Page 8 - Parks and Recreation

Today, Aug. 25, is the 100th Anniversary of the US National Park Service. We can appreciate how our country boasts some of the most beautiful parks in the world.

On this date in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed into existence our tremendous national park system which today encompasses more than 84 million acres in every state.

Americans obviously appreciate their national parks - last year they were visited by 307 million people.

Here is a selection of photographs that give you a sampling of the incredible beauty of these natural resources. Enjoy and protect these parks. They are truly a gift to us all.

To learn more about this great Centennial Celebration, visit the National Park Service here. 

Geyser at Yellowstone National Par

Spring storm at Yosemite National Par

Observation tower at Everglades National Par

Grand Canyon National Park at sunrise with Colorado River running through i

Backcountry skiers travel across the frozen surface of Bowman Lake in Glacier National Park, Montan

Picnic table worn out by time, mold and weathe

By Gerald Dlubala

Picnic table coatings have come a long way. Here's why. Enjoying a meal outside at a local park, stadium or outdoor venue makes for a great outing.

Time spent in nature turns your boring, stay-at-home, what-to-do day into a day of anticipation, relaxation, and good times.

Who doesn't want, or need more of that? A quality, easy-to-clean, metal picnic table or park bench can enhance these activities by creating the center point or hub for your day's events, from games, meals, and prep areas to being the catchall place for coolers and bags.

But a great picnic table will easily become the best place to sit, talk, and catch up with friends and family in a casual, relaxing way, restoring the lost art of conversation and personal interaction.

Quality, useful, and aesthetically appealing tables simply encourage the use of the space for gatherings and events.

However, a picnic table that is in disrepair, splintering, broken, carved

The Chimani park app is like having a guide in your phone for National Parks (Photo by Robert Caston

Will an iPad or an Oculus Rift headset replace a geyser at Yellowstone National Park? Some people are concerned it will. But one application has found a way to merge technology with visiting a park that could actually increase interest in the outdoors.

That company is called Chimani, and they offer this incredible park exploration technology for FREE.

The concept behind the app is simple - provide a huge database of resources and information for park visitors combined with GPS tracking technology. This way each user can customize those resources to where they are actually standing, whether at Yellowstone or Mammoth Cave or Mount Rushmore.

When they download the apps, they are treated to a digital backpack of amenities for each of the 59 National Parks in the US or a general app that covers the parks and 400-plus other locations in the National Park Service.

These apps include features such

Pokemon Go player in a par

Who would ever think creatures such as Jigglypuff and Squirtle could get people out of their homes and into parks and even get them to fill up trash receptacles?

But that is what is happening in some areas thanks to savvy park personnel.

While many people might see the game of Pokemon Go as sort of crazy, some clever people see the craze as an opportunity.

For example, folks at Delaware State Parks are conducting a contest through July to encourage people to go to a state park when looking for a Caterpie, Raichu or Wigglytuff.

(If you are not familiar with Pokemon Go, the game is basically played on a smartphone or iPhone. Using GPS technologies combined with cameras, players walk around various locations searching for colorful  Pokemon cartoon characters. When they see one, they toss a "poke ball" at the icon to "capture" it and earn points. There are a bunch of Pokemon creatures to pursue, and new ones created all the time).

At Delaware State Parks, when

The national litter problem can be easily solved with more commercial trash cans

 By Gerald Dlubala

There are no shortages of concerns in our country when it comes to our health and safety, yet something as simple as adding more commercial trash cans can solve the problem.

Gator and shark attacks, mosquito related viruses, and now, toxic algae are the front runners these days. The more dramatic and unusual get the daily headlines.

But behind the scenes, long after daylight surrenders to nightfall, in those dark corners and forgotten areas that we refuse to look at, uncover or clean around, there's an epidemic on the rise, one that's potentially more harmful to our daily lives than any single shark out there cruising around in it's own environment.

