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In The News 

Our partners have generated a lot of buzz, check out these news stories

 

Great news about clean rivers in Washington DC

 

Conservation jobs are being filled by low-income youth

Events 

Check out upcoming events by visiting our calendar.

  

National Trails Day Photo Contest, check out the details here

Findings

Cyclist-scientists protect wildlife by crowd-sourcing road kill data.

Tools

Check out ParkScore, a tool for examining access to parks. 

 

Grants.gov has a blog, read it here

 

An upcoming webinar on the Art of Sustainable Trail Management

Grant Opportunities

Youth empowerment grants (Closes 6/8/2012).

 

Community Transformation Grants (Closes 7/31/2012). 

Trail of the Month

Since this month featured National Trails Day - tell us what your favorite trail is. 

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Conservation + Recreation:

June, 2012

National Trails Day:

A 20 year tradition of "trailgating"

Milestones are a great way to measure how far worthwhile projects have come. This past June 2nd, we celebrated the 20th Anniversary of National Trails Day - 20 years of hiking, biking, walking, paddling, riding, and taking care of trails.  At Conservation + Recreation, we are really proud of our partnership with American Hiking Society that has created better access to and excitement about trails. Perhaps this year, to celebrate, you could get out on one of the recently announced National Recreation Trails.

 

If you can't get out but want to still celebrate trails, you can do it virtually by checking out our just launched tool River Stories, an innovative, web-based storytelling format that engages people in understanding, enjoying, and conserving water trails. Developed through a partnership between American Rivers, the NPS, and many local partners, viewers can take a virtual trip down a waterway to explore its natural, recreational, historical, and scenic values. Our new National Water Trail, the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area Water Trail, is featured - check out to see if there's a river near you worth exploring!

 

As we know, trails don't magically appear for our use. Trails require planning, maintenance, and the dedication of a community to keep them alive. Read about one dedicated trail advocate and NPS partner, Roger Osario, in this month's tip of the hat. If you're inspired to jump in, we offer helpful tools for trail planning and maintenance; keep a lookout on our Facebook for the latest tools, like an upcoming American Trail's webinar on sustainable trail management.

 

Here at Conservation + Recreation, we want to encourage people to talk about trails, and why they are important. Feel free to head over to our Facebook page to tell us why trails are personally important to you or your community.

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Local Access to Parks

At the recent bike to work day, we at Conservation + Recreation spoke with a local trail advocate who is interested in building a bike pump track in DC. When we asked where he wanted to build it, he explained that in his mind the city needs six, not just one. Access to something like this can't be a drive away, users need to be able to walk or bike there. This idea of easy local access is critical (and not just for pump tracks) - one of the reasons this issue has recently been studied by the Trust for Public Land. With their new Parkscore tool, which analyzes the acreage, service and investments, and the access of parks in a given area to generate a numeric "ParkScore."

 

Through programs like the NPS Land and Water Conservation Fund, we're working to increase the percentage of people with local access by providing quality outdoor recreation opportunities that are close to home, open to the public, and accessible to all. In 2011 alone, 198 parks and recreation areas were funded by LWCF. Check and see if there is a site near you!

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A Tip of the Hat to...

Roger Osorio

Groundwork Hudson Valley

Location:Yonkers, NY

 

Roger Osorio did not always have the travel bug. One summer during his youth, his mom took him to the Dominican Republic where she grew up: "I remember thinking to myself, I hate this, I hate being outside. I wanna go home, I want to go to the city, I want to be in air conditioning." Years later he found himself working outside and loving it, and he cites his experience with Groundwork Hudson Valley as the catalyst for changing his outlook on the outdoors.  

 

Groundwork Hudson Valley provided Roger with several opportunities to change his perspective. One opportunity came in the form of a stone wall on the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail in Dobb's Ferry, NY. "It was horrible work, and we were tired and exhausted, but after we were done, we couldn't help but take pictures and think, 'we did this' and just be amazed at what we did."

 

Self-accomplishment, Roger says, is what pushes him to recruit for the Groundwork Hudson Valley Green Team. "He is our biggest advocate at his high school, rallying the team members to support Groundwork for a number of events," says Curt Collier, Deputy Director at Groundwork Hudson Valley. Since his first year, the number of Green Team applicants has grown from 20 to 54, much in part to the encouragement Roger gives to new applicants.

 

Volunteers like Roger, and those who are willing to pitch in and engage in ground-level project work, make organizations like Groundwork Hudson Valley incredibly successful. We salute Roger for his hard work, and wish him the best of luck as he continues his studies.

 

Groundwork Hudson Valley is a member trust of Groundwork USA, an initiative that was spearheaded by the National Park Service Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program (RTCA). The Green Team program was developed in partnership with the RTCA. 
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.