For an enhanced digital experience, read this story in the ezine.

Predictions for the industry and the field for 2025 and beyond

Here are the much-anticipated predictions for the top trends in parks and recreation for 2025.

Climate Change

Extreme Weather Conditions, Everywhere, All the Time

Whether we call it climate change or adopt a euphemism to call it something else, the rapid pace of extreme weather events and long-term stresses from climate change are forcing park and recreation agencies to do a much better job planning and budgeting for single-event disasters and the long-term impacts of climate change.

The devastation caused by the recent back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton in Florida and other Southern and mid-Atlantic states has solidified a growing realization that no areas of the country are safe from the effects of extreme weather. Climate catastrophes like torrential rains, windstorms, wildfires, drought and extreme prolonged heat can happen anywhere, even hundreds of miles from the events that cause them.

Climate-aggravated weather events and long-term climate change stresses present a grave challenge to parks and recreation while at the same time offering agencies opportunities to adapt to changing conditions and to mitigate climate-change conditions through strategic planning and proactive actions.

Kelly Bohrer, sustainability manager for Five Rivers Metroparks in Dayton, Ohio, says, “I am seeing an exponential increase in concern regarding climate change and considerations of actions to address climate change, engage in climate-change mitigation, and view parks as essential to climate-change adaptation and resilience for communities across the U.S.”

When asked if she sees park and recreation agencies taking up the challenge, Bohrer says, “It can’t be just one person’s job. It takes time, focus and budget. If you are not specifically focusing on a response to climate change, you may not be ready to take effective actions. The good news is that agencies can start small, and every bit will help in meaningful ways — seeing better air quality, more trees, direct benefits of floodplains and wetlands, the health benefits of forests and green open spaces, and more.” Bohrer concludes, “As public entities with large landholdings, we can provide leadership to the public and show how we can adapt and be resilient.”

Health and Well-Being

Addressing the Loneliness Epidemic

Much digital ink has been spilled on the topic of the loneliness epidemic and how it is affecting people of all ages. Magnified by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the social isolation and fraying of many of the social bonds that we took for granted in our society has blown into a full-fledged crisis, prompting U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to commission the Department of Health and Human Services to issue an 82-page advisory, titled “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation.” Dr. Murthy states in the introduction, “Loneliness is far more than just a bad feeling — it harms both individual and societal health. It is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death.”

Startups such as Pie by the founder of Bonobos clothing, Andy Dunn, have raised millions of dollars in venture capital to encourage people to reach out to others by attending community meetings in person and participating in events for real experiences rather than through devices. Counterintuitively, social media sites are aggressively plugging apps that promote “curated events” like Dudes Eating Pancakes to bring people back together, according to Morning Brew. Other apps such as Timeleft, The Breakfast and Kndrd are all about connecting people in social settings. Not to diss Dudes Eating Pancakes or other app-based meetups, but park and recreation agencies offer an almost unlimited number of programs and services for breaking down the barriers of social isolation.

Parks and recreation provides a free or very low-cost home-grown path in every community to age-appropriate activities that can lead people to forge deeper connections to others that truly do lead to positive social interactions. Seeking to solve the epidemic of loneliness is a trend that will come to the fore in 2025 and provide lasting opportunities for public parks and recreation to contribute meaningfully to solving the growing problem of social isolation and loneliness now and for years to come.

NRPA Director of Programs Allison Colman says, “We have been framing much of our work around the power of parks to build social and intergenerational connectedness and relationships across differences.” She notes that the Surgeon General’s report calls for the need to invest in social infrastructure and names parks and community centers as an excellent way to address isolation and loneliness. Colman says, “We expect this to be a growing area of focus for our work moving forward, as we know that parks and recreation has a unique role to play!”

Recreation Program Trends

Swimming and Aquatics

Even though many public aquatics facilities are having difficulty in recruiting and retaining lifeguards, developing opportunities for public swimming is an increasingly important priority for public park and recreation agencies. Extreme heat in urban heat islands and a lack of public swimming pools in underserved communities have contributed to the urgency.

New York State is leading the way in innovative approaches to improving and expanding opportunities for public swimming. Governor Kathy Hochul announced a $150 million investment in improving opportunities for public swimming. Among the galvanizing ideas stimulating public interest is the design of a floating water-filtering public swimming pool to be placed in the Hudson River near Pier 35 in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The project was inspired by +Pool, a nonprofit organization that has been working for more than 10 years on the concept. +Pool will join a public-private partnership to build a 2,000-square-foot innovative floating pool. In addition, the city is expanding learn-to-swim programs and offering free lifeguard training programs. Fast Company author Sarah Amandolare wrote in the June 24, 2024, “Impact” column, “With its emphasis on municipal pools and natural waterways in communities that are underserved or vulnerable to extreme heat, the $150 million plan underscores how access to swimming addresses equity, public health, and climate resilience.”

