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Be Outside: Putting Nature Back into the Parks
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What could be more natural than kids playing at a park? In reality, the "natural" part of parks has changed significantly since the 1980's.
That is when the Consumer Product Safety Guidelines were established. In our Be Outside segment, we introduce you to a landscape architect from Pocatello who has found ways to put "nature" back into the parks.
Bill Jackson, Landscape Architect: "We've forgotten what it was like to be young and how we entertained ourselves as children."
Bill Jackson says his greatest tool in designing parks is to remember his own childhood in Virginia.
Bill Jackson, Landscape Architect: "I reminisce back to what it was like in the woods and I try to create spaces in my parks where kids nowadays can go to those facilities and re-create the same type of adventure that I enjoyed."
Another selling point is that natural areas actually cost less to build and maintain than play structures. Bill talks about a recent visit to a park he designed in southern Utah.
Where were the kids?
Bill Jackson, Landscape Architect: "They weren't up at the playground, they were down in the drainage, in that stream that was running through that park and that just was really a neat moment for me."
The natural vegetation Bill worked to preserve along the drainage provided tadpoles, frogs and hours of exploration. His idea is to use landscape, topography and plant material to create "outdoor rooms" for kids to use their imaginations.
Bill Jackson, Landscape Architect: "What a tremendous wall these cliffs provide utilizing the natural trees that are here... don't you feel like you're in a large outdoor space right now?"
Bill worries that the stimulation of all the electronics, noise and lights have dulled the imagination of today's kids, but he has not given up hope that it can change.
Bill Jackson, Landscape Architect: "If we can get these kids outside and let their imaginations just run wild in the open air and that natural setting, it's just tremendous service we're providing."
Bill also works with developers to design subdivisions with clustered homes to create more space for parks and gardens. Each step gives more opportunities for kids to be outside.
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