JOYFUL PIECE #49

Parks for people...and critters too!

Unchanged image by Alexander Hatley, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

I think “park” and normally envision images of baseball, or our neighborhood playground, or Central Park in New York City. Each of these images carries the heavy footprint of civilization: human games and sports, altered terrain, cleared trees and vegetation, structures such as swings and slides, paved paths, and human landscaping. Seldom do I envision the virgin outdoors with vistas unspoiled by human presence, and with the real possibility for encounters with 2, 4 or no-legged wild creatures and plants. Such is the bias, at times, in my thinking, induced by non-stop development.

Progressives have long maintained that parks are the lungs of a city, and that was one of the drivers for many urban parks, such as New York City’s Central Park.

But Bridget Grumet of the Austin American Statesman reports that we are moving in a positive direction in Travis County, Texas. What would have been a project for 900 new homes will now be parkland. Yes, parkland in the pristine sense. And this is due to some creative negotiations between Travis County Parks and Castletop Capital, and the generous funding of Travis County citizens via a bond package. The ultimate extent of this plan will be 3900 acres of land when combined with other land acquisitions. This is making possible the promotion of a healthy outdoors— for the benefit of our common environment, and for creatures, including humans. And with the current stress that we all feel, what better way to decompress than a stroll in the wild?

And that is reason for Joy.

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