Park it and enjoy the great outdoors

Director Joe Turner

I am proud of the job Houston Parks and Recreation Department employees do on a daily basis, seven days a week. As a department, we’re committed to providing the best customer service possible. To accomplish this, we have two major priorities. First is to pick up trash and cut grass. Second is our community centers and the community programs we offer. When we fulfill our two priorities, we’re serving the community by providing them places where the public can enjoy green space and enhance their quality of life.

We began the year by adding staff to the grounds maintenance division. This has enabled us to improve the frequency of trash pick up and grass cutting, so now we’re operating on a 10-day cut cycle for our parks and esplanades during the growing season.

The forestry division has begun a tree inventory to locate and count every tree on HPARD property. This inventory will identify the location of dangerous or diseased trees are so that they may be removed. It will also provide us with a breakdown by species and age of the HPARD tree canopy, enabling us to diversify that canopy to protect it from specific blights or pests. In addition, it will indicate areas where we can plant more trees.

The horticulture division has also been busy working on an educational wildscape garden project. We’ve started this program in the atrium at our main office at Wayside. It’s designed to provide those interested in native plants and plants for butterflies, hummingbirds and birds an example of how to successfully incorporate these plants into a landscape project.