Parks & Recreation Magazine December 2020 by Creative By Design

D EC E M B E R 2020 N R PA .O RG

PARKS AND POLLINATORS SUSTAINABLE HABITATS AND COMMUNITY SCIENCE HELP RESTORE NATURE

Why Good Health Begins with Biodiversity Heritage Interpretation Enhances the Park Experience

Shade Systems offers lots of imaginative solutions for shading your water parks and pool facilities, such as our versatile Offset Single Post Pyramids shown. Support columns are cleverly designed to stay out of the way for safety and convenience. TM

Shade never had it so cool

Insist on the Shade Systems advantages at pools and waterparks: TM

√ Support columns are located to the BACK of the shades, allowing unobstructed traffic flows and enhancing safety near water activities. √ Turn-N-SlideTM fastening system for quick and easy canopy removal. √ Colorful CoolNetTM shade fabrics provide up to 99% U.V. screening. √ All stainless steel hardware and cables for maximum corrosion resistance. √ Most comprehensive warranties in the industry.

1.800.609.6066 shadesystemsinc.com/pools-and-waterparks

ATHLETICS, FURNITURE & PLAYGROUND

PARK & PLAY ENVIRONMENTS

Thank You! During this time of gratitude, we wanted to offer these simple words that hold a deep meaning. Thank you to our Burke Representatives, our customers, our Burkies, suppliers, installers and everyone who, despite everything, helped drive the play movement forward. Parks and Recreation areas are more important now than ever before and your passion continues to make the magic of play happen.

No call to action, no tagline. Just a heartfelt Thank You for showing up when you were needed.

bciburke.com

THE

ET!

J.J. Ryan

N PLA YGROU NDS O

R E C R E AT I O N

bciburke.com • 800.266.1250

contentsdecember 2020 volume 55 | number 12 | parksandrecreation.org

FEATURES

34 Supporting Biodiversity’s Building Blocks: Pollinators and Sustainable Habitat Betty Blockinger, Rosalie Hendon and Michele White

The Columbus (Ohio) Recreation and Parks’ Whetstone prairie project became the key to unlocking community support for their parks and building new partnerships.

Parks & Recreation

40 Biodiversity Lays the Pathway to Good Health LaDonna Baertlein

Now is our time to think strategically about urban greening and biodiversity as our collective priority for the future of public and environmental health.

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

46 Heritage Interpretation Enriches the Park Experience Jon Kohl

Learn how park professionals can deploy thematic interpretation techniques to achieve their health and wellness, equity, and conservation park goals.

PHOTO COURTESY OF COLUMBUS (OHIO) RECREATION AND PARKS

The Columbus (Ohio) Recreation and Parks Department staff are leveraging the power of nature, wellness and creativity through sustainable habitat and community science.

Hedra

Where the answer is always

YES, and…

Endless formations of fun form a fascinating interconnected matrix of three-dimensional play where the next move is always the right one. Explore this continuous hive of evolving play at playlsi.com/hedra. The new shape of play. ©2020 Landscape Structures Inc. All rights reserved.

#shapedbyplay

contents december

columns 8

departments 12 We Are Parks and Recreation 10 Lessons from 10 Years 12 Speak at the 2021 NRPA Annual Conference 15 Member Benefit: NRPA’s Career Center 15

16 Research Looking at the Barriers to Youth Sports Kevin Roth

17 Park Pulse Take Action with Parks and Recreation to Help Your Community

50 Operations Avoiding the Smell of Failure Steve Berens

Perspectives My Perspective on Special Events Michael P. Kelly

10 Editor’s Letter A Year of Resilience Vitisia Paynich

18 Finance for the Field Joint Provision Partnerships with Schools John L. Crompton, Ph.D.

20 Advocacy Benefits of the Outdoors Shouldn’t Have an Expiration Date Jackie Ostfeld

22 Health and Wellness Remembering Self-Care When Planning Events Daniel W. Hatcher, MPH

24 Equity More Parks, Longer Lives Elva Yañez

51 Crossword 52 Park Essentials

26 Conservation

55 Advertiser Index 56 Park Bench U.S. Navy Bands: A National Treasure Lieutenant Joel Borrelli-Boudreau

Conservation Inspiration: A Class for Older Adults to Engage in Action Kärin J. Kupka, LCSW

28 Law Review Premises Liability for a Fall at an Ice Rink James C. Kozlowski, J.D., Ph.D.

In the case of Samuelsen v Wollman Rink Operations LLC, the plaintiff, a recreational ice skater who had been taking ice skating lessons at Wollman Rink for several years, fell on the ramp used to enter and exit the rink. Cover image: Photo courtesy of Columbus (Ohio) Recreation and Parks

Parks & Recreation is printed using soy ink on at least 10 percent post-consumer recycled paper, and is mailed in a wrap — only when required — that is plant based and certified compostable. If you are interested in helping us go even greener, email us at prmagazine@nrpa.org and ask to opt out of receiving the print magazine. Parks & Recreation is always available to read in an ezine format at ezine.nrpa.org.

Parks & Recreation

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

Page 28

YOUR IDEAS ARE WORTH SHARING Submit your education session ideas for the 2021 NRPA Annual Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

WIN FREE REGISTRATION

Submit your session proposals December 1, 2020 to January 8, 2021 for the chance to speak in Nashville and win a free full-package registration to the conference.

For more information, visit nrpa.org/Proposals or contact education@nrpa.org

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

My Perspective on Special Events I’d like to think that after 30 years of working on special events in Chicago, Illinois, I have perspective. However, my point of view definitely changed in 2020, as we all suffered through a historic pandemic. In Chicago and around the Midwest, we look for any excuse to get outside. As winter gives way to spring, we seem to shed seven layers of clothing overnight for that first run along the lakefront, or that first long bike ride, or even to take our children to the playground. Likewise, street fests, block parties, concerts and movies begin to take shape. Early on during the pandemic, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot made a decision to reopen with an abundance of caution. As a result, most special events were canceled for the year — no marathon, no food festivals and no Lollapalooza. For the city and the Chicago Park District, this meant…no revenue! We lost $100 million this year, and most of that is directly tied to special events being canceled. You can multiply that number by 10 to gauge the impact to our local economy. My perspective is pretty straightforward. Parks play an incredible role in hosting special events, producing special events and, most importantly, generating revenue for local municipalities. In fact, we host so many events each year that I am fond of saying that the Chicago Park District is the largest provider of outdoor entertainment in the state of Illinois. Nevertheless, the show must go on, and I am proud to say that this past summer marked the eighth season of our award-winning “Night Out in the Parks” program. It was a challenge for sure, but also creative. Coined “Your Night Out at Home,” more than 40 artists and neighborhood organizations were featured in performances across digital platforms. Despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles we faced, we stayed committed to delivering this innovative program — in a new format — for all residents. The circumstances dictated that we adapt, and we did just that. As we continue to forge ahead, we must rethink our approach. Special events certainly help bring life to our parks. Moving forward, I urge all of you to look closely at the core of what brings parks to life, what is the true beauty of our parks — people. It is the kids, families, young adults, athletes with disabilities, seniors, nature enthusiasts and so many others. It is their passion that makes parks great. Let us accept the challenge and think more creatively about our resources and communities. Current conditions may not allow a “night out in the park” for families, but what is holding us back from bringing parks to backyards, balconies or living rooms virtually? The digital world cannot replace the beauty of our parks, but it does allow us to appreciate and value what we’ve always had. With the holidays upon us, I wish all of you a healthy and safe winter season. Happy New Year and here is to a great 2021!

MICHAEL P. KELLY Chair, NRPA Board of Directors

Parks & Recreation

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

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

NRPA’S MISSION: To advance parks, recreation and environmental conservation efforts that enhance the quality of life for all people. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Chair of the Board of Directors Michael P. Kelly

Park Advocate Emigrant, Montana

Chicago Park District Chicago, Illinois

Gurnee Park District Gurnee, Illinois

Past Chair Jack Kardys J. Kardys Strategies Miami, Florida

Treasurer Xavier D. Urrutia Alamo Colleges District San Antonio, Texas

Secretary Nonet T. Sykes

Susie Kuruvilla

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

Carolyn McKnight-Fredd, CPRP Eagle Methods Management Consulting Dallas, Texas

Joshua Medeiros, Ed.D., CPRP, AFO

Atlanta Beltline, Inc. Atlanta, Georgia

City of Bristol Parks & Recreation Bristol, Connecticut

At Large Carolyn McKnight-Fredd, CPRP

Ian Proud

Eagle Methods Management Consulting Dallas, Texas

At Large Mike Abbaté, FASLA, LEED AP Abbaté Designs Portland, Oregon

President and CEO Kristine Stratton, Ex Officio National Recreation and Park Association Ashburn, Virginia

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Michael Abbaté, FASLA, LEED AP Abbaté Designs Portland, Oregon

Kathy Abbott Boston Harbor Now Boston, Massachusetts

Jesús Aguirre, CPRE Seattle Parks and Recreation Seattle, Washington

Jose Felix Diaz Ballard Partners Miami, Florida

Victor Dover

PlayPower Lewisburg, Pennsylvania

Nonet T. Sykes Atlanta Beltline, Inc. Atlanta, Georgia

Xavier D. Urrutia Alamo Colleges District San Antonio, Texas

Lakita Watson, CPRP Richland County Recreation Commission Columbia, South Carolina

Greg A. Weitzel, M.S., CPRP City of Las Vegas Parks and Recreation Las Vegas, Nevada

Philip Wu, M.D. (Retired) Kaiser Permanente Northwest Region Portland, Oregon

LIFE TRUSTEES Beverly D. Chrisman Lexington, South Carolina

Anne S. Close Fort Mill, South Carolina

James H. Evans

Dover, Kohl & Partners Town Planning South Miami, Florida

New York, New York

Rosemary Hall Evans

DuMor Tables 294, 295, 296, 297, 298, and 299. Simple solutions fit for any space. The needs for spaces differ from project to project but making sure the space has a DuMor guaranteed quality table doesn’t

Angelou Ezeilo

Sugar Hill, New Hampshire

have to differ. Straight forward design, three surface

Greening Youth Foundation Atlanta, Georgia

Earl T. Groves Gastonia, North Carolina

material options, color choice, mounting options, vari-

Richard Gulley

Charles E. Hartsoe, Ph.D.

Balboa Park Conservancy San Diego, California

Monica Hobbs Vinluan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Ashburn, Virginia

Jack Kardys

Harry G. Haskell, Jr. Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania

Kathryn A. Porter Mendham, New Jersey

J. Kardys Strategies Miami, Florida

Perry J. Segura

Michael P. Kelly

R. Dean Tice

Chicago Park District Chicago, Illinois

Round Hill, Virginia

Karen Bates Kress

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

ous capacities, and six styles.

Richmond, Virginia

New Iberia, Louisiana

Eugene A. Young, CPRP

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

EDITOR’S LET TER

A Year of Resilience Alright, I’m just going to be honest…2020 hasn’t been the best of years — not even close! And I’m quite certain you share my sentiment that this year could not end soon enough. While I shall spare you the litany of reasons why 2020 wins “the worst kickoff to a new decade” award, instead, I’ll explain why park and recreation professionals made an indelible difference in the lives of the community members they serve every day. In fact, I would sum it up in one word: resilience. During the early days of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic when many cities and states had issued various levels of shelter-in-place mandates, park and recreation agencies across the country quickly pivoted their operations to offer essential services, including transforming their facilities into shelters to protect the most vulnerable — people experiencing homelessness — from this highly infectious disease. When schools closed due to COVID-19, park and recreation staff made sure children who depend on meal-assistance programs would not go hungry. And, even as the pandemic catapulted the country into an economic crisis and park agencies were forced to cut their operations budgets, staff showed their resilience by staying the course. They made certain that parks, trails and open spaces remained accessible to those working and learning from home, who needed an outlet for restoring their physical and mental health. Resilience is something that the Columbus (Ohio) Recreation and Parks department knows about firsthand, especially when it comes to leveraging the power of nature, wellness and creativity to protect the environment. In the cover story, “Supporting Biodiversity’s Building Blocks: Pollinators and Sustainable Habitat,” on page 34, the city of Columbus’ Betty Blockinger and Rosalie Hendon, along with NRPA’s Michele White, discuss what made the Whetstone prairie such an important project for the community it serves. “Prairies are now one of the most endangered ecosystems on earth,” according to the authors. “Restoring prairies is an important conservation priority.” Contributor LaDonna Baertlein also touches on restoration of biodiversity within our urban systems in the feature article, “Biodiversity Lays the Pathway to Good Health,” on page 40. Baertlein addresses why parks and open spaces are important components of urban greening and biodiversity, as well as offers case studies that support her assertions about their impact on our health. “Humans and microorganisms have a symbiotic relationship that relies on ecosystem fitness and biodiversity for optimal health outcomes,” she writes. Next, contributor Jon Kohl provides ways in which park and recreation professionals can enhance visitors’ park experience in the article, “Heritage Interpretation Enriches the Park Experience,” on page 46. “It is not enough to take a nature walk with a ranger who spouts information. Rather, that individual should guide visitors to create meaning about places they visit and through the emotional relationship that emerges….” Kohl writes. As we close the book on 2020, I’d like to leave you with this thought: As park and recreation professionals, you are not only essential to your communities, but also your resilience, by far, has been the silver lining in what has been a most challenging and extraordinary year. On behalf of the entire Parks & Recreation magazine staff, we wish you a healthy and joyful winter season!

VITISIA “VI” PAYNICH Executive Editor Print and Online Content 10 Parks & Recreation

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

PRESIDENT AND CEO Kristine Stratton VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNICATIONS AND CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER Gina Mullins-Cohen gcohen@nrpa.org EXECUTIVE EDITOR, PRINT AND ONLINE CONTENT Vitisia Paynich vpaynich@nrpa.org ASSOCIATE EDITOR Lindsay Hogeboom lhogeboom@nrpa.org WEB EDITOR Jennifer Fulcher-Nguyen jnguyen@nrpa.org PUBLICATION DESIGN Kim Mabon/Creative By Design CreativeByDesign.net SENIOR CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT OFFICER Michelle Dellner 949.248.1057 mdellner@nrpa.org DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR Meghan Fredriksen 703.858.2190 mfredriksen@nrpa.org PHOTOGRAPHY Dreamstime.com or NRPA (unless otherwise noted) MAGAZINE ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS Anthony-Paul Diaz, Chair Michael Abbaté, FASLA Neelay Bhatt Ryan Eaker Beau Fieldsend Kathleen Gibi Paul Gilbert, CPRP Tim Herd, CPRE Brian Johnson, CPSI Denise Johnson-Caldwell Roslyn Johnson, CPRP Michele Lemons Sam Mendelsohn Maria Nardi Lisa Paradis, CPRP Paula Sliefert Shonnda Smith, CPRP, AFO Ronnetta Spaulding Anne-Marie Spencer Stephen Springs

YOU are a HERO - Thank You for Serving Your Communities COVID-19 Resources for Parks and Recreation Park and recreation professionals everywhere have stepped up to serve their communities in unprecedented ways during the COVID-19 pandemic. NRPA is here to support you and provide the most up-to-date resources related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In our dedicated resource center you can find: •

Printable infographics on how to use parks safely

•

Continually updated guidance for parks and recreation

•

Public policy updates and action alerts around key legislation affecting the field

•

Examples of how park and recreation agencies are responding to the pandemic

Find all these resources at: nrpa.org/Coronavirus

WE ARE PARKS AND RECREATION 10 Lessons from 10 Years By Lesley S. Hoffarth

n the decade since I began serving as president and executive director of the nonprofit park conservancy Forest Park Forever in St. Louis, Missouri, I’ve had many conversations with peers in the parks space. They’ve seen how organizations, like Forest Park Forever, Central Park Conservancy and others, have had successful partnerships with their respective city governments; in many cases, those I speak with are interested in adapting what’s worked for longer-running conservancies like ours. What follows is my effort to boil down the key learnings I’ve been sharing, in the hope that I can contribute something to the continued advancement of our important roles.

With different groups around the table, you need a shared plan at the center. The more than 1,000 individuals, groups and institutions that steered the 1993–1995 Forest Park Master Plan process did three especially smart things: they brought the community into the

like this, your park can continue developing in a strategic way even as the decades, administrations and conservancy teams change.

Public-private partnerships don’t start perfectly — and they need constant attention. Leaders who preceded me share that our own Forest Park Forever/ city of St. Louis relationship took some time before early skepticism could be replaced by shared understanding and open cooperation. Even decades in, we continue working on having a healthy partnership. For those in partnerships like these, there will be rocky times — and your relationships will go through stages. But the simple fact is that the better the two groups can work together, the better for the park and the better for the region.

process at the start for engagement en route to solutions; those solutions weren’t overly prescriptive, ensuring the plan can stay relevant and usable a quarter century in; and the plan strove to balance the needs of a diverse public seeking diverse activities. By having a core document

PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNIFER KORMAN

Parks & Recreation

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

Agree to responsibilities in writing. My first task as president and executive director was to shape and put into place a formal new agreement between Forest Park Forever and the city of St. Louis that would transcend administrations and institutionalize practices that serve Forest Park well. Among the key deliverables: establishing Forest Park Forever’s role as a true partner with the city; Forest Park Forever President and Executive Director Lesley Hoffarth and St. Louis Director of Parks, Recreation and Forestry Greg Hayes unveil a new path extension that was funded through Forest Park Forever’s recent $139 million capital and endowment campaign.

Two Forest Park Forever gardeners (left & right) complete landscape work with the assistance of a volunteer. The Saint Louis Art Museum appears in the background.

A community board plays a vital role. For every new capital restoration project in Forest Park, there is a formal ninestep process in front of the 25person Forest Park Advisory Board. Projects benefit from having a variety of perspectives around the table. And from year to year, the park has a built-in and diverse advocacy group that is well-versed in the spirit and intent of the master plan as new potential projects come into view.

Grow deliberately. Since 2010, the Forest Park Forever team has doubled. In order to manage this growth successfully, we found success by methodically building out a small senior leadership team, followed by a departmental leadership team that has been able to set its budgets and goals, which must click into place with the larger annual organizational goals we set as a team each fall. This sounds straightforward — but if it’s done right, it can be foundational to steady and thoughtful growth.

Actively learn how to be a better fundraiser. Early in my conservancy role, it was key for me to hire a top fundraiser as a senior leader, then have him build out a

PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNIFER SILVERBERG

creating a bond deal to build the next phase of capital projects in the park; and establishing a cooperative maintenance agreement that articulated how the city and Forest Park Forever would operate and maintain the park together.

fundraising team. Concurrently, with the support of select board and staff, I worked to continually hone my own skills in this area. I needed to learn all I could about presenting myself as a leader intertwined with the organization’s successful future — which transformational gifts would make possible — and I needed to feel as comfortable as possible with the art and science of the ask.

Keep your word, tell your story. At least once a quarter, I remind my leadership team that if we can continue fulfilling two crucial tenants, we’ll be successful: Deliver on what we promised during the planning or fundraising stage; and invest in telling the story of the success that came with their support. In doing so, we’ll build trust and momentum.

Develop relationships with peers, and learn and share with them. I am part of a working peer group with my green-space colleagues in St. Louis. We talk shop across the board monthly — from upcoming projects and industry trends to how we’re responding to COVID-19 and more. Park and conservancy leaders have much to gain by deepening their relationships with other nonprofits and civic agencies — understanding your own region’s landscape, and knowing who the conversational leaders are and ultimately where your own park fits into the bigger picture.

Leverage volunteers strategically. Across a range of roles, volunteers are a remarkable force multiplier. We’ve benefited greatly from partnering with our local con-

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

W E A R E P A R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N

vention and visitors commission, Explore St. Louis, which provides well-trained front-line visitor representatives at the park’s popular visitor center to supplement our own staff at no additional cost to us. While horticulturists occasionally can be proudly protective of the spaces they’re paid to care for, I’ve been adamant about the larger benefits of matching them up with willing volunteers to help weed, mulch and more. And, we have a series of board committees whose members dig into key initiatives and advance our strategic plan in important ways.

Plans and studies help power the future. I’ve seen firsthand how investing in compre-

hensive plans or studies can yield significant gains. For example, in 2019, we worked with the city to complete a comprehensive Natural Resources Management Plan. This year, we secured a seven-figure gift to support the ongoing restoration of the forests in our park. The donor was aided by seeing us clearly demonstrate the need and our plans in our long-view study; and we benefited from being able to match up a prospective gift with exactly the right type of improvement Forest Park needs, rather than have a gift determine what work should be done. While I have, of course, focused on the positive in this article, there are several areas where Forest Park

Oh, the endless days! Gathered together Reveling in the joy of play. Where watery wonders excite us Unite us And invite us to set our imaginations free. To learn more and inspire your outdoors, visit aquatix.playlsi.com.

Parks & Recreation

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

Forever continues to learn, adapt and improve. Our work on diversity, equity and inclusion will be crucial and defining for us in the coming years. But with a strong partnership with the city of St. Louis and generous supporters making our work possible, we have built a solid foundation that delivers a great deal for St. Louis residents and visitors from 170 countries. If a burgeoning conservancy or a parks department is able to gain something from this look back at what I’ve learned in my first 10 years, I’ll consider it a win for a field that is proving more vital than ever. Lesley S. Hoffarth is President and Executive Director of Forest Park Forever (lhoffarth@forestparkforever.org).

Speak at the 2021 NRPA Annual Conference

o you have a great idea for a session or want to share your expertise with other park and recreation professionals and advocates? Is there an experience that you or your agency can share to benefit your park and recreation peers? You can share your ideas and experiences by speaking at the 2021 NRPA Annual Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, September 21–23, 2021. Beginning December 1, 2020, you can submit your education session proposals for the 2021 conference. Speakers are encouraged to present original content that promotes participant interaction. Speakers also should be energetic and engaging to inspire a diverse audience that is passionate about parks and recreation, health, equity, conservation, landscape architecture, city planning and more. These audience members are united in their passion to make communities great places to live, work and play. We are looking for speakers who can build on that passion and inspire even greater impact on communities nationwide. The deadline to submit your proposal is January 8, 2021 (11:59 p.m. EST). Learn more at nrpa.org/ Conference. Share your ideas and experiences by speaking at the 2021 NRPA Annual Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

Member Benefit: NRPA’s Career Center

t’s never too early to start thinking about hiring for the spring and summer seasons. When park and recreation professionals want to land their next job or job seekers want to break into the field, they turn to the NRPA Career Center. The NRPA Career Center is the premier online resource for reaching qualified park and recreation professionals you won’t find anywhere else. It’s time to start thinking about hiring qualified individuals for your open positions. Here are four reasons why employers should be using the NRPA Career Center: • First-time Employers Get a Discount – NRPA wants to welcome first-time employers to the NRPA Career Center by giving you its biggest discount available: Get 50 percent off your first 30-day single job postings using the promo code HELLO50. • Free Internship and Seasonal Postings – Since you’re already thinking about summer hiring, why not post your open internship positions? NRPA members receive FREE internship and seasonal position packages. • Google for Jobs Integration – Jobs posted to the NRPA Career Center are automatically searchable through Google for Jobs, creating even greater exposure. The Google for Jobs application appears before Google’s standard search results — prioritizing your positions. • Easily Manage Your Applications – After your job listing is posted, it becomes time to manage all the applications you’ve received. You also can use your agency website to collect applications. Stay organized by marking candidates you are interested in and deleting applicants who don’t fit the position. Don’t forget to check out your job statistics to find actual numbers of views, applications, clicks on “apply” and job forwards. • New Features – Now employers can enter their posting and select the date that they wish it to go live. This will help employers that are preparing their jobs and want them to go live on certain days without logging in to activate them later. More features are continuing to be added to make the candidate search even easier. Don’t fall behind in 2021. Create an employer account in the NRPA Career Center and gain access to qualified individuals waiting to make a difference at your agency today! Visit nrpa.org/Careers for more information. PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

RESEARCH Looking at the Barriers to Youth Sports By Kevin Roth

outh sports are a critical starting point in a person’s lifelong journey toward an active and healthy lifestyle. Children and teenagers who engage with sports not only grow up more physically active and confident, but also gain physical and mental health benefits that follow them throughout their lives. Park and recreation professionals and their agencies are major providers of youth sports opportunities across the nation, serving all members of their communities. Equity is at the heart of access to youth sports. Unfortunately, there are significant disparities in who has access to youth sports. Today, many park and recreation agencies face limiting funding challenges and stout competition with travel sports leagues and other providers that hinder equity in youth sports. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and resulting economic recession have greatly exacerbated these funding challenges, impeding park and recreation agencies’ mission to deliver low-cost youth sports programs to everyone. In July 2020, the NRPA Research team asked park and recreation leaders about the current state of youth sports programming at their agencies. The 22-question survey queried about youth sports programs, focusing on agency partners, fee structures and activities that park and recreation agencies use to promote greater access. Among the key findings is that relatively few park and recreation agencies “go it alone” when delivering sports opportunities for their communities’ youth. Instead, they develop and nurture partnerships

Parks & Recreation

with third parties. Common partners include: • Private sports associations (52 percent of agencies) • School systems (46 percent) • Nonprofit organizations (42 percent) Registration fees are a major source of funding for park and recreation agency youth sports offerings, with more than 9 in 10 agencies charging fees to sports participants. At the same time, registration fees may deter access to youth sports for many lower income residents. One method that agencies use to expand access is offering reduced fees or discounts to lower income residents.

Challenges to Delivering Youth Sports Virtually all survey respondents report that their agencies struggle with challenges in their mission to deliver youth sports activities to all community members. Three in 5 park and recreation professionals report difficulty in recruiting enough volunteer coaches. Forty-five percent of survey respondents indicate their agencies lack a sufficient number of sports fields and courts. Nineteen percent of survey respondents report that their agencies need more administrative staff or resources, while 14 percent of agencies do not have sufficient funding to ensure fair and just

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

access to high-quality youth sports. Competition is another challenge faced by many agencies. Privatesector sports leagues have the option to target anyone (e.g., by location and ability to pay registration fees). A park and recreation agency unable to successfully compete may find itself struggling to generate needed revenues. Among these competitors are: • Private travel sports leagues (cited by 49 percent of respondents) • Nonprofit community leagues (21 percent) • School-affiliated leagues (21 percent) Agencies have faced a wide spectrum of challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn, including budget cuts; restrictions on when, where and how groups of people can congregate; and training staff and volunteers on safe distancing practices. Ninety percent of park and recreation professionals report that the pandemic negatively impacted their agencies’ youth sports programming. By centering sports programming around youths’ needs and laying a foundation for long-term participation, park and recreation agencies can help sustain engagement in sports and benefit the long-term health of our society. A mix of greater support — in the form of sustainable governmental tax support and the nurturing of partnerships — will ensure every member of our communities enjoy the many benefits of youth sports. Kevin Roth is Vice President of Research, Evaluation and Technology at NRPA (kroth@nrpa.org).

NRPA PARK PULSE

Take Action with Parks and Recreation to Help Your Community

3 in 4 U.S. adults say they would consider taking actions to help their local community.

