Paul Ashton, head of biology, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk

WRITTEN on the final, frozen day of 1900, Thomas Hardys poem The Darkling Thrush describes a harsh, ice-blasted landscape devoid of life. Hardys depiction of a time when frost was spectre-gray evokes a winter that is beginning to exist only in memory.

The winter of 2019-2020 was fundamentally different from anything experienced in the northern hemisphere over a century ago. With its record warmth and heavy rain, this winter was fundamentally different from those of only a decade ago.

The extremes of this winter, if a one-off event, would have a small effect on wildlife in the long term. But such weather isnt a single event. It characterises what is likely to be the norm for future British winters. Its the winter that climate change science has long been predicting, where frost is a rarity and regular storms bring abundant rain. These are winters that we need to become familiar with and one that is already changing British wildlife.

Plants have evolved a variety of approaches for coping with the rigours of a cold British winter. Grasses typically ride it out above ground and simply tick over. This is why lawns stay green over winter but dont need cutting. These plants will benefit from the changed climate. You might even find that your lawn starts to need a winter cut.

For some plants, the recent winter never got cold enough to stop flowering. The 2020 New Year Plant Hunt organised by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland found a high number of autumn-flowering species that had simply carried on flowering into the new year. Other winners are the rushes. Like grasses, they maintain their above-ground form and can thrive in waterlogged soils. The biblical deluges of February 2020 will have been no problem for them.

An alternative strategy taken by many plants is to let leaves die back and spend winter below the ground as seeds or bulbs. Bulb plants respond to the onset of warmth with rapid growth the extensive early carpets of wild garlic leaves are testament to this.

But it isnt good news for all plants. Those that spend winter as seeds usually need some cold treatment to trigger germination. The relative warmth may mean that this cue was absent, ensuring some plants fail to sprout in spring. Those that do germinate may find their seedlings crowded out by plants that survived winter above ground and are already flourishing.

Plants on high ground also rely on the cold. These are some of Britains rarest species, including Snowdon lily and purple saxifrage. Theyve evolved to tolerate cold, usually through releasing a type of anti-freeze in their leaves. This comes at a cost to their metabolism, slowing their development. In times of extreme cold, this cost is justified as they survive while competitors dont. In warmer winters, the faster-growing competitors are at an advantage. My own research into upland meadows, one of Britains rarest and most biodiverse habitats, has shown significant losses of cold-adapted species like ladys mantle.

The recent winter weather fulfilled another scientific prediction increasingly fierce and frequent storms will open opportunities for new species to colonise. Storm surges and winds have battered sand dunes and salt marshes in recent years. Some of the gaps theyve created in salt marshes have been filled by one of Britains newest species, salt marsh sedge (Carex salina). First recorded from a single remote Scottish site in 2004, its now common on a handful of other sites across Scotland and its likely to spread further in the future.

The method by which plants have adapted to endure winter is likely to determine how successful they are in the future. The same is true for animals. Many soil invertebrates, such as earthworms, will benefit from milder weather and multiply, no longer struggling through frozen soil. This in turn will benefit the animals that are active all year round and feed on these, such as badgers and resident birds, like the blackbird. Thats providing the rain abates long enough to allow the birds to feed.

Many animals reduce their activity in winter as their metabolism slows down. This allows fat reserves accrued in summer and autumn to be drawn upon slowly. A rise in temperature for cold-blooded animals, such as insects, means that their metabolic rates increase and their fat reserves deplete quicker potentially meaning some cannot last the winter. For insects such as butterflies, wasps and bees, warmer, wetter winters may make them more prone to fungal attack.

Few British mammals undergo true hibernation in the way that bears do. Multiple sightings across Russia, Finland and the US suggest that many bears emerged to what they thought was spring in February a month earlier than usual.

Some British mammals, such as bats and hedgehogs, slow down their metabolism and only become active again if temperatures rise above a critical point. Typically this temperature rise occurs in spring and is a sign that winter is ending. But when these carnivorous mammals emerge in winter, its likely to be when their insect prey is absent, risking their precious fat reserves and potentially causing starvation.

Even for those species that do undergo true hibernation, such as dormice, the unseasonable warmth sees this come to a premature end.

While Hardys poem maintains its power in the joy illimited of the thrushs song, should he be writing it today, it would describe a land decidedly warmer, wetter and greener than any hed recognise.

Continue reading here:
How British wildlife greeted the warmest winter on record - Metro Newspaper UK

Leaders from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are set to testify on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning. The hearing itself is officially about the presidents 2021 budget request for the agency. But in the month or so since President Donald Trump sent that budget to Congress, the COVID-19 outbreak has completely changed the public health landscape.

The budget proposal for the CDC cut funding to the agency by about 16%. Now with an $8 billion funding package that was just signed into law, Jay Shambaugh at the Brookings Institution says youre seeing continued activity to try to make sure anything that needs to be funded from a public health standpoint is funded.

Right now, thanks to low interest rates, the government can borrow money cheaply, according to Desmond Lachman at the American Enterprise Institute.

It takes time to spend that kind of money efficiently, Lachman said. So I wouldnt expect an increase in the very near future.

Shambaugh said the money is good in the short term, but the conversation is different now.

But now theres a much broader conversation in Congress about an appropriate kind of fiscal response that stretches beyond the immediate funding the public health agencies as well, he said.

Such responses include tax cuts or paid sick leave that may address other consequences of the outbreak.

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CDC set to testify on Capitol Hill on its budget, as it responds to COVID-19 - Marketplace

There is a revealing moment in Isabel Hardmans book where the author, a political journalist who lives with post-traumatic stress disorder, joins a forest therapy session. The therapist encourages her to connect with herself and experience nature better. Hardman wanders through the wood and finds a small hornbeam, which is twisting up towards the light, struggling to make its way in the shade of a mature oak. She is attracted to its shape, admires its bark, and draws parallels with her own life: how long it takes to heal and grow, how the scars we gather can still be beautiful like the zig-zagging trunk of this young tree. She reaches up and snaps one of its twigs: the tree is dead.

Serves me right for being so dreadfully whimsical, Hardman writes. There seemed to be no neat life lesson here, nothing youd want to write on a fridge magnet or share on social media. Id come here hoping to connect with myself, and instead Id been drawn to a tree that was secretly dead.

