Meet ENO Giving Back Partner: Trust for Public Land

If you’ve ever stepped into a neighborhood park and felt your shoulders relax or stretched out in a hammock beneath the trees and felt instantly grounded, you already understand the core of Trust for Public Land’s mission: to create parks and protect land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come.

For more than 50 years, Trust for Public Land (TPL) has been working to make sure everyone, in every community, has access to the outdoors, not just as a privilege, but as a fundamental human need.

We sat down with Ronda Lee Chapman, TPL’s VP and Senior Advisor for Equity & Belonging (and dedicated hammock enthusiast), to learn more about the organization’s mission, its impact, and how this ENO hammock partnership is helping expand access to nature nationwide.

About Trust for Public Land: A National Leader in Expanding Access to Nature

A mission rooted in equity since 1972

TPL was founded more than 50 years ago by a group of visionaries who believed that everyone deserves access to parks, trails, and natural spaces, especially people living in cities. At the time, nearly 80% of Americans lived in metropolitan areas, yet had limited access to public recreation lands.

That gap still exists today, and TPL is leading the charge to close it.

How TPL’s Work Has Evolved Over 50+ Years

Trust for Public Land  (TPL) started over 50 years ago with a simple belief: access to parks, trails, and natural space is essential for people and communities to thrive. Today, TPL is the leader of a movement to connect everyone to the outdoors. A national nonprofit, TPL partners with communities to create high-quality parks and protect public lands—especially in neighborhoods that need them most—to improve public health, strengthen connection to place, and increase climate resilience.

Today, TPL works in almost every state, helping communities:

• Plan conservation priorities

• Create parks and schoolyards

• Build trails

• Protect meaningful land and waterways

• Strengthen climate resilience through nature-based climate solutions

Trust for Public Land's Impact: By the Numbers

TPL’s measurable impact is both wide and deep:

✔ 500+ community parks created or improved: Putting a high-quality green space within a 10-minute walk of nearly 9 million people

✔ 69% of projects serve communities of color: Ensuring that parks reflect the people they support

✔ 60% serve communities in the lowest income quartile: Prioritizing areas with the greatest need

✔ 3,100+ miles of trails built across 46 states: TPL is the nation’s most prolific trail organization

✔ 400+ completed or active community schoolyards transformation projects

✔ A national vision for 80 million more people to live near a park: Opening all public schoolyards during non-school hours would instantly double park access in America

Community at the Center: How TPL Builds Parks With People, Not For Them

TPL’s approach is unique and intentional. “We move at the speed of trust,” Ronda explains. “Communities tell us their vision, and we help bring it to life.” 

Their process includes working with trusted local partners, deep listening within communities, grassroots relationship building, supporting community power, and designing alongside youth, elders, families, and residents to ensure parks are culturally relevant and long-lasting

These projects don’t just create spaces. They create belonging, connection, and leadership.

Key Conservation & Climate-Resilience Initiatives

Parks and green spaces aren’t just places to play, they are powerful nature-based climate solutions that help communities by cooling neighborhoods during extreme heat, reducing flooding through stormwater absorption, capturing carbon in plants and soil, creating habitats for local and supporting biodiversity. Each park helps to improve public health, strengthen community bonds, and build climate resilience. 

TPL supports communities in designing solutions that address environmental justice, extreme weather, and long-term sustainability.

Why Access to Nature Matters: Health Benefits + Community

Spending time outside does more than just feel good, it’s proven to be good for us. TPL’s special report, The Power of Parks to Promote Health, highlights how time in nature can reduce stress, support immune and heart health, sharpen mental clarity, improve sleep, nurture childhood development, and even help us live longer.

Research shows that simply living near a park and regularly spending time in green spaces can make a meaningful difference in both physical and mental well-being. Beyond individual health, parks bring people together. When they’re easy to access and welcoming to all, parks become more than places to unwind. They’re shared spaces where neighbors connect, communities grow stronger, and everyone has room to thrive.

How Vibrant Earth ENO DoubleNest Hammock Supports TPL’s Mission

Whether you set up a hammock deep in the woods or in a neighborhood park, TPL believes there’s no single “right” way to be happy outside. Relaxation plays a critical role in connecting people to nature. “Even five minutes of stillness in a park can recharge you,” Ronda says. ENO is donating $10 from every Vibrant Earth Giving Back DoubleNest Hammock sold to TPL in support of their mission to create parks and protect land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come.

What We Hope You Feel When You Lie in This Hammock

Ronda’s wish is simple but powerful:

“We hope people feel relaxed, more connected to nature, inspired by the joy of being outside, and aware of the work happening across the country to make that experience possible for everyone.”

A Hammock With a Bigger Purpose

ENO’s partnership with Trust for Public Land does more than elevate your outdoor comfort—it helps expand access to nature nationwide.

Because everyone deserves places to breathe deeply. To move freely. To gather. To connect. To recharge. To belong. To relax. And sometimes, it all starts with a hammock.

About Ronda Lee Chapman: Beyond her role leading TPL’s equity and belonging work, Ronda also hosts the organization’s podcast, People.Nature.Big Ideas, where she uplifts stories from community partners and local advocates. “Storytelling is powerful,” she says. “And this project with ENO feels like a lucky alignment.”