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The National Park Service’s Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program (NPS-RTCA) and the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) have spent more than two decades helping communities plan parks, trails, waterways, and cultural landscapes. An ASLA article published April 21, 2023 reported more than 80 projects in the partnership’s portfolio at that time—not a current, independently verified total. The work is locally led: NPS-RTCA brings planning and facilitation, while volunteer landscape architects contribute design expertise. Together, they help communities turn conservation and recreation goals into workable concepts, plans, and implementation strategies.
What the NPS–ASLA partnership does
The partnership is a pro-bono planning model rather than a construction grant or a standardized park design. NPS-RTCA staff identify community projects that could benefit from a licensed landscape architect, then recruit ASLA members to volunteer their professional time. The community remains the owner of the vision and decisions.
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Partners can include neighborhoods, nonprofit organizations, tribes, and state or local governments. A project may involve a river corridor, a new ecological park, a cultural landscape, or a waterfront that has become disconnected from nearby residents. The team’s role is to listen, organize information, test ideas, and produce concepts that a community can use when it seeks funding, approvals, partnerships, or future design services.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThe 2023 account by Evelyn Moreno in ASLA’s The Dirt describes the collaboration and four examples in detail: the Saluda River Blueway in South Carolina, Tásmam Koyóm Maidu Cultural Park in California, North Beach Eco Park in Texas, and Sacramento River waterfront planning. The source is available at ASLA’s project account.
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How the collaborative planning model works
- A community defines a need. The starting point may be inaccessible water access, protection of sacred places, habitat restoration, a new trail system, or a safer and more welcoming public waterfront.
- NPS-RTCA assesses the opportunity. Staff look for projects where facilitation, public engagement, resource planning, and landscape-architecture expertise could help move the idea forward.
- ASLA volunteers join the team. A chapter or group of members supplies licensed landscape architects who can translate community priorities into site concepts, alternatives, and a coherent plan.
- Residents and stakeholders shape alternatives. Workshops, meetings, interviews, and field observations bring local knowledge into the design. In the examples, the participants included residents, historians, tribal members, public agencies, educators, and nonprofit partners.
- The team produces a planning output. Depending on the project, that output can be a master plan, conceptual drawings, a trail and access framework, visitor-zone recommendations, or several alternatives for officials to evaluate.
- Local partners decide what happens next. The partnership can clarify priorities and make a project more fundable, but the source does not promise construction, long-term operations, or a particular funding award.
This sequence matters because it separates planning assistance from delivery of a finished facility. A floating launch, boardwalk, campground improvement, or interpretive sign may appear in a plan; whether it is built depends on local decisions, funding, permitting, and subsequent project work.
Four projects that show the range of the approach
Saluda River Blueway: designing for inclusive water access
In 2013, NPS-RTCA, the ASLA South Carolina Chapter, and Anderson County Parks & Recreation Department facilitated planning for a 48-mile accessible water trail in northwestern South Carolina. Residents, planners, historians, and 15 volunteer landscape architects examined how people could reach and navigate the river, including a difficult point where canoes and kayaks had to be moved around a dam.
Accessibility was treated as a system rather than a single ramp. The planning effort considered access points along the route and practical ways to get boats into and out of the water. Anderson County later installed portable floating kayak launches. Their floating design accommodates changing water levels and can make launching easier for people with disabilities.
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“This has been all about inclusive access on the river… to give some people a river experience that they would have never gotten otherwise,” said Matt Schell, director of Anderson County’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.
The example illustrates a useful distinction for recreation projects: a regional trail may be described by its mileage, but inclusion depends on the details at each access point, the equipment people must handle, and the operating conditions that change through the year. The source reports the later installation of the floating launches, while other elements of the broader plan should not be assumed to have been completed.
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Tásmam Koyóm Maidu Cultural Park: access with cultural protection
Tásmam Koyóm, the Maidu name for Humbug Valley, is a 2,300-acre alpine valley in California’s Sierra Nevada. The Maidu Summit Consortium sought help planning a cultural park devoted to education, healing, and traditional ecosystem management. The planning challenge was not simply how to invite visitors; it was how to create public learning opportunities without exposing places that the tribe considers private or sacred.
