Natural Playscapes in Our Parks

[Michael Gaudini]

Council Member Pool sent this letter to Parks and Recreation Department Director Sara Hensley to open discussion on providing natural playscape installations in our major city parks. Please feel free to weigh in on this proposal. The email with details is provided below:

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Dear Ms. Hensley:

As you know, Council Member Pool will be traveling on December 3, and will miss the briefing on park funding at the next Open Space, Environment and Sustainability Committee meeting. In her absence, she would like me to communicate her desire to open future discussion with you and with her Council colleagues on the concept of Natural Playscape installations in our major parks around the city. There is an opportunity to begin with a pilot program at Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park, but the goal would be to review our major parks across the city to include them in such a program.

No doubt you are aware of the multiple studies completed on the health and educational benefits of outdoor learning and play for our young people:
• A recent study completed at the University of Tennessee in 2012 demonstrated that children who play on playgrounds that incorporate natural elements like logs and flowers tend to be more active than those who play on traditional playgrounds with metal and brightly colored equipment. They also appear to use their imagination more, according to the report. The children also more than doubled the time they spent playing – from jumping off the logs to watering the plants around the creek. They were engaging in more aerobic and bone- and muscle-strengthening activities.
• The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign conducted a national study in 2004 demonstrating that “green” outdoor settings appear to reduce attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in children across a wide range of individual, residential, and case characteristics. In this national, non-probability sample, green outdoor activities reduced symptoms significantly more than did activities conducted in other settings, even when activities were matched across settings. Findings were consistent across age, gender, income groups, community types, geographic regions, and diagnoses.

As we discuss parks funding issues, Council Member Pool would like to explore innovative natural playscape designs that re-introduce our children to their natural world; she views this as an opportunity to support the health, well-being, and education of all of our city’s children.

Thank you for your consideration.