Managing vegetation for children: Enhancing free-play opportunities through direct management
Marlow T, DeBacker M, Young C. 2013. Managing vegetation for children: Enhancing free-play opportunities through direct management. Park Science. 30(2):44-47,51
Social scientists and park managers explore a variety of options and examples that illustrate how the National Park System can inspire the American public to enjoy NPS resources and maximize health benefits. This article explores the potential benefits for children afforded by free play in natural areas and develops a strategy to enhance natural areas for this purpose. Children obtain benefits from contact with natural areas that loosely fall into three categories: behavior, health, and environmental sensitivity. Research reveals that the primary vector for these positive outcomes is free play outdoors. Enhancing free play therefore forms the basis of an implementation strategy, which relies on a multistep approach. First, areas suitable for free play are identified by the presence of three environmental factors identified in the literature: refuge, diversity, and accessibility. From here, projects may be developed with the goal of simple and cost-effective vegetation management. We present several ideas and examples of what projects of this type could look like. Overall, this article offers a simple and cost-effective means to designing cultural and natural landscapes to encourage free play in national parks.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Marlow, Thomas; DeBacker, Mike; Young, Craig
- Units
- HTLN
- Keywords
- Behavior, Call to Action, Children, Environmental Sensitivity, free play, Health, Vegetation Management