August 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 14

Letters
We hope the articles you read in Parks & Recreation are thought-provoking and
engaging, and we want to hear your opinions on what you read in these pages. Through
social media posts, website comments, emails to staff or posts on Connect, let us know
how the magazine's articles apply to your job and your agency. To submit feedback for this
his
section directly, email Associate Editor Samantha Bartram at sbartram@nrpa.org.

For as long as I can remember,
we have had flocks of cowbirds, grackles and red-winged
blackbirds in this area of southeastern Minnesota. The cowbirds and
grackles were especially big pests. In
the last seven weeks, 99 percent of
the cowbirds and grackles disappeared, and about 80 percent of the
red-winged blackbirds, 90 percent of
the swallows and 75 percent of the
robins also disappeared. This area is
about 75 percent corn and bean
fields. The last six weeks coincides
with this year's late planting of corn
and beans as well as subsequent applications of herbicide and insecticide. I've never seen anything like
this. It's actually frightening and almost like I would imagine [Rachel
Carson's book] " Silent Spring. " I am
suspicious of a new insecticide being used. I don't know what else it
could be.
Comment on www.parksandrecreation.
org/2014/July/What-is-Killing-OurBirds-and-Bees by Dennis Deters, a
Spring Grove, Minnesota-based legal
analyst

ment of Parks & Recreation, regarding
January's cover feature, " Out of the
Shadows, " www.parksandrecreation.
org/2014/January/Out-of-the-Shadows

is not merely enough to be successful in this field.
Comment on www.parksandrecreation.
org/2014/July/Learning-Curve by Tiffany P. White, Douglass Park Program
Coordinator, Champaign Park District,
Champaign, Illinois
I am the small parks specialist
for the Washington, D.C., Department of Parks and Recreation. I
just finished reading your article in the
January issue of Parks & Recreation
Magazine about homelessness - it
was a good read. I want to thank you
for writing that article; it has been the
only one that I have been able to find
about this issue.
Email from Xavier Brown, Small Parks
Specialist, Washington, D.C., Depart-

I found this article to be very
informative. I am looking to
further my career in the field and
hope to pursue a Ph.D. and teach at
the collegiate level one day. I have
always wanted to share my real-world experiences in the classroom. As the article suggests, theory
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Parks & Recreation

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This article needed to get out.
Our project in Nicaragua actually started with a design for three
separate trails: mountain bike, walking and a horse trail. This way we can
properly handle each trail's own
unique " footprints. "
Comment by Indio Jones, a conservationist and environmental activist working
with O Parks, Wildlife and Recreation
based in El Ostional, Rivas, Nicaragua,
on Parks & Recreation Magazine
Executive Editor Danielle Taylor's
Open Space blog post, " Who Owns the
Forests? Mountain Bike Trail Riders and
Park Pros Weigh In, " www.nrpa.org/
blog/Who-Owns-the-Forests.
I'd like to share the Power of
Parks Prezi, but I think the employment section is off-base. The
public doesn't care about the employment rate of park and recreation professionals, but people do care that
this sector creates jobs. I think the
text should be reframed, or you could
just cut that section. It is a weak link
in an otherwise solid presentation.
Email from Janet Donnelly, Public
Affairs Coordinator with Oregon's Willamalane Park and Recreation District,
regarding NRPA's Power of Parks Prezi,
www.nrpa.org/Power-of-Parks.

August 2014 - Parks & Recreation

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