August 2022 - Parks & Recreation - 47

While the new trail links residents to
schools and businesses, it also creates
an immersive everyday experience abuzz
with local wildlife, vibrant flora and
dappled tree shade.
ly in the process to find out what
" nature play " meant to them. Places
to hide and explore, to be in and
around water, and objects to climb
on, over and under were identified as
priorities. By enticing kids to engage
with nature as a play experience, our
intent was to foster a lifelong appreciation
for wild places and their
irreplaceable gifts to humanity. The
ultimate goal was to create a place
that would offer the many welldocumented
benefits of simply being
in nature, such as improved personal
wellness and a sense of stewardship,
to neighbors who had never been given
the opportunity.
In the years since being built,
the Inspire Trail and Nature Kids
Discovery Zone have become wellworn,
wildly successful local amenities.
Access to outdoor gathering
spaces became essential in our new
pandemic world early in 2020, only
six months after construction. In
this time of crisis and uncertainty,
the project offered respite and recreation
to nearby apartment dwellers
and mobile home residents, just
outside their front doors.
Green Infrastructure
Green infrastructure, a popular
concept these days, is " a set of practices
that mimic natural processes
to retain and use stormwater " (tiny
url.com/6njfnp9h).
This
notion
conflicts with the more traditional
approach to civic infrastructure as
off limits and reserved for utilitarian
function. Green infrastructure
acknowledges that a natural environment
is ideal to accommodate
flooding and storm capacity while
it also offers more to people than a
sterile, overly engineered utility.
The evolution of Drainage #4
into the Inspire Trail corridor
showcases green infrastructure at
work. The built project created
wildlife habitat, walking trails and
stone-skipping spots for people, and
enhanced flood capacity for stormy
weather. In so doing, it exemplifies
the power of places intended to
serve both nature and humanity. It
highlights the inherent, expansive
value of wild spaces. These overlapping
values recognized by green
infrastructure in design are referred
to as ecosystem services.
The idea of ecosystem services
drives design that supports utility,
hydrology, ecology and recreation
- all at once. This very
concept is a departure from the longstanding
approach to creating our
urban places, which has sought
to distinguish utility spaces from
people spaces. This old approach
has proven problematic, as we are
now reminded daily with the impacts
of climate change front and
center in global news cycles. The
new approach, driven by greening
our infrastructure, allows for the
broad range of ecosystem services
as solutions not just to our climate
crisis, but also a growing need to
address mental and physical public
health issues.
As a result, strategies of resilient,
low-impact design have taken
hold that enhance both utility and
human quality of life. Naturalized
stormwater systems, which allow
for smaller and more aesthetic interventions,
have become a best
practice in many situations. Much
of the well-intentioned work of
past decades is being
reconsidered
as an urgency grows to undo
heavy-handed engineering, break
up the pavement, and design spaces
for nature to thrive and for people
to enjoy.
Nature Play
Nature play has been met with
quite a bit of press in recent years,
with good reason. Nature play
spaces have been defined as places
in which " children of all ages
and abilities play and learn by
engaging with
and manipulatPARK
S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G | A UGUS T 2 0 22 | Parks & Recreation
47
http://www.tinyurl.com/6njfnp9h http://www.tinyurl.com/6njfnp9h
August 2022 - Parks & Recreation

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