It is a valuable lesson in Hardmans The Natural Health Service, a practical and self-aware account of the relief from mental illness to be found outside. Hardman, and the many people she meets, identify respite, recovery and resilience in walking, running, cold-water swimming, gardening, forest bathing, birdwatching, botanising, horse riding and caring for pets. The common denominator is what Hardman calls the great outdoors, that plangent, hearty Victorian-sounding cliche. But as she shows, other species and their ecosystems can be rebellious medics. At times, the natural world resembles the magic mirror that undercuts Snow Whites stepmother: rather than reflecting back ourselves, it is alive with its own agency, a challenge to our narcissism.

The Natural Health Service is one of a rapidly growing forest of new books that examine cures found in nature. This winter alone has brought the publication of The Wild Remedy by Emma Mitchell; Losing Eden by Lucy Jones; Rootbound by Alice Vincent; and Wintering by Katherine May. One of last years unexpectedly prominent books unexpected because it was rejected by publishers and crowdfunded via Unbound was Bird Therapy by Joe Harkness. Just as trend is followed by takedown, so this spring sees a potential debunking in the form of Natural: The Seductive Myth of Natures Goodness by American philosopher Alan Levinovitz.

The idea that human health can be salved by nature has been around for as long as we have regarded ourselves as a species apart from other living things. It truly arrived in Britain with the Romantics, for whom prosperity enabled a more reflective and worshipful relationship with the landscape that others had to toil in for a living. Keats and Byron loved swimming; sea-bathing was an upper-class health fad that inspired the first seaside resorts. The popularisation of natures healing power peaked after the industrial revolution, when later Victorians were beset by fears of the all-conquering machine. Fresh air, exercise and healthful hobbies, from collecting butterflies to finding fossils, were prescribed in much the same way as GPs today are experimenting with prescribing nature to patients. Hardman reminds us of the prescience of Octavia Hill, the social reformer and co-founder of the National Trust in 1895, who campaigned to save urban land for city parks. London commons that could make developers fortunes had greater value as outdoor space, Hill argued: To my mind they are even now worth very much; but they will be more and more valuable every year valuable in the deepest sense of the word; health-giving, joy-inspiring, peace-bringing.

In Losing Eden, Jones shows that, ahead of todays scientists, even Florence Nightingale was aware of how green space and plants can assist recovery from physical illness. In 1859, Nightingale wrote that when she had been ill, her recovery quickened after she received a nosegay of wild flowers. The nurse noticed in her patients that there was most acute suffering when [the] patient cant see out of the window; Jones and Hardman both cite a more modern scientific study by Roger Ulrich who examined the records of 46 patients recovering from gall bladder surgery between 1972 and 1981. Some patients were randomly assigned a hospital bed with a view of deciduous trees; others a view of a brick wall. Those with a view of trees had shorter post-operative stays, took fewer painkillers and had fewer minor complications. And yet 40 years on, hospitals are run as sterile environments without plants, as Levinovitz notes in Natural: An entirely unsuperstitious take on natural healing would recognise the importance of being around life of facilitating hospital garden walks, say instead of systematically excluding it.

As the climate and extinction crisis quickens, so there is a rush for a literary cure. In Britain it began with Richard Mabeys Nature Cure in 2005. In many of the most popular recent examples of nature writing, other species and wild places have played a healing role for bereavement in Helen Macdonalds H Is for Hawk, and alcoholism in Amy Liptrots The Outrun. Nature Cure (briefly) details Mabeys mental breakdown after completing his magnum opus, Flora Britannica, and the succour he found by forgoing his childhood home in the Chilterns for the bleaker plains of south Norfolk. When I ask Mabey if he regrets being midwife to the nature cure subgenre, an emphatic yes spills forth. I feel slightly guilty about the title, which was my idea and it was very euphonious, but I quite soon began getting letters from people saying they loved the book but that it was not much to do with nature curing me. If a pedantic scholar counted the paragraphs that were to do with the illness, it probably amounts to about six pages, he says. Really its a book about encountering and adapting to a quite new landscape, which you could say was a post-cure experience. Mabey had to reach a certain stage of recovery to write Nature Cure. As he, Hardman and other nature cure writers emphasise, they can be too ill to leave the house to imbibe the healing wild, and too ill to write, too.

Its wonderful when it occurs; people in distress find that encounters with the natural world do restore them, says Mabey. But two things concern him about the concept of a nature cure. Im worried that its become mooted as a kind of panacea green Prozac. And if theres anything wrong you just go out and look at the pretty flowers and youre going to be marvellous. Thats a tall order if the natural world is in a state of crisis with the insect apocalypse and British songbirds collapsing all around us. There is also a danger that therapeutic nature becomes another way in which nature is reduced to service provider. The foregrounding of us being the centre of attention, the central agents of change and growth, all form part of a mindset that I think is obsolete. We need to rethink where we stand in relation to all these other organisms and what the transactions are between us, and stop saying they are all for our benefit, even though most of them probably are.

In an insightful essay on nature cures, Richard Smyth quotes the poet Polly Atkin, who is diagnosed with chronic illnesses Ehlers-Danlos syndromes and genetic haemochromatosis, a metabolic disorder that leads to a toxic accumulation of iron in the body. Like Mabey, Atkin has misgivings about this literary blossoming. There is very little published work that points out how problematic it is largely because the people who understand the problem are mainly those with incurable conditions and theyre often too busy being incurable to write books about nature, she says. More importantly, mainstream UK publishing is so attached to the nature cure narrative that it cant imagine another story to tell about how we relate to the world around us.

The stage is set for a debunking of the literary nature cure but in Natural, it never quite arrives. At the end of the book, despite Levinovitz taking smart aim at the snake-oil salespeople of late capitalism those selling expensive natural remedies, natural cures for cancer, or loudly advocating wholly natural childbirth, sex or sport he concludes that there is something innately glorious about the non-human natural world.

Im worried its become mooted as a kindof panacea if theres anything wrong you just go out and look at the flowers

What Levinovitz critiques is what he sees as a religious attitude towards nature. An appeal to natural goodness with unnatural as its evil twin is among the most influential arguments in all human thought, ancient and modern, east and west. In fact, every human-made object is extracted from our planet; everything is natural. Levinovitz argues our veneration of nature is dangerous, citing former South African president Thabo Mbekis desire for Aids patients to take beetroot and other natural treatments. What Levinovitz does is help us to identify the propagandists, bigots, demagogues, and marketeers who wrap their rhetoric in the mantle of whats natural.

When it comes to making money from nature, the small, poorly renumerated band of writers proselytising for its health benefits do not enter Levinovitzs line of fire. While H Is for Hawk will long stand as a literary classic, nature cure writing has taken a practical turn. Hardman and Harknesss books are squarely self-help. Their qualities include brutal honesty and generous advice. Both authors, alongside others such as Jones and Mitchell, make clear that while time in the natural world has ameliorated their mental illnesses, so too have antidepressants and talking cures. These writers dont succumb to the requirement for a happy ending either: no one suggests they are cured.

