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Quality Parks

My Biography

Submitted by Quality Parks on Fri, 09/03/2010 - 3:18pm.

Quality Parks offers a new form of park recreation that transforms your stories into conservation actions. We are content producers, illustrators, conservation writers, and book production teams. We cover not just Long Island, our home base, but off island locations too. Topics include forestry conservation, firefighting, sustainable farming, invasives, light pollution, ATVs, boardwalks, property rights, and more. Our thought provoking producations and park news will make Nature part of your day to day routine. Check back with us often, to read, comment, post, and find ways to make good parks - - quality parks.

Formal Mission

We are a 501(c)(3) charity that is also a professional organization sponsoring projects that improve both business and environmental conditions. We balance recreational and economic needs while conserving and restoring the Earth's cultural and ecological biodiversity. We cooperate with and directly support park and protected area managers. We also disseminate information, provide experiential learning opportunities, and support efforts designed to stimulate, encourage, educate and involve the general public in natural resource stewardship practices.

Whom Do We Serve

We serve the community by providing young adults and the young at heart a safe place to explore stewardship values. What does stewardship mean? Stewardship means to understand how our natural heritage is part of our daily lives. It is a process that empowers people to play an active role in maintaining the quality of the natural environment in which they live. 

Performance Measurements

The number of sponsors, members and volunteers involved in our Production Team is a direct measure of our ability to provide an entertaining learning environment for positive change, including:

  • the number of web page hits measured via Google Analytics
  • the number of volunteer via VolunteerMatch reports
  • the number of individual donations

Eighteen Years of Action (1990-2008)

These are some of the public land managing agencies that Quality Parks has worked with on a variety of park conservation challenges:

  • US Forest Service
  • New York State Long Island Central Pine Barrens
  • New York State Department of Enviromental Conservation
  • Suffolk County Parks
  • Suffolk County Health Department

Some Of Our Sucess Stories

The publication of Sunrise Fire took four years to develop and is based on over ten years of participating in fire management and firefighting. For example, we planted thousand of tree seedlings to rehab disturbed areas with the Long Island Pine Barrens.

We worked with various public land agencies and charitable organization to build capacity for improved recreational access and safety. For exampe, we facilitated the reopening and improved management of Brookhaven State Park, Suffolk County, NY.

We assisted commercial growers and organic farmers to improve the availability of native plants and organic produce. This included identifying source materials, growing out plants, planting programs, and supporting educational activities to improve public support and farmer collaboration.

Where We Are Today

With over twenty years of experience helping others, Mindy Block is now intent on building the capacity of Quality Parks.
As of 2008, Quality Parks has over fifty volunteers. We now receive a dozen hits per day on our web pages as compared to none in prior years. Our capacity to raise funds through book sales is growing stronger based on the focused efforts of our newly organized Sunrise Fire - Marketing Plan and Commitee.

Quality Parks top priority is fire education by way of our new publiciation: Sunrise Fire. This story is about fire and forestry conservation. To accomplish this task we need donations to help distribute Starter Kits, as well as QP Sales Reps to help in distribution. Our next priority is to organize our web pages to provide timely information on hot conservation topics with an eye on taking action for positive change and improved environmental performance.

Quality Parks Organizational Structure

Board Members, Interns & Advisors

Former Board Members

  • Gretchen Saule - writer and teacher
  • Ken Ettlinger - vegetable breeder and college professor
  • Ken Spadafora - hiker and avid reader
  • Nancy Futeran - wetlands biologist

Productions Committee (proposed) to organize our next production

  • We need to rebuild a Production Team for our next production.  The next production will probably be: "How Parsley Saved The Farm" (second edition). It is already written and needs illustration. Lost Heritage is written but needs rework to make it a young adult story. Also Ray Corwin's idea about a book, in a power point summary so far, needs a title and general idea and then submit protection under writer's union. Others can be in the hopper but we have limited capability.

Park News Committee (proposed) to post timely park news  and comments on our web pages to encourage learning and resolution of park challenges, often requires equal time in field and at desk. Maybe explore YouTube videos as well.

Sunrise Fire Marketing Plan Committee - to improve books sales and distribution

The Future

  • We just finished Sunrise Fire, and would like to take on our next production.
  • Strengthen virtual teams with improved virtual meetings.
  • Continue volunteer outreach to provide professional experiences in publications and conservation.
  • Integrate compiled park news with park actions to improve attainment of charitable objectives

Our Long Term Funding Needs

  • Improved funding for staff positions and park project expenses.

Press Releases and Newspaper Articles

Publications

 

History

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