Features
Procurement That Works
Economic pressures have forced park and recreation agencies to rethink their approach to purchasing. Decentralization, e-procurement, piggy-backing, and increased community engagement are just a few of the ways agencies are lowering their costs, upholding their quality, and satisfying their customers.
Green Buildings Reach for Gold Certification
Parks demonstrate their commitment to conservation through certified green building projects. Whether certified through LEED or other programs, green buildings allow parks and recreation agencies to lead by example in their communities.
Additional Articles
NIOSH Investigation Composting Toilets
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted a Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE) at a national park. Park management was concerned about employee exposures when cleaning and maintaining pit and composting toilets. NIOSH investigators visited the park to discuss employees’ concerns, observe their work practices and personal protective equipment use, and review the park’s programs for protecting employees. Here are the results of the investigation.
Sherril York
Sherril York is the executive director of the National Center on Accessibility (NCA) at Indiana University and has more than 25 years of experience in accessibility and disability in physical activity development, recreation, and adapted sports. York shares her expertise with NRPA through her work on the Congress Program Committee, as well as her leadership on the Inclusion and Accessibility Network team.
Conservation Leadership Practices
Park and recreation agencies have a unique opportunity to bring governmental agencies, nonprofit organizations, community leaders, and the public together for the cause of working together on community wide conservation objectives—clean water, wildlife habitat preservation, and environmental quality.
To What Degree
Four graduate students in the parks and recreation field engage in a candid discussion about their graduate education.
Smoother Transitions for Veterans
Park and recreation agencies are providing vital programs for veterans with and without disabilities to improve their quality of life. Agencies are partnering with their local offices of Veterans Affairs (VA) and other community-based organizations who are offering recreational opportunities to veterans with disabilities.
Cliff Collapse Accidents
Recreational Use Statutes (RUS) exist in most states. Originally intended to provide limited immunity for private landowners against recreational injury liability, courts in many jurisdictions have found the RUS applicable to public entities. A recent case involving cliff collapse accidents put the test to those statutes.
Inside the Senate Appropriations Committee
Senator Lisa Murkowski, a long-time advocate for the Land and Water Conservation Fund State Assistance Program, talks with NRPA about her role as the Senate Ranking Member--and offers an inside look at the Senate appropriations process.
OC Ranger Academy
In 2010, OC Parks partnered with a local college to create the OC Parks Ranger Academy – the only academy in the United States specific to the role of unarmed county and regional park rangers. The academy, now in its third year, still covers basic law consistent with P.O.S.T. standards enforcement but also conservation, preservation, and education about the natural world.
Expanding the Game of Golf
Given the premise that golf is a good and powerful teacher for individuals, especially children, the Wadsworth Golf Charities Foundation has a program to promote the building of short courses (three, six or nine hole) that provide affordable access to golf across the country.
Obesity Researcher Heidi Blanck
Dr. Heidi Blanck and her Centers for Disease Control staff study the environments and settings in which nutrition choices are made—physical, social, and psychological—and strategize how to “make the healthy choice the easy choice.” It is an approach that recognizes not only the aggregate public health impact of individuals’ choices—but also the opportunities afforded or denied by the built and cultural environments.
Hershey Track and Field Playground
Hershey’s Track and Field Games gather thousands of youth athletes across the nation every year to compete in various athletic activities. Ogden, Utah, Hershey's playground playground recipient choice, recently unveiled to the public a first-of-its-kind, interactive-surface playground.
Respite Program
Recreation therapist Brooke Taflinger saw the need for parents and caregivers of people with disabilities to have a break and re-energize. The result? Innovative "Friday night out" programs for all ages.
Course Numbers
Statistics from the National Golf Foundation’s report, “The Future of Public Golf in America.”
Art in the Park
The Kansas Recreation and Park Association went a unique route in finding an interested partner with a statewide reach to help promote the benefits of local and state parks throughout the state—a partnership with the Kansas Lottery and renowned landscape artist Louis Copt. The end result was the creation of a statewide scratch- off game called “Art in the Park.”
Solid Green
Now is the time for park and recreation agencies to leverage all the environmental good they do by embracing roles as conservation leaders in their communities.
Brian Knapp
Recently elected Board member Brian Knapp’s career in government service and private consulting has taken him to the White House, the Pentagon, and political hot spots around the globe. But when asked about his proudest achievements, Knapp reflects on a moment on the sidelines of his son's soccer game--when it dawned on him that the field at the center of the action would not have been there without his volunteer efforts.
Occupy Parks
Whereas many of the objectives of the Occupy Wall Street Movement are ambiguous, our goals as advocates for parks and public lands are clear-cut. The problems may be daunting, but we have a message that is compelling to anyone who has ever enjoyed a public park.