What is the point of a City Park? Part One

Yesterday morning I took a ride down to the parkway and went for a walk. It was my intention to revisit the part of the Parkway that I documented the first time I decided I was going to write a blog about city parks. I went because the summer is all but faded now and the hands of autumn are stretching across us like a greedy child upon a bowl of candies.

I went to reflect on the long summer. I went to start trying to figure out what exactly the point of city parks is. You see, I have been watching the wonderful Ken Burns Documentary on our National Parks. The explanations offered by historians and historical figures for the purposes of our National Parks are as psychologically inspiring as our parks are awe inspiring. These huge swatches of wild land are America’s greatest legacy and our most enduring monuments.

Listening to the words of the prophet of the wilderness, John Muir, I was left a bit shell shocked. I am no Muir as I visit the parks of Allentown, take a few pictures and write a bit about them on this blog. I wish I had half the intellect and talent that John Muir had. Muir walked to the Sierra Nevada Mountains and in doing so bequeathed upon anyone who steps a toe into the wild, a precedent for worship, word and knowledge. Not the worship of a god in a stone building but the worship of wonder by observation and study; words not of poesy or verse but of eyesight and witness; knowledge not of the concrete jungles and urban worlds but of the everlasting presence and eternal weight of nature.

And into the Parkway I went. Autumn had begun to make its presence known selectively on a few maples turned red, leaves swimming in the creek, and the general fade of everything from lush leaves and color to space and barrenness. Now and again, where autumn’s fingers haven’t reached it would seem to still be July, just briefly.

I climbed upon an outcropping of rock, sat and watched.

The trees were shaking violently in the wind gusts and their leaves were escaping from branches as if fleeing from an unseen threat. The water of the creek bristled in the breeze and small waves beat against the banks. There was short peace between the winds and a sense of cool calmness even as the slow smell of decay rose into the new afternoon.

Undoubtedly beautiful, but ultimately why? I did not think to stop and ask a passerby their opinion. Most of them were plugged into their iPods or focused on calories; I do not think they would have noticed if all of a sudden their surroundings up and disappeared. To those runners, this place of controlled wilderness is nothing but scenery. The National Parks are true wildernesses. Our city parks are not.

I continued walking and watching. The afternoon was cool and I could not have been more grateful. The sky was genuinely blue, with thick puffs of cumulus clouds being pushed around by the wind. Again, beautiful to be sure but what is the purpose of the Parkway? It certainly must not be a mere place to go running. Perhaps, on a smaller scale, it is exactly the same purpose that Muir saw in the cavernous valleys of Yosemite. Perhaps, John Muir has left a mark so deep in the general psyche of America that his point is ultimately mine.

As I walked on the return loop to my station wagon, I thought next of the trees. I considered what it would be like to be a tree. A tree feels no loss when a leaf falls or a storm claims one of its branches. A tree knows to grow in the direction of sunlight and does not question it. A tree never has to accept consequences because the things that happen to it are just part of the way it goes. A tree never has to move on or mourn or feel the pain of death. A tree never watches someone they love hurt or loses someone they love to someone else. A tree grows. A tree dies.

We will move on, we will mourn and feel the pain of death. We will watch our loved ones hurt. We will lose the ones we love to circumstance. We will grow. We will die. At the end of our day, we are just another animal returning to the dirt from whence we came. We go to the parks to see our mortality painted across the beauty of nature. In the small wild worlds we have in our city there are countless lessons to learn. It is time I explored what the parks have been teaching. Today, in the growing shadow of autumn I realized the first one. Unplug your iPods and listen. We go to the parks to learn, or at the very least, we should.

I leave you today, with this:

Excerpt from Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant:

To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides
Into his darker musings, with a mild
And healing sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness, ere he is aware. When thoughts
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images
Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder and grow sick at heart;--
Go forth, under the open sky, and list
To Nature's teachings

This Saturday 2:00: Litter Pick Up At Bucky Boyle Park

Just a reminder, that this Saturday we will be doing a litter pick up at Bucky Boyle Park.

The event starts at 2:00.

Feel free to bring a lunch and enjoy the park as well as clean it up.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Directions from 15th and Chew:

View Directions to Bucky Boyle Park in a larger map

Link Madness and Site Updates

The internet is an amazing resource for what seems like limitless knowledge. Given that I have been having a hard time keeping up with blog posts, I have added a list of link and blogs that are worth checking out on the side of my page.

I have also decided to, now and again, provide links to specific articles that I think are worth a read. Today, I have these five to offer. Check em out.

An old Ford plant becoming a herald of the future (autoblog.com)

Lost world of fanged frogs and giant rats discovered in New Guinea (The Guardian)

Study confirms direct link between CO2 and Antarctic Ice Sheets (Treehugger)

Dumping waste in Antarctica (The Age)

I encourage you guys to share other links worth checking out in the comments.

I knew it was bad in the creek at Jordan Park but?

I have documented the current state of Jordan park on this blog a few times:

My Plan for Jordan Park

Sunset Observation at Jordan Park

Jordan Park: Yikes

I must say, despite its condition, I never would have believed the story I saw in the Morning Call today. The headline reads: " Allentown officers catch alligator sunning itself along Jordan Creek." You can click on that to read the full story.

Yep.

An alligator.

In Jordan park.

Before I go any further I must confess my first thought when I read the article on mcall.com. I thought very simply, "Wonderful." That wonderful was uttered with serious sarcasm.

You see, folks around here are still worried about scores of poisonous snakes that will descend upon the parks like a Biblical plague of locusts if we let the grass grow, let alone establish Riparian Buffers. I am sure, that at some point in the coming months with the Riparian installation taking place at Cedar Beach Parkway, someone will tell me that there are alligators in our parks.

I understand that those pictures do not lie. There was a huge freaking alligator at Jordan Park. The gator however, was not a natural resident. Somebody, somewhere had that bad boy in their personal possession at some point and it escaped.

I am also genuinely sad I missed the chance to see that. I spent a good two weeks over the summer in our parks every day for hours trying to document the living presence of snakes and I could barely find a few garters, let alone a huge freaking gator chilling by the creek.

Status Update: What I learned on my Summer Vacation.

Hello all.

Having recently started my first fall semester since 2006, my blog updates have been a little slow lately. I am going to continue posting, no worries, but with schoolwork being my priority these days, it may be a little less frequent.

I will have posts on some local nature centers in the coming days and I will complete my travels to all the canal parks in the Lehigh Valley.

The great thing about this blog is that without it, in all likelihood, I would not be in school right now. I certainly would not be an Environmental Science major. When this began, writing this blog was something to do to occupy myself following my lay off from Starbucks.

Over time, this blog became more than an activity to pass the time. I became focused on it and I really began to love sharing my experiences in our parks and wildlands with you.

I am even more excited now because what I will be doing at Muhlenberg College will have a an awesome affect on what I am writing here. This semester, I will be traveling to local wild lands for school and will actually be doing a study on the water quality at Cedar Beach. I will absolutely be sharing those results here.

So, forgive me if I post a bit less now and then. I'm still here. I should have a Cedar Beach Construction update soon as well.

Thanks for reading. There is much more to come.

Visiting the Great Allentown Fair

Visiting the fair is a tradition when you grow up in Allentown. As a child, the fair is exciting and awe inspiring. There are animals to see, rides, carnival games and the inevitable winning of a goldfish that manages to live just long enough to name it before the flush. When you reach high school and the high hormones of your teenage years, the fair is the place to hang out.

We used to gather around the Ritz and literally just stand there. Of course, before leaving, we would be carrying a plastic bag with a goldfish in it.

Now, as an adult living a block from the fair, it is mostly a pain in the ass with traffic, parking,and scores of cowboy hat wearing undesirables meandering around the neighborhood a little tipsy, yelling something about Tim McGraw and America.

