Vote for Louisville’s Waterfront Park, Home of the TurfMutt Great Lawn, in USA Today Readers’ Choice Contest

Five Creative Ways to Grow Green Space: The Best Community-Friendly Amenity

The TurfMutt Foundation announces that Louisville’s Waterfront Park, home of the TurfMutt Great Lawn, is up for a USA Today Readers’ Choice Award for Best Riverwalk. Voting for the 2025 Readers Choice Awards is open through April 7 at noon ET. Readers can vote once per category, per day. The ten winners will be announced on Wednesday, April 16. Vote here.

The TurfMutt Great Lawn, once a wasteland of industrial uses, is a vibrant gathering place showcasing how a managed landscape—in this case a public lawn—can enhance a community’s well-being and environmental health.

“The best community amenity out there is green space,” says Kris Kiser, President & CEO of the TurfMutt Foundation. “Prioritizing managed landscapes that are available to everyone helps foster connectedness, increases mental health, and supports the environment.”

According to the TurfMutt Foundation, here are some of the imaginative ways communities can enhance and grow their community green space:

Community Gardens

Community gardens attract people of all ages. From individual garden plots to shared areas, they promote sustainable practices and healthy living. Some communities even integrate features like rainwater harvesting systems and composting stations to enhance the environmental benefits of these gardens.

Well-Landscaped Walking Paths

Getting just 20 minutes of outside time each day can significantly reduce stress levels and improve well-being. Well-landscaped community walking paths that are shaded by trees, bordered by native shrubs, and feature seating areas surrounded by flowers, make it easy to get a boost of nature in the neighborhood.

Nature Playgrounds

Neighborhood nature playgrounds engage children in an “outdoor learning lab” through the nature around them. Elements like tree logs, boulders, water features and plants help encourage outdoor play that has many physical, emotional and mental health benefits for children.

“Pawsome” Play Areas for Pups
With 62 percent of Gen Zer’s saying they would prioritize raising a pet over starting a family, communities are catering to the trend with integrated dog parks that feature everything from splash pads and digging areas to agility courses and pet grooming stations. Some even host get-to-know-you events like “Yappy Hours” and offer food trucks to keep the humans happy, too.

Golf Courses as Wildlife Corridors

Developments that incorporate golf courses into their neighborhoods can go beyond a place to perfect strokes and handicaps by offering a haven for biodiversity. Properly designed golf courses can reconnect fragmented ecosystems and provide shelter and food for local wildlife.

Since launching as an educational program to promote the benefits of the managed landscape fifteen years ago, TurfMutt has become a global education platform, reaching more than 70 million students, teachers, and families with its message that nature starts at their back door and educating future generations about the importance of the managed landscape.

For more on the TurfMutt Foundation, visit TurfMutt.com and check out the TurfMutt Foundation’s International Backyarding Fact Book to learn more about the importance of the green spaces around us. Sign up for Mutt Mail, a monthly e-newsletter with backyarding tips and all the news from the TurfMutt Foundation here. Look for Mulligan the TurfMutt on the CBS Lucky Dog television show on Saturday mornings.

The award-winning Waterfront Park is downtown Louisville’s most visited destination with 2.4 million guests and 300+ events annually, and is a regional destination for locals and travelers alike. The park has been named a “best riverwalk” and “best urban park and trail” by several organizations including Fodor’s Travel,USA Today 10Best® Reader’s Choice (2021 – 2024), LEO Weekly Reader’s Choice (2017 – 2023), Men’s Journal, and others.

About the TurfMutt Foundation
TurfMutt, which celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2024, was created by the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute’s (OPEI) TurfMutt Foundation and has reached more than 70 million children, educators and families since 2009. Championed by Foundation spokesdog, Mulligan the TurfMutt, and through education partners such as Scholastic, Discovery and Weekly Reader, TurfMutt has taught students and teachers how to “save the planet, one yard at a time.” Today, TurfMutt is an official USGBC® Education Partner and part of their global LEARNING LAB. TurfMutt has been an education resource at the U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Green Apple, the Center for Green Schools, the Outdoors Alliance for Kids, the National Energy Education Development (NEED) project, Climate Change Live, Petfinder and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 2017, the TurfMutt animated video series won the coveted Cynopsis Kids Imagination Award for Best Interstitial Series. TurfMutt’s personal home habitat was featured in the 2017-2020 Wildlife Habitat Council calendars. In 2024, the Great Lawn at Louisville’s award-winning Waterfront Park on the Ohio River was renamed the TurfMutt Foundation Great Lawn as part of a $1 million sponsorship. More information at www.TurfMutt.com.