As a mom and an environmental advocate, I am fortunate to live in Washington, D.C., which has the number-one-ranked city park system, according to Trust for Public Land’s ParkScore. But even in a city where 99 percent of residents live ten minutes away from a park, inequities—such as the size, safety, and quality of the nearby parks—persist.
In cities like Los Angeles and Detroit, park inequities are more stark. Los Angeles’ majority-white neighborhoods have access to 141 percent more park space per person than the city’s average. Detroit’s neighborhoods with majority residents of color have access to 26 percent less park space per person than the city’s average.
As 86 percent of U.S. residents live in urban areas and that number is rising, there is a growing need to ensure the benefits of nature are reaching everyone. The science is clear that nature-based health interventions can alleviate physical and mental health challenges, such as high blood pressure and depression. There’s a significant connection between mental health benefits among Black youth and the availability of neighborhood amenities like parks.
But, as The Washington Post reported earlier this year, the disparity in nature access results in lower income and Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities being more likely to miss out on these benefits. Three-quarters of people in lower-income communities of color live in nature-deprived areas. On average, parks in communities of color are half as large as those in white communities, and parks in low-income communities are a quarter the size of parks in higher income communities. And for the many Americans who rely on public transportation, our federal public lands and waters—many of which are only accessible by car—are out of reach. Great Falls Park, which sits just outside of D.C., is not on any public transportation routes—the nearest Metro station is five miles away.
With summer rapidly approaching, the nature gap is more stark than ever as more people start venturing outside to enjoy time outdoors. But this isn’t an insurmountable problem.
Tree planting projects are often touted as a solution for nature access, even with the difficulties in implementing those projects in urban areas. One way to work through those difficulties is by partnering with programs designed to facilitate those sorts of projects. The U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, for example, was created to support urban tree planting. With a recent $1.5 billion boost from the Inflation Reduction Act, it is in a prime position to support local efforts to improve urban tree canopy nationwide.
If the question is about who can plant those trees once the project has been funded, the newly created American Climate Corps (ACC) could fulfill that role. The ACC was designed to support climate and conservation work while creating new career path opportunities for youth.
We can also make a difference by improving policy. The House just passed its outdoor recreation package, the EXPLORE Act. EXPLORE includes bills such as the Outdoors for All Act, which supports a program that funds the creation or improvement of outdoor recreation amenities in underserved communities, and an extension of the Every Kid Outdoors program, which grants all fourth graders free access to federal public lands and waters. But for all of that to go into effect, the Senate still needs to pass the legislation. Reach out to your elected officials to encourage them to pass a strong outdoor recreation package that includes these important outdoor equity provisions.
Aside from increasing the accessibility of nature, another way to address the disparity is by increasing the ways people can reach existing green spaces and public lands. In simpler terms: We need to improve the public transit options.
For neighborhoods in nature-deprived areas with no upcoming outdoor-equity projects, or even projects that will come to fruition years down the line, expanding their freedom of movement and ability to access existing parks and waters is an obvious solution. Creating more public transportation routes, or even extending and improving safety on existing routes, would benefit communities beyond helping them reach parks.
It is necessary to invest in these multiple solutions concurrently to reach the very achievable goal of reducing the disparity in access to nature that so many urban communities face.
This column was produced by Progressive Perspectives, which is run by The Progressive magazine and distributed by Tribune News Service.