Park Planning for the 21st Century

Parks are important to our society for so many reasons. Goals for parks are as diverse as the places they serve - they can filter water, provide green space, clean air, and lend ground for democracy to take place. This weeks guest, Kathleen is a park planner working for the City of Fort Collins, Colorado. Her background in landscape architecture allows her to facilitate changes, and build on complex relationships that exit between parks, our urban environments and peoples needs. Currently Kathleen is helping to shape the Sustainable SITES Initiative.

"The Sustainable Sites Initiative™ (SITES™) is an interdisciplinary effort by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the United States Botanic Garden to create voluntary national guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance practices." (from www.sustainablesites.org)

Kathleen has also had experience designing and building natural playgrounds, and has studied the topic of childrens' play extensively.

Infrared footage of air pollution from gas drilling

"A Chesapeake Bay Foundation infrared video investigation of natural gas drilling and processing sites in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia found invisible air pollution rising from almost three quarters of them." Learn more at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.