Making Our Impact Visible
Courtesy of NRPA
By Clement Lau, DPPD, FAICP
Those of us who work in parks and recreation have long understood the value of our work. Yet understanding our impact is not the same as demonstrating it, and we cannot assume that the value of parks and recreation speaks for itself.
I have written previously about the importance of both telling our stories and using data visualization and storytelling to make the case for parks and recreation. Numbers do not necessarily speak for themselves; we have to provide the context and narrative that make them meaningful. That means looking beyond outputs to consider impact. Understanding who benefits and whether investments are reaching communities with the greatest needs can be just as important as documenting how much was accomplished.
Read more:
https://www.nrpa.org/blog/making-our-impact-visible/
Extreme heat in Neighborhoods at Risk Tool
Courtesy of Headwaters Economics
Extreme heat hits hardest in neighborhoods with little shade and lots of pavement. Our newly updated Neighborhoods at Risk tool now includes the latest Tree Canopy and Impervious Surface data for every U.S. community to reveal exactly which populations are most exposed.
Read more:
https://apps.headwaterseconomics.org/neighborhoods-at-risk/
Miami-Dade County enhances park's climate resiliency and recreational opportunities
Courtesy of NACo
By Meredith Moran
FLORIDA- “Miami-Dade County is on the front lines of sea level rise impact,” Carlos Lopez, a Miami-Dade County parks planner said. “For us in parks, that means thinking not only about how we’re functioning today, but how our assets are going to perform decades from now, as flooding, storm surge, saltwater intrusion — all those things — build up and become greater concerns.”
“Rather than treating the remediation, the recreation improvements and the resilience as separate projects, we used the opportunity to address them all together,” Lopez said. “… All these studies really gave us a more complete picture of what could responsibly occur at the site.
Read more:
https://recmanagement.com/articles/156158/rails-trails-conservancy-grants-underscore-urgent-truth-demand-safe-spaces-walk-and
Is Wildfire Risk Increasing in the Midwest?
Courtesy of Inside Climate News
Researchers and government climate reports expect wildfire risk to increase in Midwestern forests. Multiple changes feed into that: Warmer conditions stretch across more months of the year. Temperatures climb ever higher. Stronger storms release more rain over shorter periods of time, spurring plant growth, but sudden droughts occur more often as well, drying out the plants to provide more fuel for fire. The swing from one condition to the other now has a name: hydroclimate whiplash. More lightning streaks across the sky and electrifies the ground thanks to a warmer atmosphere that holds more moisture and strengthens storms, which often blow down trees, material susceptible to burning.
Read more:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14092026/midwest-wildfire-risk/
Forget ‘Anti-Aging’: Build Programs That Help People Stay Capable
Courtesy of Recreation Management
By Sabrena Jo, Ph.D.
The first step is to stop treating aging as the enemy. “Anti-aging” language implies that getting older is something undesirable that we should fight, hide or somehow reverse. Aging is a normal biological process. Instead, our goal can be to help people age with as much strength, function, confidence and independence as possible. Pro-aging class isn’t necessarily a different type of exercise. It is a different philosophy: Meet people where they are, recognize what they can do and help them continue expanding their capabilities.
Physical activity affects the systems that actually determine how well we function as we age. Exercise has decades of research behind it demonstrating effects on cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength and power, metabolic health, bone health, balance, cognition, and psychological well-being. Those are not cosmetic markers. They directly influence whether someone can climb stairs, get up from the floor, carry groceries, recover from a loss of balance, or continue participating in activities they enjoy.
Read more:
https://recmanagement.com/articles/156138/forget-anti-aging-aces-sabrena-jo-building-programs-help-people-stay-capable
Traffic Noise Kills 6,330 Americans a Year; We Stopped Counting in 1982
Courtesy of Streetsblog USA
By David Rojas-Rueda
Road, rail and aircraft noise is linked to about 6,330 premature cardiovascular deaths across the contiguous United States every year. That’s because around 94.5 million Americans, or close to one in three, live in places where transportation noise runs at or above 45 decibels.
To understand why these numbers are so high, it’s important to understand that transportation noise does not have to wake you to hurt you. It sets off a stress response, and over years, that shows up as vascular inflammation and cardiac events. Your sleep fragments whether or not you remember it in the morning.
