Staff Report
After an event like the National Recreation and Park Association Congress and Expo, we find ourselves a little torn.
On one hand, we wish the event were longer because there are so many people to meet and see and so much information to take in, that four days doesn’t seem long enough.
However, on the other hand, the four days of seminars, sessions and expo exhibits can be an information overload. It would be virtually impossible to use all the information available at the NRPA. And we found it’s very tough to pick and choose from all that is available.
Having said that, here is a handful—and we do mean just a handful—of highlights from the various seminars/presentations we attended during the NRPA event. We will cover many of these topics in greater depth in upcoming stories and features in future issues of Playground Magazine.
We’re definitely looking forward to Minneapolis in 2010.
NatureGrounds: Putting Nature Into Play
Robin Moore and Nilda Cosco, of North Carolina State University’s Natural Learning Initiative and partnered with PlayCore, presented information on the new NatureGrounds program. The program was designed to assist manufacturers and playground designers with deliberate, phased additions of needed, natural elements in children’s playgrounds. As Moore pointed out in the seminar, our playgrounds are safe, accessibility has been addressed, now it’s time to move on to incorporating natural play into playgrounds. He addressed the need to create “green partners” within communities and suggested local collaborations with chapters of American Landscape Architects Associations to create progressive park and recreation systems.
He advocated informed, committed play equipment sales agents who have awareness of the natural environments and of local plants as part of their approach to market manufactured play structures in an effort to ensure playground planning is long-range and its natural environment continues to develop over time. The duo also recommended retro-fitting existing play structures with natural elements. The entire program is directed at creating natural learning opportunities and more connected communities for children to grow up engaged in.
Moore, an articulate scholar, gave an in-depth presentation on the positive social development of children that has a direct causal relationship with their interaction in the natural world. He cited research that demonstrated children’s increases in self-initiated free play, more collaborative play, reduction and/or elimination of bullying and the boon to their cognitive development. Cosco and Moore passionately advocated giving children time to reconnect with their natural environment and offered up the NatureGrounds program as a means to ensure that natural elements are incorporated on playgrounds. He demonstrated that in the past, in counterintuitive measures, forests have been clear cut to make way for public playgrounds when the practice should instead be to keep the area as natural as possible and to work the equipment into the existing landscape. The NatureGrounds program is a means of fitting exposure to nature into the new digital age that kids grow up in.
For more information on the NatureGrounds, visit www.naturegrounds.org.
We also attended Moore and Cosco’s “Designing Natural Playgrounds: National Guidelines for Natural Play Areas” presentation. This seminar covered many of the same topics, specifically natural play and learning areas (NPLA). They showed examples of successful projects in the North Carolina Zoo, Asheboro, NC, and Teardrop Park, New York City.
Where Do The Children Play?
Cindy Burkhour, MA, CTRS, CPRP, presented a seminar on providing outdoor, unstructured play opportunities to kids as part of the NRPA effort to connect kids to nature. Burkhour presented the PBS documentary, Where Do the Children Play?
After some discussion, the interactive group discussed ways to promote the film and to take direct leadership roles in their own communities as a way to advocate natural play. Burkhour led the group to direct their collective energies to create strategic ways to assist their local communities with the tools to give children greater access to natural play. The discussion was focused, lively and the seminar attendees made several salient points—an obstacle to providing these experiences to children as part of a cohesive parks and recreation program seemed to stem from a general lack of awareness on the part of the parents, as well as the ever-present concern for litigation if kids are allowed to say, climb trees. For the most part however, the attendees were enthusiastically receptive to the message and most committed to sharing the film and its message in their respective communities.
At the session closed, Burkhour argued that NRPA officials, as “keepers of the open spaces,” have a greater responsibility to educate the public on the need for natural play for kids as well as for continuing education efforts of parents, educators, government officials and others to create communities geared towards creating more natural play experiences to the children’s community.
Ten Things All Successful Skateparks Have In Common
Kent Dahlgren of the Tony Hawk Foundation and Peter Whitley of Skaters for Public Skateparks, in cooperation with International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC), NRPA and INRPA, presented a seminar on the best ways to create a successful skatepark. The gentlemen were passionate, funny and enthusiastic promoters of the sport of skateboarding as they shared the best ways to effectively create skateparks that are designed with local skaters’ tastes in mind.
The list of tips on skatepark planning provided invaluable information that Playground Magazine will discuss in greater detail in a forthcoming article. In the meantime, the Public Skatepark Development Guide, published by the International Association Of Skateboard Companies (IASC), Skaters For Public Skateparks and the Tony Hawk Foundation, is being offered for free online at www.freepublicskateparkdevelopmentguide.org. (Shipping fees apply.)
Maintaining Child’s Play—The Importance Of A Playground Maintenance Program
Ken Kutska, executive director, International Playground Safety Institute, and Kevin Hoffman, director of membership with the Park District Risk Management Agency, discussed the need to maintain playground equipment in order to avoid injury to the child and the resulting liabilities.
