Item B: City Council Goal Update-Arts and Outdoors

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Oak habitat and very high quality pieces of rare upland prairie habitat. The Ridgeline Trail was also enhanced with the installation of new trailhead kiosks, trail maps, and way-finding signage. ? New Parks and Sports Fields The 2006 Parks Bond also funded the construction of a new park at Willakenzie and a new park at Rosetta, as well as six new synthetic sports fields at Meadowview School, as well as Cal Young, Madison, Spencer Butte, and the Arts and Technical Academy (Jefferson) middle schools and Willamette High School. ? Natural Area Enhancements Golden Gardens Park – The site continued to transform into a natural park setting to better o serve the surrounding urban community. Improvements included more gradually sloping natural banks, plantings of native plants and trees, and creation of a recreational trail. The Golden Gardens Park grand opening celebration is scheduled for June 25, 2009. Delta Ponds– Significant habitat improvements were made through the conversion ofsteep, o blackberry-dominated banks to gradually sloping riparian benches around pond edges. This will provide better habitat for a variety of fish and wildlife, including juvenile Chinook salmon, American beaver, western pond turtles, and migratory song birds. The City of Eugene received an Oregon 150 grant from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to plant native trees, shrubs and forbs to enhance this project. ? Neighborhood and Community Involvement In 2008, seven groups received Neighborhood Matching Grant funding to help improve their local parks. The projects ranged from enhancing waterways with native plants to restoring hiking trails, and renovating playground structures. Projects were located within Lafferty, Willakenzie, West University, Friendly, University, Hendricks and Spencer Butte parks. Community members also donated over $74,000 to benefit park improvement projects and volunteered over 11,000 hours to improve parks and natural areas. ? Reconnecting to the Outdoors After presenting information at the National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA) Environmental Sustainability & Stewardship conference in Portland last spring, Outdoor Program staff presented information about Project Full Moon Rising at the NRPA Annual Congress this fall in Baltimore. Using the Urban Outdoor Adventures program as a starting point, Project Full Moon Rising is an educational project designed to increase awareness of the benefits associated with connection to nature. The program highlights the easy access to urban natural areas that Eugene offers, as well as all the program resources Eugene provides residents to help make this connection. st New projects include direct integration of environmental education into a 1 grade class at the Academy for Arts & Technology. Staff is also organizing a 2009 statewide rendezvous of outdoor providers, state and federal agencies to support efforts to increase nature education and connections for youth and families. One goal is to pass the No Child Left Inside Act legislation currently being addressed in Salem. This would enable environmental education programs such as Project Full Moon Rising to be eligible to receive federal education funds. 3) Arts and Outdoors Marketing ? Theme/slogan – TheMarketing Steering Committee, including community members representing key stakeholder groups such as CVALCO, the University of Oregon, the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce and outdoors-related business, was asked to provide input on how to achieve broader community participation in promoting Eugene’s arts and outdoors assets. The partners endorsed arts and outdoors as the right positioning for collaborative marketing of the community and a basic theme they all can support, however they asked the City to consider variations on possible ways to Z:\CMO\2009 Council Agendas\M090211\S090211B.doc