NACPRO News

August 18, 2026

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Awardee Spotlight

Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance
Great Parks, Ohio

The Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance (CORA), in partnership with Great Parks of Hamilton County, Ohio, is the recipient of NACPRO’s Outstanding Support Organization Award. CORA has played a vital role in advancing Greater Cincinnati’s trail system through advocacy, planning, event coordination, conservation, and volunteerism.

In 2025, CORA partnered with Great Parks to open two significant new off-road trail facilities: a 1.5-mile mountain bike trail at Avoca Trailhead, designed to welcome beginning riders and hikers while improving access for adaptive mountain bikers, and a new mountain bike skills course and skills loop at Mitchell Memorial Forest. These projects build on a long-standing partnership that began with the county’s first purpose-built mountain bike trail, an 8.2-mile circuit at Mitchell Memorial Forest.

CORA volunteers contributed more than 500 hours to Great Parks in 2025. Their ongoing partnership is especially meaningful because expanding the trail system was identified by the public as the top priority in Great Parks’ master plan. CORA demonstrates how strong community partnerships can turn public priorities into new opportunities for recreation, access, and conservation.

Tap into our collective experience. Send your question to [email protected] with some background and we will include it in the next NACPRO News.

Clean Parks Start with Thoughtful Planning
Courtesy of Pilot Rock

Think about your favorite local park.  Chances are, it’s doing more today than it was twenty years ago.

Parks and public spaces have become gathering places for community events, trail users, outdoor classrooms, festivals, fitness programs, and everyday recreation. As expectations continue to evolve, thoughtful site furnishings play an increasingly important role in creating spaces that are comfortable, durable, and ready for whatever the day brings.

Read more:
https://www.pilotrock.com/news/tips-resources/19/tips-for-designing-parks-campgrounds-rv-resor/

Rethinking Conservation Through an Urban Lens
Courtesy of NRPA

By Clement Lau, DPPD, FAICP

CALIFORNIA - At Earvin “Magic” Johnson Recreation Area in South Los Angeles, it is easy to forget what came before. Today, its lakes, wetlands, walking paths, native landscaping, and gathering spaces form an oasis in a densely developed community. Yet this land was once the Athens Tank Farm, used to store and distribute petroleum products.

The contrast between the park’s past and present challenges us to think beyond the familiar image of conservation as the protection of large natural landscapes. Earvin “Magic” Johnson Recreation Area shows that conservation can also mean reclaiming degraded land and creating space for nature within a community where it is sorely needed.

Read more:
https://www.nrpa.org/blog/rethinking-conservation-through-an-urban-lens/

More Than a Summer Job: Forest Preserves Experience Celebrates Its 11th Graduating Class
Courtesy of Forest Preserves of Cook County

ILLINOIS - For 84 young people, this summer was about much more than earning a paycheck. It was about restoring native habitats, discovering new career possibilities and leaving a lasting mark on the Forest Preserves of Cook County.

The Forest Preserves Experience celebrated its 11th graduating class, recognizing youth who spent five weeks developing leadership, teamwork and job skills. This year's cohort included 71 crew members and 13 crew leaders, continuing a program that has now engaged more than 1,150 young people and contributed more than 101,000 hours of conservation service over the past decade.

For former participant Luis Cabrales, the program helped shape his future. Cabrales first discovered conservation as a student crew member with the Student Conservation Association before joining the Forest Preserves Experience as an assistant crew leader in 2016. Today, he works as an environmental educator with the Chicago Park District, introducing young people to nature every day.

Read more:
https://fpdcc.com/more-than-a-summer-job-forest-preserves-experience-celebrates-its-11th-graduating-class/

San Francisco’s Rain Gardens Mean Fewer Chemicals in the Bay
Courtesy of Governing

By Carl Smith

CALIFORNIA - San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission has invested in nature-based approaches to stormwater management (“green infrastructure”) to reduce the chance that stormwater will overwhelm sewers. The city has built or initiated 575 green infrastructure projects that put it a third of the way toward a goal of capturing 1 billion gallons of stormwater each year.

Researchers sampled water going into and out of four rain gardens over two wet seasons. Analysis revealed reductions in all 21 contaminants, most by 90 percent or more. Plants and the soil did the work alone; there weren’t other filtration systems in them.

Read more:
https://www.governing.com/resilience/san-franciscos-rain-gardens-mean-fewer-chemicals-in-the-bay

Measuring the ROI of a Single Park Amenity
Courtesy of NRPA

By Michael Kirschman

Staff long have believed even small investments could greatly increase these parks’ ROI. This is rooted in numerous studies that show a strong relationship between park usage and park amenities. While there may be no magic number for the exact number of park amenities that maximize ROI, most would argue anything is better than just one. Knowing this, if an amenity is added to an under-developed park, is it feasible and relatively easy to accurately measure the impact?

