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News from NARRP This content is generated by members for members. Please send us your news, reports, job announcements, manuals and personal updates that may be of interest to recreation planning professionals. The National Association of Recreation Resource Planners National Park Service Releases 2016 Centennial Action Plan Courtesy of the American Recreation Coalition Washington, D.C. - The National Park Service (NPS) unveiled A Call to Action today identifying four key themes and 36 actions to ready the agency for its 100th anniversary in 2016. The plan commits the agency to connecting people to parks, strengthening local economies and encouraging organizational innovation within the NPS. The release came on Founder’s Day – August 25 – on the 95th anniversary of the creation of the agency. The four key themes of A Call to Action are: (1) “Connecting People to Parks”; (2) “Advancing the Education Mission”; (3) “Preserving America’s Special Places”; and (4) “Enhancing Professional and Organizational Excellence.” NPS Director Jon Jarvis outlined the plan and a new emphasis on communications internally and with the agency’s key partners at a national town hall held in the historic Ford’s Theater in downtown Washington, D.C. The town hall was broadcast nationwide to NPS employees and partners. Joining Director Jarvis on stage were the President of the National Park Foundation, Neil Mulholland, and three agency employees: Corita Waters, Outdoor Recreation Planner with the Rivers and Trails Conservation Assistance Program; Lizette Richardson, Chief of Maintenance, Lake Mead National Recreation Area; and Dave Moore, Assistant Regional Director for the Northeast Region. In his opening remarks, Director Jarvis told the employees and partners that the mission of the agency is both unique and centered on the core documents of the nation: the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. He stressed the mission to provide the American public with enjoyment of special places that are the nation’s natural and historic best places. And he also noted the agency’s major economic importance to the nation, reminding the group that visitors to parks create more than $12 billion in economic activity annually and that other agency programs, including historic preservation, also contribute significantly to local and national economies. The Director emphasized that A Call to Action does not depend upon new funding or new authorities. Instead, he told the group, the plan is based on flexibility, creativity and partnerships. Commenting on the report and its release, American Recreation Coalition President Derrick Crandall said, “The focus and the themes of A Call to Action are appropriate and strategic. And many of the action steps are exciting – the focus on parks as a contributor to health, the call to expand access for water-based recreation, the link to sustainable economic activity in gateways and more. And Director Jarvis has made clear that the action steps can be modified and new steps added through partner input. I saw a roomful of younger NPS employees become energized – and that is what the agency needs today more than anything: passionate, on-the- ground staff who want to be in contact with park visitors.” Crandall added that America’s recreation community looks forward to working closely with the National Park Service and park partners on action steps. One key opportunity for cooperative action will come January 24-26 at the first-ever America’s Summit on National Parks. More than 300 NPS officials and partners will gather to coordinate efforts linked to the 2016 centennial of the agency. For more information on A Call to Action and the upcoming Summit, visit www.nps.gov/calltoaction. For more information on participation in the America’s Summit on National Parks, email [email protected]. Demographic shift causes state parks to adapt: Hispanic families are using Maryland's parks more frequently and in different ways Courtesy of baltimoresun.com By Candus Thomson When an approaching thunderstorm threatens swimmers at Greenbrier State Park, lifeguards reach for an iPod, scroll through the menu and press play. "La tormenta se aproxima," says the recording amplified by the loud speaker system. "Todo el mundo salga del agua." With that, hundreds of people move toward shore. The staff at Maryland's state parks, destination for 11 million visitors last year, is learning to adapt to a rapidly growing and enthusiastic clientele: Hispanic families. They come early, stay until closing and are repeat customers, say state park officials. According to the latest U.S. Census figures, the largest spike in the last decade was in the state's Hispanic population, which more than doubled to 470,632. Roughly one in 12 Marylanders is Hispanic. And while an