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Recreation
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City of Roswell
P.O. Drawer 1838
Roswell, NM 88202-1838
(505) 624-6700
Fax: 624-6889 |
THE LEISURE INCIDENT
Chapter Six - A Beneficial Environment
By Kim Elliott, CLP
Recreation Director
City of Roswell
The Leisure Incident is influenced by our surroundings. We want quality facilities to
enhance or to make our experience enjoyable. When we are able to "do our thing"
in a surrounding that is pleasant, attractive, safe and healthy the community benefits.
What benefits do we as a community receive from our parks and open spaces? Let’s
think about this for a moment.
Let’s see what we can do by focusing on trees.
The Roswell Park Department plants approximately 100 trees every year in one or more of
our 26 parks. Throughout our park system you can find almost 4,500 trees.
The Florida Department of Natural Resources has determined that every tree in a city
environment is worth $275 in benefits each year due to reductions in air-conditioning
costs, erosion control, wildlife protection, and air pollution control. What does this
mean?
Trees and other plants provide a cooling effect in urban areas by modifying the heat
island effect of pavement and buildings. Leaves filter pollutants from the air and help to
cleanse the environment. Wildlife is attracted to plants and shrubs which provides for a
more natural setting. Cleaner air provides for a more healthful environment.
Landscaped homes have higher property values when compared to the non-landscaped home.
When this is considered, it is not unusual to expect property values of homes near
developed parks and open spaces to be higher than those homes that are not near park
sites. Landscaping, parks and open space help to increase property values by 5-20 percent.
Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Perhaps nature is our best assurance of
immortality." Let’s face it! We like trees and other things that grow. They
make us feel better. They make life more pleasant. We feel serene, peaceful, restful and
tranquil when surrounded by healthy, vibrant trees. When hospital patients have a view to
the outside that include trees, parks and open space they recover quicker. We, the
community, feel good when we are surrounded by trees. Feeling good is a health issue.
Roswell, being a Tree City USA benefits from the many trees in the community. How many
people, coming into the community for the first time, are surprised by the number of trees
in the community? They expect to see a desert community, not a Tree City USA. This is a
relocation issue for both individuals and industry and benefits the entire community.
Trees, shrubs and open spaces add to the quality of life in our community. The
Benefits of Recreation Research Update, 1994, states that the Joint Economic
Development Committee of Congress reported that cities’ quality of life is more
important than purely business factors when it comes to attracting new business. We have a
tendency to underestimate the importance of parks, open space and leisure services in a
community. Parks, open space and leisure services are essential and fundamental issues
that many communities take for granted. They are directly related to the health and
welfare of a community. We don’t realize how important they are until they are no
longer available.
What benefits does the community reap from having parks and open spaces? Property
values increase, a healthier environment is produced, community pride is developed,
cleaner air and water is available, people and industry are encouraged to relocate, open
space is preserved, and the ecosystem is protected.
It appears that a community benefits tremendously from its parks and open space. Maybe
that is why the New Yorker magazine says, "Writing off parks as an unaffordable
elitist frill would be a hideous, city-killing mistake."
Parks and Recreation - The Benefits are Endless...TM