In 2025, the department acquired Placer.ai technology, a foot traffic analytics platform that utilizes mobile device data. With Placer. ai, we can now obtain visitation data with 92 to 96 percent accuracy to any park, and even to specific park amenities. The best part? Placer.ai provides visitation going back to 2017. This enabled us to compare visitation before and after each project.

Read more:
https://parksandrecmag.mydigitalpublication.com/august-2026/page-18

A Green Oasis Grows in North Philadelphia’s Heat Island
Courtesy of Inside Climate News

By Nina Sablan

PENNSYLVANIA - This urban oasis is more than ornamental—it constantly works to cool the environment, reduces community health risks and serves as social infrastructure, all of which help to prevent deaths during heat waves becoming more frequent because of climate change.

Creating more spaces like the Tioga-Hope garden is at the core of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s mission. Each year, the group partners with the city and local volunteers to plant thousands of trees and transform hundreds of vacant lots into maintained green spaces. Launched in 1999, the program now maintains 12,000 of the city’s estimated 40,000 vacant lots.

Read more:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13082026/community-garden-transforms-north-philadelphia-heat-island/

NRPA Poll Reveals the Park Amenities Residents Value Most

As millions of people continue to rely on local parks and recreation spaces to support their health, well-being and quality of life, a new National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) Park Pulse poll highlights the amenities people value most when visiting their local parks.

According to the latest Park Pulse poll, seating and shade are among the most important park amenities for U.S. adults, followed closely by open green space and trails. In 2025, an estimated 227 million U.S. adults, or a member of their household, visited a local park or recreation facility (2025 NRPA Engagement With Parks Report). When coupled together, these findings reinforce the importance of designing parks that are welcoming, comfortable and accessible for all people and demonstrate the critical infrastructure role that parks have in communities.

Read more:
https://recmanagement.com/articles/155955/nrpa-poll-reveals-park-amenities-residents-value-most

Why America’s Cities Can’t Afford To Lose Their Parks
Courtesy of Next City

By Bianca Clarke

New research shows that for every dollar a public agency invests in parks and recreation, the surrounding community and local government receive at least a $3 return in economic benefits. This is because parks do the heavy lifting of multiple civic systems simultaneously. Instead of bearing the staggering costs of extreme weather, cities can leverage tree canopies and green spaces to dramatically lower cooling costs and reduce exposure to deadly heat islands. Parks also act as natural sponges that absorb and manage stormwater, significantly lowering municipal spending on expensive flooding infrastructure.

Read more:
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/why-americas-cities-cant-afford-to-lose-their-parks

The Widening Health Divide: What It Means for Facility Managers
Courtesy of Recreation Management

The 19th annual American Fitness Index, published by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the Elevance Health Foundation, evaluated the 100 largest U.S. cities across 35 health, infrastructure and environmental indicators. The headline finding: The gap between the healthiest and least healthy cities is widening, not closing.

Top-ranked cities share a common formula—extensive trail networks, strong bike and walk scores, high public transit use, and parks that are not just accessible but actually used. Lower-ranked cities, by contrast, show clustering of chronic disease indicators like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, often paired with higher food insecurity and fewer everyday opportunities for movement.

Read more:
https://recmanagement.com/articles/155960/widening-health-divide-what-it-means-facility-managers

Study: Mountain lions reduce roadway deer collisions by 67%
Courtesy of Planetizen

By Diana Ionescu

WASHINGTON - The research, published Aug. 5 in the journal Current Biology, examined puma and deer activity across Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Scientists concluded that deer modify their behavior when pumas are nearby, leading them to spend less time near roads and become more active during daylight hours, cell.com said." The study estimates that puma activity was associated with a 67% drop in the probability of deer collisions and a 76% drop in the total expected number of crashes over a five-year period. "The findings suggested deer were 15% less likely to be found near road-dense areas and were more likely to remain in remote habitat when pumas occupied the landscape.

Read more:
https://www.mlive.com/news/2026/08/there-is-a-surprising-road-safety-helper-hiding-in-washingtons-forests.html

Director of Parks and Recreation
City of Burleson, Texas
$150,000 - $190,000 Annually
Application Deadline: Open until filled

Deputy Director of Operations & Strategic Development
MetroParks of Butler County
Hamilton, Ohio
$84,515 - $105,645 Annually
Application Deadline: Open until filled

Director Of Park Planning & Development
Morris County Park Commission
Morristown, New Jersey
$116,000 - $121,388 Annually
Application Deadline: Open until filled

Associate Graphic Designer
Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation
San Jose, California
$70,701.28 - $85,377.76 Annually
Application Deadline: Aug 27, 2026

Parks Natural Resource Program Coordinator
Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation
San Jose, California
$91,992 - $111,338 Annually
Application Deadline: Aug 21, 2026

For more information:
https://nacpro.mcjobboard.net/jobs

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