We might wonder if a writing cure is also part of their wider recovery, but it is not always so. John Clare, who died in 1864, has long been the most notable nature writer with mental health problems. The Northamptonshire farm labourer, whose superb poems made him a literary sensation in the early 19th century, could be considered both evidence for and against the theory that nature makes us well. Did he only fall ill once embraced by literary London, psychically uprooted from his rural heartland? Or was he ill despite surrounding himself with nature? A country life is no guarantee of mental wellbeing: depression is a major problem in modern farming; plenty of farm workers endure it.

There is an echo of Clares experience in Harknesss account of life since the publication of his debut, Bird Therapy. I will never write about nature again, says Harkness bluntly. He has been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and generalised anxiety disorder mild medical terms for the crippling anxiety that Harkness vividly describes. After an attempted suicide and a breakdown, he began walking and discovered the exhilaration of encountering birds. Of all the therapies Ive tried, he writes, nothing has had the prolonged and positive impact that birdwatching has. He spotted that the requirements of birdwatching matched the five ways to wellbeing devised by a project endorsed by the charity Mind: to connect, to take notice, to give, to keep learning and to be active.

As Harknesss profile grew on social media, he decided to write a book, receiving high-profile endorsements, including an incisive foreword by the naturalist Chris Packham, who declared it an exceptional publication because it would save lives. Eight months on, Harkness recognises that his book has brought positive things: his honesty about mental illness has encouraged others to reciprocate. He has been told by readers that it has indeed saved their lives. Unfortunately, the online platform that enabled him to promote his book also damaged him. The more open I was on social media, the less people engaged with me. If youre already struggling with self-esteem, it is hell to be on it. The only way I could deal with it is not use Twitter any more, he says.

He has also shed his illusions about the guild of nature writers. He imagined this literary world would be an inclusive salon for the free exchange of ideas about nature and mental health; instead he found a workplace, a competitive market with a lot of emphasis on product and what youre selling, where people become very focused on themselves. One nature writer, he says, told him that Bird Therapy only sold well because of Packhams foreword. Harkness, who is a special educational needs co-ordinator working with vulnerable young people, says he is so glad that writing is not his job. His post-book cure has been to remove himself from social media and literary backslapping and simplify his birdwatching regimen. I dont drive to birdwatch any more. I walk from my house. Im under no pressure to see anything exciting. Ive stopped commodifying it. I just think of being out where I should be. Whenever I do that Im really thankful for it. Nature is not there to make me feel better. Its something we can use to help us but ultimately we have to be there for it as well. And weve got to make wholesale changes to how we live.

Most nature cure books, both literary triumphs and practical manuals, are overwhelmingly about us. Perhaps we should catch more glimpses of other species as we look into the mirror? Mitchells The Wild Remedy, a diary of a year with severe depression, throws welcome attention on natural medicines the thrilling dash of a sparrowhawk, or the cosy sight of ladybirds clustered together during winter in a knapweed seedhead. She recreates her encounters with other species around her home in Cambridgeshire in paintings, sketches, photographs and cabinets of curiosities. But, she says, Im not using my garden and the wood beyond my cottage as a sort of green Tesco, burgling myself some green serotonin and dopamine. Its much more of a two-way relationship. Mitchell, like Harkness, initially connected via social media with readers and others who lived with mental illness. She is not always well enough to visit a nearby wood every day. When she does, she monitors, observes and records the wildlife, and relays it to her audience. A biologist by training, Mitchell hopes her writing and art enlighten our increasingly urban society. Im trying to use the place where I live as a source of education for people who may not know what cherry plum blossom looks like This is coming into flower, go and see if youve got it on your patch, she says. Awakening readers to other species around us is a gift to those species, and it is bequeathed by almost every nature cure writer.

As humans reshape life on Earth, its hazardous to pin our wellbeing on the fragments of non-human life that remain

Last summer, an area of flowery meadowland in the wood near Mitchell exploded with life. The hot summer of 2018 must have produced a metric fucktonne of caterpillars she laughs: the following year there emerged hundreds of marbled white butterflies. The dose of dopamine was just off the scale. She filmed it for her social media followers. A few days later, in full flower, the meadow was scalped because of fears it contained ragwort, a flower that can in rare cases prove fatal to horses (and which landowners sometimes mistakenly believe they are obliged to control under an arcane injurious weeds law). An exquisite ecosystem was cut down at its peak. Alongside Mitchells enjoyment of this meadow emerged a deep connection with it, and a responsibility for it. My connection with this land is not as a commodity. This is not skincare I get from a beauty parlour. This is not a monthly subscription to sniff some dead-nettle flowers. This is something that has changed my ability to live with my depression, she says. In this case, she went into battle with her local council, at some personal cost Im a spokesperson for thousands of invertebrates because theyve got no voice, she says and succeeded in changing the cutting regime. The meadow wont be cut again this year until the flowers and invertebrates have finished flowering and flying.

Mitchells experience also reveals that in the Anthropocene, an era in which humans are reshaping all life on Earth, it is hazardous to pin our wellbeing on the fragments of non-human life that remain. Lucy Joness Losing Eden is a passionate and thorough exploration of the growing scientific evidence showing why humans require other species to stay well from a diversity of microbiota in our guts to a diversity of species in nearby green space. But she is aware that the medicalisation of nature also demonstrates that we still see ourselves as takers and overseers, the authority figures, rather than being on an equal footing with the rest of nature. Just as Mabey wonders if we can extract wellbeing from an environment we are traducing, so Jones considers the 21st-century challenge posed by ecological grief. Is the epidemic of mental illness in wealthy western societies in part because some part of our spirits [is] afflicted by the mass burglary humanity has committed on the Earth? Jones writes. I know that I feel rotten and out of sorts when I am selfish or hurtful to the people around me. The ecopsychologist and activist Chellis Glendinning diagnosed western culture as suffering from original trauma caused by our severance from nature and natural cycles. She noted that the symptoms were the same as PTSD: hyperreactions; inappropriate outbursts of anger, psychic numbing; constriction of the emotions; and loss of a sense of control over our destiny.

