Naturalist Essay

My walk took place through a residential and urban area. As I began my walk, the time was mid-morning, close to noon. The atmosphere was quiet and tranquil. I enjoy walking during the morning because less people are out and the streets feel calm.
Walking down these residential areas, I hear birds chirping and walking on the ground, possibly looking for food. I also observe squirrels running through lawns. I see the green of the lawns and hear the rustling of leaves. Some houses have different colored flowers, which attract butterflies!
I usually don’t pay much attention to the lawns, but on my walk, the green color seemed to be brighter than usual. I also noticed a lot more squirrels than I usually see. It is easy to take trees for granted but I did appreciate the shadows they created.
I would not pay much attention to the nature around me since I did not really think there was much nature. Now, I can see that nature is everywhere, even in the city. Nature interacts with me every day, mostly when birds release their waste on my car. I interact with nature when I relax underneath a big, wide tree.
My walk was more like Kuo’s writing, but with some Muir in it. While I did not have to hurdle over rocks and climb dangerous hills/mountains, I did enjoy my walk through “nature”. Living in a huge urban area, we must appreciate and take care of the limited green areas we have. My “nature” was green lawns and big trees, and not the middle of nowhere area that Muir was in. Kuo’s and Muir’s writings were different in that the first is a scholarly and scientific article, while the second is a descriptive narrative of an event. Muir is describing his love for nature and his surroundings, while Kuo is observing and testing the effect of green areas in urban locations. However, Kuo also explores urbanites’ positive feelings towards nature.

Naturalist Essay By Meaghan Dries

For my nature walk I chose to go to Waterfall Glen, a forest preserve. I chose this place because I have walked, hiked, and biked through it many times before. The nature that I encountered is a bit more diverse than my every day activities. There are the usual prairie grasses and flowers along the walking paths that serve as homes to small animals like squirrels and chipmunks that one can occasionally see scurrying by. The walking paths also are surrounded by tall trees whose canopies filter the sun’s light creating shady areas. As I continued down the paths there are small ravines that drop into a creek where one can usually spot small frogs and fish in the water. Following the creek, I came upon the waterfall that the preserve is named for. It is a small water fall that is surrounded by rocks that have turned green from the algae and such. If you go during the right time of year there are usually ducks and geese that play and cool off in the water.

This experience with nature is much different than my day to day encounters. Usually I am on the go and do not pay attention to the nature that I cross paths with. But being in a forest preserve with nothing but time gave me the opportunity to pay attention to aspects of nature that I generally would overlook. I noticed more animals and their tracks on my walk than I would have noticed normally. I was surrounded by trees and plants on my walk which gave me a feeling of being immersed in nature. Usually I see trees and fields on an everyday basis but the same kind of immersion feeling never hits me. In my day to day life I do not think that I appreciate nature the same way as I do when I am camping or spending the day in a preserve. I realize that I tend to overlook or ignore that nature that I am accustomed to seeing and that I should make an effort to pay closer attention to the nature that surrounds me.

The writings by Muir and Kuo were stylistically different. Kuo’s article was much more scientific discussing how green space and trees can change and environment and the ways that people interact with each other and their environment. I found this to be true on my walk because there were many families and couples that seemed to be taking time out of their everyday lives to walk or bike together. The preserve seemed to be a good medium through which positive socialization can and does take place, and as Kuo points out this could be because of the invitingness of the green space and trees. Muir’s article on the other hand, seemed more like an archived play by play of his personal encounters with nature and all the different aspects that he attends to and notices. This was similar to my thoughts as I walked through the preserve because I found myself thinking about the plants, animals and scenery that I was encountering and paying closer attention to the details. The way the trees swayed in the wind, and the sounds of the water trickling down the rocks of the waterfall.

