Trash collection, lawn mowing and other landscaping duties are done by dozens of full-time and seasonal staff members. (Courtesy Bend Park & Recreation District)

They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I believe it. My family just recently took an extended vacation out of Central Oregon, and I returned with even more affinity for home. I love traveling for the power of broadening perspectives, exploring new places, learning, growing and challenging assumptions about what other humans value in their daily lives.

One of my favorite parts of travel is coming home. I am rejuvenated and thankful for what I enjoy most in my own daily life. After traveling, I am even more proud of how our parks and trails represent our community value of livability. Not many places can compare to the system of 85 parks and more than 90 miles of trails, but how often do you consider what it takes to maintain these spaces?

I am lucky to work for Bend Park & Recreation District, so I want to share behind the scenes information about the hard-working Park Services team and their valuable services.

The District manages more than 3,600 acres, including two-thirds of the total as natural, open spaces like Shevlin Park, Riley Ranch Nature Reserve and Sawyer Park. When you think of a park, you may picture turf, but it is a small percentage of overall parkland.

Park Services is responsible for the maintenance and operations of parks, trails and facilities with 58 year-round staff positions and an additional 18 seasonally hired each summer. This team is incredibly skilled and knowledgeable about forest health, irrigation, native plants, turf needs, waste reduction and more.

Additional responsibilities include managing the asset replacement plan, implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act Transition Plan, overseeing district-wide fleet and equipment services, and supporting special events and recreation programs.

By the numbers

In the first six months of this year, the work performed behind the scenes surprised me because of the breadth and number of hours spent on tasks. There was almost 7,000 hours of landscape maintenance from winter to late spring, which is ahead of busy summer months underway now. There were also 540 hours of playground inspections and maintenance to ensure these valuable amenities can be enjoyed by children and families. I am going to remember that when I visit Columbia Park, Harmon Park, Larkspur Park or Canal Row Park, which are my favorite playgrounds.

These maintenance and inspection efforts are considered proactive and planned for the team, because taking care of what we have is the top priority. Generally, park services have about two-thirds of their work following a plan and one-third of time and projects being reactive to situations as they occur, such as damage and vandalism.

There were 381 hours of graffiti removal, which is down from the past few years, but it still is higher than we would like. Ther was also 972 hours of recreation facility maintenance, and 160 hours of Zamboni maintenance during ice season at The Pavilion.

Trash collection

When it comes to trash collection, it always feels like there could be more, but there were 3,670 hours of trash pick-up in six months (reminder: this was for lower use season). That cranks up in the summer when one of my colleagues visits 14 parks daily for his full-time seasonal job, focused on trash collection. When we recommend Leave No Trace principles, this is crucial to help this team keep up with heavy use of trash cans.

We appreciate the help anywhere possible, because we order a mountain of dog poop bags each year that contribute to trash. We ordered more than 2.6 million bags last year, which includes sharing more than 100,000 with DogPAC for non-BPRD areas.

Restrooms and custodial services

I wish I had a dollar every time I hear from a community member about how clean our restrooms are. It is because there are more than 18,000 hours of custodial services between our parks and recreation facilities annually. Approximately 20 hours a day, seven days a week, there is a custodian working hard to create opportunities for others to enjoy the spaces.

On your next close to home or far away adventure, please take a moment to appreciate the little details that take place behind the scenes on your behalf.

Park and trail locators are available at bendparksandrec.org..