The Earth is our home and we are making ourselves homeless. Jones quotes the farmer-thinker Wendell Berry: We are involved in a kind of lostness in which most people are participating more or less unconsciously in the destruction of the natural world, which is to say, the sources of our own lives. Perhaps some of our lack of awareness, Jones thinks, is an instinctive denial of death; just as we block out our own mortality, so too we pretend our compulsive consumption is not hastening the premature end of our species enjoyment of the planet.

As Jones argues, despite all our writing about nature, we still lack the language to bring its jeopardy our jeopardy to the forefront of our troubled minds. Western consumption has made the planet ill, and now we are patients too. Grief and mental illness can be introspective and paralysing or they can inspire action. Which path will we as individuals, societies and as a species choose?

The rest is here:
Can nature really heal us? - The Guardian

With business, restaurant and mountain closures, it might feel as though, even if it was appropriate to leave the house, there wouldnt be anything to do besides push through crowds at Walmart. But theres still a chance to get outside and do an activity that gets blood flowing and keeps people of all ages entertained: hiking.

Hiking, outdoor recreation are great things to do with your family and we encourage that in the coming days and weeks, Governor Jared Polis said in a press conference last week.

Similarly, in a news release from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the department stated that along with practicing social distancing and self-quarantining, residents and visitors in Eagle county should continue healthy, non-group activities like walking, hiking, jogging, cycling and other activities that maintain distance from other people.

I went on a 4-ish mile hike yesterday, and didnt even need to drive to the trailhead, which can be pretty easy especially if you live near the North Trail system in Vail. I walked from my house to the Davos Hill Climb in West Vail, which starts at the intersection of North Frontage Road and Arosa Drive (parking is available). You could also start at Davos Trail Road, where theres a parking lot in a cul-de-sac.

There are a few switchbacks on the aforementioned trail, and its a bit rougher, but quite beautiful. The latter is well-packed, but there will be more people. Both trails merge and continue for another 1.5-2 miles from there, so you can even experiment and take one trail up and the other down. The trailheads are less than a mile from each other, so if you parked, you can get to your car fairly easily. I recommend starting with the first trail and ending with the second trail because your walk to your car will be downhill.

New to the area and dont have go-to trails? Here are my favorite ways to find spots.

Everyone knows about this app, so I wont go too in-depth, but make sure you click over to map view and scour the nearby area, since youre not really supposed to leave Eagle County at this time, per the CDPHE release. This apps best feature is its difficulty rating, which is accurate most of the time.

Basically AllTrails, but way better. I frequently find that there are more trails listed on this app, and I prefer the interface it feels faster and less clunky to me. I like using this app to track where Im at using geolocation in real time. Of course, that feature only works when Im not too deep in the woods.

In the age of ever-present technology, its hard to not want to capture your hike with a tiny digital image. If youve ever wanted to learn how to take those amazing pictures on your iPhone, here are some photography tips to help you get the perfect shot.

For the love of everything that is good in this world, turn your phone horizontally (unless your subject warrants a vertical, like trees at a close range). Theres a reason they call it landscape orientation.

Draw a tic-tac-toe board visually across your viewfinder/screen, (or turn on Grid when using your camera). Try to capture your most important subject in one of the areas where the lines intersect. Thats the rule of thirds threes are pleasing to the eyes.

Especially with phone cameras, you need a ton of light to ensure it will be that high resolution that phone manufacturers promise when selling you the thing. Personally, I like to shoot in the same direction that light is illuminating, so the sun is behind my back. It ensures your subject wont be too washed out or dark, and you wont get light glares, unless thats something you want to capture.

Plus, try tapping your phone screen to focus on one exposure (amount of light the camera is letting in to create the image) and adjusting it until your screen shows you the most pleasing image.

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How to keep hiking during the COVID-19 pandemic - Vail Daily News

Even as the tides lapping at its edges rise, New York City is turning eagerly toward the water to relieve both a congested transit system and a shortfall in housing stock. For example, you can now travel among all five boroughs by ferry. Ferries have several advantages over streets and subways. For the passenger, those include wind in your hair and magnificent, alternately thrilling and calming views of the harbor; for the city, minimal fixed infrastructure and the ability to easily alter routes if circumstancessuch as the shorelines themselvesshould change. And from the new ferries that ply the East River, you can see the citys most visible effort to address the housing crunch: clusters of enormous apartment towers recently built and under construction along once-industrial waterfronts.

The city mandates that, with redevelopment, the waters edge be public space. Some of that is the waterfront public access area each newly developed riverside property is required to provide. Those areas must at least have landscape and seating; as built, they vary from quite thoughtful to afterthought. There are also a number of city and state parks along the river. So there is beginning to be a continuous public edge. It will probably always have gaps, but they are filling in as the new housing developments rise. Viewed from out on the water, the chain of public spaces resolves into a thin green line, as much of it consists of esplanades and piers or is otherwise flat. Still, discontinuous and varying in design quality as its component pieces are, they are hugely popularjust because they exist, and also because some of them are truly inspired. That would describe one of the newest of the city-developed pieces. In its case, you do begin to glimpse its features from the river, because it has hills and an architectural overlook jutting up and out toward you. This is, in fact, just where the ferry stops in Long Island City, Queens: Hunters Point South Park, designed by Thomas Balsley, FASLA, (whose eponymous firm joined SWA in 2016) in collaboration with Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism.

Hunters Point South is a massive, still unfinished redevelopment project going up where Newtown Creek, which divides Brooklyn from Queens, flows into the East River. It will eventually have some 5,000 residential units, up to 100,000 square feet of commercial and community space, and several new schools. To its north, Hunters Point South seamlessly adjoins an earlier, similarly scaled high-rise redevelopment called Queens West. The original open-space master plan and schematic design for both, when they were considered a single project area, was done in 1993 by Balsley with Weintraub & di Domenico Architects. Balsley then designed the first park component, Gantry Plaza State Park, which was completed in 1998. When work moved ahead on the Hunters Point South section, he and Weiss/Manfredi created its open-space master plan, which is notable for its green street infrastructure, and planned its 11-acre waterfront park. The parks first phase opened in 2013, and it won an ASLA Professional Honor Award in 2014 (see The Amphibious Edge, LAM, February 2014). The five-acre second and final phase was completed in 2018, and also won an ASLA Professional Honor Award last year. It seamlessly connects to Gantry Plaza State Park, which in turn merges into waterfront space provided by developers. This continuous ensemble, varying in width up to about 350 feet, now comprises roughly a mile and a quarter of uninterrupted, designed riverfront.