The top three actions people would take to help their community include:

Cleaning up trash at a local park or trail

Volunteering at a shelter, soup kitchen or local farmers market

Donating money to provide opportunities for children to attend camp or afterschool activities

Parents (85 percent) and millennials (82 percent) are most likely to consider taking actions to help their local community. Each month, through a poll of 1,000 U.S. residents focused on park and recreation issues, NRPA Park Pulse helps tell the park and recreation story. Questions span from the serious to the more lighthearted. The survey was conducted by Wakefield Research (www.wakefieldresearch.com).

Visit nrpa.org/ParkPulse for more information.

FINANCE FOR THE FIELD Joint Provision Partnerships with Schools By John L. Crompton, Ph.D.

n 1898, several schools in New York City were opened as evening recreation centers with leaders who were responsible for recreational programming. This was the beginning of a long tradition of recreation agencies negotiating cooperative arrangements with school systems, authorizing the use of school facilities during afterschool hours.

However, these joint-use arrangements are limiting. They invariably are negotiated after a school facility is built, so the space was not purposefully designed for both school and community use. Joint provision is a superior alternative. Unlike joint use, in the planning stages both agencies have input into its designs, negotiate details of their respective roles in its management and operation, and agree to their funding contributions to the project.

The Rationale for Joint Provision The standard specifications for schools, especially junior high and high schools, incorporate multi-

ple recreation elements that city governments want to offer their residents: sports fields, libraries, theaters, art facilities, gymnasiums, weight training areas, swimming pools, craft studios, music rooms and equipment, meeting rooms for evening classes, vocational training labs, etc. In terms of capital costs, probably 80 percent of the investment in community recreation facilities already has been made. Adapting these to facilitate community access would require relatively modest injections of capital and would be much more cost effective than building facilities independent of schools.

Figure 1:

School vacations

School semesters

Available for community use

15 hours

9 hours

School priority 36 weeks 180 days (weekdays)

Parks & Recreation

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

72 days (weekends)

16 weeks 112 days

In some communities, the real problem in meeting recreational needs could be resolved if future schools and school extensions were designed so their recreational components were purposefully designed to accommodate community use. The rationale for school districts and cities to jointly provide these amenities is summarized in Figure 1 below, which shows use of the physical plant. The section marked “School Priority” shows that recreational facilities used exclusively by a school represents a very small proportion of their potential overall use (i.e., 180 days a year for a limited number of hours each day). Community-built recreational facilities are likely to be used extensively on weekends, in the evenings and early mornings, and during school vacations. Community facilities typically have much less intensive use on weekdays during the hours when people are at work or school. Hence, the facility-use requirements of a school district and public recreation agency are reasonably complementary. The cost of a new high school recently constructed in my community was $112 million. Figure 2 on page 19, shows that if school and extra-curricular activities use the plant from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for 180 school days, this represents 18 percent of the plant’s potential use. Would any business make such a large capital investment in a physical plant that it used for only 18 percent of its capacity? If

the plant is available for community use during evenings, weekends and school vacations, then usage of the recreational elements could increase to 61 percent. Elected officials on both school boards and city councils are under pressure from taxpayers to do more with less. Providing one set of recreational facilities that both school and community constituencies can share is, in essence, using the same tax dollar twice. Joint provision is likely to result in savings to taxpayers from reduced land acquisition costs, capital development costs and operating expenses. In addition to economic efficiencies, a school’s recreation complex may better serve as a social focus for the surrounding community. Intensive programming outside school hours could help foster a sense of community in neighborhoods that have no such identity. In some neighborhoods, school facilities are the largest public space and they are grossly underused. Building public facilities into a school campus alleviates the need for working parents to arrange transportation for students to afterschool programs offered by the recreation department.

Why Isn’t Joint Provision More Widely Used? Joint provision inherently implies compromises. For example, inevitably there are occasions when both parties want to use a facility at the same time. This may cause resentment and adversely affect the morale of both teachers and recreation personnel. Similarly, school administrators do not want the community having access to the school plant beyond the recre

Figure 2: Potential Use of School Plant Total School Plant Annual Capacity 24 h per day x 365 days = 8,760 h Total Annual School Use 9 h per day (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) x 180 school days = 1,620 h School use of potential capacity = 18% Total Annual Community Use [7 h per day (5 p.m. to 12 a.m.) x 180 school days] + [24 h x 52 weekends (Saturday 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m. to 10 p.m.)] +16 h per day x 81 school vacation days) = 3, 804 h Community use of potential capacity = 43% Total school and community use of potential capacity = 61% ation amenities. To alleviate these concerns, facilities designed for community recreational use could be grouped at one end of a school building in a special wing or separate building. Such a functional arrangement limits access to other parts of the building. A primary challenge is aligning the availability of capital budgets of both entities at the time needed to construct facilities. This requires a planning horizon of perhaps five years in advance of construction, so bond referendums by both agencies can be organized.

Vision: The Key Ingredient A recreation manager experienced in partnerships with school systems observed: “The difficult part of getting these partnerships going is there is a lot of hostility because everyone is looking out for their own interests. It is hard to step back and look at what is best for the community. And, what is best for the community, particularly in these times of very difficult funding, is to combine your efforts and work together.”

In most communities, schools and recreation facilities belong to the same taxpayers. This suggests no construction of new recreation facilities by either the school board or the city should be considered in isolation. Administrators in both agencies would prefer to possess their own facilities, because it gives them greater flexibility and control. Sharing creates additional challenges they would rather not have to address. However, it’s not their money — it is the taxpayers’ money — and if administrators and elected officials genuinely subscribe to the view that they are “public servants,” then the taxpayers’ interests should prevail. Joint provision requires leadership with a “can do” attitude, rather than leaders who use the control arguments to forestall such efforts. The logical case for joint provision is overwhelming, but it requires enlightened leadership. John L. Crompton, Ph.D., is a University Distinguished Professor, Regents Professor and Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence in the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University and an elected Councilmember for the City of College Station (jcrompton@tamu.edu).

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

ADVOCACY

The Outdoors Alliance for Kids is actively working to convince the U.S. Department of the Interior and Secretary David Bernhardt to extend the Every Kid Outdoors program for those who were unable to participate due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Benefits of the Outdoors Shouldn’t Have an Expiration Date By Jackie Ostfeld

ince the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) spread throughout the United States in March, much of the country has spent the past several months in various states of lockdown. The pandemic closed schools, sending children home and preventing them from seeing friends and family or experiencing the play we previously took for granted. Children are largely spared from the debilitating — and potentially fatal — effects of COVID-19, but the harm to their mental health from so much time spent indoors and in isolation will take its toll. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends spending time outside because it is harder for the virus to spread outdoors and because nature provides physical and mental benefits. Many have turned to national parks for reflection and restoration. Unfortunately, many fourth graders may not have that opportunity this year.

Every Kid Outdoors Program The Every Kid Outdoors (EKO) 20 Parks & Recreation

program has a simple goal: Help children get outdoors and explore our public lands. In 2015, the Obama administration launched the EKO program, with early support from the Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK), of which NRPA is a founding steering committee member. Under the EKO program, all fourth graders and their families are eligible for a pass that offers one year of free admission to national parks, waters, forests,

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

monuments and wildlife refuges. In the program’s first two years, more than 2 million fourth graders signed up for the pass. The Trump administration attempted to shutter the program, but OAK rallied against the proposed cut and managed to not only save the program, but also win its authorization for seven years through passage of the Every Kid Outdoors Act of 2019. Studies have shown that spending at least 120 minutes in the outdoors every week is connected to improved overall health and well-being. One recent study found that spending as little as 10 minutes in nature can make students feel happier and lessen the effects of physical and mental stress. In response to the pandemic, many state and local governments

issued stay-at-home orders, and the CDC issued guidance urging people to stay physically distanced, limit travel and restrict outdoor physical activity to parks and open spaces close to home. Due to systemic racism and historic redlining, however, close-to-home parks are few and far between for many children, especially in Black, Indigenous and people-of-color communities. People of color are three times more likely than white people to live in communities with limited nature access, and 100 million people in the United States, including 28 million children, do not have a park within a 10-minute walk of their home. And, national parks and waters have been consistently overcrowded throughout the pandemic, with many viewpoints, facilities and trails packed with people. Families that followed public health officials’ guidance and stayed close to home were not able to use the EKO pass. On August 31, the 2019–2020 EKO pass expired. COVID-19 has shown no signs of abating, and the U.S. Department of the Interior has not extended the current pass. Unless something changes, some fourth graders may miss out on their chance to visit a national park.

Advocating for Children OAK is actively working to convince the Department of the Interior and Secretary David Bernhardt to extend the EKO pass. In August, more than 30 organizations, including Sierra Club and NRPA, signed onto a letter asking Secretary Bernhardt to extend the pass. But for now, the pass is still expired, and these fourth graders remain at home. The outdoors can be a place of respite and healing. We all, es

pecially our children, will need nature to recover from the physical and mental health effects of COVID-19. Extending the EKO pass is a simple, bipartisan and equitable way of making sure our

children have the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of the outdoors they desperately need. Jackie Ostfeld is Founder and Chair for Outdoors Alliance for Kids and Campaign Director for Sierra Club Outdoors for All (jackie.ostfeld@sierraclub.org).

Enjoy...with thePilotOutdoors Rock Bike Racks

Simple to Stylish. Traditional to Modern. Choose your style, color and material.

Single-sided or Double-sided parking.

Pilot Rock has a place to park them all!

RJ Thomas Mfg. Co., Inc • Cherokee, Iowa 800-762-5002 • pilotrock@rjthomas.com • pilotrock.com

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Remembering Self-Care When Planning Events

As you contemplate a little "me time" to support your own mental and physical health, especially during the end of the year, it's important to give yourself some much-needed space.

By Daniel W. Hatcher, MPH

hether you’re sharing your favorite festive sweater on a video call or ringing in 2021 at a venue, the season of holiday parties and end-of-year celebrations is upon us. As you organize engaging events for others this month, consider planning a little “me time” to support your own mental and physical health — which can be easily overlooked when managing details, logistics and new public health guidelines.

Consider planning a little “me time” to support your own mental and physical health — which can be easily overlooked when managing details, logistics and new public health guidelines.

22 Parks & Recreation

To support yourself as you support others, below are a few selfreflection questions and conversation starters for you and your team to explore:

Give yourself some space. • What is one place you can make your own (tinyurl.com/yxpp5ll7), even for a small amount of time? • If you share a workspace, what cues can you use to indicate you are in need of quiet time?

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

• What is a short walking route you can use when you need to unplug for a few minutes? • Block time on your calendar for lunch; consider prepping a few meals on the weekend to have healthy meals (tinyurl.com/ y6nfyo9q) ready to go.

Focus on what you can control. • Brainstorm one thing you can add to your morning routine to promote a sense of calmness. Write this down and share with a friend who can support you. • Congratulate yourself on a job well done; write down two things that make you proud. Use this as an icebreaker at the start of team calls leading up to your event,

especially during conversations you expect to be stressful. • Before bed, write down a list of worries or any unresolved tasks to avoid dwelling on them. Bonus points if you follow up your “worry window” time with light-hearted reading (tinyurl. com/yxncn329) and a soothing cup of tea. • Challenge yourself to a healthy habit each day, like taking a 15-minute walk, drinking eight glasses of water or swapping social media scrolling for a handson DIY project (tinyurl.com/ y2ym8k7c).

Add play to your day. • What activities can you turn to quickly when you feel frustrated and need to calm down? • Pick a playful item you enjoy, like art supplies or a musical instrument, to display in your workspace. How could sharing your creative talents as a team strengthen your bonds and encourage collaboration? • Start your own book club with friends committed to self-care. Four of my favorites right now include: • Free to Learn (tinyurl.com/ y3wgdxmz) by Peter Gray — explores how play can improve problem-solving skills. • Teacher’s Guide to Resiliency through the Arts (tinyurl.com/ yxt2ab3h) by Cally Flox, Dr. Melissa Sadin and Nathan Levy — you don’t have to be a famous artist to get the benefits of creativity. • Playful Intelligence (tinyurl. com/yytt569p) by Anthony DeBenedet — we all need moments of wonder and imagination.

• Yoga Animals (tinyurl.com/ y47ulxtd) by Paige Towler — stretch break!

Celebrate wellness during your event. • What event ideas can your team brainstorm that support the physical and mental health of your staff while also engaging the community? • How can you integrate playful characteristics, like humor, wonder and imagination, into your event? • Which wellness-focused companies in your community could donate prizes and incentives? Now it’s your turn! What would you add to this list?

Challenge yourself to a healthy habit each day, like taking a 15-minute walk, drinking eight glasses of water or swapping social media scrolling for a hands-on DIY project. For additional ideas to support you during the holiday event season, visit Healthier Generation’s new Feeling Healthy at Home collection at healthiergeneration.org.

Daniel W. Hatcher, MPH, is the Director of Community Partnerships at the Alliance for a Healthier Generation (daniel.hatcher@healthiergeneration.org).

Creating Fun Ways to Spray & Play! From contemporary designs to fun themes, we work with you to develop innovative aquatic play equipment and environments. CONTACT US FOR YOUR NEXT AQUATIC PLAY EXPERIENCE. 512.392.1155 | www.waterodyssey.com

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

EQUITY

Increasing park acreage in areas that face park deficits and low levels of tree canopy could lead to significant population-level increases in life expectancy.

