Lifestyle

Township receives National Innovation in Conservation Award

By The Woodlands Township | June 24, 2020

THE WOODLANDS, TX – The Woodlands Township Parks and Recreation was recently selected to receive a National Innovation in Conservation Award by the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). The award will be presented during the 2020 NRPA’s Virtual Annual Conference in October 2020.

Woodlands Township 2020 Award — Township staff and volunteers worked side by side at the sixth annual Community Tree Planting event to help reforest a portion of the Creekside Park West Trailhead at the George Mitchell Nature Preserve. (Photo taken during the event on February 8, 2020 before novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic restrictions.)

The National Innovation in Conservation Award recognizes a parks and recreation agency that has addressed a critical environmental need in their community and led an innovative project that creates localized solutions for addressing global or regional environmental challenges while helping educate residents along the way.

The Woodlands Township is 27,000-acres in which development, parks and preserves function as integrated parts of a whole. Conservation is rooted into the Township’s philosophy and guided by its Environmental Services Division which bases its operations on three Pillars of Sustainability: Forest Health, Watershed Protection and Resource Diversion. Over the past five years the Department has coordinated 479 conservation outreach programs with over 53,000 contact hours, dozens of educational media campaigns, and zero waste operations for 30 special events.

“The NRPA National Awards and Scholarship Committee is excited to honor the 2020 NRPA recipients who have made significant contributions to their communities through the field of parks and recreation,” said John Stutzman, chair of NRPA’s National Awards and Scholarship Committee.

Each year, NRPA National Awards are presented to individuals and agencies across the U.S. to honor their efforts, both professional and personal, in the field of parks and recreation. Recipients are selected from a pool of applicants by NRPA’s National Awards and Scholarship Committee and are chosen for excellence in a variety of topics, including professional and voluntary service, programming, leadership, research, and public outreach.

The National Recreation and Park Association is a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people have access to parks and recreation for health, conservation and social equity. Through its network of 60,000 recreation and park professionals and advocates, NRPA encourages the promotion of healthy and active lifestyles, conservation initiatives, and equitable access to parks and public space.

For more information about NRPA National Awards programs, visit www.nrpa.org/our-work/awards.

For more information on The Woodlands Township, please call 281-210-3800 or visit www.thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov.