Life in Naperville is enhanced by 137 parks and facilities that promote exercise, fun, and mobility for children and adults.
Parks for use by the public is historically a recent concept. Originally, parks were merely playgrounds for royalty and elites. President Ulysses S. Grant established Yellowstone as the first national park in 1872, and the National Park Service (NPS) was founded only in 1916, unique in the world. Even today, few countries in the world have a system of public parks that encourage their citizens to see the beauty of nature and protect the land from over development.
Our parks also lift up the value of our natural environment. China, as a counter-example, felled millions of trees to feed industry in the 1950’s, leaving vast areas permanently scarred and useless.
Parks preserve bits of the environment, help maintain the water table, and provide spectacular views of giant redwoods or merely scenic vistas. Without them, the redwoods would have all been harvested for lumber, and other areas destroyed by resource exploitation. In national parks, you see the natural beauty without the encroachment of hotels or casinos.
I was introduced to the National Park Service when I read Author Nevada Barr’s thrilling mysteries as seen through her protagonist Anna Pidgeon, an NPS ranger. Her novels allow me to visit parks I personally may never see. I have been to 18, but I’m nowhere near seeing all 61.
My family has personally enjoyed our national parks. My aging mother described the Grand Canyon as “so Grand.” My young daughter and nephew marveled at the smoking ground in Hawaii and Yellowstone. My granddaughter was delighted at the deep blue of Oregon’s Crater Lake.
Our parks are treasures to be admired and protected. While we may not be travelling to the national ones, we ought to be enjoying our local ones.