More Parks, Longer Lives By Elva Yañez

rban parks and green spaces protect our health by providing opportunities for physical activity, time in nature, social connection and respite. During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, they’ve helped us maintain our sanity when, day after day, we and our children have been cooped up indoors. Parks also filter air, remove pollution, buffer noise, cool temperatures, filter stormwater and replenish groundwater. But access to parks and green spaces is starkly unequal across lines of race and class. Too many communities go without these health-promoting resources, facing greater exposure to pollution and other environmental hazards and higher rates of premature death from chronic illnesses, like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Tracking the Data To better understand the potential health impacts of expanding park acreage in areas that face park 24 Parks & Recreation

deficits and lack trees, Prevention Institute partnered with the University of California, Los Angeles’ (UCLA’s) Department of Environmental Health Sciences and an advisory board of community-based organizations to study census tractlevel data made available recently through the U.S. Small-Area Life Expectancy Estimates Project (USALEEP). We looked at life expectancy — the number of years a person can expect to live averaged across the population. This new research (tinyurl.com/

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

yxta6lu8) is based on data from the Los Angeles, California, region, but provides insights for park agencies across the country. In Los Angeles (L.A.) County, more than half of residents live in areas with high or very high park need, and these areas are concentrated in low-income communities of color. The research reveals that: • Increasing park acreage in areas that face park deficits and low levels of tree canopy could lead to significant population-level increases in life expectancy. • Targeted investments in park infrastructure would significantly benefit the health of Latino and Black community members. This is especially important in communities, like South Los Angeles, where the median life expectancy is 77 years, which is well

The following map shows the park need in Los Angeles County, California. Source: Los Angeles Countywide Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Needs Assessment (2016).

below the upper bound for the county as a whole. In Beverly Hills, less than 15 miles away, life expectancy is as high as 90 years — 13 years longer. The research suggests that if all the census tracts in L.A. County expanded park access up to the county median, it could add up to 164,700 years in lifeexpectancy gains for residents living in park-poor tracts. Latino and Black community residents comprise almost 72 percent of the gain (118,000 years). Park inequities in Los Angeles and other cities across the United States reflect the systematic production of inequities through historical and current-day policies, practices and procedures. Factors contributing to park inequities have included racial segregation, biased planning decisions and exclusionary zoning, among others. Present-day drivers of park inequities include shifting responsibility for public services and reduced ability of cities with limited tax bases and large lower income populations to provide parks and recreation services. Achieving park equity will require developing new policies and practices and reforming existing ones to prioritize investments in communities experiencing the greatest park deficits. Other actions agencies could take include: collecting data on park inequities and making it publicly available; building relationships with community-based organizations that work in and with marginalized communities to secure their input regarding park investments; evaluating agency policies and initiatives to assess their impact to reverse or reinforce park inequities and make corrections as necessary; and including line-item funding in public finance measures for parks (e.g., bonds, assessments, etc.) to explicitly eliminate park deficits. They also should ensure transparency and community oversight of park investments. Most importantly, park agencies should engage with and listen to people living in low-income communities of color that have been historically excluded from park-related decision making. The materials in the Advocacy Toolkit for Park Equity, Life Expectancy, and Power Building (tinyurl.com/yxta6lu8), which were developed based on the research described above, are designed to support community-based organizations, their members and others who are building power to secure equitable investments in park infrastructure in disinvested communities. Note: This work was supported by the Urban Institute through funds provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It was guided by an advisory board that includes the Center for Health Equity at the Los Angeles County

Department of Public Health and seven local base-building organizations: Community Coalition, Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, Long Beach Forward, National Health Foundation, Social Justice Learning Institute, Pacoima Beautiful and Promesa Boyle Heights. Elva Yañez is the Director of Health Equity at the national nonprofit Prevention Institute (elva@preventioninstitute.org).

We build to ORDER to meet your CUSTOM needs! Available in 16 standard colors! C.

440 SM

with optional: A. Pet Fountain B. Jug Filler C. Hand Wash D. Recessed Hose Bibb with Locking Cover

See all available options online!

Most Dependable Fountains, Inc.™ 901-867-0039

www.mostdependable.com

qPage_440.Cat_NRPA.indd 1 S A N D R E C R E A T I O N . O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 0 7/14/2020 12:20:07 PM PA R K 2 0 | Parks & Recreation

A sign-in table at the entrance of the class displays class materials and giveaways for participants.

Conservation Inspiration: A Class for Older Adults to Engage in Action By Kärin J. Kupka, LCSW

“

try not to use plastic water bottles and [I] bring cloth bags to the grocery store, but I really want to know what more I can do — I worry about my grandkids.” This sentiment was shared by an older adult who had come to attend the pilot of a 90-minute class designed to encourage older adults — those older than 55 — to engage in personal conservation action to save threatened species. Now, the class continues to be held at senior centers in San Diego County, California, with a goal of educating older adults about threatened species and the need for conservation, as well as providing inspiration regarding personal conservation action. Populations of animals are declining rapidly due to the fragmentation of habitat and climate change. The number of species estimated to be threatened with extinction is staggering, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature identifying more

26 Parks & Recreation

than 27,000 species as threatened. Small actions of all individuals are needed to reverse the decline. Examples of these small steps of personal conservation action include recycling glass and plastic, using cloth napkins, reducing single-use plastics, installing energy-efficient

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

light bulbs and sipping iced tea with paper straws. While change relies on the effort of all individuals, most opportunities to learn about ways to save species are geared only toward youth and not older adults.

How Older Adults View Conservation Older adults are living more active lives and, in turn, are participating in community service projects and educational events. Both older adults and youth have an equal role in caring for the environment with varying degrees of knowledge and experience. Some older adults

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ERIC WEBSTER

CONSERVATION

Kärin Kupka pilots a class that educates older adults about threatened species and the need for conservation.

believe that nature, over time, will simply take care of itself. However, other older adults are concerned about the environment and, over time, develop an interest in conservation. It was noted that older adults are especially concerned about the environment when government agencies seem to not adequately meet the community’s needs. Small groups of older adults are likely to engage in personal action if they believe others in the group would do what is needed to protect the environment. Learning strategies, as well as motivations to change behavior, are different for older adults. New behavior needs to be as easy as possible; it should be easily remembered and replicated. By participating in a classroom setting with opportunities to come together to share behaviors and learn new ones, older adults are more motivated to change. Research shows older adults prefer less hands-on learning and more time for selfreflection and sharing their personal stories. Older adults learn best as a collective group, learning from each other as well as from facilitators. Building rapport between teacher and participants is key and drawing from personal experience in the room enhances that rapport. Class participants at first seemed appropriately appalled at the statistics regarding threatened species and were eager to learn ways to help. An introductory activity engaged participants and promoted lots of sharing. It led pairs of older adults to discover the diet and feed

ing location and method of some marine animals and what types of plastics in our oceans these animals are likely to think is a meal. Individuals commented that they had never thought about the type of plastic being consumed by certain animals, depending on where they forage for food. Examples of environmentally friendly products were showcased, and a discussion ensued about other ways to conserve at home. One item that proved popular was bamboo toilet paper, especially when participants were able to feel the softness. The class was lively, positive and could have gone on much longer. The pre- and postclass data collected showed older adults do have a genuine interest in helping to save threatened species and recognized the importance of a behavior change. All participants committed to take at least one personal conservation action step after attending the class.

Analyzing the Data After piloting the class, the curriculum is now available for senior center staff to use for hosting their own classes. To locate the curriculum as well as other opportunities for older adults to engage in volunteerism, activism, and citizen science, visit conservationforseniors.com. I hope that the curriculum will be used at senior centers throughout San Diego County and beyond, inspiring older adults to engage in personal conservation action. Even seemingly small changes can add up to big results. Confucius once said, “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” All it takes is one small stone — one change by an older adult — to move that mountain! Kärin J. Kupka, LCSW, is a licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 20 years of experience working with older adults at the VA San Diego Healthcare System, and is also a Master of Arts in Biology Student through Miami University in conjunction with San Diego Zoo Global (kupkakj@miamioh.edu).

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

L AW R EV I EW

Premises Liability for a Fall at an Ice Rink

The plaintiff, a recreational ice skater who had been taking ice skating lessons at Wollman Rink in New York for several years, fell on the ramp used to enter and exit the rink.

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

n the case of Samuelsen v Wollman Rink Operations LLC, 2020 NY Slip Op 32702(U), 2020 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 4643 (8/11/2020), the plaintiff alleged she sustained serious injuries as a result of a fall inside an ice rink managed and operated by defendants Wollman Rink Operations LLC and The Trump Organization, Inc., doing business as Trump Rink (collectively WRO/Trump).

Facts of the Case Wollman Rink is an ice skating rink located in Manhattan’s Central Park in New York. It is open to the public and managed and operated by defendant WRO. A 2001 licensing agreement between Wollman Rink Operations, LLC, and the City of New York Department of Parks and Recreation granted WRO a license to operate and manage the rink. A 2010 amendment to the 2001 license agree28 Parks & Recreation

ment were both signed by Donald J. Trump as president of Wollman Rink Operations LLC. The 2010 amendment extended the license to April 30, 2021. On December 11, 2014, the plaintiff, a recreational ice skater who had been taking ice skating lessons at Wollman Rink for several years, fell on the ramp used to enter and exit the rink as she attempted to leave the rink following one of her lessons. She claims to have suffered

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

traumatic brain injury and other injuries as a result of the fall. The plaintiff commenced her lawsuit on January 4, 2016, alleging that the defendants were negligent in failing to timely remove the ice from the ramp, failing to install and maintain matting on the ramp that was suitable for outdoor use and provided an even surface, and failing to provide a proper handrail near the ramp. The plaintiff claimed that at the point where the ramp meets the ice there were lumps of ice and uneven matting, which caused her skates to become caught and her to fall backwards and hit her head on the ice. In response to the plaintiff ’s complaint, WRO/Trump raised assumption of the risk as an affirma-

tive defense, which would preclude any liability. In 2014, the plaintiff was taking lessons three days per week at the rink. On the day of the accident, as she entered the rink at about 7:30 a.m., she used the left rail because she saw snow and ice on the ramp. The plaintiff recalled seeing “bumps and lumps of ice” on the “entire bottom section” of the ramp, the portion without the rails. She did not slip nor fall going into the rink, but had to walk sideways, on her toe picks, due to the ice. She did not report the ice to anyone at the rink. The plaintiff free skated for 30 minutes to warm up, then took a 30-minute private lesson. To exit the rink, she went back to the same ramp and stepped onto the bottom area near the ice. She saw it was still icy so, again, used her toe pick. Suddenly, her “blade caught something” and she was “up in the air.” Her head hit the ice when she landed, and she lost consciousness. An ambulance responded.

WRO/Trump Deposition Testimony Dale Klied, director of operations for Wollman Rink Operations LLC, testified that he was the general manager of the rink on December 11, 2014. He recalled that he and other managers would direct their Zamboni drivers and skate guards, all operations department employees, to remove ice and snow from the matting on the ramp if they observed a hazardous condition. However, he could not recall if he was present at the rink on December 11, 2014, and he did not know the condition of the matting on the main ramp that morning. Klied knew the plaintiff from the

rink but “just to say good morning.” He did not recall if he was working on December 11, 2014, and only learned of the accident when his lawyer asked him for an incident report. A search was done, but no incident report was found. Klied checked with Elise Preston, his skate school director, who confirmed that the accident occurred. Preston had been notified of the accident by one of the coaches, David Ings. Klied did not recall if Preston provided any details of the accident and could not recall which year he spoke to her about it. Although there is a specific form used when an ambulance is called to the rink, no such report was found in regard to the plaintiff ’s accident. Raymond Garrity, the director of engineering for the Trump Organization for 17 years, was not an engineer. His highest level of education was high school plus “a couple of accounting courses at NYU” [New York University]. His duties included going to the rink “to make sure that the repairs or replacements requested by WRO are necessary.” Although he claimed to oversee any work done at Wollman rink for 17 years, Garrity knew the names of only three people there, including Klied. At the start of each skating season, Garrity and the City Parks Department engineers would inspect the Wollman Rink facilities and mechanical equipment, including the refrigeration equipment that runs under the ramp. Garrity would review any proposed repairs prior to them being made, and again after to determine that they were done properly. Between 2004 and 2014, Garrity was never informed by anyone from Wollman that the subject ramp needed repair. He did not

recall any repairs in 2014 and neither he nor the Trump Organization had documentation showing whether he approved or disapproved any work in 2014.

Notice of Dangerous Condition WRO/Trump also submitted affidavits from David Ings, the plaintiff ’s skating coach, and Chantelle Trazyk, another skating instructor, who both worked at the rink but described themselves as selfemployed. Ings coached the plaintiff for two years and was leaving the ice with her at the time of the accident. The plaintiff was behind him on the ramp when she fell and he did not observe any “ice, water or buckling/unevenness of the matting” at that location on the ramp” at any time that day. Ings was at the rink since early morning and used that ramp five times that day, including seconds before the plaintiff fell. No one complained to him about ice on the ramp or the condition of the matting. If they did, he would have reported it to a rink employee. Traczyk similarly stated that she was at the rink from early morning and used the subject ramp twice that day prior to the plaintiff ’s accident, the last time at 8 a.m. Traczyk was at her desk inside the building adjacent to the rink when the accident occurred, but went to the plaintiff when the accident was reported to her. Traczyk observed nothing unusual about the ramp the entire day, even when she responded to the plaintiff after her fall. Traczyk knew of no prior incident where someone fell on the ramp due to unevenness/ buckling of the matting or accumulations of snow and/or ice.

