Protecting Natural Resources and Sustainability in Parks
The Vital Roles of Parks in Environmental Sustainability
As we celebrate Earth Day (April 22nd), it is crucial to recognize the intrinsic connection between parks and the health of our environment. Parks are key to maintaining healthy ecosystems, which encourages the conservation of natural resources in urban and suburban areas. Earth Day is a global reminder of our responsibility to protect the environment. Through park design and development, McGill’s landscape architects have the opportunity to safeguard the environment and educate the public about conservation and environmental sustainability.
There is a delicate balance in urban parks. Natural areas, often wild and unstructured, can sometimes be overlooked or perceived as unsafe by residents. Paradoxically, measures intended to enhance safety, such as increased lighting or paved trails, can inadvertently threaten these vital natural spaces. Similarly, parks that experience high levels of active recreation can disrupt and damage fragile ecosystems. Landscape architects apply thoughtful design and encourage the implementation of sustainable practices that address these challenges.
Why Protecting Natural Resources Through Parks Matters: An Earth Day Perspective
Parks are essential ecological havens. They provide green space in urban landscapes, which offers a safe haven for both wildlife and people. Protecting these green spaces from being developed into impervious surfaces such as parking lots and commercial buildings yields significant public benefits through vital ecosystem services, including water filtration, temperature reduction, and improved air quality. In fact, a study by the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont estimates that the return on investment from protecting open space for public benefit from ecosystem services can be as high as 100 to 1. Furthermore, each park contributes to a larger ecosystem that plays a crucial role in regulating the urban climate to help reduce ambient temperatures and mitigate the heat island effect. The strong public support for land conservation underscores the importance of this work. From an Earth Day perspective, protecting these natural resources within our parks is a tangible way to uphold our responsibility to the environment.
Key Sustainability Practices for Parks
As we build new parks, we aim to provide opportunities for residents to recreate while also maintaining the ecological benefits of undisturbed open space. In some cases, we seek to improve the ecological benefits of the land.
- Stormwater Management: Integrating green infrastructure can help to manage stormwater at parks. Green infrastructure includes green roofs, rain gardens, constructed wetlands, and other stormwater control measures. Without adequate on-site treatment of stormwater in the built environment, natural areas are negatively impacted by the quantity and quality of water, which destroys the carrying capacity of streams and rivers and damages flora and fauna. Luckily, green infrastructure in park settings has a high return on investment compared to the costs to control stormwater on commercial and residential properties. If adding pervious surfaces to a park, McGill will design on-site control measures to manage stormwater.
- Native Landscaping and Enhancing Biodiversity: When McGill’s landscape architects design a park, they intentionally encourage communities to plant native species to protect indigenous ecosystems and promote biodiversity. Native plants are adapted to the local climate and often require less water to thrive.
- Promoting Sustainable Transportation: Having green spaces near residential areas is very important as they enhance the quality of life, promote health, foster social interaction, and contribute to economic benefits. You should design your park system to encourage walking and cycling between neighborhood parks rather than relying on car transportation to a few central parks, except for specific use cases. The location and functionality of parks and open spaces needs to be intentional and interconnected.
- Environmental Education Programs: Initiating environmental education programs is crucial for fostering a sense of guardianship toward parks. Demonstration projects within parks can effectively introduce residents to environmental actions they can implement on their own properties. For example, McGill helped the Town of Farragut create an outdoor classroom with a rain barrel to educate residents about environmental sustainability.
Protecting Ecological Functions: Key Actions
- Adopt Park Management Goals. Work with your leadership to adopt park management goals that support the conservation of native species, protect critical habitats, and increase biodiversity.
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The City of New Bern acquired 888 acres of land and lakes as a donation from the Martin Marietta Corporation. McGill developed a master plan for the park with a main day use area of only 70 acres, identifying areas for conservation, passive recreation, and active recreation. Create Buffers Between Natural Resource Area and Active Recreation Areas. McGill’s landscape architects often define an active park space and a passive park space in parks both large and small. These defined spaces limit negative ecological impacts from park use.