With ASLA chapter partners, NPS-RTCA supported conceptual plans for a park entrance, identified public trail access, and mapped a 40-acre visitor zone that included improvements to Yellow Creek Campground. The approach kept certain cultural sites accessible only to tribal members while allowing visitors to experience the landscape through designated routes and facilities.
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“It’s given us a land base to bring back our plant life, the botany, the wildlife, and reconnect with the landscape,” Ogle added.
The 2023 article said the Mountain Maidu tribe continued developing the cultural park at the time of publication. That statement is historical; it does not establish the park’s current construction or management status. The planning lesson is durable: cultural access rules should be established by the people who hold cultural authority, then reflected in circulation, interpretation, visitor facilities, and operations.
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North Beach Eco Park: combining habitat and recreation
Corpus Christi, Texas, requested NPS-RTCA assistance in 2019 for a planned 30-acre ecological and birding park. The request included both physical design and organizational development for community partners, recognizing that a park needs stewardship and programming as well as attractive spaces.
Public meetings generated ideas that the planning team tested for feasibility. Three alternatives informed a master plan combining healthy wetlands and wildlife habitat with trails, boardwalks, observation decks, interpretive signs, and resources for outdoor education. Those elements serve different users: boardwalks can provide access through sensitive wet areas, observation decks support wildlife viewing, and interpretation can connect recreation to ecological understanding.
The account describes a planned park and a master-planning process. It does not report a completed construction schedule, post-opening attendance, habitat measurements, or a final operating budget. Those omissions are important when evaluating what a planning partnership has achieved: the documented outcome is a community-informed plan, not a verified set of ecological or economic results.
Sacramento River waterfront: putting community identity into concepts
The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency sought placemaking concepts for the Sacramento River waterfront. In 2020, NPS-RTCA, the ASLA California Sierra Chapter, and the University of California, Davis Department of Landscape Architecture held three virtual design workshops.
More than 60 community members and stakeholders participated, including local tribal members and residents of a low-income housing development. Workshop concepts addressed river access, recreation, and education while reflecting residents’ history and identity. The concepts were then shared with stakeholders and city and county officials so they could consider funding and implementation options.
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Because the work was conducted virtually, the format itself became part of the engagement strategy. The documented result is a set of waterfront concepts and a pathway for public agencies to evaluate them. The source does not report that a particular concept was funded or built, so the example should be read as participatory pre-design rather than a completed waterfront redevelopment.
How the examples compare
| Project | Primary community goal | Participants and leadership | Access and inclusion response | Resource protection | Documented planning output | Status described in the source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saluda River Blueway | Create an accessible regional water trail | County department, residents, planners, historians, and volunteer landscape architects | Planned multiple access points and ways to move boats around a dam; portable floating launches were later installed | Addressed river conditions and changing water levels | Water-trail planning and access solutions | Some access equipment is reported as installed; the article does not verify every planned element |
| Tásmam Koyóm Maidu Cultural Park | Support education, healing, and traditional ecosystem management | Maidu Summit Consortium, tribal leadership, NPS-RTCA, and ASLA partners | Public trails and a visitor zone coexist with sites reserved for tribal members | Protects cultural places while restoring relationships with plants, wildlife, and landscape | Entrance concepts, trail framework, and visitor-zone plan | Development was continuing when the 2023 article was published |
| North Beach Eco Park | Plan an ecological and birding park | Corpus Christi, community participants, NPS-RTCA, and community partners | Trails, boardwalks, observation decks, interpretation, and education resources | Wetlands and wildlife are central to the master plan | Three alternatives and a master plan | Planning stage described; construction outcomes are not reported |
| Sacramento River waterfront | Improve riverfront access, recreation, and education | Housing agency, NPS-RTCA, ASLA California Sierra Chapter, UC Davis, residents, and stakeholders | Engagement included tribal members and residents of a low-income housing development | Concepts were expected to reflect local history and identity | Waterfront concepts for funding and implementation consideration | Concepts were shared with officials; funding or construction is not reported |
What communities can learn before seeking design assistance
Define access in operational terms
“Accessible” should mean more than a compliant drawing. Communities need to identify who will use a site, how people arrive, what equipment they bring, where assistance is needed, and how weather or water levels change conditions. The Saluda planning effort shows why access points and boat-handling solutions deserve the same attention as the route itself.