Nature Essay

For my nature walk I decided to take the scenic route home from where I work on North Avenue and Sheffield. My walk took me down North Avenue, which is primarily a commercial district until you get closer to the park by the beach. From there, I then decided to walk along Clark back to my apartment on Dickens. I chose this route because the Kuo's finding stuck out to me between the two readings. Each reading provided a different approach towards interacting with nature. From Muir's reading, the reader observed a person who actively and intentionally participated with nature. Muir's emotions were produced through a conscious involvement with a wild natural setting. Though this was a very clear example of the idea "getting in touch with nature", I found the attitude of my walk to be more aligned with the findings in the Kuo article. Here, nature seems to affect people at a more subtle level. Green cover and a healthy balance of natural ambience provides a beneficial setting for humans. It was not so much that the people were taking in nature in the way that Muir did in the wilderness. Nature seemed to encourage a sense of security and benevolence among the housing residents.
The beginning of my walk was rather sparse in terms of nature. There are some trees on North Avenue, but these are the thin little ones that make one remember how out of place they seem next to the giant buildings. As I got closer to the beach, I also began to approach my neighborhood from last year. The area is farther east towards the lake and heavily covered with trees. The interesting thing about this neighborhood is that along with affluent homes in the area, there are several Section 8 housing buildings. Now, I found it ironic after reading Kuo's article how comfortable I had become in this area. A few minutes south on Sedgewick past Division, one will come across a sparse view of what remains of the Cabrini Green housing development. Looking a bit farther west, there are more empty lots along with another decrepit public housing building on Halsted. Naturally, the weed filled lots, abused buildings, and open space does not make me feel comfortable at all, but it is not like my old neighborhood was perfect either. While I was living there, three robberies occurred right next door to me, and there was a CPD blue light district a block away from my apartment. Yet, simply because my neighborhood had more tree canopy than a few blocks over, I felt ten times more comfortable.
Now on my way home along Clark by the park, I witnessed plenty of nature. There were fully grown trees, a fresh breeze from the lake, and pigeons that seem to have no fear of me as I approach them. The one thing that I really took notice of was the level of sound. The quiet peace really was a nice break from the constant progression of cars and buses. These are things I take for granted really when I am in nature, but they subconsciously create this sense of comfort for me when I am out there. What really got me thinking were the activities people did out in nature. Though it is a thing we all take for granted, nature provides a sense of refreshment (at least in my opinion). People read, run, lounge, and even do yoga at the park when they could probably do all these things inside with a lot more privacy. When I'm outside from day to day, however, activities become much more worthwhile than if I did it in the comfort of my home. It is not like in the Muir reading where I find myself actively taking in nature. It is more so like Kuo's article, where having a natural setting influences me to have a positive attitude in what I am doing. Now, can I say I intentionally consider nature on a day to day basis? To be honest, I do not think so. For the most part, my day to day interaction with nature is what I already described. A brief acknowledgment in the weather or how pleasant it is outside, and I move on with what I need to do, while enjoying a sense of comfort generated from natural surroundings.

Naturalist Essay

On my observational nature walk I decided to start walking from south down Kenmore at Webster. I chose the route because I thought it would fit nicely with Frances Kuo’s essay on the link between “green space” and a social health. The area of on Kenmore that I started on is just outside of DePaul’s campus in Lincoln park and there is a lot of trees and green vegetation everywhere around you. As you walk south the trees that line the roads by the beautiful houses constantly shade your head. However, I knew that as I continued south I would start entering more impoverished areas like Cabrini Green. Sure enough by the time I was at North and Hasted the land was much more barren. After a very short stint in Cabrini Green I ,think but am not sure, headed west the Brown Line Sedgwick stop to head back. The more west I moved and away from Cabrini I went the greener and nicer the community was.
I didn’t really notice anything physically different then I normally would have but I did notice a strong connection between green space and social adhesiveness that I had not thought about before. I really love the nature around me. In the city it is really hard to be surrounded by nature but when you do fine a place in the city that has a lot of trees around you I feel a lot happier and more positive about everything. It makes me feel like I’m not just a bum sitting in an apartment. Being out side gives me a fresh feeling about life.
Nature interacts with my life in a lot of ways, way more then you could count. For one everyone wonders weather or not its going to be warm or cool out that day to decide what to were. I ask my self all the time if I think it will rain so I can make sure my bike is inside. I also feel safe letting my cat out because I know there are a lot of safe areas for him to explore because of all the “nature” around. There are also ways we interact with nature everyday as well. Humans are constantly driving cars, cutting down trees or plants and basically keeping everything nice and neat in nature, especially in the City.
I think my walk was an interaction more described by Kuo, mostly because I sort of set up my walk to be an experiment of his analysis. I purposely walked from a socially higher area to a lower one to try and test for my self if there were fewer trees in run down areas. Muir’s walk would have been a beautiful one but in the city I think it is hard to find such pristine beauty as Muir was describing.

