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Parks and Recreation Collection – Narratives

Category: Narratives

Textual narratives explaining key concepts and specific subjects. Cascading from general to specific, eventually they will include variously concept summaries, subject summaries and geographic summaries.

Multiple Use Management Planning of State Forests

Updated on date by author

During the 1990s in Queensland, guidelines were developed by policy officers for management planning of broad acre State forests with the intention of achieving multiple (and sometimes conflicting) objectives. Championed by forestry officer Brett Waring, a comprehensive kit was developed and advocated around the State. Implementation suffered through repeated departmental restructures and downsizing of the staff in engaged in non-commercial forestry. This leaflet explains the process. The “Department of Natural Resources” attribution dates it to after the 1996 restructure of departments.

Review Status: Pending
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Weed control and community action in parks and reserves

Updated on date by author

Natural areas are vital to the biodiversity of Australia’s unique flora and fauna and to its unique cultural identity. With the onset of climate change protection of these values has become even more important. With the loss of habitat from wildfires, tree clearing and drought, even small patches of bushland are valuable habitat for species of plants and animals. But throughout Australia, small patches of bushland are under continual and often severe threat from introduced species not native to the area.

The most common weeds found in bushland are known as environmental weeds. These weeds are usually spread from urban gardens close to parks and reserves via bird droppings, water and wind.

The concept of environmental weeds was not recognised until the 1970s. It took some years for authorities to recognise the danger of environmental weeds. Most government research and suppression was orientated to weeds of agriculture, so environmental weeds had many decades to smother vegetation e.g. Hedera helix (English Ivy) or to establish widely spread populations.

Most bush regenerators regard the benchmark condition as the vegetation as it existed prior to European colonisation. So species such as Pittosporum undulatum (Sweet Pittosporum) native to coastal New South Wales and eastern Victoria are regarded as environmental weeds in the ranges around Melbourne. Acacia baileyana (Cootamundra Wattle), indigenous to a small area of southern inland New South Wales is now self-propagating in widespread localities around eastern Australia.

Pioneering work

In 1967 a couple of sisters in New South Wales – Eileen and Joan Bradley – wrote a small publication named Weeds and Their Control. They had found that by clearing weeds from areas of good bushland, the indigenous plants were able to regenerate and out-compete the weeds. In 1988, Joan Bradley produced a larger publication named Bringing Back the Bush – The Bradley method of bush regeneration. The Bradleys preferred not to use any poison, but to physically remove the whole plant, that way insuring the plant would not re-grow.

In Victoria the modern era of bush regeneration was launched at a seminar sponsored by the City of Nunawading in 1980, organised by the late John Brandenberg. Pioneering fieldwork commenced in the Organ Pipes National Park (initiated by the Friends of the Organ Pipes in 1972) and in Sherbrooke Forest (initiated by the Friends of Sherbrooke Forest).

Special techniques

Some weeds require specialised control techniques. For example in some situations such as Wet Forest, the lower branches of Ilex aquifolium (Holly) layer and produce small trees surrounding the parent tree. It was found that just poisoning the parent tree would not kill the layered branches, so these branches had to be physically removed or poisoned separately. This also applies to any plant that produces layers.

The Bradley technique of physical removal is not practical for large trees. Evelyn Hickey from Save the Bush, a National Trust (NSW) innovation, developed the ‘drill and fill’ method for poisoning large trees and this is the preferred method used today. Full-strength glyphosate is used as the preferred poison.

Trees such Sweet Pittosporum require the poison to be evenly spread around the trunk, preferably close to the ground to kill the whole tree. Using the drill and fill method works better than frilling. Friends groups eventually obtained funding from government grants to purchase battery powered drills.

Plants in the Asteraceae family (Daisy) produce millions of wind carried seed, so should be controlled before they flower. Trees in the Aceaceae family (Maples) have winged seeds that can be carried some distance by the prevailing winds.

One of the most important activities in weed control is follow-up. Weeds that produce a viable berry can have seed stored in the soil for many years, so if not followed up will result in the area being colonised by weedy species once again. It is more rewarding for volunteers to make small achievements in bush restoration than to tackle areas too large to allow regular follow-up.

Friends groups

Friends groups have played a significant role in the control of these weeds. Friends groups had to learn by trial and error. They not only had to learn to recognise a weed, but had to learn how to differentiate them from the indigenous vegetation that grew in their park or reserve. Before commencing removal of environmental weeds a thorough botanical survey of the area must be carried out.

Today hundreds of volunteers working on bush restoration throughout Australia. It takes only a few individuals who are enthusiastic about a particular park or reserve to form a Friends group. Groups must obtain the permission of the authority in charge of managing the area.

Further reading

Freshwater, Vivien and Diane Ward. 1993. How to Restore and Manage Bushland on an Urban Block. Leaflet.

Muyt, Adam 2001. Bush Invaders of South-East Australia.

Blood, Kate 2001. Environmental Weeds – A Field Guide for SE Australia. CRC Weed Management Systems.

Bradley, Joan. 1988. Bringing Back the Bush – The Bradley Method of Bush Regeneration.

Friends of Sherbrooke Forest and Dept. of Conservation, Forests and Lands. 1989. Weeds of Forests, Roadsides and Gardens (15MB).

Review Status: Pending
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Roma St Parklands, Brisbane

Updated on date by author

Shunting yards adjoining Roma St railway terminus, on the fringe of Brisbane’s CBD, were shunted out of this prime location and a political decision was taken to develop the vacant public land as a public park. Submissions were invited and reviewed by a steering committee convened by the Department of Public Works. This leaflet outlines the strategic intention and the submission process.

The Department of Natural Resources submitted an innovative proposal for a learning centre, called “Living Waters”. A copy of this report has surfaced from the cellars where government reports go after they have served their purpose at the time and will be attached. The submission did not find favour and the committee opted for a more traditional city park. The park subsequently won design awards.

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International Federation of Parks and Recreation Associations

Updated on date by author

As outlined in the post on World Urban Parks, IFPRA was established in May 1957, in London, UK, at 1st World Congress in Park Administration, as International Federation of Park Administration — Fédération internationale de l’administration de parcs. It ceased in April 2015 when it merged into World Urban Parks. This membership leaflet positions the organisation.

The aims of IFPRA were: “Unite at international level persons employed in horticultural and recreational services and public, provincial and communal administration; adopt internationally acceptable training and qualification standards; distribute information regarding the profession.”

The website of the Union of International Associations explains IFPRA’s organisational structure:

“General Assembly (at Congress) elect a Governing Commission, comprising elected officers, chairmen of each regional sector and one representative of each member nation. Executive Committee; General Secretary. Regional chapters: IFPRA Europe and IFPRA Asia Pacific; they produce their own congresses and publications.”

IFPRA Asia-Pacific was founded on 1 May 1989 at Greensboro, North Carolina, USA.

We will post more material on IFPRA as it emerges from the archives. Also see the Document Library and enter “IFPRA” for some IFPRA publications.

IFPRA Management Publication

In 1994, IFPRA  conceived of a “Management publication” with the objectives as outlined in this correspondence. The archives have uncovered an article by eminent parks identity David Aldous, apparently an unedited first draft of a submission for the book.

IFPRA Administration

The minutes of the World Commission of IFPRA dated 2000 show that Dr David Aldous was world President.

 

Review Status: Pending
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Advice for Park Rangers

Updated on date by author

The essential roles of a ranger in a public park haven’t changed much in decades: protecting the natural environment and managing public visitors. But the world of rangering in 2023 seems quite different than in 1984 when this “Ten Mottos for a Successful Park Ranger” was delivered to parks outdoors staff in the Metropolitan Parks of the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works. The use of the masculine “his” to cover park visitors in general now seems quaint. The overall tone now seems rather patronising, given that many parks staff were (and in most public authorities are) old hands with extensive outdoor experience. However, the list should be understood in the context of the objectives of the period, which were to improve the self-reliance of outdoor staff and their confidence in their roles; and to decentralise decision-making in the interests of minimising administrative overheads.

A Ranger’s perspective: XXXX, an early-career Park Assistant and recipient of this homily in 1984, now an XXXX in Parks Victoria, writes: (to be completed)…..