“Trying to do the right thing the wrong way can be very costly,” Kutska explained. He said in 1990 poor maintenance represented more than one-third of all accidents. That number increased to 40 percent in 2000.
“Proactive maintenance can reduce injuries and prolong the equipment life,” Kutska said. Parks and recreation programs need to have an ongoing inspection and maintenance program, which will result in fewer injuries and fewer legal defense expenses.
Nature-Deficit Disorder: Its Implications For Human Well-Being
Fran P. Mainella, a visiting scholar at Clemson University in Park, Recreation and Tourism Management and co-chair of the U.S. Play Coalition, went in depth about what nature-deficit disorder is and how to fix the problem not only in our children but in adults as well. She said, “Today’s children, as well as adults, are becoming increasingly isolated from nature and the outdoors.”
Mainella referenced Richard Louv’s well-known book, Child in the Woods; Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, in her comments on the problems children face with their decreased contact with nature and the outdoors. Louv’s definition of nature-deficit disorder is: “Describes an environmental dissatisfaction or dejection flowing from children’s fixation on artificial entertainments rather than the natural wonders.”
Mainella said, “Nature deficit disorder … it’s really not a medical term but we’d like it to be viewed as that.”
While nature deficit disorder is an issue with today’s children, there are efforts underway to battle the disorder, Mainella pointed out. Among those actions was the recent gathering of experts at the Summit on the Value of Play, where those experts talked about ways to educate parents, educators, parks and recreation officials and others on the value of play. Other efforts include the NFL Play60 program, work from the Alliance for Childhood, new designs in playgrounds which incorporate natural areas and legislation such as No Child Left Inside.
Bicycle Dirt Jump Park—Coming To A Community Near You
Bicycle dirt jump tracks are a relatively new concept, one that could end up being an attractive alternative for local parks and recreation departments.
Presented by Ben Blitch of B4 Consulting and Construction (www.pumptrackbuilder.com), the seminar covered all aspects of building a pocket bike park—or dirt jump track—from design to the build to continuing maintenance.
One point Blitch made was, “One of the very important elements to consider is creating a community to help children socialize, not just a physical facility.” Pocket bike parks, like skateparks, can accomplish both goals of providing a place for children to be active and socialize.
Blitch said there are four basic bike park facilities: 1) Skills Area, which is an area (as little as 500 square feet of terrain) dedicated to basic mountain bicycling skills using both natural and man-made objects; 2) Pump-Track, an area (as little as 1,000 square feet) that encourages bicycle propulsion from using core muscles and arms instead of only the legs; 3) Dirt Jumps, an area (as little as a half-acre) that allows people to get into the air using shaped dirt to build ramps; and 4) Freeride Park, an area (at least a half-acre in size preferably with topographic variation) dedicated to more advanced mountain biking skills that relies heavily on man-made structures.
Depending on which pocket bike park is used, the project usually takes between one week and one month to build. Blitch said, “Planning ahead can shorten the time needed on site and minimize costs.” Standard pricing can vary from $10,000 to $1 million, again depending on which park is decided on. “For the price of one concrete skatepark you could create four national caliber facilities to cater to the local populace of that area,” Blitch said.
A key to making sure the entire project is successful, Blitch said, is “Signing into a maintenance agreement with the contractor to ensure a professional opinion over the ongoing maintenance of the facility.”
Play In The Urban Community
Joseph Wynns, a former Indianapolis Parks and Recreation director and Lisa Moore, the vice president of corporate strategic services for PlayCore, focused their comments on a 2009 national report on urban play titled, “The Power of Urban Play.”
“What makes this report unique is we talked to practioners,” Wynns said. Another reason the report is so timely is because, as it was pointed out in the seminar, 79 percent of Americans live in urban areas and it’s estimated by 2050 that 90 percent of Americans will live in urban areas.
Urban areas face specific and sometimes particularly vexing problems such as a lack of spaces to play, lack of quality play spaces, safety issues, etc. While those are issues being dealt with in many big cities, there are numerous examples of how this has been accomplished across the United States.
The report Wynns and Moore referenced states, “Five best practice themes clearly emerged and are defined with recommendations, examples and practical case studies.”
They are:
1) Design for compelling play environments – “Agencies should design environments that are compelling and meet the unique needs of diverse urban users.”
2) Create playgrounds as crime prevention programs – “Communities should view playgrounds as crime prevention assets by considering visibility in the design, establishing proactive partnerships with local law enforcement and neighborhood groups and by keeping the playspace active and well-maintained.”
3) Offer programs on the urban playground – “Public play environments should market free play and supervised play programs that promote high levels of physical activity…”
4) Execute partnerships for play – “Partnerships should be established to strengthen the variety and reach of play opportunities for a broader reach of play resources, facilities and programs while also increasing user-ship and ensuring sustainability over time.”
5) Develop an urban playground master plan – “A comprehensive and collaborative master plan should be developed for play and playgrounds that includes a current asset management plan.”
