A Study of the Park and Recreation Problem of the United States

Cover

Contents

Foreword

Supplemental Foreword

Introduction

Recreational Habits and Needs

Aspects of Recreational Planning

Present Public Outdoor Recreational Facilities

Administration

Financing

Legislation

A Park and Recreational Land Plan

A Study of the Park and Recreation Problem of the United States

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE

Park visitors expect and deserve a pleasant, orderly environment. At first glance, it would seem to be a waste of words and time to say that the visitor has a right to receive courteous treatment at the hands of park employees; to find roads and trails decently maintained, camp and picnic grounds clean and neat, and buildings kept in repair. Yet, persons familiar with parks know that sloppy, inattentive, and discourteous employees are by no means uncommon, and that roads and trails, camp and picnic grounds, and structures of every kind, in various stages of neglect and disrepair, can be found in a number of parks and park systems.

No park or playground is established or can be justified as a public responsibility for its own sake, but only for the use that is to be made of it, now or in the future. Successful accomplishment of that purpose—use—is dependent on many things—proper selection in the first place, intelligent planning, and sound principles of operation, but most of all on competence of operation and maintenance. The results of poor administration at the top and even of improper selection and unintelligent planning can be largely overcome if the right kind of staff, with fairly adequate equipment for its task, is on duty on the area itself, while no amount of intelligence in selection and planning can compensate for inefficiency or incompetence in operating and maintaining it.

Effectiveness in accomplishment of the operation and maintenance task for any area and the facilities it contains is conditioned on factors, aside from personal qualities of employees, which are largely imposed by the central administration and which comprise its management policy. These factors, as they affect personnel, include such matters as wearing of uniforms, exercise of police power, as well as the basis on which the selection of personnel rests. As they affect the area, they include such matters as leases, method of operation of facilities (public or concession), regulation or limitation of use of certain types of facilities such as cabins, pavilions, picnic and campgrounds, playfields, etc., entrance and other fees and charges, control of prices, etc.

Supervision of Operation and Maintenance. Supervision of maintenance and operation is rapidly becoming a recognized special field in which the superintendent or custodian is really an administrator responsible for an area, and possessing wide latitude for independent action, subject to such policies as have been imposed on an area or a system by the administrative authorities. His domain is for public use and enjoyment, and there is no point of contact between governmental administration and the public where the principles of democratic government and management of public facilities are more personally and intimately encountered. The superintendent represents the public interest as defined by law and policy and defends and protects it against individual selfishness and special privilege. He and his staff interpret the area and its resources to the public and cooperate with organizations, recreational interest groups, and individuals in arranging for the use of the area's facilities.

Successful operation of most systems of parks requires a general superintendent whose responsibility it is to plan, initiate and supervise all operations and maintenance, and to indicate, on the basis of on-the-ground experience and observation, what further public requirements need to be met. To him falls the task of seeing that policies and regulations are observed, that areas and facilities are satisfactorily operated and maintained, and that proper equipment is available and kept in good condition. In smaller systems he frequently combines the functions of assistant director and superintendent of construction as well as manager of operations.

Relationship to Planning and Development. The importance of the relationship of planning and development to operation and maintenance has already been stressed. The superintendents, custodians, and various park assistants are in the best position to observe use of an area and its facilities, and to determine the degree of effectiveness of the service rendered and where the shortcomings lie. If plans do not work out as intended or conditions change or facilities fail in any way to fulfill their functions, these men know it first and must often contrive some way to correct the shortcoming. They are sharp critics of designers, usually quick to recognize good and bad planning from a practical point of view. They should be encouraged or even required to make their knowledge available and assist in the avoidance of errors that result from ignorance of the problems of operation or from failure to take them properly into account.

Such cooperation should be welcomed by every planning department and should extend beyond the mere correction of past errors. The competent and experienced park superintendent is one of the many specialists whose practical experience is needed as a guide in functional planning.

Park Manuals. Park manuals covering the many fields included in recreational administration are used by some park agencies to insure uniform methods of operation. Such manuals include rules, regulations, approved practices and other similar types of information. To be wholly effective, they must be kept up to date. While the subject matter dealt with varies, one of the newest and most complete, recently published for use in the Illinois State parks indicates the scope of such handbooks. It treats the following general subjects:

1. Brief description of State park properties.

2. Statement of State park legislation and policies.

3. Statement of duties and responsibilities of park superintendents. Emphasis on courtesy, discipline, esprit de corps, leadership, and uniform regulations.

4. Budget procedure, including use of forms for requisition of material, labor, and supplies.

5. Departmental organization chart and explanation of responsibilities.

6. Administrative operation and procedure, annual, monthly, and weekly activities, accident, fire, leave, and other reports.

7. Rules and regulations governing State parks and methods of enforcement.

8. Operation of equipment.

9. Operation of facilities, etc., campgrounds, picnic grounds, comfort stations, wood cutting, playgrounds, parking area.

