American Realities with Bill Youngs
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New York's Central Park: A Wilderness?

6/13/2013

5 Comments

 
One of the central themes in my course, The History of the American Wilderness, is the question, how do you define wilderness? I took this picture last fall (2012) from a hotel room high high above Central Park. On the right is the city of New York, and on the left is -- the wilderness. Please bear with me as I make my case....
Picture
Looking down I could see a forest...

Picture
and a lake shore -- well, at least a pond shore.....

Picture
and "hikers" beside the pond....

Picture
One swallow doth not a summer make, nor a pond and a few trees, a wilderness. But bear with me as I take the elevator down 33 floors from my hotel room perch to Fifty-Ninth Street and Central Park. Here is a forest scene in the park redolent of the "great outdoors"...

Picture
And another....

Picture
To conclude my argument for Central Park as wilderness, I will invoke two themes from my wilderness class: (1) We should answer the "is it wilderness" question by utilizing a spectrum involving total wilderness ("way out there") on one side and total urbanization ("not out there") at the other side. Certainly Antarctica, say, is a lot farther toward the way out there side of the spectrum than any city park. But then a park has more of nature than, say, a shopping mall. By this measure, Central Park is abundant in natural flora and fauna, features of a wilderness. (2) Wilderness is in part a state of mind. We can be closer to wildness while contemplating fully a tiny forest, for example, than we are in wilderness when walking in Turnbull National Wildlife Reguge or beside Walden Pond if our minds are "sicklied o'er with a pale cast of thought" -- as in wondering how to pay the bills or repair the car. 

Before saying goodbye for the moment to Central Park, I'll post a slide show with more views of this wonderful place.



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5 Comments
Patricia Lou Chambers
6/13/2013 03:33:05 pm

another interesting and beautifully illustrated article... It is thought-provoking to think of Central Park as "wilderness" and you make your case well by putting it on a sliding scale of "wild-ness" ...my perception has been enhanced and I will now look for and evaluate naturalized, and natural ares in light of this....

Reply
Bill Youngs
6/13/2013 05:15:31 pm

Thanks for the comment, and I'm glad you can put the "sliding scale" idea to use. I have found it very helpful in my class.

Reply
Guy Breshears link
6/13/2013 04:39:36 pm

It depends on how you define "wilderness". In Hong Kong what is considered "countryside" would be considered "suburban" in the United States. There really are no"forests" here in HK. The best HK has is "country parks" which are large green areas in an otherwise urban jungle.

Reply
Bill Youngs
6/13/2013 05:14:04 pm

My total time in Hong Kong was about 24 hours, but I think I remember a forest of sorts at the top of a high hill overlooking the city -- is that possibly an exception to the "no forests"?

Reply
Guy Breshears
6/13/2013 05:38:54 pm

there maybe trees but no forests. just something to green up a gray jungle.




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       Some years ago, while writing a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt I jotted this note in my journal: "I want to tell the stories of American History as though I were among friends, sitting beside a fire." In this web site and blog I aim to tell some of those stories in words, images, films -- and with other media marvels.

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