April 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 14

Letters
We hope the articles you read in Parks & Recreation are thought-provoking and
engaging, and we want to hear your opinions on what you read in these pages. Through
social media posts, website comments, emails to staff or posts on Connect, let us know
how the magazine's articles apply to your job and your agency. To submit feedback for this
his
section directly, email Senior Editor Danielle Taylor at dtaylor@nrpa.org.

Fantastic article about the monarch butterflies and how parks
can help educate the public! The
M-NCPPC's
(Maryland-National
Capitol Park and Planning Commission) Prince George's County Department of Parks and Recreation is currently constructing a wonderful
educational imagination playground
with the theme of " Grammy's Garden - Caterpillars and Butterflies. "
The playground theme is to educate
the children about the caterpillar-butterfly life cycle through " play and
learn! " The entire play area has learning opportunities about the butterflies
of Maryland. Such elements include:
1. Butterfly Images: Large 30-footlong butterfly banners are hung
on the building, which contain
butterfly names.
2. Food: 16 planter boxes, which
contain clear " view windows " to
show the roots of the plants growing for botanical science STEM
knowledge, were constructed and
filled with butterfly nectar-producing plants and parsley herbs
for caterpillar food.
3. Habitat: A butterfly garden area
was planted with flowers, butterfly bushes, butterfly weed and other plants to sustain habitat.
4. Shelter: A butterfly house was
posted with bark for night shelter, and children can raise the
side panel to view the butterflies
" sleeping. "
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Parks & Recreation

5. Life-Cycle Sign: This shows the
four life-cycle stages of the butterfly. The sign helps teach children about the butterfly eggs, caterpillar, cocoon, and then a new
butterfly!
Another exciting benefit is the
Custom Butterfly-Caterpillar Play
Equipment designed by M-NCPPC and Landscape Structures. The
equipment reflects fun play elements
such as a cocoon (that children can
hide in), a tall garden flower play
structure, a huge Bug's Life-like leaf
play structure and a crawling caterpillar tube tunnel. The staff painted
an outdoor learning wall with ABCs
showing the caterpillar hiding on or
under each alphabet. It is a fun learning experience while playing with a
goal to educate the children about the
importance of butterflies.
Email from Brenda Iraola, landscape
architect supervisor and project designer
for Grammy's Garden - Caterpillars
and Butterflies, Maryland-National
Capital Park and Planning Commission,
Prince George's County Department of
Parks and Recreation, regarding www.
parks andrecreation.org/2014/March/
Can-Parks-Help-Save-the-Monarch
Rising poverty, poor health,
mental illness, addictions and
poor spiritual health are certainly all
contributing to the homeless problem
and challenging us. The " us " includes

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park agencies, human service organizations, faith communities, law enforcement, public agencies, businesses
and more. On the local level in Tulsa,
Oklahoma, I recently attended a meeting of social service agencies trying to
address this problem. It was good to
see about 10 different agencies present
who are interested in the homeless situation. Our agency does not have
park rangers, and our maintenance
staff have been frustrated by the
homeless for a long time. Homeless
people always have a lot more time on
their hands to build camps than we
have time to remove them. God loves
them too, but we have to balance our
compassion with the complaints we
get from the public, or from the Mayor's Action Center, etc. Women joggers in particular are understandably
apprehensive about stumbling across
homeless guys sleeping/camping near
the trail or hanging around restrooms.
In my opinion, it will take a concentrated intervention effort over the long
haul to make an impact. Even with
efforts from the police department
and the social service agencies, we
have had only marginal success in
moving homeless folks. Does anyone
have successful methods to address
this dilemma?
Comment by Matt Mayer, executive director of the River Parks Authority in Tulsa,
Oklahoma, on www.parksandrecreation.
org/2014/January/Out-of-the-Shadows

April 2014 - Parks & Recreation

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