 

See also Metropolitan Park Policies, MMBW, 1975

Review Status: Pending
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Smartphones and birdlife

Updated on date by author

Smartphone technology used to assess mental health benefits of birdlife

A growing body of empirical evidence is revealing the benefits of exposure to nature for mental health, including higher-level mental well-being and lower risk of mental illness1. However, the vast majority of the works in the literature have focused on the value of regular contact with green spaces, including forests, parks, gardens and trees. While these studies have led to growing appreciation of the mental health benefits of nature in general, we know little about the specific features which are drive these benefits.

For example, the mental health benefits of everyday encounters with birdlife for mental health are poorly understood. Earlier studies have typically relied on retrospective questionnaires or artificial set-ups with little ecological validity. In the United Kingdom, there is a captivation with birds underlined by the fact that more than 1.3 million people are members of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Interest in birds is not just uniquely British: in the USA more than 70 million people have been recorded as interested in bird-watching, making this one of the most popular nature-based recreational activities. Further, bird-watching societies are not a phenomenon unique to the western world but are present worldwide, including countries with very different traditions and cultures.

Despite the human fascination with birdlife, few studies have specifically examined the effect of encountering birds as part of everyday life on our mental health.

Recently new and extensive research by researchers at King’s College, London has found that seeing or hearing birds is associated with an improvement in mental well-being that can last up to eight hours. This improvement was also evident in people with a diagnosis of depression (the most common mental illness worldwide) indicating the potential role of birdlife in helping those with mental health conditions. The study used an especially developed smartphone application to collect people’s real-time reports of mental well-being alongside their reports of seeing or hearing birdsong.

The project was funded by the Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre and the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration South London.

To overcome the limitations of existing literature, the association between seeing or hearing birds and self-reported mental well-being (a strong predictor of mental health in the general population), was surveyed using a smartphone-based application. This ‘Urban Mind’ application (https://www.urbanmind.info/) uses Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), a method which involves sampling people’s experiences in real-time and in real-world contexts. This technique allowed exploration of the relationship between the experience of seeing or hearing birds and mental well-being while minimising the risk of recall bias. The Urban Mind application also collected detailed information on the participants, allowing observers to explore how the effect of seeing or hearing birds on mental well-being depends on personal characteristics such as age, gender and having a diagnosis of mental illness.

Using the smartphone-based EMA, they carried out a ‘citizen science study’ which aimed to answer the following questions:

  1. Are encounters with birds as part of everyday life associated with higher mental well-being?
  2. Is the beneficial impact of everyday encounters with birds on mental well-being time-lasting?
  3. Does the beneficial effect of everyday encounters with birds on mental well-being differ between people with a diagnosis of depression and people without a mental health condition?

Lead author Ryan Hammoud, Research Assistant at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College (IoPPN) London, said: “There is growing evidence on the mental health benefits of being around nature and we intuitively think that the presence of birdsong and birds would help lift our mood. However, there is little research that has actually investigated the impact of birds on mental health in real-time and in a real environment. By using the Urban Mind app we have for the first time showed the direct link between seeing or hearing birds and positive mood. We hope this evidence can demonstrate the importance of protecting and providing environments to encourage birds, not only for biodiversity but for our mental health.”

The study took place between April 2018 and October 2021, with 1,292 participants completing 26,856 assessments using the Urban Mind app, developed by King’s College London, landscape architects J&L Gibbons and arts foundation Nomad Projects. Participants were recruited worldwide (including Australia), with the majority being based in the United Kingdom, the European Union and USA. The app asked participants three times a day whether they could see or hear birds, followed by questions on mental well-being to enable researchers to establish an association between the two and to estimate how long this association lasted.

The study also collected information on existing diagnoses of mental health conditions and found hearing or seeing birdlife was associated with improvements in mental well-being in both healthy people and those with depression. Researchers showed that the links between birds and mental well-being were not explained by co-occurring environmental factors such the presence of trees, plants, or waterways.

Senior author, Andrea Mechelli, Professor of Early Intervention in Mental Health at IoPPN said: “The term ecosystem services is often used to describe the benefits of certain aspects of the natural environment on our physical and mental health. However, it can be difficult to prove these benefits scientifically. Our study provides an evidence base for creating and supporting biodiverse spaces that harbour birdlife, since this is strongly linked with our mental health. In addition, the findings support the implementation of measures to increase opportunities for people to come across birdlife, particularly for those living with mental health conditions such as depression.”

