Articles
Changes Inside And Out
Change management is crucial for leaders in any field. Whether it’s adopting innovative technology, navigating employee turnover, or launching new programs, successful leaders are often those who handle curveballs with ease and expertly guide their teams through unfamiliar territory.
Moakley Models The Way
Parks and open space function as critical infrastructure for public health as well as for mitigating and adapting to climate change. This is especially evident in island environments, where there is limited vegetation, paved surfaces, and dense development.
Revitalizing Park Infrastructure: Part 2
Parks serve so many vital purposes in our communities. They connect us to one another and to nature. They support mental and physical health and well-being.
Biederman Redevelopment Ventures plan new park programming
The Park @ 320 will host events outside of 320 South Canal Street, home of the new BMO Tower
Managing Routine Maintenance
Among many reasons, park maintenance is important to ensure the safety of public facilities, protect investments in public lands, and position parks as a source of pride for local communities. But parks departments often have to juggle preventative work with other concerns, including emergencies, staffing shortages, and the addition of new parks or other construction projects.
Revitalizing Park Infrastructure: Part 1
For those people who work in parks, there are few things sadder than to see a run-down, forgotten park—especially knowing what a great one can do for a community. Thankfully, as cities expand and mature communities begin to reinvest in older neighborhoods, there is increasing interest in reviving aging park infrastructure.
Creating Budget-Friendly Sustainability Plans
Sustainability has become an urgent issue in the nation’s parks departments, as officials manage wildfire-altered landscapes, rising sea levels, and threatened species, among several other issues.
Branch Out
Cities are always striving for cleaner air, higher property values, greener parks, and healthier residents. To address these goals, many of the most progressive communities and public park managers turn to trees because of their endless benefits.
Solar-Charging Stations
Solar-powered charging stations are becoming more visible in public areas—especially where there is no access to power lines. The stations are frequently used to charge mobile devices such as laptops and phones.
“A” For Effort
Go for a walk between neighborhood subdivisions in Colesville, Md., and you’ll stumble upon a unique urban oasis. Maydale Conservation Park, managed by Montgomery Parks, part of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), features an idyllic stream, a meadow, trails, wetlands, and woodlands across 24 acres.
When Residents Reject Youth-Sports Fields
Youth-sports fields generally offer positive benefits for communities. Most notably, they encourage children’s participation in team sports, where they can establish healthy habits, hone their skills, and fortify social bonds.
Show, Don’t Tell
Parks systems play critical roles in generating significant economic, health, and environmental benefits that enhance the quality of life in communities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parks staff members know this, but they often struggle with the best ways to prove it to partners, grantors, and local tax payers; communities often don’t think of parks as economic drivers.
More To Explore
Planning for improvements at Oregon Park District’s Park West in Illinois were many years in the making. Because of COVID-19, the timing of the completion was actually an asset, not only to residents, but to surrounding communities as well.
A Walk Through Trail Design
“In every walk with nature, one received far more than he seeks.”
--John Muir (naturalist) known as the "Father of the National Parks" and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the U.S. (1838-1914)
Relief From The Heat
In Tucson, Ariz., a desert city where temperatures in the summer are consistently in the triple digits, shade is not a luxury but a necessity. The city’s parks and recreation department has consistently heard from the community that residents need and desire shade over everything, but especially over playgrounds.
Destination: Waterloo Park West
The city of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, installed its only splash pad facility in the early 1990s on the east side of Waterloo Park. Called Lions Lagoon, the pad was constructed over a former outdoor pool.
Get Staff Involved!
Everyone involved in managing or operating a parks and recreation agency has a stake in the employee performance-appraisal process. And, with existing research indicating that pay-increase decisions account for more than 80 percent of appraisal uses, employees are eager not only to receive formal performance feedback but also to learn its impact on their future pay levels.
Raising Duncan
No trip to Spokane would be complete without a visit to Manito Park, and if you’re lucky enough to visit in the summer, no visit to Manito Park would be complete without a visit to Duncan Garden—a European Renaissance-style garden comprising three acres.
Showing Its Age
The Patuxent River is considered one of the most beautiful sites in Prince George’s County in Maryland. The Patuxent River Watershed Act of 1961 recognized the river as a valuable natural resource worthy of protection.
Packed With Potential
Years ago, in the small city of Monona, Wis., the citizens wondered if they could develop a waterfront attraction—given that most of the city’s water access already had been developed. And the city’s neighboring, much larger state capital, Madison, had laid claim to other potential waterfront sites.