June 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 70

opportunities are available to transform decaying asphalt playgrounds or vacant lots into natural play areas. What better city than New York to go beyond the
typical roof garden and create energy-efficient, habitat-providing green roofs, adapted for use as natural
play areas? asks Stephen Kellert, " There's no reason
why green roofs can't be experientially more positive
and aesthetically rich environments, especially given
that rooftops represent the largest available habitat in
most metropolitan areas for the photosynthetic effects
of sunlight. The possibility of doing something with
that habitat is exciting. "

Would naturalizing play spaces preclude other
innovative recreational design or banish traditional play equipment from areas? Swings are simply
too magical to banish; a parent pushing a child on
a swing experiences a special sense of connection.
And for a child, that sense of flying, of floating somewhere between heaven and earth, of being part of
the sky. That, too, is nature.

Adapted from The Nature Principle by Richard Louv.
©2011 by Richard Louv. Reprinted by permission of
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. All rights reserved.

Parks and the Nature Principle
In this question-and-answer session, Nature Principle
author Richard Louv asserts that parks and recreation
have a critical role in connecting people with nature.

alykat/flickr

68 Parks & Recreation

How do you view the role of
parks and recreation in The
Nature Principle? What can
they do to advance the
Nature Principle?
As of 2008, more than half of
the world's population lived
in towns and cities. That trend
will likely continue. So, if human beings are to have a
meaningful relationship with
the natural world, that relationship will likely take place in urban areas. This
change will produce one of two outcomes: either the
end of meaningful daily experience in nature, or the
beginning of a new kind of city - and a new view of
our role in nature.
One of the basic ideas of The Nature Principle is
that the more high-tech our lives become that more
we need nature-for our physical, psychological,
social and spiritual health, as well as our ability to
think clearly and creatively. Park professionals have
known this for a long time, but the rest of society is
beginning to catch on. For example, Daphne Miller,
a general practitioner in San Francisco, sees park
rangers as future health paraprofessionals who will
" help people use nature as a conduit for health. "
Some park systems are already moving in that direction. In 2010, Portland, Oregon's urban park system
began pairing physicians with park professionals,
who will record whether the outdoor " prescriptions "

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are fulfilled. The program
will be part of a longitudinal
study. This is just one way that
parks-nearby nature and
wilderness-will become increasingly important to human
health and well-being.
Parks and recreation could
play a pivotal role as a partner
in statewide or citywide efforts
to build health, wellbeing and
education through nature, and
in some areas of the country, already are. Last week
[May 2011], I was in Minneapolis for a statewide conference, where several hundred stakeholders were
represented-from parks to health care to the tourism and building industries. They were brought together by the Minnesota Arboretum to explore how
The Nature Principle might be used to shape the future of that state. In the final hour, a health care industry representative said that the reconnection of
children and adults to the natural world should be at
the heart of a new campaign to return Minnesota to
its ranking as the healthiest state in the United States.
In one section of The Nature Principle (a DeCentral Park in every City), you cite the need for
greater creativity in determining what space is
appropriate for experiencing nature. Will parks
need to change to accomplish that?
Creativity is certainly called for, especially because

June 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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