Whether you hang out in your local park with your kids or dogs enjoy reading on a park bench, or hiking in a national park this spring, you probably didn’t realize the park is also helping to mitigate climate change.
I always find a welcome relief from the urban jungle by walking, hiking or running around local and national parks, but I never realized they served a purpose beyond that psychic one until I heard Diane Regas, President and CEO of The Trust for Public Land at the Climate Leadership Conference in Baltimore recently.
In her talk and our extended interview afterwards, she explained that parks:
- Help clear the air of CO2: The trees in parks help clear the air of CO2, both by absorbing the CO2 and by reducing the number of areas where there are C)2-emitting vehicles.
- Lower the temperature by 14-17 degrees: Regas said, “On a hot day, the temperature in a shady park can be 14 to 17 degrees cooler than the surrounding neighborhood and that cooling can extend a half mile beyond the park’s borders,” which saves lives. “Heat-related deaths are the biggest cause of weather-related deaths in our country. There are more people dying from heat stress than from hurricanes, floods, etc.”
“It’s really important that we think about cooling the areas where people are living, working and playing, and parks do that,” Regas added.
- Reduce local flooding: We all experience or see the massive storms increasingly hitting the U.S., which cause severe flooding and are more frequent and more intense due to climate change, according to many sources. Parks can mitigate the damage from these storms, because, “parks can actually help absorb, they can provide a sponge for that extra flooding and really help dry out neighborhoods… … helping to keep the homes dry.” Regas explained.
- Bring communities together, blurring political, religious and other boundaries. “There’s so much division in the country right now….and parks actually helps the community come together…becoming a source of community connection,” Regas said. Talking about a fairly new park in Philadelphia, Regas described that people who “normally wouldn’t talk to each other” are walking and talking together there.
There are parks that tell historic stories, such as the fairly new Los Angeles State Historic Park which started life in the 1870s, when it was a cornfield and end point for the Southern Pacific Railway. “This piece of land has been the nexus of so many forces that shaped our city,” says park deputy superintendent Stephanie Campbell. Back when the Los Angeles River was still wild, this was a broad, green valley bursting with wild roses and grapevines. The Tongva/Gabrieleno people had made it their home long before Spanish settlers established a pueblo less than a mile away—a settlement that would become the city of Los Angeles. What’s now the park was once farmland, which is why some locals know it as “the Cornfield.”
Art in parks help tell the stories of the local community too, such as of the Rocky Mountains in a Denver park, and of the Oaxacan culture in a Los Angeles neighborhood, two projects Regas said they are working with.
TPL reports that parks have economic value in communities too, because they increase property values and tourism, and reduce health care costs, because residents are more physically active when parks are present.
What you can do
Regas also cautioned that parks are under threat from budget cuts and developers, including those that have strong lobbying efforts to sway legislators to vote for their projects.
So, there are steps you can take to protect your parks and those nationwide.
You can vote for politicians that vote for park funding, such as the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and let them know with your voice that you want them to do so.
In your own neighborhood, Regas suggested that you find a local community park group to join, which will also help you get to know your neighbors and build your own local community connection.
