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Conservation + Recreation:

February, 2012

Making the Lafitte Corridor a Reality

Recently, the Friends of Lafitte Corridor enjoyed a visit from the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar. The Secretary's visit was to highlight the America's Great Outdoors, Urban Waters Initiative with the National Park Service  and other federal agencies to revitalize the corridor. The City of New Orleans owns most of a 3.1-mile linear right-of-way along a former shipping canal and railway that once connected the historic French Quarter to Bayou St. John. The right-of-way is unique in that it traverses a cross-section of the City that captures its two hundred year settlement pattern, ranging from the colonial-era settlement of the Vieux Carre to the mid-twentieth-century suburban neighborhood of Lakeview. It has long been the objective of the City and community to convert this special right-of-way into a greenway, comprised of publicly accessible open space, recreation areas, and other amenities.

 

The National Park Service RTCA program initially worked to develop a Master Plan for the Lafitte Corridor by way of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the National Park Service and the American Society of Landscape Architects. The MOU allowed for the pro bono development of a Master Plan.  Most recently, as a result of the Department of Interior's Urban Waters Initiative, RTCA staff, Stacye Palmer and Deirdre Hewitt will work to develop strategies for additional community outreach, funding strategies, and the implementation of a demonstration project.

 

This project will build upon past and current planning efforts and provide the detailed information needed to bring the greenway and trail to life, while revitalizing the surrounding corridor. This project is primarily funded by Disaster Recovery Community Development Block Grant (DCDBG) money approved through the State of Louisiana's Long Term Community Recovery program.

 

We would love to hear your stories about visiting the Lafitte Corridor!

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The 2012 River Rally is coming up

Do you have a conference coming up? It can be difficult to find innovative ways to increase participation, so we wanted to highlight some  novel examples of  ways engage your participants.  Some of these are especially powerful because they engage folks before they even arrive. 

  • Cut down on carbon dioxide emissions while attending River Network and the Waterkeeper Alliance conference by joining the Ride-Share group and finding someone to ride with to the River Rally. You may even meet a great new contact!
  • Check out the River Rally website which has some great attendee testimonials about their experiences at past River Rallies which gives folks an idea of what they might expect this year.
  • The River Management Society Symposium, co-hosted with RiverLink, will be engaging participants minds while keeping them active through a series of hands-on field sessions, pre-conference workshops, and even the opportunity for a morning run and yoga.
  • The National Association of Resource Recreation Planners is using local art to promote conference attendance and support future scholarships.
  • All three conferences utilize scholarships to entice potential attendees to take the plunge and to increase the diversity of attendees, including students. Take a look at NARRP's example

What are some great conferences that you have been too, and how did they attract you? If you know of some great tools for conference planners, - tell us by posting on our Facebook page. We would love to hear from you and start a nationwide conversation. 

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A tip of the hat to...

John Hiltenbrand
Goldstream Valley Lions Club
Fairbanks, Alaska

John Hiltenbrand is known in the Fairbanks community for getting things done. Two years ago, John was attending an Alaska Trails, NPS Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program, and International Mountain Bicycling Association training session at the Ester Dome singletrack trail when he heard folks talking about pump parks. Intrigued by the idea of pump parks, a skills development course for mountain bikers, John invited everyone to come to the Goldstream Valley Lions Club Park and see if site conditions would be suitable for building a pump park.

 

In order to make the pump park a reality, John spent two years working on the project. He was able to obtain approval from the Lions Club board, obtain grant funding, find in-kind match donations, and locate dirt, gravel, fill, materials, equipment, and tools necessary to host a three-day "Build a Pump Park" community workshop and construction party. Ben Blitch, of Alpine Trails, came from Utah to teach the workshop, remove doubts about liability, share pump park design and safety standards, train volunteers, and help John keep 70 volunteers busy during hands-on construction. 

 

John orchestrated an incredible end result: the Lions Club was able to leverage a $15,000 Alaska State Parks Recreational Trails Program grant into over $54,000 of in-kind match, including 770 hours of volunteer labor to complete a 40 foot x 160 foot basic pump park and skills course in three days.  The pump park was declared a huge hit by everyone.  The event actively engaged people form the ages of 3 to 75 in construction and riding.  To learn more,  take a ride or check out Ed Kessler's entertaining video about building the park.

Let's Work Together

Could your project benefit from collaboration with a National Park Service specialist?
 
If you're restoring a river, building a community trail, or making an urban park flourish, we'd love to talk with you about ways we could work together.
 
 
Call or email your regional representative today.

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Conservation + Recreation
is written to support and inform our organizational partners, friends of the program, potential partners, and Department of the Interior staff. It's our chance to share activities and successes and those of our partners. For details on specific projects, please contact the staff person involved with each project.

Images courtesy National Park Service except as noted.