economic impact study last year by the Department of Business and Economic Development showed that just 2 percent of day-use visitors were Hispanic, park officials say that paints an incomplete picture. Hispanic families concentrate in a handful of waterfront parks near the Baltimore-Washington corridor. For example, at Greenbrier in Washington County and Sandy Point State Park outside Annapolis, as many as 80 percent of the picnickers and swimmers are Hispanic, officials at the two sites say. Day trippers also favor Seneca Creek State Park in Montgomery County and the Hammerman area of Gunpowder Falls State Park in Baltimore County. When those fill on busy summer weekends, families drive to Cunningham Falls north of Frederick or Point Lookout in St. Mary's County. "This isn't just a Greenbrier or a Sandy Point story. It's spreading and becoming a Maryland story," says Nita Settina, superintendent of the state's 66 parks. "They want to do all the outdoors things they did in their native country in their new home. It's up to us to make them feel welcome." To meet the needs of the Hispanic visitors, parks have added translators, posted bilingual signs and stocked park stores with ethnic foods. Staffs are getting cultural training and will be taught basic Spanish commands and phrases before next season to help ease the communications barrier. Other ethnic groups have gravitated to specific parks, mostly by word of mouth: Koreans at Point Lookout, Russians at Cunningham Falls and Africans at Patapsco Valley, just south of Baltimore. That has required additional adjustments by park staff, says Ranger Jen Cline of the Maryland Park Service Training Division. Cline says on Memorial Day weekend, she encountered some African men with a blow torch at a Patapsco Valley pavilion. When questioned, the men told Cline, "We have to sear the goats." Not knowing whether park rules prohibited the searing of goats with a blow torch before barbecuing, but deciding it might be a safety hazard in a full park, Cline asked if they could finish up quickly and put it away. Everyone was satisfied. "You just have to put yourselves in your guests' shoes," Cline tells her trainees. That includes making allowances, when possible, for lakeside baptisms and seasonal religious celebrations, too. A survey of 500 Greenbrier visitors showed the predominant countries of origin are: El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras. They drive one or two hours to get there, stay an average of 8 hours and visit as many as a half dozen times a season. The new visitors have prompted a rethinking of park procedures and designs that are 30 to 40 years old, says Lt. Tammy McCorkle, who has been at Greenbrier for 11 seasons. For example, people begin lining up at 3 a.m. to get in and secure one of the prime shaded picnic tables near the water. By 8, the line backs up nearly two miles on U.S. 40, forcing staff to open early to alleviate a traffic safety hazard. Gone are the days when one vehicle with four or five family members was the standard. Now, an informal survey shows, the average group size is 15 people "who stay until closing," McCorkle says. "That means the traditional picnic pad, with one table and one grill, is useless to our visitors, a poor design. You have to have room for four tables." In another concession to change, park managers had to replace half of Greenbrier's 150 grills this year due to metal fatigue brought on by dawn-to-dusk use. The visitors have noticed the effort. "I recommend this park to all my friends and I bring people from everywhere," says Dilia Giron, a manager of a cell phone store in Beltsville. "They make you feel welcome here. Sometimes I tell my mother we should try another park, but she says , 'No, no, no. This is fine. This is ours.'" Luis Perez, a truck driver from Silver Spring, says state parks are clean and quiet, safe places to allow urban children to run and play. "It's like being at home. When you feel comfortable, you're going to be happy," he says. At Greenbrier, 32 common park announcements have been downloaded to an iPod, everything from a storm warning to a missing-child report to a head's up that someone left their car headlights on. The announcements were recorded by Christina Dalton, 22, a student at UMBC whose mother is from Guatemala. A park visitor as a child, Dalton was startled two years ago during a visit by the demographic shift. She emailed the park managers about the need for a translator and was hired as part of the summer staff. Dalton arrives for work in shorts and a tan Greenbrier polo shirt, a small radio clipped to her belt. The understated uniform is in deliberate contrast to the full police uniform worn by rangers. After unlocking the new nature center — "La Casita de Naturaleza" — she begins her rounds.

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