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

L AW R EV I EW

WRO/Trump also submitted an expert affidavit from Bernard Lorenz, a licensed civil engineer, who inspected the site on November 11, 2019, and reviewed photographs, transcripts and other records. He concluded that the mats were designed to be used as ice arena perimeter flooring, that the mats he observed in 2019 were well-maintained, and the slope of the walking surface was safe. In another affidavit, George Pfreundschuh, a licensed professional engineer and accident reconstruction consultant, concluded that the plaintiff fell due to a lump of ice on the ramp, and not the purportedly uneven matting. He reviewed documents, transcripts, photographs, weather data and “rubber matting information” and conducted a site inspection on December 12, 2019, five years after the accident. He relied upon information and representations provided to him at the inspection from Garrity that the ramp on

which the plaintiff fell in 2014 was of the same construction, materials and configuration and in the same condition as the ramp that they examined on December 12, 2019. Pfreundschuh opined that one continuous piece of matting covered the ramp in 2014, but that the outer perimeters of the mat could become displaced and allow for water seepage underneath that could freeze into ice. On this basis, Pfreundschuh concluded that “without any question of fact, plaintiff ’s alleged accident was not caused by uneven matting.” WRO/Trump argued that these submissions established its entitlement to summary judgment inasmuch as they demonstrated (i) WRO/Trump did not have actual or constructive notice of the lumps of ice on the ramp, and (ii) plaintiff, having seen the icy condition of the ramp, assumed the risks associated with skating while there was ice that may impede her ability to exit the rink.

To demonstrate WRO/Trump did have knowledge of a dangerous condition, the plaintiff submitted affidavits and deposition testimony from other regular skaters at Wollman Rink.

30 Parks & Recreation

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

Dangerous Condition Complaints To demonstrate WRO/Trump did indeed have knowledge of the dangerous condition of the ice rink, the plaintiff submitted affidavits and deposition testimony from other regular skaters at Wollman Rink. All of these skaters asserted they regularly observed and complained to WRO/Trump about the poor condition of the ramp prior to the plaintiff ’s accident. In her affidavit dated July 2015, Deborah Weatherbee-Shulman stated that she had skated at the rink for years and she was present at the rink at the time of the accident and saw the plaintiff lying on the ice. Wetherbee-Shulman recalled that the ramp was covered with “a series of loose overlapping rubber mats that form an uneven surface, where water, patches of ice and clumps of ice form, depending on weather conditions.” On December 11, 2014, she saw “icy, lumpy, uneven ice conditions” on the ramp where the plaintiff fell. According to Weatherbee-Shulman, she had complained to the skating coaches and rink management for many years about the ramp conditions. Catherine Sweeney, another frequent skater at the rink who was also present at the time of the accident, just three feet away, saw and heard the plaintiff ’s head hit the ice, making a loud thud sound. Earlier that morning, Sweeney had complained to other skaters about the condition of the ramp, which she testified was dislodged and uneven where it met the ice and was covered in ice. She explained that this condition would cause the skaters to take a longer step to get onto the mat to avoid

the raised and icy areas. Sweeney testified that complaints about the ramp were “a common occurrence.” Douglas Eaton, a retired federal magistrate judge and avid skater, frequented the rink for many years, including 2014, and knew the plaintiff. A number of times each season, he would observe ice forming on top of and underneath the rubber mat on the ramp and create an uneven surface. Three or four times each season, he would report the condition to the person at the sign-in desk, Elise Preston being one of them and an employee named Susie being another. Eaton had observed rink staff working on the ramp to address those conditions during the 2014 skating season. He recalls workers chipping ice out from underneath the front edge of the rubber mat, which had become raised due to the ice accumulation underneath. Eaton testified that the condition was made worse by the absence of railing the last five feet before the ice. The staff would, sometimes, put up orange cones in response to his complaints. Eaton was not present on the morning of the plaintiff ’s accident. The plaintiff also submitted an affidavit from John Burley, an expert in the field of ice rink operations, who had 40 years’ experience with ice rink/arena design, manufacturing and operation. Burley reviewed the deposition testimony, photographs, available records and other documents. He concluded that WRO/Trump failed to properly maintain the ramp. He explained that the lumps of ice on the ramp and underneath the matting likely formed due to the rink’s refrigeration system, which consisted of piping underneath the rink at

temperatures well below freezing, in order to maintain the ice on the rink. In Burley’s opinion, the ice would have been present on the rubber matting for hours, if not days, and therefore, WRO/Trump staff should have noticed and cleared or removed the ice.

Premises Liability As cited by the court, the following “rules concerning premises liability are well settled”: A landowner has a duty to maintain premises in a reasonably safe condition. Landowners may be held liable for failing to maintain premises if they either created a dangerous condition thereon or had actual or constructive notice thereof within a sufficient time prior to the accident to be able to remedy the condition. Further, the court noted that “summary judgment is warranted only where a defendant can establish that it did not have either actual or constructive notice of the dangerous or defective condition.” Moreover, to constitute “constructive notice,” the court acknowledged that “a defect must be visible and apparent, and must exist for a sufficient length of time prior to the accident, to permit defendant’s employees to discover and remedy it.” Within the context of a “premises designed for sport or recreational activity,” the court stated the specific issue was “whether a defendant’s action or inaction creates a dangerous condition over and above the usual dangers inherent to the sport or recreational activity.” Moreover, according to the court, the existence of a dangerous or defective condition in a sport or recreational activity would depend on “the peculiar facts and circum-

stances of each case and is generally a question of fact for the jury.” As a result, such cases would more likely proceed to trial as opposed to being effectively dismissed pretrial on a motion for summary judgment.

Dangerous Condition Evidence Applying these principles to the pretrial evidence in this particular case, the court found the plaintiff ’s proof raised triable issues as to whether (i) the ice that formed on or beneath the matting and lack of proper handrails constitutes a dangerous condition over and above the general dangers inherent to ice skating, and (ii) whether those conditions, particularly the ice accumulations, were in existence long enough or often enough that WRO/Trump had actual or constructive notice of the condition.

The court found WRO/Trump had failed to establish that it did not have actual or constructive notice of the lumps of ice and uneven matting alleged by the plaintiff. Moreover, the court found WRO/ Trump had failed to establish that it did not have actual or constructive notice of the lumps of ice and uneven matting alleged by the plaintiff. As characterized by the court, the affidavits of Ings and Trazyk merely demonstrated that at least two individuals did not see nor report any dangerous conditions to WRO/Trump on the day of the accident. Accordingly, the court rejected WRO/Trump’s contention that these affidavits somehow conclusive-

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

L AW R EV I EW

If a settlement could not be reached in the case of Samuelsen v Wollman Rink Operations LLC, the case would proceed to a jury trial.

ly demonstrated that the rink was free from any lumps of ice or uneven matting throughout the morning of the plaintiff ’s accident. Further, the court found this evidence did not establish that “any dangerous condition that may have led to the plaintiff ’s injuries was unknown to WRO/Trump and, thus, could not be remedied.” On the contrary, the court found the pretrial evidence indicated the plaintiff would be able to establish that WRO/Trump had actual or constructive notice of a dangerous condition. In light of such evidence, the court concluded it would be inappropriate to grant WRO/Trump’s motion for summary judgment since the pretrial evidence failed to conclusively establish the lack of a dangerous condition.

Assumption of Risk Defense In this particular instance, WRO/ Trump had raised the assumption of risk defense. As cited by the 32 Parks & Recreation

court, within the context of this particular case, the doctrine of assumption of the risk is defined as follows: [B]y engaging in a sport or recreational activity, a participant consents to those commonly appreciated risks which are inherent in and arise out of the nature of the sport generally and flow from such participation. The duty owed in these situations is a duty to exercise care to make the conditions as safe as they appear to be. Nevertheless, a participant will not be deemed to have assumed the risks of reckless or intentional conduct or concealed or unreasonably increased risks. Thus, if the risks of an activity are fully comprehended or perfectly obvious, one who participates in the activity is deemed to have consented to the risks. Moreover, the court acknowledged: “Application of the assumption of risk doctrine requires that the plaintiff have knowledge of the injury-causing defect, but also appreciation of the resultant risk.” According to the court, such aware-

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

ness of risk is “not to be determined in a vacuum,” but “whether a defendant’s action or inaction creates a dangerous condition over and above the usual dangers” inherent to the sport or recreational activity. In addition, assumption of risk is to be “assessed against the background of the skill and experience of the particular plaintiff.” Further, the court noted: “It is not necessary to the application of assumption of risk that the injured plaintiff have foreseen the exact manner in which his or her injury occurred, so long as he or she is aware of the potential for injury of the mechanism from which the injury results.”

Appreciation of Risk In this particular instance, WRO/ Trump had argued that slipping and falling on ice, including when entering or exiting the rink, is an inherent risk of ice skating, assumed by the skater, thus they should be shielded from liability. The court, however, rejected this argument given the circumstances of this particular case. In so doing, the court noted: “it is well settled that the doctrine of assumption of risk does not serve to bar liability where the risk is unassumed, concealed, or unreasonably increased.” On the appreciation of risk requirement, the court found WRO/ Trump’s pretrial submissions failed to establish its entitlement to summary judgment on its assumption of the risk defense. Specifically, the court found WRO/Trump had failed to establish that the plaintiff had an “appreciation of the resultant risk” that the icy conditions posed, particularly that the icy conditions could cause the plaintiff ’s skates to get stuck when attempting to leave the

area. On the other hand, the court found the plaintiff ’s deposition testimony did establish that the plaintiff observed the poor conditions of the ramp, including the ice accumulation and uneven matting, prior to her ice skating lesson. Accordingly, the court acknowledged this pretrial evidence could support an inference that the risks stemming from the accumulated ice were “fully comprehended or perfectly obvious.” On balance, however, the court found the pretrial evidence in this case might indicate that WRO/ Trump had created a dangerous condition, which unreasonably increased “the potential risks beyond the scope of what is contemplated when ice skating.” In so doing, the court took particular note of Burley’s

expert affidavit that raised a question as to whether “WRO/Trump’s failure to clear or remove the ice from on and under the matting” had created a dangerous condition that unreasonably increased the potential risks beyond the scope of what is contemplated when ice skating. Accordingly, in light of such pretrial evidence that the allegedly dangerous condition of the ice rink might have increased the inherent risks associated with ice skating, the court denied WRO/Trump’s motion for summary judgment based on the defense that the plaintiff had necessarily assumed the risk.

Conclusion Having reviewed the pretrial evidence of premises liability and assumption

of risk, the court concluded WRO/ Trump was not entitled to summary judgment, effectively dismissing the plaintiff’s lawsuit. Further, the court ordered that “the parties are to contact chambers on or before October 30, 2020, to schedule a settlement conference.” If a settlement could not be reached, the case would then proceed to a jury trial. During further trial proceedings, a jury would fully consider the plaintiff’s allegations of negligence and premises liability, in addition to WRO/Trump’s claim that any liability was precluded by the assumption of risk defense. James C. Kozlowski, J.D., Ph.D., is an Attorney and Associate Professor in the School of Sport, Recreation and Tourism Management at George Mason University (jkozlows@gmu.edu). Webpage with link to law review articles archive (1982 to present): mason.gmu.edu/~jkozlows.

www.TimberForm.com ®

“The first name in wood for play” SM

1-800/547-1940 HQ@timberform.com

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

Supporting Biodiversity’s Building Blocks:

Pollinators and Sustainable Habitat Parks leveraging the power of nature, wellness and creativity through sustainable habitat and community science

34 Parks & Recreation

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

By Betty Blockinger, Rosalie Hendon and Michele White

The Columbus (Ohio) Recreation and Parks department’s Whetstone prairie project became the key to unlocking community support for their parks and building new partnerships.

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

PHOTOS COURTESY OF COLUMBUS (OHIO) RECREATION AND PARKS

he Columbus (Ohio) Recreation and Parks staff take the department’s mission to heart: “To connect the people of our community through the power of nature, wellness and creativity.” The Whetstone prairie project, our only restored prairie in the city, became the key to unlocking community support for our parks and building new partnerships. It also proved to be a perfect example of how we could activate our core mission by bringing the lasting benefits of nature to our residents through sustainably managing the unique resources of our park system.

Parks & Recreation

P O L L I N AT O R S

The original prairie project in Whetstone Park was developed in 2004 as a creative solution to reduce mowing in the park and to promote wildlife habitat.

Nature Restored Tallgrass prairies once covered more than 1,000 square miles of Ohio, and more than 99 percent of prairies were lost in the state due to farming and development (tinyurl.com/y3s8x4tw). Prairies are now one of the most endangered ecosystems on earth (tinyurl. com/yxcdcgg3). Restoring prairies is an important conservation priority. The original prairie project in Whetstone Park was developed in 2004, with grant funding and volunteer support as a creative solution to reduce mowing in the park and to promote wildlife habitat. Initially, it was a picturesque space full of wildflowers, but the prairie’s maintenance suffered during the recession. Without prairie manage36 Parks & Recreation

ment, such as mowing or burning, saplings grew tall and overtook the native grasses. In 2018, Columbus Recreation and Parks Department and the community acknowledged safety and environmental concerns regarding the overgrown vegetation. A team from the department worked with the local area commission, Columbus residents and a capstone class from The Ohio State University (OSU) to develop a fiveyear plan to restore the prairie ecosystem to its previous integrity and make its management sustainable. The public response has been extremely positive. As one resident said in 2018, “I love the prairie but have been quite dissatisfied lately due to the overgrowth.... I appreciate that there is now a plan.” Columbus Recreation and Parks Department was fortunate to receive a $20,000 Parks for Pollinators grant through NRPA and The Scotts MiracleGro Foundation to kickstart this project. This grant funded not only the restoration of the Whetstone prairie, but also pollinator education for local children and families. Partnerships and community support have been the key to this project’s success. Several local corporations and organizations volun-

teered at Earth Day events to plant prairie seed and plugs. In addition to assisting with the management plan, the OSU students conducted research, data collection and designed educational signage. Community volunteers also were welcomed to assist with weeding the prairie. Columbus residents are curious about the work we are doing and the future plans for this land. By holding volunteer events and posting educational signage, we learned there was great public interest in learning about pollinators. All of the goals in the prairie management plan are demonstrating measurable success. One of the department’s goals was to reduce the amount of woody species — such as trees and shrubs — in the prairie, and they have decreased by twothirds. Woody invasive plants were eliminated entirely, and invasive species also decreased. The prairie’s overall biodiversity has increased since we implemented mowing and planting, and, in particular, our target native, non-woody species have increased by 142 percent. Through habitat surveys, we can communicate the effectiveness of prairie restoration and advocate for more prairies throughout our parks. Park users also enjoy seeing the wildlife the prairie attracts. One visitor said, “I love to come here to see the hummingbirds. I have a feeder at home, but it’s so cool to see them out in nature.”