10. Concessions, including responsibilities of the State and the concessionaires.

11. State park signs, use and purpose.

12. Wildlife, protection and care.

13. First-aid and lost-and-found procedure.

14. Fire control; prevention, detection, and suppression instructions.

15. Public relations and publicity.

16. Park planning, including use and purpose of surveys, master plans, working plans, and maps.

17. Maintenance of roads, buildings, equipment, water supply, and fixtures.

18. Maintenance and operation of sanitary facilities, including toilets and comfort stations, trash and garbage disposal, sewer lines, septic and Imhoff tanks, grease traps, sewage treatment plants.

19. Landscape work in parks, including complete outline of planting methods to remove construction scars, planting around buildings, erosion planting, plant selection, planting practice, care of planted material, tree surgery, and lists of plant material.

Although other subjects may be included, this general outline of the contents of a typical good park manual gives an idea of the possibilities. It also illustrates the diversity of operations that require qualified supervision and capable personnel, and indicates that, in most parks, the superintendent or custodian is compelled to function in many capacities.

Control. In order that all visitors may have an equal opportunity to enjoy themselves and that the resources of a park may be protected, regulation of conduct is required. Mere numbers of people alone make this necessary. Any large crowd, no matter how well behaved or considerate, is to some extent destructive of natural values. When even a small minority are vandals, while others are unfamiliar with conservation ethics, careless or selfish, the destruction multiplies.

There are four general approaches to the problem of control, namely: (1) planning, (2) regulations, (3) education, and (4) a well conceived and executed program of use. Each has its possibilities and limitations. All four approaches have been used with varying success.

A well laid out system of roads and parking areas may be taken as an example of the relationship between planning and control. A single entrance where practicable, the fewest possible intersections, all well marked, roads adequate in width to handle the traffic load, a generous use of effective barriers to discourage the inconsiderate driver from destructive practices, and parking areas so designed that the man of average intelligence. will know where and how to park, are some of the features of a circulation system which facilitates control. A simplification of trail lay-outs and a proper grouping and design of facilities are other important aids to efficient management. If, wherever possible, the proper thing to do is also the simplest and easiest, the necessity for application of other means of control is largely eliminated.

While some regulations are necessary no matter how successful other aids to control may be, they should be applied so that the public is guided rather than driven. Too much regulation, particularly if it is petty and nagging, tends to provoke rather than deter misconduct. An educational approach when a receptive attitude is shown by offenders is far more conducive to results than recourse to authority. To be really effective, however, education should be a continuous process, applied rather to guide than to correct, and positive, rather than negative. The English language contains few words more irritating than "Don't."

By wise counsel and stimulating guidance in natural science, history, woodcraft, and the arts education instills understanding, and a greater appreciation in the public mind. Through printed material, the lecture, the radio, photography, and by personal instruction, a great amount of effective work is accomplished. Many States and other agencies are using this educational approach more effectively every year.

The trite adage about idle hands and minds being the devil's instruments has a particular significance to the problem of effectively handling park visitors. Give people interesting things to do, if they wish to do anything but loaf, and they will be less likely to become obstreperous and destructive in their habits. A well-balanced program directed toward utilizing the resources of a park, if intelligently handled, will do much to eliminate the need for coercion in regulating the conduct of visitors.

Exclusive Privileges and Services. Practically unanimous agreement in principle exists among informed administrators on the undesirability of providing exclusive services for or permitting exclusive privileges to individuals on public park and recreational lands. Examples of exclusive privileges are the individual lease, occupancy, or privileged use for any extended period of time of land, buildings or facilities that belong to the public recreational area where such lease or occupancy deprives some other person of an equal opportunity. Failure to observe this as one of the first principles of democratic management opens the door to serious misuse of public property and to just accusations of unfair discrimination.

Probably the most flagrant violation of this principle occurs when an individual is granted a lease hold or rental on public land for private residential use or for some other private activity that largely restricts the use of the area occupied to one individual, family, or group. This practice has become very unpopular among the administrators of park lands because of the difficult situations that invariably develop when private and public interest conflict. Since such leases normally involve some investment of private funds in buildings and facilities, the lessee is quick to assume—usually effectively—that he possesses a vested right which is not to be disturbed.

A problem similar to the exclusive privilege may also arise from many other situations. These include the private rental or exclusive occupancy, by individuals or groups, of cabins or other buildings, campgrounds, picnic facilities or other accommodations provided at public expense. With respect to use of such facilities, most park authorities have adopted a "first come, first served" policy and this seems to be the fairest system. There are, however, times and places where this policy must be modified to escape confusion and conflict during "peak-load" periods. At such times it may be necessary to make reservations of buildings, camp and picnic grounds, playfields, and others for which the demand far exceeds the supply. It is possible, even under such conditions, to insist on fair play and guard against the abuse of privileges granted. In the case of cabins, campgrounds or heavily used picnic areas and playfields, time of occupancy must sometimes be limited in order to provide for the use of facilities by the greatest number of individuals. Long-period occupancy of such facilities as cabins, particularly if the demand exceeds the supply, appears to be definitely classifiable as special privilege, undemocratic and undesirable.

