Category Archives: parks

Dec4

adopt a ranger.

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The National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service oversee some of the country’s most treasured natural resources, from the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone to 154 national forests. Budget cuts and layoffs – more than 4,400 park rangers and other staff were fired in February — have put these lands and their stewards in jeopardy, but a grassroots initiative called “Adopt-a-Ranger” aims to help.
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Sandra Ramos, known as @nationalparkpatchlady on Instagram, launched the movement when she realized many people wanted to lend a hand but didn’t know how, she said on the Rangers of the Lost Park podcast earlier this month. Built on the “idea of community and mutual aid,” the program allows public lands staff to sign up to be ‘adopted’ by a supporter, while members of the public can  sign up to ‘adopt’ and employee. Ramos and her colleagues make the matches, and ensure each adoptee receives a care kit for the winter holidays.
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More than 500 people signed up to participate when Ramos launched the initiative – far more than the 50 she had initially expected. “Things are rough all around, but the generosity and abundance of spirit we are seeing on this project is so, so good,” Ramos wrote after seeing the response.

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‘a park ranger is a protector.

you protect the land from the people,

the people from the land, the people from each other,

and the people from themselves.”

-kurt caswell

 

 

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source credits: NPS, Good News, Nice News, photo image: joe raedle

 

 

Apr29

in quietness.

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another lovely day, another lovely park to sit in quietness.

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‘in quietness, the soul expands.’

*rockwell kent

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*Rockwell Kent, American, (1882- 1971), illustrated hundreds of books and was known as having been a painter, writer, architect, wood engraver, sailor, adventurer, voyager, political activist, laborer, lobster fishermen, union organizer, and lecturer.

 

 

 

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ann arbor, mi, usa

 

Mar11

big park, little park, and the people who share them with all of us.

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Grand Canyon National Park

Polly Mead Patraw was the first woman park ranger at Grand Canyon National Park in 1929. She was the second woman ranger-naturalist in the entire park service. 

With a botany degree from the University of Chicago, she first applied to the Forest Service but was denied. Undaunted, she was accepted shortly after to be the first woman ranger-naturalist at Grand Canyon National Park. 

Her uniform consisted of the standard National Park Service uniform and a soft-brim hat. Women’s uniforms were not available.  Her job as a ranger-naturalist included lectures, auto tours, nature hikes, and writing about her findings. She served two summer terms and continued on through the spring of 1931. Today, her legacy as a trailblazing ranger-naturalist lives on.

 

 

Shizuoka, the world’s smallest park in Nagaizumi, Japan.

If you want to take a stroll around this park in Japan, you will have to be very nimble on your toes.A park roughly the size of four sheets of paper in Japan’s central prefecture of Shizuoka was recently crowned the world’s smallest, according to Guinness World Records. Despite measuring just 2.6 square feet, the recreational space offers a stool made up of a block of wood held up by a rock, with a little bush encircling it.

From afar, it could easily be mistaken for a bonsai, an example of the Japanese art of manicuring miniature trees.The park is a short walk from the town hall of Nagaizumi, about 68 miles southwest of the capital Tokyo.

When a Nagaizumi local was on vacation in the US, “they found the previous record holder for the smallest park,” Shuji Koyama, a team leader of the town’s construction division, told Guinness. “So they wanted to create an even smaller park.”

To qualify for the Guinness title, Shizuoka officials brought in a certified surveyor to measure the park. Koyama told Guinness World Records he was relieved that the park was finally recognized.

“We want to continue maintaining the park with the community, as well as creating a landscape that is more social media friendly, so that even more people will find attractions of our town,” he said.

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‘for some people, a park is the only place in their entire world where they can see something beautiful.’

-bette midler

 

 

 

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source credits: U.S. National Park Service, Chris Lau,CNN

 

Apr12

‘all good ideas arrive by chance.’ – max ernst

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kayak vending machine

easy peasy

now if this isn’t a brilliant idea, i don’t know what is-

 
 Independence Oaks County Park now has a brand new kayak vending machine.
The cost to rent a kayak from the machine is $25 for the first 2 hours,
then $10 an hour after that. We’ll see you on the water!
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“i want to make a vending machine that sells vending machines. it’d have to be real big.”
-mitch hedberg
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Clarkston, Michigan, USA
To see more fun things to do at Independence Oaks or our other parks, visit OaklandCountyParks.com.
Aug4

parks.

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national park of american samoa

–Got plans for today? If not, you might consider heading to a national park in honor of the three-year anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act, a bipartisan law that helps protect, improve, and sustain our public lands, as well as Bureau of Indian Education-funded schools. The U.S. Department of Interior is waiving entrance fees for all of the federal land it manages to mark the anniversary, making Friday the perfect time to visit one of America’s national parks or wildlife refuges. Find a park near you.

 

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“the nation behaves well
if it treats its natural resources as assets
which it must turn over to the next generation increased,
and not impaired, in value.”
― theodore roosevelt
26th president of the united states (1901-1909)
Mar19

power nap.

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this guy….. acting all hangry and ready for spring

MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, WY – On March 7, a Yellowstone National Park wildlife biologist on a radio telemetry flight observed the first grizzly bear of 2023 to emerge from hibernation. The adult bear, estimated at 300-350 pounds, was seen near the remains of a bison carcass in Pelican Valley, in the central-eastern part of the park.  Male grizzlies come out of hibernation in early March. Females with cubs emerge in April and early May. When bears emerge from hibernation, they look for food and often feed on elk and bison that died over the winter. Sometimes, bears will react aggressively toward people when feeding on carcasses. All of Yellowstone National Park is bear country.

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“most animals show themselves sparingly. the grizzly bear is six to eight hundred pounds of smugness.

it has no need to hide. if it were a person, it would laugh loudly in quiet restaurants,

boastfully wear the wrong clothes for special occasions, and probably play hockey.” 

-craig childs, the animal dialogues: uncommon encounters in the wild

 

 

 

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credits: national park service, jim peaco, grizzly bear on swan creek flat – photo

Jun6

bursting.

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on the 100th anniversary

of this incredible peony garden

with 270+ varieties

the beauty goes on and on

leaving it impossible to pick a favorite.

 

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“in june as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day.

no man can heed all of these anniversaries; no man can ignore all of them.”

-aldo leopold

 

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w.e. upjohn peony garden, nichols arboretum, ann arbor, mi, usa – june 2022

May1

crowds.

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” i love places where there are crowds of trees.”

-nitin namdeo

 

 

 

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scio woods county preserve, ann arbor, mi, usa

Jan4

good words.

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sometimes finding good words is a walk in the park.

 

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“good words are worth much, and cost little.”

-george herbert

 

 

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gallup park in winter, ann arbor, mi, usa

 

Nov21

cloud flowers.

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finding a mushroom village – autumn in sugarbush park

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“mushrooms were the roses in the garden of that unseen world,

because the real mushroom plant was underground.

the parts you could see – what most people called a mushroom –

was just a brief apparition. a cloud flower.” 

-margaret atwood, the year of the flood