The one constant about the fair is that it means that summer is ending. The fair is the last big hurrah of the season before school starts and leaves start to fall.

Despite recognizing the rides are moderately safe at best and that the games are all rigged (saving the dart game that allows you to win a tiny poster of scantily clad ladies, the candy wheel, and of course the goldfish) and that the crowd is more than a little sketchy; there are absolutely some great things at the Fair that are worth checking out.

I made my yearly pilgrimage to the white trash Mecca of eastern Pennsylvania last night. I entered the gates where I always do, off of Liberty St on the far end. Here, for every year I have attended this event, sit hot tub salesman. Have any of you ever seen anyone walking out of the fair with a hot tub in tow? I want to know conclusively if anyone has ever purchased a hot tub at the fair. I need to know this.

I made my usual beeline to Agricultural Hall. As a kid, I never wanted to go to Ag Hall. I thought it was boring and I am sure I pitched a fit as soon as my mother said “granges.” Now, with the agricultural legacy of the fair fading, I think Ag Hall is the most important place at the fair and it is in fact the reason I go. (I stopped bothering with the goldfish after at least 10 deaths)

Here, in a corner of Ag Hall, away from the hucksters selling magic clocks that tell the time, mop the floor and sing God Bless America is a reminder of our history and our waning agricultural surroundings.

Between the Granges

and the animals



I find my reason for visiting the fair. Despite the fact that as I write this Allen St is still parked full near midnight… The roots of the fair are the reason I still go. I congratulate the farmers and gardeners that won blue ribbons or presented.

You folks are at once our past and our future. Thank you for doing what you do. We need it. These beautiful vegetables are our weapons against a chain culture of plastic restaurants and factory farming. Go Farmers!

My Riparian Top Five or Why We Need Riparian Buffers

Today, I am offering a list of the five main reasons I support Riparian Buffer installations in our park system. My personal belief actually goes far beyond the plans that the Wildlands Conservancy and the City of Allentown have offered thus far. If it was up to me, and I was the only person that used the parks, I would completely return them to nature and make them all nature preserves. Considering we are in a city with varied parks of different recreational uses and passive features, that plan would not work. Regardless, some Riparian installation needs to happen. Here are my five major reasons for supporting them.

1. Google

My original intention with this post was to make it a Riparian Buffer 101 in honor of school years starting across the county. I went to the Trexler Library to find some resources and I did, but I hit the treasure trove on Google. You see, there are cities, municipalities and counties across America (and the world) that have done Riparian Installation in their parks. There are countless scholarly articles and websites dedicated to spreading educational information about them and about their success. So, my first reason is not technically about Google but about the amount of ridiculous information available out there that support and show the great success of hundreds of Riparian projects.

2. Water Quality

Without going into too much scientific detail, and in light of reading many of those Googled articles, let me say this: Riparian Buffers have been proven to increase wildlife habitat both in the stream and around it. The Buffer acts as it is named in the event of heavy rain fall and helps keep run off from the stream and in turn dramatically lowers stream pollution. It is the thick system of roots that develop in Riparian Buffers that allow this to occur. Riparian Buffers decrease turbidity, cool the water, and help the stream maintain its natural serpentine shape; all of which improve the quality of water.

3. Wildlife Habitat

Part of the thrill in visiting a park when I was a child was the opportunity to catch a crawfish, or feed the geese, or better yet get the chance to see an egret or some large animal that I would never get to see in my backyard. Visiting parks daily, I see that same excitement in kids of all ages when they get the chance to have a genuine wildlife encounter. Reestablishing wildlife habitat helps to strengthen and keep vital the food chain and it also allows for the ecosystem to function better. I want to see herons and snakes when I am snooping around the wilder parts of the parks not eroded creek banks and dying trees.


4. Flowers

While the long green golf course parks we have now are without a doubt areas of beauty, they are also rather sterile; devoid of natural plant development and largely absent of the presence of wildlife. There are countless native species of plants that are beautiful, unique and worth study. Having a natural grass meadow and a Riparian Buffer in a park provides a multitude of opportunities to educate through natural demonstration. The flowers themselves, when in bloom are awe inspiring and truly beautiful. Nature unveiled and on display is of the grandest sights to see while alive.

5. The Pros outweigh the Cons

I have heard the same complaints about Riparian Buffer installations in various forms since the plans for Cedar Beach were announced. I will list and provide my answer to the most common of them here.

-1. There will be poisonous snakes running rampant in the buffers.
I would love to just write No here and let it be but I’ll say that I trust the word of a recognized herpetologist and I believe her to be correct. I have tried to find a poisonous snake in an Allentown city park and have yet to do so. You will be the first to know if I do but it will never happen. If for some magical reason it does, it is an escaped pet NOT a naturally occurring snake. Here is a northern water snake at Trexler park, besides this guy I have seen a few garters and that is it.

-2. You won’t be able to see the creek.
As I documented in the journey of Cedar Creek post, in Cedar Creek Parkway East a fully developed Riparian Buffer zone exits where you can still see the creek and there are mowed access points all through it. While I realize it won’t be the open view we have right now, I encourage you to visit Union Terrace or the area in Cedar Beach Parkway where the buffer will be installed and report back to me on how lovely the heavily eroded stream banks and exposed tree roots look. I’d rather have a limited view of a cleaner creek than a clear view of a muddy mess. Go sit by a fountain in a mall if you want that sterile experience that some seem to desire.

-3. Stormwater. Stormwater. Stormwater.
Every time I hear the issue of stormwater being raised, my immediate reaction is “So?” Do not misunderstand me please; stormwater is a major issue that needs to be addressed by the city soon. I am not a civil engineer so I do not presume to know what can be done to help get stormwater out of the creek. I do know that despite the presence of stormwater; it does not remove the need for Riparian Buffers nor does it make the buffers themselves useless. Doing nothing is the only thing that would be useless. Anything helps, even if it isn’t the perfect solution.

In closing, let me say that adding wildlife habitat, cleaning up the watershed where we have the opportunity to clean it up and adding a genuine experience to our parks is a common sense thing to me. I look forward to the work in October that will install these Riparian areas in Cedar Beach Parkway and I hope it serves the citizens of Allentown with the proper educational example of what we need in all our parks.

Yes, existing buffers need better maintenance but the city is new to them as well and the workers in charge of these areas are still being trained. We are a city taking small steps to a better environmental future.

As I stated above, I say without reserve that arguing against Riparian Buffer installations is simply arguing against common sense. Our parks are far from flawless and to ignore the flaws is nonsensical. After interviewing Greg Weitzel this week, I could see that he isn’t ignoring them. He certainly isn’t doing the work in the parks in the order that I would have done, but things are underway to fix these issues.

Go Buffers go. Without them, we will watch as our beloved parks fall further into sterility and environmental damage. If you really want to see the parks go to hell, don’t put in the buffers. These problems will not go away magically overnight. If you love the parks, as I do, you will see the need for these projects. There is no better way. There is no better chance to really get the wildlife experience that is missing from our parks back. Most importantly, that last thing was a mission statement of General Harry Trexler. He knew what was up 80 years ago. I cannot believe people don’t know now. They should.

P.S: Visit Jordan Park. Ten feet from the slime pool at the bridge/dam is a fledgling unsupervised Buffer zone that has helped the sickly creek enough that in the Riparian Buffer exist freshwater shellfish.

Litter Pick Up at Bucky Boyle Park

I am excited and pleased to announce that on Saturday September 19th at 2:00, I will be organizing a litter pick up in Bucky Boyle Park.

We have had two walks and a picnic in our parks and it is time that we began to give back to the parks that have allowed our wonderful experiences.

I will be looking to get some latex gloves and trash bags donated and I am going to be creating a Facebook event page for this as well as attempting to get our local media outlets to give the event some coverage.

It is my belief that the time has come for Allentonians to step it up and really start becoming more actively involved in volunteer stewardship.
I will keep up to date with information regarding this event on here.

Get ready to get some gloves on and help clean up some litter readers. It is time we started making a difference.

Any questions? Ask Away

Much more to come…

Interview with Greg Weitzel: What's Next?

Yesterday, I had the chance to sit with Greg Weitzel for a meeting about what is going on in our parks right now and what is being planned for the future. For those who do not know, Greg Weitzel is the director of Parks and Recreation for the city of Allentown. I want to thank Mr. Weitzel for taking the time from his very busy schedule to meet with me.

I opened our session by asking Mr. Weitzel what was next on the agenda for his department now that the Cedar Creek renovations are in full swing. He told me that the next major park renovation project will be taking place at Keck Park. They will be moving to clean the park up, renovate the paths and roadways as well as the parking lot.

“Keck is a very exciting project. We have just finished a series of public meeting and we are getting a lot of great feedback from the community.” Mr. Weitzel also informed me that the working plans will be finished soon and showed me a few preliminary drafts of planning maps.

He described working out the plans for a new Lehigh River Trail that will connect Canal Park and Kimmet’s lock. I interjected and asked him if the city was implementing any of the trail connectivity study. He said “The trail study is still in its planning stages. We are not implementing any of the major additions of any of that plan. There are things we can do now that can help with park connectivity but that plan is still a plan.”

I asked Greg about plans for Jordan Park and the other parks that are in disrepair in Allentown at this moment. He told me that “These problems have been here a long time. We need to figure out the best way to manage these problems. I see the problems, we are making changes in park management and we are concentrating on one park at a time. We are overwhelmed with work, and we are working hard. Jordan is a major project and it has got to be next. We need to get people involved with the project. It is a heavily used and underappreciated park. It is going to be huge.”

I asked if there were plans on the table to deal with the invasive species problem in our parks, especially the Japanese Knotweed infestation at Trout Creek Parkway.
“ There is a strategy for natural resource management being developed. We need to maintain, preserve and maximize existing beauty. We are working to manage cost, develop forest health surveys and get more education out to citizens and park employees about the removal and control of invasive species. We need an educated staff and volunteers to take care of these problems. The knotweed is going to have to be taken care of.

The riparian installation at Cedar Beach is a pilot project that will help educate and set an example. We have the responsibility to set the example for other municipalities. We can’t fix problems upstream but we will fix them where we can.”

Mr. Weitzel informed me that there are plans currently underway and quotes being taken for repairing the WPA staircases in Irving Park. He told me he considers it a priority moving forward. “There are also plans to repair the staircase at Fountain Park and that staircase will be connected to a revitalized green space attached to the playground at Jackson Street. We are making sure the lime kilns in our parks are being preserved properly too. Renovations are on the way for Stevens Park as well. We have a lot of green space outside of center city and we need to get some down there.”

Greg made it clear that there is a lot to do and it can’t be done all at once. He then explained the work being conducted at the Fish Hatchery.
“ The Trout Nursery has been in our parks since an initial partnership between watershed groups and the city of Allentown in 1949. It is visited by 4-5,000 people a month and that figure is based on the sale of fish food. The Nursery project is exciting. It is a real opportunity to educate. It is the oldest continually operated trout nursery in Pennsylvania. A generator has just been replaced that up until recently suffered numerous power outages and caused a lot of manpower to be used. We are saving a lot of manpower just by putting in a new generator. The wooden 2X4 net system will be replaced with a modern net system. The netting is a huge cost right now. The labor and materials needed to replace the wood every couple of months is too much. The #11 pond has been broken for years. Everything is being repainted. Everything is being made cost effective and efficient. There are signs that will be done by Interpretive Solutions, who did our signs in West Park, that will focus on the history of the nursery, the life cycles of the fish and will really be a major educational asset.”

Thanks again to Greg Weitzel for his time.