Short Mat Bowling and Walking Soccer

Short mat bowling? Walking soccer? Kathy Ballantyne, director of facilities and services for County of Brant, Ontario, Canada, says that the baby boomers who are retiring in waves in Ontario are active and energetic and looking for new activities to add to their traditional older adult programs, such as community dances, adult skating, forest tours, Bee City pollinator initiatives and trail clean-ups.

But you’ve got to love short mat bowling and walking soccer. Both are played indoors on turf or a carpet-like mat. Short mat bowling is played with large balls — bigger than bocce balls — on a pre-marked mat 45 feet long by six feet wide. Unlike in traditional lawn bowling, a block of wood can be placed at the middle line to make it a smidge harder to roll balls directly toward opponents’ balls. Walking soccer is just like it sounds — no running and no contact. Rather like soccer in slow motion, don’t you think? Teamwork and camaraderie matter more than agility and speed in walking soccer. “Both of these sports are creative and lots of fun for seniors,” says Ballantyne.

Therapeutic Recreation Programs Surge

John McGovern, principal-in-charge of the accessibility practice for the WT Group, an engineering consulting firm near Chicago, says that he was gratified to learn at the 2024 NRPA Annual Conference in Atlanta of a number of agencies that are newly kicking off community-based therapeutic recreation programs, adaptive sports programs and specialized recreation programs. While some agencies have been doing these types of programs for decades, he was pleased to learn of all the new startups in therapeutic recreation.

At the Charleston County (South Carolina) Parks and Recreation Commission, Mark Madden, assistant director of recreation, says that they are growing their range of adaptive and inclusive recreation programs, including Wheel to Surf (inclusive and adaptive surfing), Adaptive Climbing Day, Inclusive Swim Nights, Silent Disco and Inclusive Santa. “A key to success,” he says, “has been providing transportation for participants who need it.”

Arts Programming

Arts programming is flourishing. Park and recreation agencies are in the vanguard of bringing vibrant visual and performing arts to their communities. As the pandemic receded, arts programming has been resurgent. Across the country, business leaders, developers and civic leaders have realized the value of community-based arts programming in placemaking and revitalization.

In Maryland, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission offers a wide array of community-based arts programming, including the Young Artists Apprenticeship program and the Young Stars program for teens. Brittney McGowan, public arts specialist, says that participants in the Young Artists Apprenticeship program who are ages 16-24 are mentored and guided by a professional artist/teacher through a variety of site-specific projects, including indoor and outdoor murals, sculptural installations, Art on the Trails projects, and many others. Katrina Williams, chief of the arts and cultural heritage division, says, “Young Stars happens to be one of my favorite programs. It is new, fresh, and pre-teens and teens are eager to join. I hope that this program grows to capture show production, videography, editing and more!”

Impact of Technology

AI Video Editing Tools

Powerful new AI-assisted software to enable creating short video clips from images and photos are being rolled out by Adobe, OpenAI, Meta, Runway and Google in a software arms race to bring advanced AI capabilities to video creation from text, still photos and other source material. The big tech companies are vying to capture eyeballs and market share and have either already rolled out their software or will do so soon.

The implications for parks and recreation are profound. The most significant impact will be that promoting recreation programs and events will migrate to mobile platforms much more quickly because it will become much easier, cheaper and faster to do. It also means that the printed recreation class program distributed to residents will be going the way of the dodo sooner than you think.

Quick Takes

Arachnophobes Beware! Joros Are Coming!

A very large spider that “flies” is likely coming to parks near you. The Joro spider already is established in Georgia and likely will spread throughout the Southeast and then move northward and westward. The Joro spider, which can grow to a size that would cover the palm of a large hand, first appeared in the South about 10 years ago, likely arriving in the United States as hitchhikers in shipping containers or other commerce from Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China where they are Indigenous species. The Joro has distinctive markings and yellow stripes on its long legs. They spin large filamentous golden webs, the strands of which actually can allow them to “fly” on strong air currents and “balloon” into new locations in parks, urban areas and other potential habitats.

A study published in the journal Physical Entomology speculates that the Joro soon will expand in the mid-Atlantic because they are largely resistant to cold temperatures, enabling them to move northward and westward. Multiple sightings already have occurred in New York City and other mid-Atlantic states. Principal researcher Andy Davis of the Odum School of Ecology of the University of Georgia says, “People should try to learn to live with them.” He notes that while venomous, their small fangs cannot penetrate human skin. That’s some consolation, right?

CyberDogs

If you thought a flock of sheep munching your invasive weed species to oblivion was a great idea for your parks, you will love the idea of CyberDog. According to a report in Pest Management Science, CyberDogs paired with an AI model can ferret out colonies of Red Imported Fire Ants three times better than human observers. Red Imported Fire Ants are a globally destructive species that is found in 13 U.S. states throughout the South and Southwest. If CyberDogs can be programmed to find and identify fire ants, could they also be programmed to find and identify other invasive and destructive species? Perhaps they could be programmed to carry and apply herbicides on noxious weeds much as live dogs do when passing a fire hydrant. Robo Fido might just become man’s next best friend.

Richard Dolesh is the retired Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for NRPA and Editor-at-Large for Parks & Recreation magazine.