21st Century Parks

Recreation:21st Century Parks, Inc. develops, funds, and operates the parklands of floyds fork. This nearly 4,000 acre public park is complete, making it the largest new urban park system built in the nation in at least the last twenty years. Even more unique, this park, which charges no admission fee for entry, is operated without receiving public tax dollars for operations. In 2022, the parklands hosted more than 3.5 million visitors across the region. These visitors spent their leisure time hiking and biking the 46 miles of multi-use trails, paddling 22 miles of floyd's fork, and playing games on 20 multi-use sports fields. Collaborating with its partners, 21st Century Parks, Inc. stocked more than 10,000 fish in parklands' lakes and streams for the enjoyment of the angling community, provided 81 plots for community gardens, and registered 581 dog owners at the barklands. Louisville individuals and businesses contributed more than 980 volunteer hours in the parklands in 2022.

Education:21st Century Parks, Inc. Provides dynamic, life-changing experiences for louisville-area youth that connect them with the outdoors and our natural Kentucky landscape. These experiences are designed to incite curiosity about our natural world while focusing on stem education curriculum using our outdoor classroom. In 2022, we conducted in-person field trip programming for more than 9,250 area title i students.

Conservation: 21st Century Parks, Inc. is dedicated to the conservation and enrichment of the land for which it is responsible. The organization employs a full-time gardening and natural areas team that removed invasive plant species on more than 140 acres; maintained over 400 acres of native meadows; and treated & cared for the thousands of trees and shrubs planted in the parklands. We participated in the environmental quality incentives program: the parklands performed environmental restoration work on more than 50 acres which included establishment of riparian corridors, brush and weed management. 21st Century Parks Inc. also maintains two groves of endangered american chestnut trees. In 2022, 21st Century Parks, Inc. Harvested over 240 chestnuts for planting within the parklands.