Kelli Michek:
(November 4, 2011)
State and National Parks serve many needs: preservation, recreation, management, and employment, to name a few. One of the best purposes parks serve, along with all other forms of public lands, is to provide a natural area for people, especially those who live in cities and may not have the opportunity to experience that kind of place anywhere else. The nature has a way of changing the way people feel, whether it is a beautiful view or the quietness of the forest.
For me, the feeling cannot quite be put into words. I grew up on our family farm in southwest Wisconsin. We lived just a half hour from a state park, but I did not realize how close it was for many years, because I did not need to drive anywhere to experience the great outdoors. I could just walk out my back door and experience a wonderful natural environment. I took it for granted that I could do this everyday, whenever I wished. Looking back, I cannot imagine growing up any other way. It was how I escaped a long, frustrating day and how I entertained myself in my free time.
Living in town has made me appreciate what I had back home and allows me to fully enjoy what I have there when I return. I know I am not the only one that feels this way, but what I am more interested in is how people who have lived in town all of their life feel. Which brings me back to m original thought: State and National Parks and other public lands. Public land allows people to enjoy the natural world even if they do not own land themselves.
I assume public land is the best place for people who do not own their own land to go and experience the natural world, but I am not completely aware, as I never had this problem. For me public lands, specifically state parks, were a special trip to take with family and friends, but for others I know it was different. I remember my aunt taking my brother, my cousins, and me to our local state park because that was something they did on a regular basis. The state park was one of the few places they could go to experience the outdoors on that large of a scale, unlike my brother and me who had experienced it nearly everyday of our lives. I wonder how this affects the way they view their world and experiences in it. I am very happy everyone has a chance to experience the natural world and that public lands can make that opportunity possible. In the current state of the economy and with budget cuts, I hope our legislative body can recognize the importance of these areas and keep up adequate funding to public lands. My outdoor experiences will forever affect me and I am glad others get the chance to have the same type of wonderful experiences. I hope everyone appreciates the opportunities that public lands provide as much as I do.
4 comments:
I would have to agree that I also grew up close to the outdoors which I might have taken for granted compared to people that I know from big cities who did not grow up so near to these public areas. The nice thing about being in Northern Wisconsin you are usually close to a state park or a national forest where you can do many things all year round for recreation.
It is hard for me to imagine growing up without the surrounding natural areas I was blessed with. Did you know there are more than 650 State Natural Areas? Not all state parks, some are just little chunks of special places--many contain endangered species of plant and animal. Check out Wisconservation.org.
I can say with confidence that I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for the influences of nature. I myself also grew up in an area with large areas of forested land. I grew up in and around the Menominee Reservation where the tribe is known for their sustainable forestry activities. This meant I had about 240,000 acres of forested land to roam about. If I had grown up in the city I do not think I would appreciate nature the way I do now and be as involved with it. Nature has so much to offer and I think that people who grow up in the city do not know what there is to appreciate in its entirety. I think it is awesome that people that live in the city have the opportunity to go to a state park and experience nature. This exposes them to some of the benefits nature has to offer. Although I do not think a lifetime city dweller would have as much appreciation for nature as someone who’s been exposed their whole life; I do however believe that people that live in the city greatly benefit from having state parks available. Great blog post!
You all seem to agree: For some reason, these outdoor experience have some of the greatest impacts on us (after all, we all chose a natural resource major). We cannot even imagine what our lives would have been like without these experiences. And to think that people the live in cities wouldn't be able to have anything like that without the help of public lands. I guess you probably wouldn't miss something you weren't aware of in the first place, but we know that they would be missing something really great.
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