Two conditions distinguish Hunters Point South Park from other East River-fronting public spaces. Often their upland borders are fences demarking the private outdoor areas of apartment buildings. But here, a new boulevard separates the park from the new buildings; that unmistakably declares this stretch of riverfront community property. And, during the industrial era, at most other places the shoreline was hardened and more or less straightened with seawalls and piers. This parcel, though, says Weiss/Manfredi co-principal Marion Weiss, Affiliate ASLA, had this crazy irregular edge. And it had the highest topography in the area. That was two large mounds, located in the second phase section, composed of material excavated in the 1930s for construction of the Queens Midtown Tunnel. The designers considered these inherited features to be gifts, and though not naturally occurring, they had a strong naturalistic influence on the park, suggesting its language of ovals, spirals, and curves, as well as the second phases most significant moves: a re-created margin of tidal marsh; an island and a promontory, sculpted from those two borrow piles; and, reiterating the value of elevation, that jutting overlook.

The parks first phase was built on an area that was flat. It includes a dog park, a playground, an athletic field, a pavilion with a snack bar and tables, a sandy faux beachwhich doesnt actually touch the waterand the ferry landing. These accommodate active pastimes and events that tend to bring people togetherteam sports, yoga, dances, concerts. The second phase is oriented more toward individuals and small groups, and is more conducive to the tranquil. Balsley says, That topography allowed us to balance the active and passive uses. There could have been someone saying, Why cant you get one more playing field here? It was our greatest ally. People certainly engage in serious exercise in the second phase spaces, jogging on the paths, using the installed outdoor fitness equipment, or, as observed one weekday noon last summer, practicing jujitsu on an empty stretch of walkway. But the real motive of the second phases design is to elicit contemplation and exploration, of both the riverine site and the cityscape it presents so gorgeously. This is achieved because the topography enables two distinct experiences of the water: distance, by bringing you up for panoramas across it; and proximity, by inviting descent almost to where you touch it.

Early maps show most of Hunters Point and both shores of Newtown Creek as marsh. The East River is actually a tidal strait connecting Long Island Sound with New York Harbor, both being arms of the ocean. Industrial filling narrowed the channel, creating very strong currents, Balsley explains. One of the designers goals was to make the park capable of absorbing and releasing high water. So those inherited twists and coves of shoreline were reestablished as marsh, protected from scouring by a revetment. But we didnt want it to look engineered, he says. Instead, it has a narrow trail on top, and is planted both with grasses and clumps of trees on the river side, and on the backside as a green bowl that fills and empties with the tides twice a day. Weve blurred this edge. Youre not that aware of the armament when walking along the revetment.

Actually, there is a series of bowls. One of them, about 15 feet high and at the rivers edge, repeatedly transforms the lower of the two former borrow piles into a land-tied island. New York may not nominally be part of New England, but the northeast Atlantic coastal geography is continuous. Anybody familiar with the New England shoreline will recognize the way tidal marshes create temporary islands, Balsley says. Here, the marsh areas were made with channels between the culverts that fill them; these facilitate flow and increase capacity. They also add a touch of verisimilitude. Balsley points out that historically, when salt hay was harvested in the region, both natural tidal creeks and human-made channels, still visible in many places, were the means to transport it. At several places, short flights of concrete steps lead right down into the little marshes. Theyre for maintenance, not for parkgoers use, and its not even clear how to reach them, but they make the tantalizing suggestion that you could step down right into the grasses and mudto go clamming, maybe.

The pathways generally scale down both from boulevard to river and from higher to lower elevation. Where each street of the new neighborhood dead-ends at the park is an entrance foyer, a plaza with benches. Not everybody necessarily wants to go to the water. Some just want to sit and watch, Balsley says. A main walkway runs the length of the park, curving both north into the first phase and south where it skirts the promontorythe larger of the two hills, which rises to 35 feetbefore bending east along Newtown Creek. It is 12 feet wide. At several points, narrow spurs peel off and lead down to the four-foot-wide revetment path. Thats quite a bit narrower than you would normally see in a park, Weiss points out. And with the grasses growing over the edges, it gives the sense of a trail as opposed to a sidewalk. When the tide is high, you feel youre walking on water.

In plan, the revetment departs from the sinuous line dominant in the rest of the park. Its a zigzag, reminiscent of a fortified medieval town or a Revolutionary War star fort. The shape is indeed a barrier, to the erosive power of the river. The structure can be entirely flooded and impassable in storms, or traversed even at very high tides, Balsley explains. Some of its turnings are furnished with low, blocky seating walls of Jet Mist granite, like battlements. These are polished on top and facing the path, but muscularly, and metaphorically, rough toward the tides. And the revetments form has another function: Contrary to the arcing paths that encourage movement, the trail experience was conceived as a stroll, with angled geometry to slow the pace and to stage shifting perspectives, he says. The succession of different orientations and views it gives, the decelerated pace it encourages, and the sense of separation from solid land it induces all create a sensation of being an individual in a very great space, and an illusion of separation from the city while remaining surrounded by itjust like the best moments aboard the ferry.

The revetments path and seating spots are not the only opportunity the park builds in for experiencing the duality of intimacy and immensity, or that of privacy in a public place. Half a dozen family raftswooden platforms just large enough for a couple of grown-ups and a couple of kids to lounge onare scattered, as if afloat, on the promontorys grassy incline. Where a path traces the bottom of a slope along the Newtown Creek shore, theres a series of little spaces curling off, like alcoves, partly hidden by vegetation. Each ends in a bench backed up against the hill, both secluded and secure, which Weiss describes as being for the more romantic pairs. Then, just in case all this gentleness starts to dull your senses, there is the overlook. It breaks the decreasing hierarchy of pathway scales by expanding as it thrusts out over the river to a width of 39 feet. And it counters the parks organic quality with a powerfully engineered structure. Describing the technical and craft challenges of fabricating and installing it, Weiss tosses off a description of it as a curving, twisting, cantilevered, flat-plate, 36-foot-high truss. Naturally occurring? Not.

The overlook contrasts with and emphasizes the overall naturalism of the parks design, and supports the impression that it is a topography that has always been here and always will be. This park can take inundation. Buildings at Hunters Point South incorporate the requirements of post-Hurricane Sandy code revisions for flood resilience, like all new waterfront construction in the city. Still, New Yorks fevered embrace of new housing on vulnerable edges can seem like a love affair with somebody whose disastrous relationship history is already well known. Why do people want to live in such places? I find that to be an incredibly naive line of questioning, says the architect and planner Thad Pawlowski, a codirector of Columbia Universitys Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes and an expert on urban climate hazards, as if human development were some kind of spigot you could turn on and off. People are attracted to water. Its the briny stuff of life. If you live by the water, you have a relationship with natural cycles, which can be deepened, subtly or even explicitly, by experiencing parks like this one. Thats intrinsic to our ability as a species to adapt, which we must do now.

Balsley looks ahead with the expectation that the neighborhoods streets will eventually be underwater. Pawlowski points out that buildings adapt over time, and that when the streets become more aqueous, its a great opportunity for designers to make public space that might improve on the sad expanses of wall that much of whats gone up so far in Hunters Point unfortunately presents at street level. Balsley says that for building new parks, the waterfront in densely built urban areas is the last frontier. The rising ocean part of it? I cant get paralyzed. I dont want it to be so engineered to where it has gone beyond the sweet spot of being a real amenity versus flood control. More important, he asks, is who is it that can bring everybody together into a unified approach to the dangers of climate change?

Jonathan Lerner lives in a Hudson River town that is grappling with the implications of ever-higher tides.

Project Credits

Park Designers SWA/Balsley, New York (Thomas Balsley, FASLA, lead designer; Brian Staresnick, ASLA, project manager; John Donnelly; Christian Gabriel, ASLA; Michael Koontz; Dale Schafer, ASLA; Jacob Glazer, ASLA; and Shigeo Kawasaki, ASLA); Weiss/Manfredi, New York (Marion Weiss, Affiliate ASLA, and Michael Manfredi, Affiliate ASLA, lead designers; Lee Lim, project manager; Michael Blasberg; Michael Steiner, ASLA; Johnny Lin; Seungwon Song; Chris Ballentine; Alice Chai; Nick Elliot; Hyoung-Gul Kook; and Joe Vessell). Prime Consultant/Infrastructure Designer/Structural, Civil, and Lighting Engineer Arup, New York (Tom Kennedy, Tim Kaiser, Nancy Choi, Louise Ellis, Chu Ho, Shaina Saporta, Roberto Palomares, Matt Best, Michael Newey, James DeMarco). Landscape Construction Administration SiteWorks, New York. Ecological Systems and Restoration Ecologist eDesign Dynamics, New York, and Great Ecology, New York. Marine Engineering Halcrow, New York, and CH2M Hill, New York. Public Art Karyn Olivier and Nobuho Nagasawa, New York. Artist Consultant Suzanne Randolph Fine Arts, New York. MEPFP Engineering A. G. Consulting Engineering, P.C., New York. Environmental Engineer Yu & Associates, New York. Cost Estimator VJ Associates, New York. Permitting Expeditor KM Associates of New York, Inc., New York. Traffic Engineer B-A Engineering, P.C., New York. Survey and Utilities Naik Consulting Group, New York. Graphic Design Two Twelve, New York, and Nice Kern, LLC, New York. Historical Researcher AKRF, New York. Construction Manager The LiRo Group, New York.

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THE THIN GREEN LINE - Landscape Architecture Magazine

Published by Witan Books, price 14.75

It is available from bookshops and Amazon and signed copies can be bought at http://www.witancreations.com

IF YOU have done the Munros or the Wainwrights and want a new challenge especially closer to home then why not try the Kents.

Not heard of them? Well that is not too surprising as the catagorisation is a recent creation of explorer and author Jeff Kent.

Mr Kent has spotted not only both a gap in the market but a gap in the walking book landscape the bit below the highest peaks which walkers often ignore, intent as they are on bagging the biggest, often at the other end of the country, and overlooking fine hills just down the road.

This is Mr Kent's third book in a series looking at the peaks across England that lie outside the coverage of Nuttalls which are mountains of 2,000 feet and above and so these are the bridesmaids of geography, not high enough to be called mountains (unless you're a plateau outside Queensbury at 1,229 feet with that moniker) but still pretty impressive and challenging if isolated or in adverse weather.

Scotland has its Munros (mountains over 3,000 feet), Corbetts (those between 2,500 and 2,999 feet) and Grahams (those between 2,000 and 2,499 feet) and having cut his teeth on mountains that high, Mr Kent decided to look at the hills of his home county Staffordshire and wondered how many 1,000-plus-foot peaks there were in the shire.

Having discovered no-one had done it before he decided to compile a list he found 65 on Ordnance Survey maps - and then walked them, naming them Kents in honour of his parents Cyril and Helen.

He then did the same for Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Derbyshire and set his sights on cataloguing all the mini-mountains in England and writing a volume featuring all of them.

But Mr Kent discovered such a huge number of them, he realised he would have the split the book into a series and, after Southern England's 1,000-Foot Peaks and Northeast England's 1,000-Foot Peaks, this book continues the series.

With so many peaks in Yorkshire you won't be surprised to know that this is a weighty volume, containing 833 of them across 208 pages. They are divided into chapters covering the three counties of 1997's Lieutenancies Act North, South and West complemented with chapters on how the peaks were determined and Yorkshire's history and heritage.

The lists are full of interest and are dominated, unsurprisingly, by the Pennine Hills with the Dales National Park containing those butting up to the 2,000 feet limit. The highest at 1,995.8 is a peak Mr Kent has dubbed Sugar Loaf because it is a name close by on the OS map.

The highest in West Yorkshire is Black Hill at 1,905ft right on the border with Derbyshire outside Holmfirth and many of the county's top tops are down in the South West corner.

Closer to home, the book includes many hills in the Bradford district that are well known such as Penistone Hill outside Haworth (1,047ft) and nearby Withins Height (1,499ft) below which Top Withins of Bronte fame shelters on the Pennine Way.

Mr Kent's detailed and excellent research describes each hill in detail and includes salient features including their exact location and how to get to them.

The book is very comprehensive but it could do with an index by hill name, though perhaps that would have been quite long and, with many Blacjk Hills or Round Hills, pretty complex so I can forgive the author that and instead spend time getting to know them better.

There is lots to explore here and discover on your doorstep. You don't have to do all 833 like Mr Kent but the book could inspire you to find new areas and a new perspective on the vast Yorkshire realm.

Tim Quantrill

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New walking guide to Yorkshire's 1,000-Foot Peaks published - Bradford Telegraph and Argus

With the right equipment, nine-year-old Ollie can slide most of the way from his hilltop home to the dam below for a swim. All he needs is a decent cardboard box.

The Blenheim schoolboy and his older siblings, Archie, 10, and Sophia, 12, have free range over the 30ha property where their parents Jenny and Christo Saggers have created a one-of-a-kind home.

