January 2015 - Parks & Recreation - 22

People for Parks
Better Living Through Conservation
Jill Erickson has made conservation her life's mission, and with the Heartland Conservation
Alliance, she's well-prepared to tackle one of the country's largest urban watersheds
By Samantha Bartram

t's a refrain commonly echoed throughout our industry: Parks and recreation does it all. From providing safe, pleasant and engaging places to
recreate, to running feeding programs and activities for at-risk youth, park
and recreation professionals have a hand in multiple and varied aspects of
building and sustaining our communities. But, despite our seemingly boundless
energy and enthusiasm, we can't do it all. We need effective partners to help
support our activities and aspirations. Jill Erickson, co-founder and program
manager for the Heartland Conservation Alliance (HCA), is one such partner.
Alongside local, regional and national affiliates, Erickson works tirelessly to
coordinate efforts in Kansas City, Missouri's Blue River Watershed that will
have a huge impact on the quality of life for all area residents.
knows how powerful a group of determined individuals with a mission
can be. While there, she set up systems and protocols, raised funding
for projects and managed the recruitment of volunteers and community
leaders. Through her efforts, CKC
has established a number of urban
farms and educated hundreds of peo-

Kansas City WildLands

Identifying the Need
Erickson has deep roots in her local
conservation movement. Formerly
the development and communications director with Cultivate Kansas
City (CKC), an urban agriculture organization working to establish sustainable, community-engaged farms
in the Kansas City area, Erickson

Jill Erickson (far right, wearing orange gloves) explains to volunteers how and why nonprofit
conservation group Kansas City WildLands removes invasive bush honeysuckle on park land.

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ple about the value of growing their
own food. She also managed to find
the time to develop initial plans for
HCA, which first began to take shape
some seven years ago.
" [HCA's] roots reach back to 2008
when a local nonprofit organization,
Kansas City WildLands, received
funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to convene stakeholders of a specific important natural area in our urban core and create
a long-term action plan to protect this
area, " Erickson explains. At the outset, Kansas City (Missouri) Parks and
Recreation, Jackson County Parks
and Recreation and the Johnson
County Parks and Recreation District all were involved in brainstorming, but as plans began to take shape,
" two needs bubbled up to the surface
over and over: Kansas City needed
an urban land trust to protect land in
perpetuity and had a lot of plans that
were not getting implemented because
there was not a hub organization with
dedicated staff working to implement
the plans, " Erickson says. A core
group of stakeholders decided forming HCA would be the most effective
way to address those needs.
Getting Off the Ground
HCA was formally incorporated in
2012 and received its 501(c)(3) status
shortly after in 2013. Initially, operations were all volunteer-based, but
with receipt of an EPA Urban Waters grant, HCA was able to hire its

January 2015 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2015 - Parks & Recreation