Wildlife in Parks and Communities: Institutionalizing Wildlife Conservation in Park Systems Through Municipal-Wide Planning Efforts

Wildlife populations are declining in the United States. As development increases, local parks and natural areas often become safe-havens for wildlife, including birds, pollinators and small mammals. Creeks, rights-of-way, roadsides and even private, commercial and public landscapes can create corridors for wildlife in urban and suburban areas, helping wildlife survive and minimizing human-wildlife conflicts. While many park departments and municipalities have some nature or wildlife programs at nature centers and public parks or manage some properties as natural areas, most do not integrate best practices for managing wildlife into park and recreation master plans or municipalwide sustainability, green infrastructure or climate resilience plans. Panelists from Denver, Colorado, Austin, Texas, and Broward County, Florida, will share how they successfully integrated wildlife conservation into city planning to benefit wildlife, parks and the community and ensure equitable access to these benefits