READ MORE:* Heirloom homestead gets some French finesse* This Cambridge garden is hydrangea heaven* From holiday spot to permanent home

Paul McCredie/Nz House & Garden

Sophia reads on the sofa that overlooks the Wairau Valley and Richmond Ranges: Our favourite season is autumn when the colours of the grapevines after harvest turn from green to yellow to orange to brown, with each grape variety changing colour at different times. Its like one big patchwork quilt and its beauty never ceases to take our breath away, says Jenny; Christo made the 10-seater dining table from European birch plywood and American white oak veneer.

Jenny grew up further around the hill in much the same way as her children; building makeshift sleds or huts amid the pine trees, looking for frogs and tadpoles and hunting rabbits with a slug gun. These days, her children also have the irrigation dam where they kayak and leap off a jetty.

She and Christo subdivided a piece of the property where her brothers still farm these days it's grapes as well as sheep and beef and where her mother and stepfather still reside. The property has been in the family for more than 100 years.

"We are so lucky to be here, with all eight cousins at the same school," Jenny says.

English-born Christo has forged his own ties to this land and, in the process, transformed their precious piece of arid Marlborough countryside into a lush haven. The geologist travelled to more than 80 countries and sampled a swag of careers before finding his two greatest loves Jenny and landscape design after settling in New Zealand.

"Christo is one of those people who can do anything," Jenny says. "He's done business development for a hunting company and installed satellite communications on cruise liners. He did an overland trip from London to Australia raising money for Romanian orphans. But he has always been green-fingered and loved design."

The Englishman learned to love plants during a childhood in a moated 16th century Tudor hall with 4ha of gardens. After moving to New Zealand and meeting marketing brand manager Jenny, he retrained as a landscape designer.

Jenny had plenty of input into the design of their four-bedroom home, but it was Christo who planned the garden and created a scale model of the house they wanted. He took into account the unforgiving summer sun and passive heating sources for winter warmth, and considered the views from every room. No wide hallways, no wasted space. A draughtsman then produced drawings of the miniature Corflute house, which included furniture, a fireplace, power points and outdoor edifices.

"When we started to build, it was just a bare brown hill," says Jenny. "Not a tree, nothing at all. We are now surrounded by a tropical green oasis."

Paul McCredie/NZ House & Garden

Visitors are always surprised to find a lush courtyard in Marlborough hill country; the gabion water feature and the banana and bangalow palms add a Balinese feel; Christo designed the day bed so it can separate to form a coffee table and U-shaped seating area.

The secret is water and careful plant selection, as well as solid shelter from the fierce nor'westerly wind that typically pummels the region. To that end, the couple created gabions. They bought wire baskets and carted wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of stone onto the site before setting each rock in place, one at a time, to create the desired effect.

Christo chose hardy ngaio trees to quickly form a sheltered area for the pool and allow less hardy favourites to blossom. As a result, the easy-care pool garden includes long-flowering gaura and striking Lomandra Tanika.

"He's also done a lot of the building inside and out. The shelves and bedheads, kids' beds and desks. The dining table and the outdoor structures by the pool and in the courtyard were all made and designed by us."

When they needed more privacy in their bathroom but didn't have money to buy blinds, her husband whipped up sets of shutters and drilled holes in them to admit light and create a striking effect. A client's old, unwanted table became a set of doors for the poolside changing room. Concrete boxing timber was repurposed as an outdoor tabletop.

"We've been on a budget so if we need something, instead of going out and buying it we figure out how we can make it. We've definitely saved money but it also means other people don't have what we have."

Jenny, who now works as an interior designer, has made plenty of her own hands-on contributions. When their bare walls needed art, she bought canvases and took up a paintbrush. Christo framed the paintings. It was also Jenny's idea to print photographs and glue them to the kitchen doors.

"It's our family history and it gives me a lot of joy to look at those photos of my little people. They're literally stuck on with PVA glue so you can just update them as new memories are created."

Ten years on from completion, the couple says their home works better than they imagined for them and for the constant flow of neighbourhood children, family and friends. "And this house is very, very us, not just bought off the shelf."

Q&A

When I'm not designing: I like to write. I've written for quite a few publications and have had a novel on the backburner for 12 years. (Christo)

I'm obsessed with: Fabrics. I did my post-grad in wool marketing and while studying, I spent three months in a Scottish textile mill. I also worked for Merino NZ and Swanndri. (Jenny)

Latest DIY project: The aquaponic system I've developed. I've built a grow house where the plants grow in gravel, fed with water and fish poo. (Christo)

Best local event: Malborough's spectacular Classic Fighters air show. We usually have a party for our friends and watch the planes fly right over us, it's an amazing sight. (Jenny)

Our newest venture: The landscaping and interior design business Jenny and I launched last year, called Collaborate. (Christo)

Jenny and Christo Saggers

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Creative family gets hands-on with their new build - Stuff.co.nz

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Burlington streets are less icy as the weather warms, but there are potholes in its place. Here's where to be on the lookout.

A link has been sent to your friend's email address.

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

Your road woes are over as the ice melts in Burlington, right? Tell that to the people reporting potholes around the Queen City.

Burlington's SeeClickFix gives the public a chance to flag issues, like graffiti and icy conditions, for the city to address. Manyrecent complaints are filed under "Street Pavement Condition" and point to potholes spotted around town. The Department of Public Works tweeted March 7 about the crews addressing the craters around the city.

Until the road dips are completely addressed, you might want to stay alert. Here are the locations flagged by complainants in recent days:

Want to see more stories like this?

Contact Maleeha Syed at mzsyed@freepressmedia.com or 802-495-6595. Follow her on Twitter@MaleehaSyed89.

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Read or Share this story: https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2020/03/09/burlington-see-click-fix-potholes-where-to-look-out-around-city-dpw-addressing/4998687002/

March 14, 2020, 4:59 p.m.

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March 14, 2020, 5:02 p.m.

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Burlington SeeClickFix users report potholes around the city: Here's where to be careful - Burlington Free Press

Pavement parking campaigners are frantically pushing to stretch a blanket ban across the UK in a bid to improve road safety.Under proposals, campaigners are looking to introduce a new obstructive placement parking and unnecessary obstruction offences into law.

The changes could see motorists fined or prosecuted for stopping on a kerb leaving many road users caught out.

The Department for Transport has launched a national consultation on the plans which could be introduced later this year if approved.

Local councils will be responsible for deciding where pavement parking rules should be most heavily enforced based on historical data of the area.

The DfT ware signs can also obstruct the pavement with ministers warning the price of new road infrastructure could be paid by the taxpayer.