Summary of Whetstone Prairie Species, 2017 to 2019 2017

2019

% change

Total species

36%

Woody species

-67%

Woody invasives

-100%

Invasive species

-23%

Native, non-woody

142%

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

This project and the commitment to sustainable management led department staff to begin restoring other prairies throughout the city with seeds collected from the newly restored Whetstone prairie. By following this successful model, new prairie restorations will provide more pollinator habitat, as well as show the community how beautiful, functional and sustainable urban prairies can be.

and excitement for pollinators through programming, such as the Pollinator Field Day event. These pollinator programs have a larger purpose as well, namely, educating the public about resilience, green infrastructure and the importance of healthy ecosystems in the community.

To celebrate Pollinator Month this year, Columbus Recreation and Parks Department held an adapted Pollinator Field Day at the Whet-

Engaging the community as volunteers and program participants in pollinator projects helps promote healthy and active lifestyles.

A Culture of Wellness Engaging the community as volunteers and program participants in our pollinator projects helps promote healthy and active lifestyles that fit into the city’s culture of wellness. In October 2019, department staff hosted their first annual Pollinator Field Day at the Whetstone prairie. This family-friendly event included field games about bees and butterflies; guided tours of the prairie; and monarch butterfly catch, tag and release. Master Gardener volunteers also attended the event to help advise people on how to start pollinator gardens at home, and several people volunteered by collecting seeds or weeding the prairie. One boy who had a particular interest in pollinators attended the event. He was able to share the names of every butterfly he saw fly by while searching the edge of the prairie. Participants enjoyed asking him questions about the butterflies, as he usually had an accurate answer and many fun facts to share. Department staff love connecting with residents on their knowledge

Pollinator programs help educate the public about resilience, green infrastructure and the importance of healthy ecosystems in the community.

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

P O L L I N AT O R S

NRPA’s Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz is a community science campaign that allows community members to explore their parks, learn about pollinators and plants, and help agencies understand how to manage open spaces.

stone prairie due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This event was held in September, and it also included a BioBlitz. During guided habitat tours, 16 event attendees used the iNaturalist app to document species, as well as to watch butterfly catch and release demonstrations. Department staff also recruited 21 people to volunteer to weed and collect seeds in the prairie. One volunteer even chose to celebrate her birthday by volunteering at the prairie! To minimize risks and keep participants safe during this public health emergency, preregistration was required and careful planning took place to ensure physical distancing. Staff sanitized tools, required masks to be worn and kept group sizes small.

The event was hugely successful both in person and online with more than 39,000 impressions and 792 engagements on social media. Following the in-person event, the BioBlitz was advertised for two weeks, allowing for more Columbus residents to learn about the Whetstone prairie and pollinators individually. We were committed to offering a safe space for the community to learn about pollinators and contribute to the prairie, whether in person or virtually.

Creativity Inspired Because of the collaboration and success of the Whetstone prairie project, Columbus Recreation and Parks Department has grown internally and developed a brand-new team: the Parkland Conservation Team. This new team focuses on four areas: (1) removing invasive species; (2) increasing tree canopy and pollinator habitat; (3) reducing debris, erosion and harmful aquatic organisms within the water sys-

tems; and (4) investing in the conservation pillar within Columbus Recreation and Parks Department. Forming the conservation team allowed staff to activate a core group of volunteers who are committed to conservation projects and advocate for parkland stewardship. The team is installing new pollinator gardens and offering new programming throughout the city. Staff also are creating new partnerships with local school districts and library systems to continue sharing pollinator education. All of this has inspired the team and the community about future pollinator projects. An overgrown and overlooked prairie has come to new life for the benefit of all through the power of nature, wellness and creativity.

2020 Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz NRPA’s Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz is a community science campaign that allows community members to explore their parks, learn about pollinators and plants that call them home and help agencies understand how to manage open spaces with data-driven information. Hosted through a partnership between NRPA and The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation, the Parks for Pollinators campaign aims to raise public awareness of the pollinator crisis and to encourage local action through public parks and recreation. NRPA and The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation believe parks play a key role in protecting and preserving pollinators and their habitats. Together, as part of Scotts Miracle-Gro’s

By following the successful model of Whetstone prairie, new prairie restorations will provide more pollinator habitat. 38 Parks & Recreation

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

GroMoreGood initiative, they are working to educate more children, families and communities about the importance of pollinators and what people can do to help. This year, like so many activities, the BioBlitz had to adapt due to the pandemic. Initially planned to run in June for Pollinators Month, the campaign was rescheduled for September to ensure agencies and their communities could participate safely. Fortunately, the BioBlitz lends itself to being a virtual activity that anyone can participate in. The activity not only let participants safely explore parks and learn more about the species through the iNaturalist App, but also helped to gather specific data on the species located in parks that helps park professionals manage those spaces for biological diversity and build ecological resilience. This year, nearly 200 park agencies or like-minded organizations downloaded information on how to host a BioBlitz. Events were organized from coast to coast, with 24 states represented from Alaska to Florida, and a total of 57 organizations participated. These groups recorded nearly 19,500 observations, documenting thousands of different species of both pollinators and pollinator-supporting plants. Nearly 2,300 people participated in the national BioBlitz to record these findings, and more than 3,000 experts helped identify the findings using iNaturalist. Participating park and recreation professionals found creative ways to connect virtually with the communities they serve, including holding virtual sessions to help educate their communities on local pollinators and host plants, providing adventure kits for participating youth, installing interactive art features to

educate and engage in a safe manner, providing directions for pollinator crafts and games for families — the list goes on. By promoting the importance of pollinators, some agencies experienced an increase in public support for pollinator habitat and are planning installations this fall! For instance, the city of Peoria, Arizona, received such strong community interest and engagement through its BioBlitz that the city is planning a new pollinator garden in one of its parks and plans to host other BioBlitz events later this year to continue to engage and educate its community around the importance of biodiversity. In 2020, NRPA and The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation granted $20,000 to the city of Dallas (Texas) Parks and Recreation Department to create pollinator habitats and educate local children, families and community members. The city of Dallas will install a pollinator habitat at Crawford Memorial Park that aligns with its efforts to improve pollinator conservation, focusing on increasing connectivity for both wildlife to habitat and people to nature. The garden will act as an outdoor classroom, waystation for pollinators and have elements of both a formal garden and a maintained wildflower area to showcase the beauty of pollinator gardens. It will connect communities to larger-scale installations nearby and the cost effectiveness of native habitat. “Dallas is focused on protecting our natural resources and educating communities on how nature and pollinators affect our daily lives,” says John D. Jenkins, director of Dallas Parks and Recreation. “Creating a pollinator garden at Crawford Park will provide an outdoor classroom and a natural space for residents to enjoy

INNERS W

WINNERS WI

NNER

2020 NRPA BioBlitz Winners Agencies that hosted a BioBlitz event in September had the chance to win a $1,000 prize and one of three Scotts Miracle-Gro prize packs to help with pollinator habitats or programs. Congratulations to the grand prize winner of $1,000 and one Scotts Miracle-Gro prize pack, DuPage Monarch Project (DuPage County, Illinois), a partnership between Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, Sierra Club: River Prairie Group, The Conservation Foundation and Wild Ones: Greater DuPage Chapter. The winners of the two additional prize packs are Bismarck Parks and Recreation District (Bismarck, North Dakota) and San Marcos Parks and Recreation Department (San Marcos, Texas).

all year-round. Conservation activities like BioBlitzes are hands-on ways for them to get excited about protecting Dallas’ natural habitats and wildlife and feel that they belong to nature.” We look forward to sharing the impacts of this project in the future. Betty Blockinger is Volunteer Services Manager at Columbus Recreation and Parks Department (BKBlockinger@columbus. gov). Rosalie Hendon is Environmental Planner at Columbus Recreation and Parks Department (RFHendon@columbus. gov). Michele White is Conservation Program Manager at NRPA (mwhite@nrpa.org).

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

PHOTO COURTESY OF VIENNA VITEK, DIG STUDIO

Play elements at Paco Sanchez Park are located along a play loop, encouraging movement from one play element to the next. The unplanned benefit of this layout is that it allows for physical distancing between play groups.

40 Parks & Recreation

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

Biodiversity Lays the Pathway to

Good Health Can a pandemic become the tipping point for connecting biodiversity with human health?

By LaDonna Baertlein

he coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has precipitated a utopian glimpse into urban centers around the globe, where streets are closed to accommodate al fresco dining, bike lanes are expanded, parks are full, the air is cleaner, and pedestrians are seen daily walking the streets and trails of neighborhoods. Prior to the pandemic stay-at-home orders issued in many countries, the scale of the pivotal changes in the road right-of-way and park uses could not have been imagined. Yet, here we are with cities around the globe offering this idealistic vision as we collectively adapt to increased outdoor activities and spillover from commerce into our previously auto-dominated streets.

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

BIODIVERSITY

Not only are parks and open spaces individually important components of urban greening and biodiversity, but also these spaces are linked into an interconnected biodiverse system. The Interconnection Between Health and Biodiversity A lesser discussed, but equally important, aspect of healthy cities is the role biodiverse landscapes play in promoting health. An April 2019 article in Frontiers Science News (tiny url.com/y42m4me4) states that urban biodiversity reduces chronic disease. Humans and microorganisms have a symbiotic relationship that relies on ecosystem fitness and biodiversity for optimal health outcomes. Restoration of biodiversity within our urban systems could help address chronic health problems, while restoring native plant communities to urban areas can

promote multiple co-benefits. As we repurpose our streets, expand park spaces and transform underutilized spaces to support recreation and leisure activities, we must pay equal attention to integrating biodiverse landscapes and restoring healthy soil biomes in these places. Not only are parks and open spaces individually important components of urban greening and biodiversity, but also these spaces are linked into an interconnected biodiverse system. We have the opportunity as we rethink our streets’ right-of-ways and allocate new uses to support commerce, mobility and open space, and make biodiversity an equally important priority. Increasing the urban forest and understory plantings, and weaving connected native habitats along trails, river corridors and rooftops should be public realm priorities, so humans, plants and animals can coexist in ways that promote health for all. An example of streetscape biodiversity interventions was under-

taken by the city of Melbourne, Australia, (tinyurl.com/y5v5tbh6) between 2017 and 2019 with continuing program monitoring. A key goal of this study was to increase understory plants on land managed by the city to support bat, bird and insect communities. On four streetscapes, indigenous plant species were installed with a goal of promoting biodiversity and connectivity, and to test ecological outcomes and plant performance against similar control sites. This pilot project was undertaken as part of the Nature in the City Strategy (tinyurl. com/y52b6eek) to create a more supportive and ecologically connected urban landscape. These native plant installations provide added benefits of being able to tolerate arid western climates, and as reported by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (tinyurl.com/ yxolmc9g), reducing urban heat index more than trees alone. Evidencebased trial projects like this should be undertaken on a wide-scale basis to inform priorities, document research, and inform public and private spending decisions that benefit biodiversity.

Converting Existing Parks to Ecologically Supportive Landscapes

PHOTO COURTESY OF VIENNA VITEK

In Denver, Colorado, the parks department recently established a Resiliency Planning team, which is adapting landscapes from the early 20th century City Beautiful Movement of park design into a 21st century Eco-Beautiful Movement. Their

42 Parks & Recreation

Grant Pearsell shared lessons learned from 20 years of implementing biophilic measures in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, at an ‘Urban Greening and Biodiversity Forum’ held by Dig Studio in March 2020. | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

work is cut out for them. “Denver Parks and Recreation is the highest user of Denver Water,” says Cinceré Eades, parks resiliency principal planner. Eades recently led the development of the Denver Landscape Typology Manual (tinyurl. com/yyrng5ck), which outlines how Denver Parks can convert irrigated bluegrass landscapes into combined bluegrass, adapted low-water and riparian landscapes. Another major effort being spearheaded by the city of Denver and the Downtown Denver Partnership is an urban forest initiative (tinyurl. com/y673quze). With only 4 percent current tree canopy coverage, the goal of this pilot program is to move the city to 10 percent coverage, while monitoring and assessing longer term impacts on health, cooling and air quality.

Connecting Biodiversity with Private Development We learned early on during the pandemic that food supply chains quickly would be impacted by global shockwaves. Urban agriculture is one way to integrate vegetation into urban environments while also increasing selfsufficiency in our food supply. Integrating urban farms into building facades, parks, terraces, rooftops, parking garages and vacant lots helps increase local food access while opportunistically greening these typically devoid spaces. Developers striving to implement urban greening measures within their projects can face unforeseen challenges in implement

PHOTO COURTESY OF KATE ROBINSON

Larimer Uprooted serves as both a green space for the public to enjoy and a productive farm offering fresh produce to the community.

ing these initiatives. For example, developer Urban Villages wanted to install a rooftop garden on a parking garage in Denver and found there was no zoning for privately owned urban farms. Grant McCargo, CEO and founder of Bio-Logical Capital and Urban Villages, worked with the city to gain an exemption for urban agriculture as an accessory use for parking garages — and from that emerged Larimer Uprooted (tinyurl.com/yyxd9a7w), a rooftop culinary garden. McCargo states that there are many unexplored areas in public policy where developers and municipalities are coming together to “figure it out” on issues ranging from district scale utilities in private development, use of rainwater for urban agriculture, green roof policies and greening alleys. He recommends that cities “foster an urban greening movement” by becoming less rigid, supporting innovation and allowing urban greening to occur without as much process and regulation. “If you can help developers be more creative and innovative, everyone involved will benefit,” says McCargo.

