Girl Scouts Love State Parks
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Girl Scouts – US and most of the state park systems have special events scheduled this |
Gold Medal Finalists; State Park Videos
The Gold Medal Awards for Excellence in Parks and Recreation are presented by the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration in partnership with the National Recreation and Park Association, and proudly sponsored by Musco Lighting.
The Gold Medal Award honors communities throughout the United States that demonstrate excellence in long-range planning, resource management, and agency recognition. Awards are presented each year; the awards for the state park systems are presented biennially.
All the finalists for 2019, which includes state parks this year, plus more details may be found here. Congratulations to Florida, Maryland, Tennessee and Washington on being the state park systems finalists! The grand awards will be presented live at the opening session of the NRPA Conference in Baltimore on Tuesday, September 24.
Videos about their park system are included in the submissions as a part of their Gold Medal application. Click on the state for the video about their state park system:
Congratulations to each for the quality park services they provide!
More info on AAPRA: American Academy for Parks and Recreation Administration
Proclamations: June is Great Outdoors Month
More than half of the states have already proclaimed June 2019 Great Outdoors Month! Since 2008, Governors from across the country have joined the President in proclaiming this month-long celebration of America’s great outdoors. Click here for images and PDF versions of each proclamation.
How We Pay to Play: Funding Outdoor Recreation on Public Lands in the 21st Century
DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT
The recreational demands of the 21st century are bringing new challenges for public land management. This PERC Public Lands Report examines some of the primary sources of funding for outdoor recreation-related opportunities on public lands, aiming to be informative rather than claiming to be exhaustive or comprehensive. It demonstrates that by many measures, inflation-adjusted recreation-related funding is stagnant or declining despite increased attention on and demand for outdoor recreation.
As public lands that provide outdoor recreation opportunities grow in importance, it’s worthwhile to examine how we fund and maintain those lands. Adequate funding will not in and of itself guarantee responsible stewardship of our public recreation lands. But recent trends suggest that many sources of recreation funds have either stagnated or declined in real terms, even as visitation has been increasing over the long term. An assessment of recreation-related funding sources and their trends can provide insights about different funding strategies and, ideally, help inform and improve the future of recreation on public lands.
‘All it Took was 25 Years’: Legislature Ponies Up Cash for Underfunded Texas Parks
After two decades of looting state park funding, lawmakers appropriated nearly $350 million this session, greenlit development of a new state park and gave voters a chance to maintain a long-term source.
San Solomon Springs at Balmorhea State Park. FLICKR/CHRIS MCINNIS
Texas state parks have been a convenient piggy bank for the Legislature whenever money was short elsewhere, but this session they got their due. Lawmakers put more funding than ever into state parks, and additionally are giving voters a chance to approve a constitutional amendment this November to ensure a long-term source.
The amendment, passed by more than two-thirds of the House and Senate and signed by Governor Greg Abbott this weekend, is basically a fulfillment of funding that was promised in 1993. That year, lawmakers dedicated a portion of revenue from the sales tax on sporting goods to fund state parks — 94 percent of the revenue was meant for parks and the remaining 6 percent to the state’s 22 historic sites. Since then, though, legislators have consistently appropriated far less than parks’ full share, moving the money around to other parts of the budget and leaving some of the most beautiful and popular places in the state woefully underfunded. Until 2007, state parks’ slice of the sporting goods tax was capped at $32 million. Parks have received less than half of the dedicated revenue since 1993.
LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
The new constitutional amendment, which a majority of voters must approve this November, would guarantee that parks and historic sites get their share into the future. Ultimately, it’s a matter of catching up with intent from 1993.
In addition to the constitutional amendment, lawmakers ponied up funds — the full $322 million from the sporting goods tax revenue earmarked for state parks — that will be appropriated regardless of the November election. That’s about 10 times what parks were allotted in 2007, and marks the third consecutive session that parks got their full share owed under the law.
The success for state parks this session is about as good as it gets, according to George Bristol, the founder of the Texas Coalition for Conservation and former chair of the Texas State Parks Advisory Committee and Audubon Texas. Bristol has been lobbying the Legislature for the past nine sessions.
Advocates hope the Lege’s newfound appreciation for wide open spaces helps address issues caused by record visitor numbers (nearly 10 million in fiscal year 2017). Advance online reservations are just about the only assurance of getting in to the most popular parks during busy periods.
“We need more parks, and more parks close to our major metropolitan areas,” Bristol said.
MoreJob Opportunities – MN – Parks Management Positions
Minnesota’s State Parks and Trails management team is looking for a few good managers! Our Division Leadership Team seats our regional managers on a level playing field with our section managers. Our big, beautiful system includes 75 state parks and recreation areas; 1,500 public water accesses; 25 state trails/35 water trails; and tens-of-thousands of miles of system and grant-in-aid snowmobile, cross-country ski and off-highway vehicle trails. We are looking for managers who are innovators, creative problem solvers, skilled operational supervisors, and multi-culturally competent.
Please note that the closing date is June 26, and we are asking for 3, 300-word write-ups on key aspects of the regional manager positions. If you have any questions, please contact Deputy Director Phil Leversedge at phil.leversedge@state.mn.us.
Click here to go to the Minnesota careers website. Or, click on the position number below to go directly to a particular posting.
| Parks & Trails Central Region Manager – 33077
Agency: Natural Resources Dept | Location: St. Paul | Job Family: Management Careers | Posted Date: 05/30/2019 |
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| Parks & Trails Northwest Region Manager – 33179
Agency: Natural Resources Dept | Location: Bemidji | Job Family: Management Careers | Posted Date: 05/30/2019 |
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| Parks & Trails Southern Region Manager – 33163
Agency: Natural Resources Dept | Location: New Ulm | Job Family: Management Careers | Posted Date: 05/30/2019 |
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| Assistant Regional Manager- State Prog Admin Manager – 33131
Agency: Natural Resources Dept | Location: St. Paul | Job Family: Management Careers | Posted Date: 05/30/2019 |
State park attendance trends suggest parks will be overburdened by mid-century
A combined team of researchers from Utah State University and North Carolina State University has found evidence that suggests state parks in the U.S. will become so crowded by mid-century that states will have difficulty paying for their upkeep. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their study of historical attendance records of all the state parks in the country and what they mean for the future.
State parks in the U.S. are a big deal. People from all walks of life visit parks to get away from the bustle of daily life. Combined, they greet far more visitors than the National Park system, and in general, enjoy a good reputation as a welcome respite. But that reputation might be in jeopardy if the state bureaucracies operating the parks do not take into account the rising numbers of visitors.
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Governor Kelly on Great Outdoors Month
Brief but great video from Kansas Governor Laura Kelly on June – Great Outdoors Month. Kansas Department of Wildlife Parks and Tourism.
Trails Are Life … Arkansas State Parks
“These trails mean life to me, physically and mentally,” hiker Jerry Brown says. We feel the same way. Yes, a lot of thought goes into building and maintaining trails but it’s really about how they breathe life back into you; that is the magic. And that’s our focus at Arkansas State Parks. #ARStateParks
© 2015 National Association of State Park Directors · PO Box 91567, Raleigh, NC 27675 · Email: info@stateparks.org
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© 2015 National Association of State Park Directors · PO Box 91567, Raleigh, NC 27675 · Email: info@stateparks.org
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