Research partner Jo Gibbons of J & L Gibbons said: “Who hasn’t tuned into the melodic complexities of the dawn chorus early on a spring morning? A multi-sensory experience that seems to enrich everyday life, whatever our mood or whereabouts. This exciting research underpins just how much the sight and sound of birdsong lifts the spirits. It captures intriguing evidence that a biodiverse environment is restorative in terms of mental wellbeing. That the sensual stimulation of birdsong, part of those daily ‘doses’ of nature, is precious and time-lasting.”

Further research on a more diverse sample is needed to allow the generalisation of these findings to the general population.

This study has potential for mental healthcare policy. Visits to habitats with a high concentration of birdlife could become part of social prescribing schemes, playing a role in preventing mental health difficulties and complementing more traditional interventions. Paramount to all of this, will be the adoption of environmental and wildlife protection policies for the preservation and enhancement of a mosaic of habitats in rural and urban settings.

The study, ‘Smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment reveals mental health benefits of birdlife’, was published in Scientific Reports and is free to access via https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-20207-6

 

Review Status: Pending
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Moolap Wetlands Park – Cheetham Saltworks

Updated on date by author

This page is under construction and is not to be quoted or cited.

A well-argued case for a major new public park in the locality of Moolap, City of Greater Geelong, has been published by the Geelong Environment Council. The case is presented in:

an explanatory leaflet and fact sheet;

a submission, Moolap Salt Fields: A Wetland Of International Significance;

a biodiversity survey, Vegetation, Biodiversity and Social Values of the Former Cheetham Saltworks, Moolap .

 

Review Status: Pending
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Sport knowledge – the Australian Clearinghouse

Updated on date by author

The Australian Clearinghouse for Sport is the pre-eminent information and knowledge-sharing platform for Australian sport.

The Clearinghouse brings together Australia’s leading sport and active recreation agencies, using Sport Australia as the principal information coordinator, to share news, evidence and insights about sport, human performance and physical activity. The Clearinghouse works to:

  • Identify and acquire information of relevance to the Australian sport and active recreation sectors;
  • connect people in sport and active recreation with complementary expertise;
  • inform Australian sport practitioners (such as athletes, coaches, physical educators, scientists, medical providers, researchers, administrators, students, facility managers, policy makers, volunteers, and sporting officials) about good and promising practice in sport and active recreation;
  • provide Australian governments at all levels with comprehensive and policy relevant analysis of research relating to sport and active recreation, and its value to the community; and
    Provide Clearinghouse members with high quality information on sport, physical activity and active recreation.

The Clearinghouse is a central access point for knowledge about the Australian sport sector and for communication between sportspeople and sporting organisations. It is an entity of the Australian Sports Commission, itself an agency of the Australian Government. Access its website https://www.clearinghouseforsport.gov.au/ here.

Given the existence of the Clearinghouse with its focus on ‘active’ recreation and sport, the PaRC document library and this PaRC narratives website have purposely focused on ‘passive’ recreation, open space and park management, although of course no clear distinction can be maintained.

Canadian Sport Information Resource Centre

The Canadian equivalent is an excellent source of technical knowledge about sports played in that country. Click on SIRC Resources or its French version.

Review Status: Pending
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Childhood exposure to ‘blue spaces’ and subsequent well-being

Updated on date by author

Much has been researched and published over the past two decades into the health benefits of contact with nature. But these have largely focused on green space or natural spaces. ‘Blue spaces’ also have unique sensory qualities and facilitate a distinct range of leisure activities. Of course they also pose a number of hazards, particularly for children, and this may increase parental concerns.

Even if green and blue spaces can be conceptualised as separate entities, they cannot be distinctly separated from each other. Terrestrial attributes around blue spaces, such as paths and easily accessible watersides, usually contain green vegetation and many green spaces also contain or border on water bodies such as rivers, wetlands, ponds and the coast. Blue and green space experiences are frequently bound together and childhood exposure to blue spaces is likely to be predictive of the future frequency of green space visits as well.

