Page 89 - KCMO Parks Master Plan 2032

generations. The department can serve a vital partnerships are just waiting to be made. There
role in promoting healthier living practices and are school-aged children looking for chances to
incentivizing such behavior. There are strategies visit their parks, environmental experts waiting
the department can use to harness technology in to share their knowledge, and neighborhood
this effort. The data collected in the process could organizers looking to get volunteers involved
be leveraged to generate more funding for park in conservation efforts. Due to the sheer size
improvements. Improving health metrics can be of this system, there is tremendous potential
used as a tool for prioritizing park improvement for environmental benefits if the department
funding and making health and wellness a focus in can establish clear benefits for the draw-down
the community should extend to the department of fossil fuels, removal of invasive exotics,
as well. Staff deserve to benefit from this pillar just and the expansion of natural habitats. The
like the rest of the community. city can become a leader in sustainable land

Conservation management practices. Whether large or small,
the department needs to prioritize natural spaces
as it moves forward with capital improvements.
With such a large portion of the city under their Vast expanses of turf are not what residents
care, it makes sense that conservation remains are yearning for. They want nature preserves
at the forefront of many citizens’ minds. The goal and a connection to natural environments. The
statement for this pillar of the plan reads: department must focus on the spaces it already
has in its system (and it has many) that exhibit
To protect green space, connect people to natural beauty and take advantage of them. Add
nature, and engage residents in conservation segments of trail in those wooded, undeveloped
practices. acres of parkland and consider decommissioning
properties that have little natural or ecosystem
There are so many ways to connect this value, but which could be developed.
population to its parks and green spaces and the

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