February 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 17

Notable News
n Following a 12-year, community-led
effort brokered by The Vital Ground
Foundation, a nonprofit land trust
based in Missoula, Montana, the land
surrounding the shoreline of Alvord
Lake, north of Troy, will be protected
from development, due in part to the
recently reauthorized Land and Water
Conservation Fund. The Vital Ground
Foundation purchased a 142-acre forested parcel on the east shore of the
lake, in Lincoln County, just two miles
north of Troy. The $1.15 million project was anchored by a $400,000 U.S.
Forest Service Community Forest and
Open Spaces Program grant, and was
complemented by a substantial donation from the Friends of Alvord Lake.
n Research from Salud America!, a
national network for Latino childhood
obesity prevention funded by the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation and based
at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (http://bit.
ly/1P36OXY), shows that Latinos lack
access to spaces necessary to be physically active. One suggested solution is
for local governments to include sustainable funding for park maintenance,
repairs and improvements, as well as
look for ways to fund infrastructure
maintenance and programming.
n Effective January 11, Dion
Louthan became director of the
Parks, Recreation and Libraries Department for the city of Roseville,
California. Louthan has more than
20 years' experience, most recently as
parks and recreation director for the
city of Salina, Kansas. He earned a
bachelor's degree in parks, recreation
and leisure facilities management
from the University of Kansas.

n The Produce for People program,
part of Portland Parks and Recreation Community Gardens, donated
more than 42,000 pounds of food
to local hunger relief agencies. The
42,000 pounds of food is organic and
locally grown in 42 of the 50 Portland Community Garden sites.
n This year, thanks to Washington,
D.C., Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D)
and the city's Department of Parks
and Recreation, residents of the nation's capital will be able to exercise at
city-run fitness centers for free. Back
in December, the mayor announced
that fees at city-run fitness centers will
be eliminated for 2016 and beyond.
Jordan Bennett, a spokesperson for
the mayor, said she is doing so " ...to
make sure that everyone, regardless of
financial status, has an opportunity
and access to get fit and healthy. "
n A proposal has been submitted to
turn 40 blocks of Broadway, in the middle of Manhattan, into green space.
While earlier projects (the High Line
and the Low Line) focused on transforming unused infrastructure, designers of this new park - to be called the
Green Line - argue that it not only
could bring new business to the neighborhoods nearby and help raise property values, but could also double as
green infrastructure: bioswales, special
plantings designed to suck up stormwater, could help absorb rain and snow
and keep it out of the city's overloaded
sewer system and from dripping into
the subway system below.
For more news from around the
industry, visit www.parksandrecreation.org/2016/February/Notable-News.

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February 2016 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2016 - Parks & Recreation