park and recreation month July is National Park and Recreation Month and a time to get outdoors and appreciate your national, state and local parks and the effort that goes into providing these open, green spaces for all to enjoy

July is the time to get out of the house, replace your desk with a picnic table and your office chair with a park bench.

Every year, this month is officially designated as Park and Recreation Month by the National Recreation and Park Association.

How important are parks to Americans?

According to the NRPA:

  • There are 108,000 parks in the US, ranging from gigantic national parks to tiny pocket parks.
  • Americans visit a park about 29 times a year.
  • Nearly 60% of respondents to a survey said the main reason they visit a park is to spend time with family and friends.
  • 48% said they go to parks to be closer to nature.
  • 52% reported they visit a park to exercise or do a physical activity.
  • About 75% of Americans would support increased spending for parks and recreation.
  • Seven out of 10 Americans said they are more likely to vote for political candidates who support the funding of parks and recreational facilities as one of their top issues.

Quotes about parks

Here are some personal observations from a few famous people about the time they spent in parks.

"When I was about fifteen, I went to work at Yosemite National Park. It changed me forever. Nature had carved its own sculpture, and I was part of it, not the other way around." - Robert Redford

"Parks represent an efficient, cost-effective way to improve public health." - Chuck Norris

"Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong." - George Carlin

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." - William Shakespeare

park picnic table There are 108,000 parks in the United States from national parks to city parks filled with park benches, picnic tables, playgrounds, trails, ponds, baseball fields and other amenities

"Laws change: people die: the land remains." - Abraham Lincoln

"National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst." - Wallace Stegner

"Whatever the cost, however financed, the benefits for park visitors in health and happiness - virtually unknown to statisticians - would be immeasurable." - Edward Abbey, Writer

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, place to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to the body and soul." - John Muir, Founder Sierra Club

"Wilderness to the people of America is a spiritual necessity, an antidote to the high pressure of modern life, a means of regaining serenity and equilibrium." - Sigurd Olson, The Wilderness Society

"In a world that is becoming increasingly virtual, the parks remain places of visceral beauty. Places where we can remember that we are but a small part of the life on this planet, and that is a truly wonderful planet and the only one we've got." - Nevada Barr

"The more civilized man becomes, the more he needs and craves a great background of forest wildness, to which he may return like a contrite prodigal from the husks of an artificial life." - Ellen Burns Sherman, Writer

"The earth laughs in flowers." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Writer

"What a joy it is to feel the soft, springy earth under my feet once more, to follow grassy roads that lead to ferny brooks where I can bathe my fingers in a cataract of rippling notes, or to clamber over a stone wall into green fields that tumble and roll and climb into riotous gladness." - Helen Keller, Writer

"Go outside! I mean even leaves from a park are beautiful in a clear glass vase. I'd rather see that than fake anything any day." - Nate Berkus

"I've turned into one of those people who go jogging in parks that I used to hate." - Sam Taylor-Wood

"I like to take walks in the park by myself, where no one can bother me and I can think." - Magic Johnson

Americans love parks.

We all know parks are special. Doesn't matter if it's a national, state or local park. Each one has its own unique identity and benefits.

This month be sure to set aside some with your family to enjoy these precious oases that parks and recreation employees all over the country work so hard to maintain and improve.