Nature Walk Assignment

Nature Walk

Every morning I take a run from Fullerton and Racine to Lakeshore drive where I follow the bike path all the way to Navy Pier. Each time I experience something different, whether it is in the people I see, the events taking place, or how the city is being used. Although, there is a dominant aspect that is pertinent in what I observe. Every time I encounter people inhabiting the city, more so in the places and spaces where nature really exists. Where trees and flowers are flourishing, where the natural bodies of water can be seen, where sand and green grass lay, and where people can really interact with the natural elements of the world. After reading the various articles posted to Blackboard, I realized that if the theory of the study of Defensible Space (DS) is proven true, than the city of Chicago that I see on my way to the Lakefront everyday is a great indicator of how the presence of trees and grass invite people in and allows social ecology to form.

This particular morning I decided to walk in between my daily run, in short to take a breather and give me legs a day off, but also to really observe the nature around me and focus on the elements of nature I normally don't see as I am whizzing by. 

          I encountered a few changes through the beginning of my walk. Mostly  surrounding the current construction plans that are interfering with my view of the beauty of Lincoln Park, but also the new "L" stop had caught my eye. This is an element of our city that has been under construction for what seems like forever, but now that it is finished it surprisingly makes the nature of our city look a little bit brighter and even cleaner. 

As I walked through the area of restaurants with outside seating I realized how many people would rather be outside than sitting inside. I came across long streets filled with houses but from those houses were people jumping out of their doorsteps and onto the pavement to walk their pets, go for a brisk walk or jog and this I think is because there's so many "urban" places to go that provide a habitat for both nature and people to exist. I walked past the large parks right before I got to the lake, the parks where the trees stand tall, and the grass is vibrantly green, and amidst all of this beautiful nature were people entrenched in it, playing frisbee, flying kites, lying on the grass reading a book, writing, or having a picnic with their kids. It was evident on my walk that the city is very much alive. However, I came to the conclusion that it's alive because there are places like the parks, the lake, the beach, the farmer's markets, the zoo, that make this city a likely place for a "healthier ecosystem" than others. 

I finally made my way to the lake front where I saw numerous aspects of nature. The water crashing upon the rocks, the tree leaves finally making their way to the ground, and the grass and the sand sticking out amongst all the other colors. Here, people are biking, roller-blading, running, kayaking, sailing, boating, sitting and enjoying the weather, playing volleyball, and soccer. Today there was an event at North Avenue where it seemed like hundreds of families were helping out a cause to make the city cleaner as they contributed in cleaning up the trash on Lakeshore. This also relies on the "Children's Access to Adults Outdoors" that was presented to us in the Arboriculture study, because everything I saw on my walk affirmed these types of interactions because the nature allows for this to exist and acts as a common interest for both kids and adults. 

The nature of this City, to some, may not be as present as other cities. But as I really payed close attention to what I saw and what surrounded me, I was able to clearly see the nature in everything from the grass to the interactions of people outside. 

Naturalist Essay

For my nature walk I decided to walk down Fullerton to the beach. Even though I did not go to a park or somewhere there would be a lot of trees and other nature, I encountered a lot of nature on my way to the beach and also at the beach. There was the water and sand and also trees at the beach, and on the way to the beach there were trees and many flowers. I have walked to the beach down Fullerton before but this time I took a closer look to all of the nature around me. Once you pass Lincoln Ave. you get to a lot of the apartments and houses and that is when you see a lot of the trees and flowers. Down the side of the street there are trees almost every couple of feet. Because the seasons are starting to change some of the leaves have started to fall off and a lot of them have started to change colors as we come into the autumn season. Some other nature I came across was flowers. A lot of the houses had flowers planted in front of them and also around the trees on the side of the street.