We do know that harmful transportation noise is not distributed equally. In the most socially vulnerable fifth of American communities, 1,940 deaths related to it happen each year. In the least vulnerable fifth, 849.
Read more:
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2026/09/17/traffic-noise-kills-6330-americans-a-year-we-stopped-counting-in-1982
Transportation Alternatives Spending Report FY 2025
Courtesy of Rails to Trails Conservancy
In this report, we provide a look at the history of TA programs and examine how recent changes are supporting state and local decision-makers and advocates in getting eligible projects funded.
Read more:
https://www.railstotrails.org/resource-library/resources/transportation-alternatives-spending-report-fy-2025/
ORR Awards Rural Grants Linking Outdoor Access and Community Health in 10 States
Courtesy of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sept. 24 — Today, the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR) announced the first recipients of its two new Rural Outdoor Recreation and Health Grant Programs, helping rural communities build, improve, and activate outdoor recreation assets that strengthen local economies, improve community health, and expand access to the outdoors.
The grants advance America’s Outdoor Era, ORR’s national effort to position outdoor recreation as a cornerstone of health infrastructure — calling for expanded access to the outdoors, stronger partnerships between healthcare and the outdoor recreation economy, and greater recognition of time outside as essential to physical and mental health, particularly in rural America. The selected projects were chosen from more than 100 applications representing nearly $1.5 million in need.
Read more:
https://recreationroundtable.org/news/outdoor-recreation-roundtable-awards-rural-grants/
New research shows many boat owners are experiencing frustration when they try to go boating
Courtesy of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable
By Frank Hugelmeyer
A survey of 2,000 active U.S. boaters found that 80% of boat owners experience congestion at their primary access point, and 83% say congestion limits their ability to go boating at least sometimes. Even more telling, 71% have changed their behavior because of access challenges, whether by boating less often, traveling farther to launch or reducing their overall boating spending.
An overwhelming 93% of boat owners surveyed said improved access would increase their boating frequency, with more than half saying it would increase significantly. Boaters identified reduced congestion, additional public ramps and marina slips, expanded storage options and better parking among the improvements that would make the greatest difference.
Read more:
https://tradeonlytoday.com/post-type-feature/access-is-essential/
Demand for Safe Spaces to Walk and Bike Outpaces Available Funding Nationwide
Courtesy of Recreation Management
Rails to Trails Conservancy has awarded more than $435,000 in funding through its 2026 Trail Grants program to over 35 community organizations and public agencies advancing the construction, land acquisition and activation needed to build out America’s trail networks in rural, suburban and urban communities.
RTC’s 2026 grantees highlight the urgent need for sustained funding of trail infrastructure. Applications from more than 170 organizations totaled over $3.1 million, demonstrating this infrastructure is essential to people and places – not a nice-to-have amenity.
Read more:
https://recmanagement.com/articles/156158/rails-trails-conservancy-grants-underscore-urgent-truth-demand-safe-spaces-walk-and
Interior Department announces biggest hunting expansion in U.S. history
Courtesy of SORP
More than 95% of wildlife refuge lands are now open to hunting and sport fishing following a sweeping expansion by the Interior Department, including more than 92 million acres of diverse wildlife and ecosystems across 107 refuges and four fish hatcheries in 32 states. Hunting has been allowed on some wildlife refuges since the 1960s following the passage of the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966, which permits hunting on a national wildlife refuge when it is compatible with the purpose of the refuge and the refuge system mission.
Read more:
https://baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2026/09/11/wildlife-refuge-hunting-fishing-expansion
Trump's 'America First' national park fees for foreign tourists have raised a quarter of what was promised
Courtesy of SORP
Everyone knows "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," are the most famous lines of Emma Lazarus' poem, "The New Colossus." But what some might not know is the line before it: "From her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome." They lucked out, because now, a decade later, any foreign visitors to select national parks are subject to an international visitor surcharge as part of the "America-first" pricing plan, which was pitched as a $90 million-a-year fix.
Read more:
https://fortune.com/2026/09/10/trumps-america-first-national-park-fees-foreign-tourists/