As the amount of population continues to grow and concentrate in specific areas, so does the proportion of waste and trash, just plain old garbage.

For the inattentive and unequipped, this problem is getting out of hand in a heartbeat. It's

Jump for joy in a park today. It's national Park and Recreation Month 2016

Most people don't think about going to a park for medicinal purposes. But for Park and Recreation Month 2016, perhaps the public should pay attention to a recent study on how parks can actually have a positive effect on a person's mental and physical health.

The study was conducted by The University of Queensland in Australia along with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions. Lead researcher Dr. Danielle Shanahan surveyed more than 1,500 residents of Brisbane, Australia. The city was a perfect location for the research because it has a high amount of park acreage and tree coverage

Subjects that were covered included: mental health issues such as depression; physical health such as blood pressure; social health such as interactions with others and health behavior regarding physical activity.

In taking a different approach when creating their criteria, researchers decided to equate visits a park

Family gathered around a picnic tabl

By Gerald L Dlubala

The weekend was predicted to be perfect, and started with the good feelings that only a few days off, great weather and a planned outing can provide -  the packing begins in anticipation of spending quality time relaxing on park benches or enjoying meals on metal picnic tables at a park or campground, free from household chores like grass cutting and car washing.

You can feel it, even anticipating the drive, with windows open and fresh air filtering through like your personal stream of good vibes. But before you hit the road, you should probably give a quick glance at a couple of social media review sites to see what others are saying about the places you're considering.

"Benches and picnic tables were neglected and in disrepair. Splinter city!"

"The facilities were filthy. We had to clean up before we could even enjoy ourselves. Could've done this at home."

"Seriously, only one site in the whole campground designed for disabled

A rare Florida Panther caught on a remote control camera in Everglades National Park. At one time it was estimated there were only 20 in existence. Now the number is 160. (Sources: National Park Service

This year  marks the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service in the US. In this electronic age of Instagram, mega-theme parks and blockbuster movies, the natural beauty of our national parks might get overlooked. Here is a collection of free national park photos you can download (along with hundreds of others) that will show you why our parks can compete with any man-made creation.

To go on a tour from the comfort of your couch, see this collection of images from parks around the country. Better yet, get off the couch and experience these wonderful environments in person. On these days admission to all national parks is free.

What you will see will be amazing.

There are royal battles taking place for dominance...

Alligator wins battle

Park picnic tables and cookouts on public grill

By Gerald Dlubala

This week is National Picnic Week in the UK and for well over a hundred years, park picnic tables have been calling us to a fun dining experience under an open sky. Formulated in the late 1800s, these structures have become somewhat of an outdoor altar that draws people like moths to a light bulb.

They come in all shapes and sizes, but still have the same function and purpose as those original designs providing a place for outdoor seating, entertaining, and get-togethers. Whether in your backyard, the local city or state park, around a sporting venue or outside of businesses or apartments, these functional and compact seating areas are a mainstay in our society.

But what about "park picnic table etiquette"? If anybody knows about proper dining, it's the British. So follow their lead.

Yes, picnic table etiquette is a thing and is annoying to those that are on the receiving end of irresponsible or unsociable picnic table behavior.

A mountain, a tent and a picnic table are ideal for Great Outdoors Mont

President Barack Obama has declared June as national Great Outdoors Month and when the commander in chief speaks, then it's time to put on the hiking boots, pack a lunch for a picnic table and get thee out of the house.

"During Great Outdoors Month, let us enjoy our nation's natural bounty, whether in reflective solitude or in the energizing company of friends and family," the president wrote in a declaration. "As we rediscover the beauty of the outdoors - in our own backyards, along distant trails, or in the shadows of towering mountains, let us rededicate ourselves to preserving nature's splendor for future generations."

Not only is the president in on this, but so are most state governors and just about any organization that has anything to do with the outdoors.

