I don't like warm, sunny days like today.  I prefer rain.  I am more comfortable in the rain, and it keeps the crowds away.  On sunny days, more damage happens to the park.

I have been told I am too negative, that if I want to rally people to the cause of protecting the park, I should focus on the park's positive attributes, make people fall in love with her.  Well, I have been doing that for five years with the web site dedicated to the park, www.EagleLandingPark.org.  That web site has hundreds of pretty pictures of the native plants of the park, and pages of helpful information.  If it has had a positive impact, then that must mean the park really would have gone to hell without the web site.  If people cause unnecessary damage to the park and I try to stop it, I am viewed as being too negative.  If I would speak for the park, serve as her voice, what should I say?  Should I say that nature is happy to be degraded if it gives a fleeting thrill to a thoughtless person?  Even if we forget about what nature wants, there are other park patrons to consider.  Some people, a few or many, come to Eagle Landing Park to enjoy nature.  We can't do that at the skate park or the basketball court or the soccer field.  If I tried to build a native plant garden in the middle of the baseball diamond, I would be arrested for vandalism.  If I walked into a bar and started planting trees, I would be thrown out.  The only local place that nature lovers can feel at home is in quiet places like Eagle Landing Park.  Yet, if I dare to ask people to ride their bikes, swing their sticks, drink their beer, smoke their drugs in some more appropriate place, then I am the bad guy.

Mothers are the worst.  You expect vandalism from boys of a certain age because that's what they do.  Mothers, however, have the shield of motherhood, and because they are ostensibly caring for children, you are expected to accept anything and everything they allow their kids to do.  Parents have allowed or encouraged their children to trespass on neighboring property, tear out plants, trample sensitive areas, and take home bags full of rocks and shells that they are just going to throw out sooner or later.  Mothers look on with pride as their children blaze new paths through the native plants or hack up a sword fern with a stick.  They encourage their children to scream.  If you dare to suggest they ask their children not to damage or disturb the park, you will be greeted with scorn or rage.  There are certainly parents who teach their children respect for nature, but they are not in the majority.  Most of the mothers expect their children have a right and even a duty to destroy public property.  That's what it's there for, so their children can have a moment's idle entertainment.

Today, two women walked up the trail with three boys flailing at the bushes with sticks.  My youngest dog tends to get excited when people make sudden, inexplicable movments near him, so I moved to the side to get my two dogs far away from the stick-swinging boys.  One of the women made a comment about one of my dogs.  I kept my attention on the dogs in order to help the puppy feel calmer in the presence of the boys, and also to avoid telling the mothers they ought to respect nature.  For keeping quiet, I got told I was rude.  In the eyes of many, the family is so sacred that any transgression must be overlooked.  In fact, we are supposed to praise the disruption a family causes because they are happy, which is the important thing.  Okay, then, what about the family of eagles that has to abandon a place named Eagle Landing Park in order to find a little peace?  What about the families of the Douglas squirrels and the robins and the flickers?  Oh, only human families count.  And if I even dared to think otherwise, it is proof of my antisocial behavior.  People who destroy nature are normal, and people who think nature should be protected are negative.

I can certainly put it in a positive way, as I have been doing for five years.  If you treat nature with respect, then it will still be here for you to visit in the future.  If you would like to engage in sports where you can throw things and swing sticks, the taxpayers have provided facilities exactly for that purpose.  If you would like to do illegal drugs, no one will know or care if you go to your own home and do them.  If you want to have sex, then I think that's great!  You can have sex with any man or woman who consents, and you can go do it at home where you don't have to trample a restoration project.  And I applaud your use of condoms as long as you don't leave your used condoms in the park for any child or dog to find.  I think it is great that you are riding a bike, and there are miles of road where you can do that.  If you want to ride your bike on dirt trails, nearby facilities have been created just for that purpose.  I want you to engage in any recreation that pleases you, and you will better be able to enjoy that sport if you go to the facility expressly created for that purpose.  If you want to enjoy recreations specifically suited to a nature park, you can engage in bird watching, geocaching, beach combing, or simply walking in peace and quiet.  You can walk your dog on a leash, which keeps him safer.  You can take your dog to the off-leash park if you want him to run free and play.  I suggest people learn to treat nature with respect for their own benefit and enjoyment.  Nature is endlessly wonderful and fascinating, and the more you appreciate it, the richer your life will be.

If I were to speak for nature and be the voice of Eagle Landing Park, I guess I should say something like this.  "All are welcome here.  If you treat me gently, I can be a benefit for you in the future.  I am utterly at your mercy, and I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to enjoy my many unique features found nowhere else in the city.  We can work together, and I can benefit you as you benefit me.  Any damage you cause me will take years to reverse, and I will appear degraded in the mean time.  If you help keep this a beautiful place, then you will always have a beautiful place to come to.  If you want this forest to look like a junkyard, then that is your choice.  I can only be of value to you if you treat me as valuable.  This fragile beauty is yours to embrace or discard.  If you hurt me, you are only hurting yourselves, depriving yourselves of something that cannot be found elsewhere."

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