July 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 14

WE ARE PARKS AND RECREATION
Preserving America's Cities
By Kenneth Allen
M
unicipal and local authorities throughout the United
States have the power to protect their communities by
preserving the natural areas in their urban parks and
green spaces, as we in the City of Houston are doing
with the recently passed nature-preserve ordinance.
It's a common fallacy in our thinking to divide the world between
the natural and artificial. This view is mistaken because the natural
world contains our own manufactured zone, exists on a continuum
with the artificial world and frequently encroaches on it. In a real
sense, whatever piece of paper or device you're reading this article on
is a natural object, not unlike a tree, rock or animal.
For our own preservation, it's
necessary to preserve the whole
natural world, not just the small
part of it we happen to spend
most of our lives in. In Houston,
we know we can't afford to neglect
any part of our ecosystem.
Accordingly, Mayor Sylvester
Turner and Houston City Council
recently passed a first-of-its-kind
ordinance to preserve and protect
in perpetuity 7,423 acres of natural
habit in City of Houston parks,
restricting public use and development.
The ordinance prevents development
on portions of 26 parks
throughout the city, allowing wildlife
to thrive and visitors to enjoy
passive recreation.
Planning for the Future
Most
importantly,
preserving
this parkland will allow Houston's
ecosystem to continue to
support our way of life. Tree canopies
impede rainfall, and plant
roots both absorb water themselves
and make the soil more
absorbent, reducing the risk of
flooding during storms. When
flooding does occur, trees and
shrubs help keep soil in place,
preventing
destructive erosion.
Plants also filter toxic chemicals
and sediments from water, keeping
our system of bayous and
wetlands clean and safe.
As we're facing climate change,
we also should remember that
tree canopies reduce heat and
that plants breathe carbon dioxide,
one of the greenhouse gases
Sylvan Rodriguez Park, a 113-acre park, is
part of the flat coastal-prairie ecosystem
in southeast Houston.
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contributing to climate change.
The nature-preserve ordinance
will continue the work of Houston's
Climate Action Plan, which
was
celebrated
in
April
with
Mayor Turner's Earth Day Symposium,
a three-day event and
one of the largest Earth Day celebrations
for Houstonians, which
highlighted the goals and actions
for achieving sustainability the
City of Houston has made under
Mayor Turner's leadership.
As part of this symposium, the
Houston Parks and Recreation
Department set up a simulated
forest to celebrate the passing of
this new ordinance that ensures
the parkland humans and other
animals need to live and thrive
will always be there.
When
President
Theodore
Roosevelt signed the Antiquities
Act into law in 1906 empowering
the United States to nationalize
natural areas and establish
national parks, he did it with
the intention of conserving the
resources the use of which had
made our nation a great people,
so that future generations could
share in the " glorious heritage "
of this
land. At the City of
Houston, we hope to continue
the national and global conservation
movement that President
Roosevelt inaugurated by enacting
our first-ever municipal ordinance
preserving urban natural
areas. I urge other municipal
park and recreation departments
to consider pushing for similar
ordinances to ensure the natural
heritage of our great cities will
be preserved in perpetuity.
Kenneth Allen is Director of Houston
Parks and Recreation Department.
PHOTO COURTESY OF HOUSTON PARKS AND
RECREATION DEPARTMENT
July 2023 - Parks & Recreation

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