Health and Equity Health and equity go hand-inhand. Inequity in the distribution of the urban tree canopy and open space has been brought into the spotlight during COVID-19, where communities of color and lower income have been hardest hit by the disease. These neighborhoods are more likely to lack parks and green infrastructure and are where recreation and heat island reduction often are most needed.

Integrating urban farms into building facades, parks, terraces, rooftops, parking garages and vacant lots helps increase local food access while opportunistically greening these typically devoid spaces. Denver’s health equity index (tinyurl.com/y6hnn93n) is one tool that has been used to identify neighborhoods with the highest hurdles to leading healthy lives, and the city has been investing in those neighborhoods with new parks and trail connections. Improving community health through equitable

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

GRAPHIC COURTESY OF DIG STUDIO

BIODIVERSITY

Planting more trees and improving riparian buffer areas are examples of how the city of Denver, Colorado, is working to reduce heat island effect. These strategies are included in the Denver Landscape Typology Manual, a document helping to guide design, planning and maintenance decisions, in order to establish high-functioning, lowmaintenance ecosystems.

access to parks was the primary goal for the city’s investment in Paco Sanchez Park (tinyurl.com/ yya4yfjm), designed by Dig Studio and completed in August of 2020. An analysis undertaken by the city pointed to the high need for facilities that could help modify the behavior and expand social opportunities for nearby residents in this low-income and historically underserved area. Paco Sanchez Park received partial funding from the Colorado Health Foundation, and the parameters of the grant required a pre-design study of the health impact the revitalized park would

Integrating more parks and trees in redlined neighborhoods is a part of the solution to solving resident inequities. 44 Parks & Recreation

have on the surrounding neighborhood. “Getting people of all ages moving was the primary goal of the design of Paco Sanchez Park,” notes Heather Runkel, City and County of Denver Park and Recreation project manager for Paco Sanchez Park. “One of the best benefits of collecting usage data before and after the park improvements were implemented is that it will provide quantitative data to guide the city in making future park investments.”

History, Equity and Climate Change The National Integrated Heat Health Information System (tinyurl. com/j6sc8mc) outlines a host of health impacts from extreme heat, such as asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure, and states that in the United States, it already is deadlier than all other natural disasters combined. Research and data over time have led us to understand that the warming climate is concentrated in areas characterized by lowincome and people-of-color neighborhoods. Research conducted by Jeremy Hoffman (tinyurl.com/ y6tq2o89) points to correlations between areas of historic redlining

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

and increased heat as compared to surrounding areas. This was particularly noted in places, such as Richmond, Virginia; Portland, Oregon; and Denver, Colorado, where differences of 12 degrees or more were found in redlined neighborhoods. The lack of investment in treelined sidewalks and parks, and the increased influence of impermeable surfaces from industry, highways and warehouses left redlined neighborhoods much warmer, with few places to escape the heat. In a New York Times article (tinyurl. com/y2knecbu), a resident of Richmond, Virginia, describes walking more than a half mile across town to a park with shaded trees because her local playground lacks shade. The solution of integrating more parks and trees in redlined neighborhoods is a part of the solution to solving resident inequities, but also comes with challenges in that these investments also can lead to accelerated gentrification.

Quality Over Quantity: Weaving Parks into the City Fabric As urban populations have significantly increased over the past

cific situation; Don’t let operational costs be an afterthought — bring operational people in at the beginning of the design process when a nontraditional green infrastructure system will become their responsibility to maintain; Be mindful of market realities — if a sustainable community development proposal is outside the attainability of most residents, it is not practical; and Create tools to alleviate process bottlenecks — such as Edmonton’s Wildlife Passage Engineering Design Guidelines, which have been utilized to build 37 wildlife passages.

Implementation

Making Biodiversity a Collective Priority

In the spirit of ‘roll up your sleeves’ solutions during this messy time of responding to the pandemic, adapting new ideas into how improvements within the public realm are typically done can be embraced. How do we create a tailwind of support for biodiversity and urban greening initiatives? Dig Studio held an Urban Greening and Biodiversity Forum offering perspectives on this topic from a panel of national speakers. One of the presenters, Grant Pearsell, urban biodiversity strategist and retired urban planner, city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, shared implementation lessons learned over the past two decades from city-led initiatives to become a biophilic city. Many of these lessons can be informative elsewhere: Don’t let regulation stifle innovation — city regulations must be adapted to the spe-

In the words of urban resilience expert Michael Berkowitz (tinyurl. com/y5u4jfvw), “To build resilience, the trick is linking different goals together.” When thinking about economic development, how can we also better protect for floods? When thinking about mobility, how can we increase biodiversity or reduce exposure to extreme heat? Simply put, how can one intervention strengthen a city across a variety of areas? Often following a crisis there is an enhanced trend of goodwill and community spirit. This opens unprecedented opportunity for a collective commitment to urban greening and biodiversity measures. People will live with our choices today for generations to come. Let’s seize this opportunity to align the lens of public health and equity with biodiversity in projects involv-

PHOTO COURTESY DENVER PARKS AND RECREATION

Interventions like this street closure on 21st Street in Denver have taken place all over the country, providing opportunities to integrate popup parks in neighborhoods lacking access to parks and open spaces.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA CREATIVE COMMONS

two decades, many cities share the problem of having a shortage of per capita open space or having accessible open space within a 10- to 15-minute walk. This often complicates the challenge of extending open space equitably among neighborhoods. Creative interventions are making national headlines, highlighting projects that utilize parking lots, medians or underpasses for parks. And, parks don’t necessarily have to be the large swaths we may be accustomed to, but may be smaller areas more focused on providing relevant amenities for a given neighborhood. As an example, the eight-acre Chicano Park (tinyurl.com/y5qjnvvy) in San Diego, California, establishes a point system that values park features, instead of solely focusing on park acreage.

Chicano Park was created from reclaimed land beneath the San Diego-Coronado Bridge. The park hosts the country’s largest collection of outdoor murals.

ing flood control, open space and economic development. Let’s include health within our discussions about climate change and resiliency. Let’s explore and share creative ideas about urban greening. Now is our time to think strategically about urban greening and biodiversity as our collective priority for the future of public and environmental health. Tune in to the December bonus episode of Open Space Radio to hear more from LaDonna Baertlein and Laurel Raines, a senior principal at Dig Studio, about health and biodiversity at nrpa.org/DecemberBonusEpisode. LaDonna Baertlein is Director of Business Development at Dig Studio (ladonna@digstudio.com).

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

Heritage Interpretation

Enriches the Park Experience How managers deploy thematic interpretation techniques to achieve park goals By Jon Kohl

he city of McAllen, Texas, owns a historic 25-acre adobe mansion with wooded gardens, called Quinta Mazatlán. It hosts weddings, conferences, dignitaries and art exhibits, and would hardly seem a place sorely in need of heritage interpretation. But, this doorway to the city also opens to eight other city, state and national sites scattered across the Rio Grande Valley that compose the World Birding Center (WBC). Despite that its members channel migratory bird species back and forth between the neotropics and North America right through South Texas’s backyard, WBC has trouble channeling humans from city to back country. So, what could Quinta Mazatlán Director Colleen Hook do to motivate her school children, wedding attendees and art exhibit goers to journey from the Spanish revival-style interior featuring bird carvings to watching real birds at more remote locations? How might interpretation contribute to that human migration?

PHOTO CO

URTESY OF QUIN

TA MAZATLÁ

Identifying the Missing Piece

Quinta Mazatlán in McAllen, Texas, erected a series of interpretive signs in its gardens. 46 Parks & Recreation

Quinta Mazatlán’s challenge echoes throughout American parks: how to involve diverse visitors in meeting park objectives. Parks often use the visitor experience to leverage their involvement. After all, if visitors enjoy a great experience, shouldn’t they want to help places where they enjoy them? To improve experiences and entice visitors to help parks through environmentally friendly behavior, donations, purchases and word-of-mouth advertising,

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

parks often manage three factors underlying those experiences: (1) heritage attractions or place; (2) activities to interact with the place and (3) services that support that interaction, such as hikes, clean bathrooms and well-groomed playgrounds. Yet, that formula lacks one critical factor that traces back thousands of years, when humans evolved the ability to create meaningful stories needed to coordinate action in the face of threats. Hunting megafauna or navigating changing climate did not emerge from instinct, rather from their meaning-making in order to understand their environment and share that meaning with clan-mates. That psychological imperative to encode meaning in stories (i.e., meaning-making) remains inherent in us all from birth to death. When we understand in new ways, emotion can motivate us to act in new ways. Dr. Sam Ham, University of Idaho emeritus professor and principal communications researcher behind heritage interpretation, says, “We can only save what we care deeply about. Love is a powerful motivator.” It is not enough to take a nature walk with a ranger who spouts information. Rather, that individual should guide visi-

The interpretation discipline provokes people to construct more and deeper connections between interpreted places and their values, experiences and worldviews.

W W W. PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

H E R I TA G E I N T E R P R E TAT I O N

tors to create meaning about places they visit and through the emotional relationship that emerges, the visitor forges a deeper appreciation and connection to those places — heritage interpretation’s holy grail. The interpretation discipline provokes people to think such that through contemplation they construct more and deeper connections between interpreted places and their values, experiences and worldviews. While visitors on a guided hike may come to conclusions about the place and their relationship with it — because the human meaning-making function never turns off — their chances of arriving at a deeper understanding improves considerably if the ranger facilitates that process. The ranger builds a presentation structure around a provocative big idea or theme and chooses communication techniques to hold attention and facilitate thought and emotion. That individual directs visitors’ unstoppable meaning-making toward the interpreted heritage. Otherwise, visitors might think about anything else, such as tonight’s TV shows or

what to order for lunch. Through interpretation, visitors emotionally connect with a park and then may take actions in its favor that, otherwise, would have seemed unlikely.

Interpretation Contributes to Park Goals The following stories illustrate how managers use interpretation to meet typical park goals. Interpretation and Forest Bathing Given that interpreters direct people’s meaning-making to deepen relationships, as well as widen awareness of connections, in a sense, interpretation makes people more complete — the definition of healing. Interpreter David Ford works for the city of Boulder, Colorado’s Outdoor Space and Mountain Parks. He has integrated his 12 years of interpretation experience with forest bathing. Originally from Japan and akin to other nature-based human development approaches — such as forest kindergartens and biophilic architecture — forest bathing builds

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID FORD

David Ford, interpreter for Boulder, Colorado’s Outdoor Space and Mountain Parks, leads a group in a forest bathing exercise.

48 Parks & Recreation

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

on our innate inclination toward nature to restore and heal people. It has grown increasingly popular, as more people reside in human-built environments that kindle anxiety, stress and declines in health. The Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs offers forest bathing certification courses and programs around the world, but its approach is decidedly not interpretive. According to Ford, it focuses on participant therapy by repairing people’s relationship with nature. “What’s so interesting to me,” says Ford, “is if we integrate forest bathing with an interpretive walk about an ecosystem, take ponderosa pine forests in my case, we can talk about the pine’s adaptation to emit essential oils, its communication system with the forest.” This guided interpretation not only exposes people’s five senses to the forest, drawing them closer and encouraging relaxation and recovery characteristics of therapy, but also helps people “form a deeper sense of place rather than just learning about it.” While such place connection may not rank high for forest therapists, it certainly does for park administrators. Ford has found that his interpretive forest bathing also attracts new community segments that, otherwise, may not have visited Boulder’s parks. He has worked with cancer survivors, refugees, immigrants, people experiencing disabilities, and soon, he will work with addicts and chronic pain patients, too. He recalls once when a 45-yearold Mexican immigrant from a nearby Spanish-speaking community attended with her 5-year-old daughter. She grabbed her daughter from wandering off-trail, fearing land mines. She had heard of American parks littered with vintage WWII ordnance and her misconception of Boulder’s parks tainted her trip. When Ford

noticed that she would not let her daughter go, he asked about her concern, which she quickly shared. Other Latino participants confirmed the rumor. The group talked and as the interpretive forest bathing program progressed, Ford witnessed change. “It was neat to see the cautious steps as they walked away from the group out to the sit spot. After 10 to 15 minutes, their comfort when returning to the group was evident. They entered the forest with nervousness and departed with confidence,” he says. Since interpretation deepens appreciation and relationships with places, as opposed to teaching information, the integration of forest bathing techniques accelerates transformation toward greater wholeness for new audiences. Goals: Health and wellness; equity; conservation L.A. State Historic Park Builds Community with Interpretation On September 28, 2001, California Governor Gray Davis signed the bill authorizing the purchase of 34 acres that would become the Los Angeles State Historic Park, located downtown in Chinatown. Some 35 community organizations lobbied for the park’s establishment to benefit local communities, some of the most underrepresented and park-poor in the United States’ secondlargest city. Eighteen years later, this community-based park continues its local focus with an idea based on the community healthcare worker model, whereby organizations train community members to help their local counterparts navigate the healthcare system. In this case, park collaborators adapted the model to parks. Park Community Engagement Coordinator Luis Rincon says,

PHOTO COURTESY OF CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS

Promotorx staff (in purple) attend the grand opening of the Los Angeles State Historic Park.

