Naturalist

Because we had already discussed the man made effort to maintain nature around the Lincoln Park campus, I chose to explore a route I was unfamiliar with and chose to explore the Wicker Park area.
The nature I encountered was pathetic, and was only met when I took a wrong turn and got lost. As I tried to re route I noticed I was walking beside a wired gate that was mostly covered by a dark net. Behind the blocked wall was an unkempt and littered space. Aside from the obvious bottles and cans, the city was also using the space for damaged road blockers and traffic signs. I think the space I came across was the most interesting I had seen that day. Here was a native space where trees grew on their own and where natural grass struggled to grow but yet, not one thing was being done to benefit the area.
This walk and realization was depressing. Up until now, I had lived in New England for my entire life so the Fall season is the time of year where nature is most obvious. The fact that you can actually watch the process of the season change is astonishing and the lack of that sense in my life for the past two years is upsetting. But in my experiences with nature in New England and in Chicago I am able to recognize the differences in a city and can appreciate the effort being made to maintain nature anywhere in it.
My feelings toward nature changes with my location. For example, my feelings for my everyday routine in the nature I am most used to stays neutral and unthought-of. But if I am in a place like the Pocono Mountains or Vermont (where you are so visibly immersed in nature), my feelings in that environment are more appreciated and enjoyed. Where I interact with nature by living in and respecting a space, nature interacts with me by providing essential resources like oxygen and food.
The Kuo and Muir articles were different in that Kuo focused more on the cause and effect actions within an urban space while Muir wrote to depict the beauty of an submerged natural space. My walk around Wicker Park was more relatable to Kuo’s findings in ‘The Role of Arboriculture in a Healthy Social Ecology’. One point in particular was the ‘Sense of Safety’. He argues that the nature of trees provides city residents with a greater sense of security. Specifically stating that, “ individuals living adjacent to greener common spaces reported that they felt both safer and better adjusted than did their counterparts living adjacent to relatively barren spaces (152).” I noticed this on my walk and felt that the unkempt and non artificial spaces that I passed was resultant to a more dangerous area. I found that when I tripped and cut my toe, I was most concerned with which disease the nature of Wicker Park would give me. Furthermore, I would feel differently in Lincoln Park. There are trees planted everywhere, the parks are very much maintained and if I had cut my toe in Lincoln Park I would be less concerned with the possible diseases that could come my way.