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Best Practice Action 18.8 <br />GreenStep Cities Best Practices: Environmental Management <br />Parks & Trails No.18 <br />Increase active lifestyles and property values by enhancing the city’s green infrastructure <br />Best Practice Action 8 <br />Develop a program to involve community members in hands-on land restoration, invasive species <br />management, and stewardship projects. <br />Implementation Tools <br />●See St. Paul-based Great River Greening for assistance in working with volunteers, and <br />Sentencing to Service for a court alternative that puts carefully selected, nonviolent offenders <br />to work on community improvement projects. <br />●'Friends of the Parks' civic groups help deliver, among other benefits, cost savings to a city <br />from the use of volunteers. <br />●Community volunteers often help a city in managing terrestrial and aquatic invasive species; <br />guidance and funding for invasives' management is available from MN DNR and a number of <br />other organizations. <br />●Promote or coordinate a citizen science program. Use the SciStarter project finder to find an <br />activity that will help your community. <br />●Clean up and utilize unused public land for seasonal needs such as event space, parks, art <br />installations, and community gardens - see BPA 27.3 . <br />Star Level Examples <br />1 star Create an annual event (can be in cooperation with other organizations) or ongoing 'adopt a park' <br />effort for volunteer trash cleanup of open space, buckthorn removal, etc. for parks or selected public open <br />space areas; educate community members about invasive species. Report gardens plots in city parks <br />under BP 27.3 <br />2 star In addition to cleanup and removal of exotics (1 Star), engage community members in annual <br />restoration of natural areas (replanting shoreland buffers, restoring prairie, etc.). <br />3 star Create and fund an annual city-wide event for cleanup and restoration, engaging residents in <br />most neighborhoods and creating a public promotion around the event; coordinate the use of unused <br />public land for seasonal community use (pop-up parks, gardens, art, etc.).