- Select Appropriate Trees and Plants. Trees are invaluable in parks, but they can also pose hazards. It is important to identify tree species that are appropriately sized for their planting location and to identify and remove hazard trees that could be a safety risks to park visitors. A good goal for a city is to achieve 40% tree canopy cover and the addition of park spaces naturally contributes to this goal. Additionally, removing invasive plants and choosing native plants over non-native plants will promote biodiversity.
- Launch Demonstration Projects. Demonstration projects in parks are a great way to introduce residents to environmental actions they can take on their own properties to make improvements. McGill helped the Town of Farragut create an outdoor classroom, which features a rain barrel and is used to teach residents about environmental sustainability.
- Create Sustainable Financing Models for Parks and Open Space. McGill is currently working on multiple projects that will have a positive economic impact on the region. Sustainable funding is necessary to continue conservation work.
Doe Mountain Park in Tennessee is one example of our efforts to develop sustainable funding mechanisms for environmental conservation. We are designing the park to be an attraction that provides adequate revenues to offset its operations and continue conservation efforts at the park. Doe Mountain Park in Tennessee is one example of our efforts to develop sustainable funding mechanisms for environmental conservation. We are designing the park to be an attraction that provides adequate revenues to offset its operations and continue conservation efforts at the park. In the past, Doe Mountain Park used carbon credits to pay for improvements, but this is not a sustainable revenue source. The park has purchased an additional 80 acres to build a campground that will capture the lodging revenue from visitors that is currently going to private entities.
Ecosystem-Based Park Management – A Blueprint for Environmental Responsibility
Your community’s environmental responsibility extends beyond the actions we take one day a year on Earth Day. Below is a framework to improve the ecological health of your parks and take responsibility for your community’s environment.
- Establish Goals: Define clear objects for natural resource protection and sustainability. This may already be identified in your land use master plan.
- Perform and Ecological Inventory: Map the ecological functions within your parks, including wildlife habitats, wetlands, floodplains, and tree canopy. This will help you create a unified inventory of green infrastructure and better understand how each park fits within the overall ecological picture of your park system. In this inventory, begin to assess the needs of your system.
- Prioritize Parks for Restoration and Management: Once you have completed the inventory, you can begin to prioritize projects that will have the greatest ecological and social benefits for your overall park system. You will want to prioritize efforts in parks that are popular, serve vulnerable communities, are visible, and have the greatest ecological impact.
- Develop a Natural Resources Restoration Management Plan for Each Park. Position this framework as a long-term commitment to environmental health and extend the principles of Earth Day into practical action. Although you may not be able to make improvements as quickly as you would like, planning will make these projects more viable. You can build these projects into or as a supplement to your parks and recreation master plan. These plans can galvanize the community to support your environmental efforts, as well.
Celebrating Earth Day Every Day Through Sustainability in Parks
Professional engineering and landscape architecture firms, like McGill, play a crucial role in the sustainable development and management of parks. Our expertise is essential in areas like designing green infrastructure for stormwater management, developing plans for native landscaping and biodiversity enhancement, conducting ecological inventories, and creating comprehensive master plans that integrate conservation and recreation. Protecting our natural resources and embracing sustainability practices in parks is not just a one-day commitment for Earth Day; it is an ongoing responsibility. By implementing strategies for stormwater management, promoting native landscaping, encouraging sustainable transportation, and adopting an ecosystem-based management approach, we can ensure that our parks thrive and continue to provide vital ecological, social, and economic benefits. Collaboration between park agencies, engineering and landscape architecture firms, communities, and individuals is essential to achieve this vision. Let us all commit to celebrating Earth Day every day by supporting and actively participating in the creation and maintenance of sustainable parks for the well-being of our communities and the health of our planet. At McGill, we are dedicated to partnering with you to create a sustainable future for your parks and your community.
