Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Brown.
Hi Jason, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
During my years at Texas A&M, I would come home for the summer and work for my city’s Parks and Recreation Department. I was studying to be a coach and to teach, but I ultimately found my way back to Recreation full-time. I have since worked in 7 different cities while growing in my profession. Eight years ago, I was promoted to Director of Parks and Recreation at the city where I worked and began to learn the parks side of the industry. Once I could make decisions for and help shape parks and green spaces, I gravitated toward conservation and sustainability planning and programs. As a steward of public land, I feel a responsibility to ensure that we plan both for the long term with a wider vision than just a drive-by view of park landscaping. There are times when decisions get made for aesthetics only. However, beautiful landscaping is only a small piece of what I think my job is.
Therefore, I have started a small consulting business to be able to inform, discuss, and assist small cities, HOAs, school districts, and other entities with Parks and Recreation design, planning, conservation, stormwater control, playground safety, and funding assistance. The concept for Nature Play and Wellness developed from wondering who was advocating for park maintenance or playground safety in small cities that I would drive through. I am working to help those entities be better informed about my industry and serve as a partner in the place of a Parks and Recreation professional that they cannot afford to have on staff full-time.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Speaking about my desire to instill a different perspective about stewardship of public spaces, there are many obstacles. Uninformed stakeholders choose plants or designs for aesthetic purposes only. But those decisions get multiplied when copy-and-paste choices limit the native plants we host in public areas. The problems are potentially compounded when residents and developers mimic that same planting design or choices.
It is an unpopular opinion to prioritize function over beauty. Even though a public space featuring a variety of native plants and blue-green infrastructure offers numerous, but less glamorous benefits, including erosion control, vector control, mitigation of stormwater, butterfly and moth habitat, bird migration support, and a pleasing, visually interesting landscape.
As you know, we’re big fans of Nature Play and Wellness. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Nature Play and Wellness (NPW) was created to be an advocate for small cities and other organizations that do not have the funding available to hire a full-time parks and recreation professional. NPW offers landscape design and installation, certified arborist services, TxDOT Local programmer services, certified playground inspections, conservation programming, special-event support, and funding research.
The service that is most requested is annual playground inspections. We have serviced city, HOA, school, church, and preschool playgrounds. Being able to improve the safety and usability of playgrounds for children is a great source of pride for our company. But my personal favorite service is conservation programs like the Mayor’s Monarch Pledge, Tree City USA, and Bird City Texas. These programs offer public education and policy support for the betterment of natural areas and local fauna.
What’s next?
NPW hopes to grow and partner with other design and planning teams to increase the bandwidth of the conservation message.
Our next big project is to work with Universal Studios to review the design and installation of some of the attractions that will be in use at the new Resort in Frisco. Most of that review will be happening in 2026 with the opening schedule next year.
Pricing:
- Call for a quote if you would like to discuss any services. The work that we do does not have a flat, define rate.
Contact Info:
