Rachel Ross
Nature Walk Assignment
Today I was taking a walk in the rain and I noticed the rain dripping from the leaves. It made me think wish that I had an umbrella to protect me like the leaves that I saw, but then I realized that I did have umbrella of a sort. I noticed that the leaves of the tree I was walking under along the street acted as a natural umbrella. I couldn’t help but notice that I was still getting wet. This was because there weren’t as many trees as there could be along the sidewalk if it weren’t paved over in cement. This thought made me realize how scarce nature can be when living in the city. I hadn’t really noticed the lack of greenery before completing this assignment. T
The trees and how scarce they were made me think of Kuo’s writing and discussion on how greenery in a neighborhood is related to social issues like crime. There has been increasing levels of crime in my neighborhood, although I would have thought our area had a lot of nature. There are trees and shrubs along the sidewalks, but there is also a loud and very visual train running overhead. The area under the train tracks is mostly greenery and acts as miniature parks. But the quality of these parks is reduced due to the large, metal raised train track. I began to wonder how this related to the increased crime in the area. Did the presence of the train tracks diminish the impact the natural environment of the area? Even though the train tracks brought more green patches to the neighborhood, these patches of greenery were ineffective because they housed large metal support beams for the train tracks.
I hadn’t really noticed this combination of urban development and many signs of the wilderness that once was here. I think my walk was more like the writings of Kuo than Muir because Kua noticed how nature affected the neighborhoods and people around it, while Muir was more attuned to how nature affects his own feelings and his own enjoyment of his walk. Upon reflection on this, I notice that Muir was pointing out in his writings the power nature can have on a single person and how important it was to notice and enjoy the nature around you. But Kuo’s work was much more scientific and looked at how nature can affect the greater population as well as the individual. During my walk, I reflected more on the impact the nature, or lack thereof, in the area affected the quality of my neighborhood, rather than myself.
