Naturalist Essay

I walk through my backyard botanical garden and think to myself, “How grateful I am for this piece of land that others call wasteful and I call peaceful.” The place that I chose for my walk happens to be the same place where I have taken more than five dozen walks every time I needed a place to think or just to relax. My family and I live in a townhome neighborhood and our section of townhomes happens to have their back yards facing the park and piece of conserved land, present upon entering the sub-division. The city I live in, Lake in the Hills is approximately 37 miles from Chicago, about an hour drive up northwest from downtown. My peaceful retreat trails across approximately ten acres of land starting at the neighborhood children’s park and ending with the creek running through to the connecting home sub-division. I really love walking on our trail because it has many facets to it from the park, to the soccer field, to the marsh and tall grasses, to prairie, and then to the forest and the creek.

The soccer field is covered with extremely lush green grass, at the edge of the field starts the marshy land where tall grasses dominate the terrain and we know fish are present because when we have heavy rains that flood the field, the fish swim out onto it. Many trees line the edges of the marsh land and among the tall grasses are flowers that flourish in the water, have no clue as to what they are called, and as the trail continues the land gets dry and the prairie begins. The prairie looks very desolate to me as the tall grass here is a lot drier, characterized by its golden color and not much else is present besides dirt. The last portion of the walk is dominated with the view of the miniature forest which has many trees, as one would assume, alongside different types of flowers, cute tiny purple and white ones, dandelions, and although I am not sure if they are flowers but these brown ball like flowers that stick to your clothing when you throw them. The forest contains many birds, as their beautiful singing is clearly heard and we have had sightings of coyotes and foxes. I then conclude my walk at the creek, where the water is crystal clean and I can always see schools of little fish swimming around in between the pebbles and rocks and as my little cousin Gabe showed me, frogs are abundant.

This trail is always a pleasure to take a walk on offering much tranquility but I have noticed that there is a lot more trash lying around here and there and especially the creek. I am assuming that this is due to the fact that over the summer we have had a lot more people visit the park and trail, as every summer. This is really upsetting because I see that the people leaving this trash around are teenagers and adolescents proving that their either disregarding what they are told or are taught the wrong thing. I cannot say that I am extremely in tune with nature, meaning I cannot name all the flowers, trees and types of birds I see on my walk but I do enjoy the outdoors and I care for the environment I am in by not littering, recycling and not destroying nature. I believe that I must care for the nature that interacts with me, the nature that offers me peace and a place to play and enjoy my outdoor activities. My family and I spend a lot of time outside, having picnics, cook outs, and playing sports and so we care for it. According to Kuo’s article nature, let alone the presence of trees, has an extremely positive effect on communities and I believe that this account holds true in my neighborhood simply by seeing the amount of people who use the trail and park and the conversations sparked due to the common time spent. My walk I would say is like the interaction described by both Kuo and Muir because Kuo made me aware of the social implications of nature and Muir simply gives ode to nature and the spiritual and calming effect that it has on its observers. I find that the two authors are more alike than different because they are not opposing each other but rather they coincide. The only difference is the way that these authors approach nature, Kuo with a scientific approach displaying the good effect that nature has on people and communities besides making it look pretty and, Muir with an artistic approach displaying the natural beauty of nature and how simply viewing it, wondering about it, and discovering it is good for the person inspiring awe and an awareness of our surroundings.