enda is outt of step tte ep wit ith h the he nee eedss of eve v ryyd da ay Ame meri r ca can nss.

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