Set cultural boundaries at the beginning
On culturally significant land, the community with authority over the resource should determine which places are public, which are shared under conditions, and which remain closed. Those decisions affect trail alignments, signs, photography rules, interpretation, maintenance, and staffing. A plan that treats cultural protection as an afterthought can create conflict even if its physical design is attractive.
Pair ecological goals with a visitor experience
Wetlands and wildlife protection do not automatically tell visitors where to walk or how to learn. North Beach combines habitat with boardwalks, observation points, interpretation, and outdoor education. That pairing can help a park invite appropriate use while directing people away from sensitive areas.
Make engagement representative and usable
Public input is most useful when the people affected by a project can participate in a format they can access. The Sacramento workshops included tribal members and residents of nearby low-income housing, then converted feedback into alternatives officials could evaluate. A good process records who participated, what choices they influenced, and which ideas were not feasible.
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Separate a concept from a commitment
Concept plans help decision-makers compare options, estimate future work, and pursue funding. They are not construction documents, permits, or guarantees. Before announcing a project, local sponsors should identify the next design phase, responsible owner, likely funding source, environmental reviews, accessibility reviews, and maintenance obligations.
What the 2023 portfolio figure does—and does not—tell us
The ASLA article reported more than 80 conservation and outdoor recreation projects and more than 20 years of collaboration. Those figures describe the portfolio as presented in that April 21, 2023 publication. They are not a current verified count, and the article does not provide outcome statistics for all projects.
The four examples demonstrate different kinds of value: inclusive access, cultural stewardship, habitat-sensitive recreation, and community-led waterfront concepts. They should not be treated as representative performance averages for every project in the portfolio. The source does not quantify total acres conserved, visitors served, dollars raised, facilities built, or long-term ecological change across the partnership.
How to interpret the partnership for a real project
A community considering similar help should begin with a clear problem statement and a list of decisions that outside facilitation could improve. Useful preparation includes a site boundary, ownership information, known cultural or environmental constraints, existing plans, a description of underserved users, and a realistic statement of what the community can do after the planning assistance ends.
It should also identify the local decision-makers who can accept a plan and carry it forward. In the examples, public agencies, tribal organizations, and community partners provided that local leadership. NPS-RTCA and volunteer landscape architects can help organize a process and develop alternatives, but they do not replace the sponsor’s responsibility for approvals, capital funding, procurement, construction, operations, or stewardship.
For construction and landscape teams that eventually become involved, the planning record is a starting point rather than a complete scope. Before pricing or scheduling work, teams would need current surveys, geotechnical and environmental information, accessibility requirements, permits, utility coordination, phasing decisions, and an agreed operations plan. None of those technical documents is supplied by the 2023 article.
Bottom line: a planning partnership, not a one-size-fits-all program
The NPS-RTCA–ASLA collaboration shows how professional landscape design can strengthen locally led conservation and recreation planning without taking ownership away from the community. Saluda demonstrates access designed around real river conditions; Tásmam Koyóm shows how visitor opportunities can coexist with tribal control; North Beach links habitat protection to education and recreation; and Sacramento shows how inclusive workshops can turn local history and needs into public-sector options.
The most accurate way to describe the partnership is as pro-bono facilitation and planning support. Its documented products range from access strategies and conceptual plans to alternatives and master plans, with implementation varying by project. Communities should use those plans to make informed decisions about funding, approvals, design development, construction, and long-term care—not assume that a planning concept is already a finished public facility.
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