READ MORE:Pavement parking near schools could soon be banned

Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary said: Vehicles parked on the pavement can cause very real difficulties for many pedestrians.

Thats why I am taking action to make payments safer and I will be launching a consultation to find a long-term solution for this complex issue.

This will look at a variety of options - including giving local authorities extended powers to crack down on this behaviour.

In a report last year the Transport Select Committee said pavement parking made it harder for many to get around.

DON'T MISSCar parking law: Motorists not entitled to park in front of house[INSIGHT]Anyone can park on your driveway for free today[ANALYSIS]Parking crackdown: MPs want to ban drivers from parking[COMMENT]

The report claimed parking on the kerb was detrimental to disabled citizens and parents with young children.

The group found pavement parking could contribute to loneliness as many may feel forced to stay at home.

The Committee made a list of improvements to the road networks to increase safety such as the introduction of public awareness campaigns and extra traffic regulation orders.

Campaign teams such as Living Streets and Guide Dogs have been in support of a widespread ban and backed findings from the Transport Select Committee.

Stephen Edwards, policy and communications director at Living Streets said pavement parking had an impact on the lives of many people.

He said: Cars parked on pavements force people with wheelchairs, parents with buggies and those living with sight loss into the carriageway and oncoming traffic.

The committee is right to draw attention to the impact of pavement parking on loneliness.

Many older adults we speak to feel stuck in their homes because theyre not able to navigate their local pavements.

Currently, London is the only UK region which charged a fine for parking on the pavement.

Offenders can be hit with a 70 charge for stopping on the kerb in the capital whereas no further laws exist for the rest of the UK.

Motoring experts, the AA, said fines should be introduced for offenders but have warned the ban could lead to unintended consequences.

The recovery group claimed a ban could lead to widespread parking chaos and urged the government to introduce new measures which better targeted key areas.

The AA said: An outright ban could lead to unintended consequences with parking chaos becoming more widespread.

A better solution would be for councils to make a street-by-street assessment and where pavement parking could be allowed it be clearly marked and signed.

Original post:
Pavement parking could soon be banned across the UK under these new proposals - Express

New windows were part of a renovation at the Vernie Snow Aquatic Center in Kingfisher.

KINGFISHER, Okla. Vernie Snow Aquatic Center recently received a facelift to the tune of nearly $2 million with a city-approved upgrade.

The renovation included a new pool pack, a dehumidification system, bay windows, a party room for private events and cosmetic changes throughout the indoor pool facility,Brandon Friesen, city of Kingfisher recreation director, said.

The biggest part of that was the pool pack, Friesen said. It controls heat and air in the building, as well as provides heating for the pool in the winter months. The dehumidification system helps reduce the smell of chlorine in the air around the pool. There was a little remodeling for the dressing rooms, and we got spray insulation throughout. The major addition was the party room.

Leslie Alvarez, assistant managerof the center, said private parties and open swim parties are available to be booked throughout the year, and the room gives guests a chance to set up more formal parties. Food isnt sold on site, so guests can bring in pizzas, picnic baskets, birthday cakes, sodasand more to facilitate parties.

Vernie Snow Aquatic Center in Kingfisher recently received a facelift to the tune of nearly $2 million after the city approved funds for an upgrade.

Id estimate that 75 to 80 percent of the private parties are booked by people not from Kingfisher proper, Friesen said. The smaller communities and rural areas around the town use the facility a lot.

The center boats a T-shaped pool with 25-yard lap lanes, diving boards, a slide area and a beach-style entry on one of the sections. The entire facility is indoors, making year-round swimming and other programming possible. Alvarez said the center hosts a youth swim team that competes in a league with Yukon, Mustang, Will Rogers, Edmond and Stroud. Water aerobics classes meet in the mornings, and a local physical therapist uses the pool for therapy sessions.

Vernie Snow Aquatic Center in Kingfisher recently received a facelift to the tune of nearly $2 million after the city approved funds for an upgrade.

Most of our lap swimmers come in the mornings, Alvarez said. We open at 7 a.m. weekdays for people who use swimming to work out, and were open seven days a week.

The center can host swim parties of various sizes, and different price packages are available. Open swim parties can be held nearly anytime, but the pool is open to the public for those events. Outside food is allowed even for those not hosting parties, but alcohol and glass containers are prohibited.

Renovated locker rooms were part of the recent upgrade at the Vernie Snow Aquatic Center in Kingfisher.

Admission is $5per person, according to the Kingfisher.org website.Birthday parties and group events can be booked and schedule information can be obtained by calling the center at (405) 375-3318.

ENID, Okla. When Jacob Krumwiede first visited the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, he was impressed by what he saw. Now, since beco

In order to be a successful metal detectorist, you really have to be a history nerd. You to have an appreciation for the things that youre finding because you never really know what it is. So be careful before you just pawn something. Brian Terrell, a member ofRed Dirt Metal Detectorists

Visit EnidsMarcy Jarrett, director,andRob Houston,communications coordinator, see their jobs as getting the word out about Enid, but their focusmainlyis outside of the city limits in order to bringinvisitors to spend time and money.

Northwest Oklahomas state parks are ready for another high-traffic spring and summer, after a time of repair and remodel during the off-season.

From private tasting sessions to large group outings and catered events, Northwest Oklahoma has wineries available for everything from day trips to overnight stays.

The Leonardos Children's Museum boardhas started theprocess of its first-ever endowment fundraiser, scheduled to start in the fall. While the board has yet to decide the exact monetary goals, executive director Tracy Bittle said, I think it will be in excess of $4 million.

"Were just so fortunateto be a part of something that Paul and Joan (Allen) shared as a way to invest in our community. Bill Mayberry,David Allen Memorial Ballparks director of operations

Enid High School students are traveling millions of light years into the universe thanks to the schools recently revamped observatory. | Northwest Oklahoma public star viewing

Vernie Snow Aquatic Center recently received a facelift to the tune of nearly $2 million with a city-approved upgrade.

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Horton is a freelance writer for the Enid News & Eagle.

2020 Vision is a special section that will publish in the Enid News & Eagle for eight Sundays in February, March and April 2020. The section is designed to feature individuals, businesses and organizations in Enid and Northwest Oklahoma that work every day for the betterment of the region and its residents.This section, which published March 15, 2020, focuses on Excursions.

Read all sections at2020 Vision: All stories

Have a question about this story? Do you see something we missed? Do you have a story idea for the News & Eagle? Send an email toenidnews@enidnews.com.

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2020 VISION: Kingfisher aquatic center facelift offers better place to party - Enid News & Eagle