And as we all know, America has the best in the world when it comes to interesting and exciting natural attractions. We have fantastic local, state and

Park bench in Olmsted-designed Central Par

By Alysa Kleinman

Next time you visit your local park and relax on any park benches, you can thank Frederick Olmsted.

It's a name you might not immediately recognize from history class, but he's considered the father of American landscape and park design. His contributions during his lifetime spanned from Central Park to Niagara Falls, to parks in Midwestern cities like Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit, to the U.S. Capitol, and all the way out to Stanford University in Palo Alto. His contributions beyond his lifetime are un-measurable.

Setting the bar for excellence in park design very high, Olmsted's designs for Central Park continue to influence landscape architecture to this day. But to fully understand Olmsted's impact and how he reached it, you have to hear his full career path that led to his influence over such well-known parks.

A Traveling Writer

Raised in Hartford, Connecticut by his nature-loving father John and step-mother Mary Ann

The Underline park drawing proposed for Brickell Station in Miami. (Source: James Corner Field Operations, Courtesy of Friends of The Underline.

Meg Daly walked home from a train station in Miami one day and had an inspiration that could change how people look at parks in the future.

First of all, she wasn't looking at the ground. She looked up. At the Metrorail mass transit line running overhead and realized that the concrete structure holding the tracks created a nice shady spot below.

For anybody who has ever lived or visited Florida, you know shade is precious. Meg had an idea - if there are miles of shade underneath Metrorail, wouldn't this make a great elongated park where people could walk, bicycle or relax?

"I lived in Miami my whole life and never really experienced that moment under the Metrorail. In that moment I realized just how much land was there," she said. "I thought, 'Why don't we do something spectacular with this space and return it to the people?"

Current look of area

These plastic bottles don't need to be here - they can become recycled plastic picnic tables and any number of products

By Alysa Kleinman

About 270 million Americans visit national parks each year. They explore mountains and woods, see wildlife firsthand and discover culture. But along the way, they also generate 100 million pounds of trash. That's could fill quite a few recycling receptacles and park trash cans.

What can be done to solve this problem where visitors come to a park to enjoy the natural splendor but generate more than a third of a pound of trash per person?

Recently, Subaru started studying trash at national parks. The company's research in Denali, Yosemite, and Grand Teton National Parks tested an innovative waste-reduction recycling program and zero-landfill practices.

While it may seem unexpected for an auto maker to be involved in environmental issues, Subaru's company practices are very green. In fact, Subaru is America's first zero-landfill auto maker, meaning that

As barbecuing grows in popularity, facility managers would be smart to add bigger park grill

By Gerald Dlubala

The plumes of smoke from state and local parks, recreation areas and gathering places reach toward the sky carrying that familiar aroma of meat being introduced on park grills.

And everywhere you turn, there's going to be an amateur pitmaster firing up that park grill in the hopes of producing competition-worthy food for his friends and family.

In fact, many families now have their own yearly competitions just to lay claim as the pitmaster of the year.

Public parks are natural places for these family gatherings, as well as reunions, holiday get-togethers and special occasions.

Why wouldn't they be?

The availability of park grills, pavilions, picnic benches, the wide-open spaces and the fresh outdoor air are all attractive and conducive to both organized activities and impromptu gatherings.

The rise in popularity in the barbecue

ADA picnic tables help people with disabilities feel free to participate in more activitie

Everyone is welcome to sit at picnic tables at a community park or outside a facility. But what if you are disabled? Should you be excluded or made to feel like you are not part of the group? Absolutely not. That's where ADA picnic tables come in.

But without accessible equipment, facility managers can inadvertently exclude guests with disabilities.

That's why facility managers need to be ADA compliant and think of all guests, including those whose needs are different from your own.

The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted by Congress to protect against discrimination based on disability and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for disabled employees. Additionally, and maybe most relevant to facility managers, ADA imposed accessibility requirements on public accommodations and commercial facilities. For one, that means offering park