August 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 18

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Briefly Noted
Q The USTA invites facilities like
yours to host a USTA Free Tennis
Play Event in celebration of Nickelodeon's Worldwide Day of Play
on any day from September 1-30.
USTA Free Tennis Play Events are
a fun way for tennis facilities, parks
and municipalities to introduce tennis to families. The USTA is hosting thousands of USTA Free Tennis
Play Events throughout the country
showcasing how fun and easy it is for
families to get into the sport, as well
as offering a great way for parents to
spend time with their children while
keeping them active during National Childhood Obesity Awareness
Month in September. The event is
open to the public, with an emphasis placed on family participation. To
register or for more information, visit
www.youthtennis.com/host or call
800.990.8782.
Q Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) recently introduced the Beach Act of 2013
(H.R. 2601), a bill that would require
improved water monitoring procedures where public swimming is allowed. If passed, it would provide $40
million a year to state and local governments. The bill, which is cosponsored by Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA),
also calls for a study on how coastal
recreation water pollution is contributing to climate change and requests
that the Environmental Protection
Agency develop faster methods for
beach water monitoring. It was referred to the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources & Environment in early July.
Q Indiana's parks have enlisted eight
young people to serve as youth am16

Parks & Recreation

bassadors this year and help build an
appreciation of the outdoors by telling the stories of all 32 state parks. In
this first-year program, the youth ambassadors write blogs and take photos to share their experiences in the
parks and also greet visitors. The program, run through America's State
Parks, plans to expand this summer
and fall to recruit 2,000 new ambassadors across the country.

Fitzgerald interacted with neighborhood youth, telling a local TV news
station he wants to make sure the
next generation of kids is well-protected and gets the same opportunities he had growing up at King Park.
The youth football program will also
get coaching and training help from
Heads Up Football, a program in
place to teach kids how to properly
tackle and avoid concussions.

Q Ten thousand marijuana plants,
with a street value of $40 million,
were yanked from an illegal marijuana grow deep in California's Henry
Coe State Park in early July. Santa Clara County sheriff 's deputies
and fish and game wardens hiked
for hours to get to the camp before
choppers carried away the bundles
of plants. This new grow was in the
same place where deputies eradicated a major pot grow last year and
also where a neighboring rancher
reported hearing a gunshot in late
June. In addition to marijuana, deputies found two rifles with scopes, a
reminder that the growers are ready
and willing to kill for their crop. California Fish and Wildlife wardens say
the illegal grows create major environmental damage, as growers dam
streams, use illegal pesticides and fertilizers, and poach animals.

Q The Oregon Parks and Recreation
Commission is considering a land
exchange with a golf resort developer
in the commission's largest-ever exchange. The proposal would require
the state to give up 280 acres of its
902-acre Bandon State Natural Area,
located along the Pacific Coast. The
site is plagued by gorse, a noxious
invasive plant that has cost $67,000
in the past two years to control. The
owner of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, which operates five golf courses
north of Bandon, would acquire the
land to build a 27-hole, walking-only
course. The developer's preliminary
agreement with Oregon parks would
have him pay $300,000 to fight gorse
locally, transfer 208 acres he owns
near Bandon to state parks and pay
nearly $3 million to help state parks
acquire property elsewhere. Land
the state would acquire includes the
north side of Whale Cove near Depoe Bay, plus almost 10 square miles
in Grant County. A decision to proceed with the exchange could come
at the next commission meeting in
late September.

Q On July 8, the Minneapolis Park
and Recreation Board's youth football program unveiled a donation
of 1,000 brand-new Riddell helmets
from Minneapolis native Larry Fitzgerald, Jr., a wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals. The unveiling of the
helmets was held at Dr. Martin Luther King Park in Minneapolis, and

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For more news from around the industry, visit www.parksandecreation.
org/2013/August/Briefly-Noted.

August 2013 - Parks & Recreation

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