Parkpulse.io is an online mapping tool which provides information about most of Oregon’s publicly accessible recreation areas including city, county, state, and federal lands. This web resource displays nearby recreation opportunities based on a user’s location and shows detailed information for each site, such as; available amenities, the potential for encountering crowds and an estimate of site specific COVID-19 prevalence.
This tool was designed and produced earlier this spring at no public expense by Knot, a landscape architecture and experiential graphic design firm in Portland. OREC facilitates public-private partnerships and looks for ways to increase accessibility to the outdoors for all Oregonians.
“We were fortunate to have Knot donate their time and expertise toward creating a tool that would benefit all Oregonians throughout this pandemic,” said Cailin O’Brien-Feeney, director of the Office of Outdoor Recreation. “Oregon is fortunate to have many public lands and there was an obvious need for a map that showed different recreation areas and their COVID-19 risks, no matter who the land manager was – local, state or federal.”
Because individual park, trail or campground statuses can change quickly, the map encourages the users to visit the given links to get the most up-to-date access information. With the implementation of Governor Kate Brown’s Oregon Risk and Protection Framework that went into effect December 3, 2020, this tool will also display park specific COVID-19 risk levels based on spatialized county health data.
“We hope this tool will be a community asset that will help individuals assess risk and make smart decisions for accessing nature during the global pandemic,” said Michael Yun, Principal and Director of Anti-Disciplinary Design, Knot. “Beyond the pandemic, we hope this tool will help individuals find underutilized gems in our outdoor recreation infrastructure and encourage them to access nature in a more sustainable, more local and less impactful way.”
For more information, visit parkpulse.io.
