June 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 16

Front Page

Briefly Noted

■ Walter L. Mess, who established the
Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority and was a member of its board
for more than 45 years, passed away on
May 26 at the age of 100. During his
more than four decades on the NVRPA
Board, the agency preserved more than
10,000 acres of land and expanded to
include the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church as well as Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun counties.
One of his proudest achievements was
the creation of the 45-mile Washington
and Old Dominion Trail. Since stepping down from the NVRPA Board
in 2004, Mess served on the board of
the Northern Virginia Regional Park
Foundation, the nonprofit that raises
money to support the mission of the
authority. His leadership and guiding
influence will be missed by his colleagues, local and national alike.
■ The National Park Service-backed
Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program is now accepting applications for technical assistance on local
conservation and outdoor recreation
projects. Applicants may be state or
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Parks & Recreation

local agencies, tribes, nonprofit organizations or citizen groups. Although the
program does not provide direct grants,
it does offer assistance in the form of
building partner relationships; helping
partners define goals through consensus; developing conceptual, strategic
and workable project plans; helping the
public participate in defining community goals; identifying potential sources
of funding for project implementation;
and teaching hands-on conservation
and other technical skills necessary to
successfully realize conservation and
outdoor recreation projects. Assistance
is provided for one year and may be
renewed for a second year. Further
information can be found on www.
nps.gov/ncrc/programs/rtca, including details on the application process,
which includes a pre-application consultation with NPS staff. The pre-application process and declared intent to
apply must be complete by July 1, and
all application materials must be postmarked by August 1. Project selection
is announced in early November.
■ The International Federation of
Parks and Recreation Administration
recently released a study titled " Benefits
of Urban Parks: A Systematic Review, "
which assessed benefits of urban parks
to the public in the areas of human
health and well-being, social cohesion,
tourism, property values, biodiversity,
air quality, water management, and
environmental cooling. Drawing on
relevant studies and reports published
between 2000 and 2010, this report
found significant and well-documented benefits due to the presence and use
of parks. For example, those in close
proximity to parks were found to have
better physical and mental health, and
the studies profiled overwhelmingly

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indicate that the current obesity problem could be largely curtailed with increased numbers of and access to parks.
For the full study, visit www.ifpra.org/
images/park-benefits.pdf.
■ A religious debate with legal repercussions has popped up in Georgia
State Parks after a former president of
the American Atheists raised concerns
about the Gideon Bible he found in his
rented cabin. Upon receiving his complaint, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources temporarily removed
the Bibles from rental accommodations
on May 14 until the state attorney could
review the decision. The following day,
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal issued an
executive order to have the Bibles reinstated. In response, American Atheists
prepared a shipment of popular atheist
books to place alongside the Bibles in
every rental unit under the state's purview. The situation remains unresolved.
■ Following last summer's budget
scandal following threats that would
have closed a quarter of California's
state parks, the state parks system is
launching a study commission that
leaders hope will reshape the system
and restore public confidence and financial stability. The Parks Forward
Commission, a privately funded group
of private-sector business leaders, will
study everything from how big the park
system should be to whether individual parks can do a better job generating
revenue and if the current practice
of promoting only law-enforcement
rangers to leadership positions has led
to a lack of innovation at the top.
For more news from around the industry, visit www.parksandrecreation.
org/2013/June/Briefly-Noted.

June 2013 - Parks & Recreation

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