A new extensive study by researchers from the University of Exeter in the UK has investigated those benefits relating to days at the beach. Their report entitled “Mechanisms underlying childhood exposure to blue spaces and adult subjective well-being: An 18-country analysis” (Australia was one of those countries) was published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology Volume 84 December 2022, https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-environmental-psychology/vol/84.

The researchers point out: “We know far less about the benefits of blue spaces, or the role childhood contact has in these relationships in later life”.

Their new report is based on data from the BlueHealth International Survey (BIS), a cross-sectional survey co-ordinated by the University of Exeter’s European Centre for Environment and Human Health. The analysis took in 15,000 people from 14 European countries and four non-European countries/states: Hong Kong, Canada, Australia and California.

Respondents were asked to recall their blue space experiences between the ages of 0-16 years. These included how local were these blue spaces: Were they close by to where the participant lived as a child, or were they some distance away? How often did they visit these spaces? How comfortable were their parents or guardians with their playing in these settings?

They were also asked about “more recent contact with green and blue spaces over the last four weeks, and mental health over the last two weeks”. So the assessment of a participant’s mental health was based on how they’d been feeling of late, rather than on a clinical evaluation. For many people, some of the happiest memories from childhood were those days spent at the beach, or fishing, swimming and sailing or on a river. Such family holidays where when the family was at its most relaxed.

When talking to people who grew up on or near a beach or a lake – or even on a farm – it was common to find that memories of childhood happiness are tied to those places, where they could roam freely and soak up the diverse beauties of nature. On that basis, it’s no stretch to wonder if an abundance of such memories has a positive impact on one’s mental health in adulthood.

The researchers concluded that “adults with better mental health are more likely to report having spent time playing in and around coastal and inland waters, such as rivers and lakes (also known collectively as blue spaces) as children”. The finding was replicated in each of the countries studied.

This recent evidence suggests that growing up near blue spaces is associated with a lower prevalence of a variety of mental health disorders during adulthood, even after accounting for concurrent green space exposure. These findings place exposure to blue spaces during childhood as a potentially important predictor of adult mental well-being in its own right.

Valeria Vitale, lead author and PhD candidate at Sapienza University of Rome, said: “Our findings suggest that building familiarity and confidence in and around blue spaces during childhood may stimulate an inherent joy of nature and encourage people to seek out recreational nature experiences, with beneficial consequences for adult mental health.”

Dr Leanne Martin, co-author and a postdoctoral research associate at Exeter, said: “Water settings can be dangerous for children, and parents are right to be cautious. This research suggests though that supporting children to feel comfortable in these settings and developing skills such as swimming at an early age can have previously unrecognised life-long benefits.”

This is probably the most significant finding in the study. The main point is: teach your children to swim, and give them practical guidance on how to stay safe at the beach or on the river, which can be tricky. On that basis, if young beach-goers do grow up with greater resilience – a more than reasonable suggestion, if not a conclusion in this study – it’s because they enjoyed their parents’ confidence.

The study raises questions about how outdoorsy are today’s children? Dr Mathew White, co-author and Senior Scientist at the University of Vienna, said: “The current study is adding to our growing awareness of the need for urban planners and local bodies responsible for managing our green and blue spaces to provide safe, accessible access to natural settings for the healthy mental and physical development of our children.”

Review Status: Pending
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Green Spaces Resources Hub

Updated on date by author

As an element of the ‘Knowledge Day’ explained in the Narrative on the Green Flag award and National Park Cities, many speakers provided reference documents to be uploaded free onto the Green Spaces Resources Hub, which was launched at the 2020 World Parks Congress, as a comprehensive library curated from all over the world. Database platforms like this that are made publicly available, help foster and enhance knowledge worldwide on the environmental challenges still facing park management, but can also be used as a forum to celebrate and recognise the continued professionalism of urban landscape management and maintenance. The Hub has also allowed public access to the latest park-related research findings, events and collaboration opportunities from academic and research organisations across the globe. Following on from that success, and in partnership with the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield it was announced during the congress that the Green Flag Award will be launching the next stage of knowledge exchange – The Parks and Green Spaces Research Portal.

The Hub and the Portal are fulfilling a function on an international scale that PaRC aims to fulfil for Australian and Western Pacific resources.

 

Review Status: Pending
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