Operation of Facilities. Park folk have found in the provision and operation of facilities a most fertile field for controversy. There are sharp differences of opinion as to the range of facilities to be offered, equally sharp differences as to whether the private operator or concessionaire should have any hand in their operation and if so, which ones should be let out as concessions and which retained for direct operation. In addition there is the important difference in method of letting concessions, between competitive bidding, and the definite-return arrangement under which selection is based, presumably, on ability to operate to the satisfaction of the public and the park authority. There are likewise differences of opinion as to the basis of rate making for services or commodities. All these are, of course, matters of administrative determination which are nevertheless phases of the operation problem, since they largely determine the character of the problem.

Comparatively few State park agencies operate dining facilities or park hotels. More of them handle directly the rental of cabin facilities, since provision of meals is not normally a part of such an operation. Campgrounds and picnic grounds, even when their operation involves collection of a fee, are normally handled directly by the park staff. Beach and bathhouse operation, though occasionally placed with a concessionaire, is also usually handled directly. With the possible exception of catering and hotel operation, it is believed to be the best policy, from the public standpoint, for all other facilities to be the direct responsibility of the park staff, since it is believed that, under such an arrangement, the public interest, rather than the urge for profit, is more likely to dominate.

Figure 25.—Shelter and concession building, French Creek Recreational Demonstration Area, Pennsylvania.

It must be admitted that concession operation of hotels and restaurants has been highly satisfactory in many cases. Since the personality of the operator, his ability, and his attitude toward his responsibilities and the public are such vital factors in the success—from the public standpoint—of such undertakings, the procedure of letting such concessions simply to the person or corporation that is willing to pay the most for the privilege appears to have almost nothing to recommend it. Unfortunately, some legislative bodies prescribe it. On the other hand, an arrangement whereby a definite fair return from an operation is determined, the conditions for its conduct prescribed, and a choice of operator is made on the basis of character and experience, from among those willing to undertake the task, appears to be the best solution that has yet been formulated. It is highly important, however, that the fixed facilities—buildings, and their permanent contents, water supply and sewage disposal systems, etc.—be publicly owned rather than owned by the operator. Operator ownership can not help involving additional difficulties in any case in which a change of management proves desirable.

Since service to the public is the sole purpose for which facilities are provided and operated, it is the responsibility of the person in charge of any park to see that satisfactory and courteous service is given, that requirements as to maximum prices, if established, are met, that facilities are maintained in neat and sanitary condition, and that park regulations are being fully observed.

Price policies are, of course, matters of general park administrative policy, not the responsibility of the individual superintendent. In general, it appears to be wise policy to keep them at a level no higher than that which might reasonably be charged for similar services, accommodations or commodities by private enterprisers elsewhere. The policy of attempting to make them definitely lower is a dubious one. When practiced in the case of vacation cabins, for example, for the purpose of making them available to persons of small means, there is no assurance that they will not be utilized by those amply able to pay fair commercial prices. Provision of accommodations at less than such prices gives the transaction a tinge of charity. The answer to the problem of low rental vacation accommodations appears to lie only in provision of simple and inexpensive facilities and in encouragement of tent camping—a type of vacation facility which many park authorities have been inclined to overlook, though it is within the means of and enjoyed by millions of persons, but can be provided cheaply and yet is also a good source of income.

Figure 26.—Contact station, Turkey Run State Park, Indiana.

Health and Safety. The problem of protecting the health and safety of park visitors is one of the most important and difficult tasks faced by an administration. One serious accident, even though an administration is entirely innocent of blame, can do more to destroy public confidence than a number of blunders in other phases of operation. It may also result in an expensive law suit. A rumor that conditions in a park are not healthful discourages attendance. The adage about cleanliness being next to godliness might well have been coined by a good park operator.

Good planning and development of roads, trails, beaches, structures, and other facilities can do much to eliminate or mitigate hazards and unsanitary conditions, but in the final analysis the responsibility for protecting visitors rests with the operation and maintenance staff. Policies governing use play an important part. Typical of the points that need to be dealt with under such policies are those that have to do with the use of boats, the conduct of swimmers and the latitude permitted in allowing hazardous activities such as mountain climbing, canoeing in rapid, rocky streams, and swimming beyond the marked and guarded area. Frequent examinations of water used for drinking and swimming is another important protective measure.

Figure 27.—One of the 10 cabins overlooking the Potomac River in Westmoreland State Park, Va.

A competent, well-trained water-front staff, operating under a definite water-front plan, is an indispensable requirement wherever swimming is permitted. Protective regulations, posted where they will be seen and read by visitors, and strict enforcement of these regulations constitute a well-known practice which is too often either ignored or poorly observed.

The above points are only a few of the many that should be considered in preparing a plan of operation and maintenance. They have been included to indicate the importance and scope of the problem. Good park manuals, literature from the American Red Cross, regulations issued by the National Committee of Sanitary Engineers and other similar sources of information should be consulted in working out a health and safety system, but must be supplemented by constant watchfulness to discover hazards and by constant effort to eliminate or reduce them.

Figure 28.—Competent leadership is essential to a well-rounded recreational program.

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Last Modified: Mon, Aug 9 2004 10:00:00 pm PDT
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