If you live in a town with a parks department, this essay is for you.

Most parks systems are built almost entirely for the 19% who play organized team sports. The 58% of us who walk, bird, sit on benches, and take our kids to the woods are the actual majority — but we do not form leagues for solitary morning walks, and the parks department does not hear from us.

I just published an essay that started as a meditation on a fallen cottonwood in my hometown and became a quiet organizing document for natural areas in parks. It includes the case I have been making to the Town of Normal — eight angles on why natural areas are not just a nature preference but a fiscal, demographic, and economic strategy — and a small specific ask for any reader who wants to make their voice heard in their own town.

If you have ever wondered why your local parks have so much mowed grass and so little wildness, this is for you.substack.com/home/post/…