Speaking at the Blackstone Parks Conservancy’s annual meeting at Lippitt House April 2, architectural historian Mack Woodward urged the audience to “think of what this little park is to mean to people a few years from now.” Woodward, a longtime resident of Providence, had just made his first visit to the Blackstone Park Conservation District overlooking the Seekonk River and called it “one of the most remarkable parcels of unspoiled property” he had ever seen.
Sometimes trying to protect a scrap of relatively unspoiled land in a city—a rarity in Providence–can seem like tilting at windmills. People talk of decline in the environmental movement since euphoria of the 70s, and to be sure the environment has taken a lot of blows. Yet at the tenth Land and Water Conservation Summit in March at the University of Rhode Island (URI), the mood was ebullient, noting not just setbacks but successes.
Is the glass half empty or half full?
Few would disagree that human beings continue to harm nature. Even though many more people today understand the consequences of that interference, too many feel somehow immune. Protecting our natural environment falls low on the list of priorities for public funds nowadays, and many environmentalists feel discouraged. Everyone from the Providence Parks Department to the Rhode Island Audubon Society to the Conservancy is struggling to do more with less.
Yet in Rhode Island, as Department of Environmental Management (DEM) director Janet Coit noted at the Summit, there is a lot of support, even in the city, for environmental stewardship. And doing more with less is not entirely a bad thing. Everyone can think of environmental projects flush with funds 10 or 20 years ago that failed because of incomplete knowledge or inadequate planning or insufficient maintenance. The dredging of York Pond in the early 2000s is one such project.
Mistakes offer valuable lessons and environmentalists are quick learners. No one funds expensive “end-of-pipe” projects like York Pond anymore. The 12-14-year-olds in the Audubon Urban Naturalist program at Nathan Bishop learn that what happens upstream matters downstream even more than we knew. Today, the Conservancy is working with local experts to craft a study of its 380-acre watershed.
A watershed study won’t remove the sand that piles up in the pond year after year. But a study, and more community involvement, could point the way to less pollution and a healthier wetland. Eventually it might result in less sand and salt on the streets in winter and make a difference in other watersheds and other communities as well.
Even when the odds seem daunting, environmentalists are far from ready to give up. Take the challenge of vandalism in the south section of the Conservation District, for example, where a phantom pruner has been whacking away at bull briar on the edge of Hockey Pond, destroying habitat and clearing trails, causing more erosion, perhaps without realizing the harm he is causing.
When the Conservancy asked Lt. Jon Ryan of District 9 to look at the damage, he didn’t need lengthy explanations to be convinced of habitat’s importance. He studied natural resources at URI and he already knows that woodlands enhance public health and welfare in important ways. He says you can do whatever you do to earn a living and still contribute to the environment. Improving public safety is one way of contributing.
The environmental movement now is focused on facts and priorities more than ever, and this is reflected in the young people who are showing up to volunteer at the Conservancy. They are savvy and realistic and eager to learn. They may work for a bank or a computer company, and their skills enhance their potential contribution to environmental protection.
For months the Education Committee boned up on the secrets of the woodland, and on Earth day they led the first of many trail walks. Programs for exploration and play are being designed for families and children of all ages.
Thinking about “what this little park is to mean to people years from now” is what motivates the Conservancy to challenge ignorance about the Conservation District. We invite everyone who never walked there to visit. June is the month when mountain laurel blooms set the hills alight.
Is the glass half empty or half full? As more people join us to work toward Healthy Urban Green Space for All, the more full it looks.
Jane Peterson