“We provide a green space to get people walking, lower cardiovascular disease and cortisone, and they may also get to know the plants.” When the park officially opened in 2018, people wondered where the park had stashed its basketball courts and barbecue pits, confusing it with state and city parks. That’s when Promotorx stepped in. The nonprofit Community Nature Connection managed the project, training locals and park managers in engagement skills, such as community listening workshops and heritage interpretation. Promotorx then worked with park staff to co-create introductory interpretive programs that helped people understand the importance of this historical park, navigate its operation and encourage their engagement. They also worked with community members to organize and advocate for what they wanted there. Consequently, the park has implemented most of its wish list, according to Rincon, including a farmers market, bilingual yoga, tai chi, cultural festivals, campfires and camping. Rincon also notes that community involvement bubbled over into community advocacy (the park, of course, remains neutral). When a developer proposed a 920-unit apartment complex along the park’s edge, community members, including Promotorx, mobilized to ask the

developer how it would benefit the community. Community members don’t want a gentrified Chinatown; they want a voice in the community that develops around their park. Goals: Health and wellness; equity; community building and relations Interpretive Strategy at Quinta Mazatlán Colleen Hook realized that many of Quinta’s visitors never visited other WBC sites; she had to learn how to reroute them. So, she prepared an interpretive plan that specified how to deploy interpretation to achieve just that. Effectively, she would create interpretive exhibits and artwork inside the mansion to coax people into the encircling forest gardens. There, educators, interpreters and outdoor trail signs would interpret the Central North American Migratory Flyway that passes through Texas and how backyard patches support migrating birds, as well as WBC’s avian abundance. Those sites then would interpret bird conservation to complete the migratory passage of city dwellers to conservation-contributors and meet Quinta Mazatlán’s management goals. Goals: Conservation; human migration outdoors; World Birding Center support Jon Kohl is Executive Director at PUP Global Heritage Consortium (jon-costarica@jonkohl.com).

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

OPERATIONS Avoiding the Smell of Failure How aquatic facilities can avoid patron confidence pitfalls By Steve Berens

atrons use all of their senses to judge a facility’s safety. When it comes to aquatics, smell is the first thing they encounter. In the past, aquatic facilities largely ignored air-quality issues due to expectations of the times. Times have changed. In order to keep business alive in this new health-conscious era, aquatic facility operators must prioritize patrons’ sense of safety.

When it comes to aquatic facilities, smell is the first thing patrons encounter.

“Nose blindness” doesn’t just happen at friends’ homes — it also can happen at aquatic facilities. “Pool” odor isn’t only unpleasant for patrons — it is harmful to their health too. So, how can we make our aquatic facilities’ air and water quality fresh, welcoming and healthy for new noses? Leading aquatic facilities, like the Fort Dodge (Iowa) Community Recreation Center (REC), found a solution that has eliminated and prevented “pool” odor and its “nose blinding” effect.

The Challenge Home to a six-lane Olympic-sized swimming pool and a wading pool, the Fort Dodge Community REC has served its community for more than 50 years. While welcoming swimmers over the years, the facility’s “pool” odor became undetectable to staff. “I thought the water quality was 50 Parks & Recreation

great,” says Janet Ellerbrock, Fort Dodge Community REC’s aquatic director. “Combined chlorines were low and there were few complaints about the air quality.” For aquatic facility operators, addressing air quality is a timeconsuming task when the culprit is not easily determined. While many patrons assume that “pool” odor comes from chlorine, it actually is a result of chloramines, or combined chlorines. Chloramines occur when chlorine in the pool combines with organic substances, like lotions, sweat and oils. In addition to “pool” odor, chloramines cause burning eyes, irritated skin and damage to swimmers’ hair and swimsuits. At the Fort Dodge Community REC, a swim coach couldn’t ignore the questionable air quality. While Ellerbrock didn’t believe the air quality needed improving, she obliged, “just to make him happy.” However, her choice to indulge one person would soon benefit everyone at the facility.

The Solution Despite Ellerbrock’s doubts that it would make a difference, she installed Clear Comfort’s Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) supplemental sanitation. After seeing the improvements, she now says, “I

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

was totally and completely wrong.” AOP uses powerful hydroxyl radicals that instantly oxidize and sanitize the water. This patented AOP system is third-party proven to reduce chloramines and other disinfection by-products by 50 percent to 90 percent, making it a sensible solution for Fort Dodge Community REC’s challenge.

The Result “Since putting the system in, I was proved to be very wrong,” Ellerbrock admits. “The clarity of our water is crystal clear and the combined chlorine levels is close to, if not at, zero. The air even smells and feels fresher.” In addition to improving the air and water quality, the AOP system helped the Fort Dodge Community REC save time and money. “Considering the ease of installing the units, very low maintenance and relatively low cost,” says Ellerbrock, “it has been one of the best additions to our facility.”

Let AOP Clean Your Air While chloramines have been difficult for aquatic facility operators to detect and address, AOP sanitation systems have made it easier than ever to give patrons fresh, softfeeling and healthy water. In addition to air quality, adding AOP helps protect patrons from Cryptosporidium, lowers chlorine consumption and addresses issues that aquatic facilities have become blind to. Steve Berens is Chief Executive Officer of Clear Comfort (info@clearcomfort.com).

©MYLES MELLOR

Parks & Recreation Crossword

Across 1 Fact-finding important for future planning 5 Barbecue favorite 7 Spring, summer, etc. 8 Statement of the NRPA strategic plan, goes with 3 down — 3 words 11 Story 12 Started a camp fire 13 Develop 14 Compass point, abbr. 15 Factor 18 Bush 21 Skillet 22 Plan in detail 23 Creeks 24 Weigh up the worth of park activities 27 Stat of fuel efficiency 29 Tire gauge measure, abbr. 30 Sure! 31 Important to create these associates to assist in carrying forward importance of parks 32 Airedale, for one

Down 1 Strength in the face of adversity 2 Initiate 3 See 8 across 4 Work out total expenses for a project or activity, 2 words 5 Way to go 6 They sometimes become laws 9 Des Moines’ state 10 Morning moisture 16 Environmental watchdogs. abbr. 17 Repeated name in Santana hit 18 Valuable tools for finding what people think and need 19 Step-by-step guide for the future 20 School transport 23 Glide on blades or rollers 24 Second sight, abbr. 25 Through 26 Parking place 28 Obtained

Complete the crossword, then visit nrpa.org/crossword to verify your answers and to enter a drawing to receive a prize. A winner will be randomly selected December 31, 2020.

W W W. PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

park essentials

s ice e Pr st rvic ers e e w Lo eat S stom Gr c Cu fi rri Te

Recycled site furnishings • park signs

Inspire Adventure Bringing adventure to a playground near you, the AirVenture® Glider is provides excitement, fun and development into the playspace. Adventure play at it’s finest. That’s Burke’s AirVenture Glider. Isn’t it time to Join Our Movement? bciburke.com Trademark(s) are the property of BCI Burke Company. © BCI Burke Company 2020. All Rights Reserved. 800-356-2070

Bright Idea Shops, LLC Akron, Ohio 800-886-8990 fax 330-258-0167 www.brightideashops.com www.park-signs.net

Inspiring Responsible Dog Ownership Since 1994

DOGIPOT.com 52 Parks & Recreation

800.364.7681

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

DOGIPARK.com

park essentials

MAKE IT EASY

SOLVE ALL YOUR BUILDING NEEDS FAST • ECONOMICAL • VERSATILE • DURABLE • SECURE Installation in just hours - Standard Floor Plans or Custom Designs Minimal site preparation - Outfitting - Available Nationwide Precast Concrete Buildings outlast and outperform all other options Concessions • Dugouts • Electrical/Mechanical • Hazmat • Workshops • Offices • Press Boxes Waterworks • Restrooms • Locker Rooms • Field Houses • Security • Shelters • Storage & more!

Online Quote Form

EasiSetBuildings.com 866.252.8210

NRPA 1-2pg Easi-Set Buildings 2.2020 7.625x4.75.indd 1

12/19/2019 3:45:01 PM

NEW! NATURE SERIES Featuring nature inspired laser patterns Color coordinated 33 gallon liners Neutral powder coated finishes

MADE IN THE

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

park essentials

NORDOT® Adhesives for

Durable Year-Round Turf Installs of

Athletic Fields, Playgrounds, Putting Greens, Landscape and Aquatic Surfaces

They’re the BEST for 47 years

P. O. Box 241 Scotch Plains, NJ 07076 USA Tel: 908 233-6803 Fax: 908 233-6844 E-mail: info@nordot.com Web: www.nordot.com

54 Parks & Recreation

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

NRPA20

NRPA

CONNECT

Blog nrpa.org/blog

nrpaconnect.org nrpa.org/connect-app

NRPA SOCIAL MEDIA @NationalRecreationandParkAssociation @nrpa_news

openspaceradio.org

@nrpa

parksandrecreation.org

National Recreation and Park Association

@parksrecmag

(or your favorite podcast app)

@openspaceradio

Kay Park Recreation.........................................................54

BCI Burke Playgrounds..........................................2, 3, 52

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

Bright Idea Shops.............................................................52 Columbia Cascade Company........................................ 33

Most Dependable Fountains.........................................25 National Construction Rentals......................................54

DOGIPOT............................................................................52 Pilot Rock.............................................................................21 DuMor....................................................................................9 Easi-Set Buildings ............................................................53 Ex-Cell Kaiser.....................................................................53

advertiser index

Aquatix by Landscape Structures Inc......................... 14

Shade Systems..............................................................C2, 1 Superior Recreation/PlayCore...................................... C4

Fountain People/Water Odyssey.................................23

Synthetic Surfaces............................................................54

Goldenteak/The Wood Carver, Inc. ............................53

Urban Fountains + Furniture.........................................54

(ISSN 0031-2215) is published monthly by the National Recreation and Park Association, 22377 Belmont Ridge Rd., Ashburn, VA 20148, a service organization supported by membership dues and voluntary contributions. Copyright ©2020 by the National Recreation and Park Association. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Opinions expressed in signed articles are those of the writers and not necessarily those of NRPA. Issued to members at the annual subscription price of $30, included in dues. Subscription: $46 a year in the U.S.; $56 elsewhere. Single copy price: $7. Library rate: $58 a year in the U.S.; $68 elsewhere. Periodical postage paid at Ashburn, Virginia, and at additional mailing offices. Editorial and advertising offices at 22377 Belmont Ridge Rd., Ashburn, VA 20148. 703.858.0784. Postmaster, send address changes to Parks & Recreation, 22377 Belmont Ridge Rd., Ashburn, VA 20148.

PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G | D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 |

Parks & Recreation

Park Bench

U.S. Navy Bands: A National Treasure

PHOTO COURTESY OF BEN SAHEB

Imagine an outdoor concert on a perfect, balmy summer evening. You sit with your family on a picnic blanket in a picturesque park. Young, old and every age in between are gathered together as a welcoming community. A stage is filled with sailors in crisp, white Navy uniforms. A thunderous timpani roll captures the attention of all, and slowly ebbs away to a steady, rhythmic pulse. Heroic music follows with trumpet fanfares that melt into lush harmonies from the woodwinds. The Master Chief steps forward and delivers an inspiring narration. As you listen, you learn the story of our United States (U.S.) Navy. This uplifting music is the perfect prelude to our national anthem. Everyone is brought together in song to share a moment of pride in America. What follows is an exciting, eclectic evening of music, entertainment and patriotism. During a U.S. Navy band concert, you will hear music in a myriad of styles performed superbly: circus marches, traditional concert band music, musical theater, instrumental solos, concert marches, movie soundtracks, patriotic music, big band jazz, New Orleans brass band music, blues, rock and songs from “Top 40.” The emotional high point of each concert arrives with “The Armed Forces Medley.” Veterans stand with pride and salute as their service song is played. After the concert, sailors walk amongst the audience, talking with veterans and showing children their musical instruments. To Navy Band members, a concert is not simply entertainment — it’s a way to meaningfully engage with the public and tell the Navy’s story. Today’s Navy Music Program offers a wide variety of entertainment options for your event, ranging from large ceremonial bands to smaller ensembles. Navy Bands may perform for public and civic events if the event is of general interest or benefit to a local, state or national community. However, bands may not participate in events that are commercially sponsored; are designed to increase business traffic or raise charitable donations; or are associated with a religious or ideological movement. All concerts must be free and open to the public, and requestors may be required to fund a band’s travel, lodging and per diem expenses for performances outside of their geographical area of responsibility. To request a performance from a U.S. Navy Band, simply visit outreach.navy.mil/Bands-and-Color-Guard. This link will bring you to the band/color guard page of the Navy Office of Community Outreach website. At the bottom of that page, click on the diagram of the continental United States to choose where your concert will be held. When you click on one of the six zones, you will be redirected to the website of the band for that geographical area. Within the band’s webpage, simply click “Request the Band.” After you fill out the “DD 2536” request form, e-mail it to the address provided. The band will confirm receipt of your request and advise you on the process going forward. The Navy Music Program has much to offer the field of parks and recreation. – Lieutenant Joel Borrelli-Boudreau, U.S. Navy

56 Parks & Recreation

| D E C E M B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G

new lookio, r! same super

Create a play environment the whole community will love with Superior Playgrounds, Shade, Shelter, and Site Amenities. Discover how easy it is to furnish your whole park by viewing our collection of products at superiorrecreationalproducts.com

play. relax. live. | 866.324.4522

PARKS & RECREATION DECEMBER 2020 ◆ GOOD HEALTH BEGINS WITH BIODIVERSITY ◆ THE POWER OF PARKS AND POLLINATORS ◆ HERITAGE INTERPRETATION