Walking down to the beach today I took a closer look at the flowers in front of the houses. I saw a patch of really pretty purple flowers with some bees flying around them. I usually wouldn’t look so closely to see the bugs around them but because I looked so closely today I noticed that these flowers were the prettiest ones that I came across. I also noticed that there are a lot of trees once you get out of the apartment part of the walk and you walk by The Lincoln Park Zoo and are almost at the lake. There are a lot of different paths and trails that you can walk or run with lily ponds and trees all throughout them. I never really noticed that there were so many places that you could sit and relax or go running through with so much nature going on through them.

On a daily basis I usually don’t think about nature very much when I’m walking around outside. I usually have a purpose of why I’m outside and walking so I don’t think about anything else but why I’m walking somewhere. If I have time or I am just walking outside because it’s a nice day then I think about nature a little differently. I take notice to the little flowers that are growing or how the leaves are changing. While I am inside though, I don’t think about nature except for the weather. How nature interacts with me on a daily basis is the weather. The weather everyday tells me what to wear. It also tells me if I need to leave a little bit earlier than usual because the weather isn’t very good that day. Also I interact with it everyday when I choose to not liter. Those are some ways how I interact with nature and how it interacts with me.

My walk was more like Muir’s because I wasn’t doing research on my walk. I was just taking a walk and seeing how much nature was around me that I never noticed before. I wasn’t trying to analyze if there were a lot of people in the park rather than somewhere where there weren’t a lot of trees or nature happening. The two writings differ where Muir’s writing is about how he is in nature and how he was one with nature. He tells us how he was interacting with nature while he was walking through the canyon. Kuo’s writing was research about how trees affect parks and open spaces. The writing was a lot of research methods and the results to the experiments that were happening.

Naturalist Essay

I chose to walk from DePaul’s campus to the North and Clyborn stop. As I walked down the tree-lined streets I began to pay closer attention to my natural surroundings. I encountered lots a vegetation growing between the concrete sidewalks. Most of this appeared to be grass or some sort of weeds. When I usually walk these same streets on a daily basis, I do not notice the trees or the flowers that line the streets. On my walk I started to pay particular attention to small flowerbeds in front of apartment buildings and houses. I noticed that many of the flowers that appear on the city streets in residential areas seem to be planted and maintained by the residents. On streets that are more commercial, I noticed that some of the vegetation appears to be more uniform. As I walked past newer and well-kept houses, I saw that much of their landscape appeared professional and somewhat fake. There were some extremely contemporary houses that appeared to be recently built that had rocks in the front yard instead of grass. Some houses even boasted concrete structures in the there front courtyards as opposed to greenery. I also noticed that the less well-kept houses had much more natural and less manicured vegetation. These houses often had grass that was overgrown and spots in the yard that were barren of any vegetation. Many of the streets that I walked down had multiple small trees on each block. I noticed that a small patch of dirt often surrounded the bases of these trees with bricks. The bricks seemed to be popping up from the ground due to the roots of the trees.
On a daily basis when I am going to class, I do not usually pay close attention to nature. When I go on walks during the weekend, I feel that I interact with nature more. Before moving to Chicago I felt that I never really interacted with nature. Even though I lived in a less urban environment, I drove my car more than I walked. Walking was not a part of my daily life. Now, I walk or take public transportation everywhere I go so I am forced to interact with nature more actively. Although I live in an extremely urban environment I am outside everyday no matter the weather. Nature really determines how I go about my daily life. It is raining I might not choose to walk to the grocery store. My feelings change when I am outside. I usually feel more awake if I walk to class on a sunny morning instead of driving in my car.
My walk was similar to the interaction described in Kuo’s writing. Kuo’s writings were very statistical and straightforward. I found it easier to explain key details of my urban walk based around particular natural elements that I noticed. I think I took Kuo’s approach because I was in an urban environment and it was easier to point out the small details of nature instead of the overall beauty. John Muir’s writings were much more poetic explaining the deep feeling that comes from being surrounded by complete nature. Muir explained nature by living, breathing, and exploring nature for an extended period of time. The Kuo perspective was much more modern and tailored to an urban environment. Muir’s writings were based on opinions and observations, which made me, want to explore nature more in-depth. However there was nothing exceptionally scientific about Muir’s observations. Kuo’s writings were based on a study and facts. Each of the two writings shows how human interaction with nature can be beneficial.