CON SER VA TION
Who visits parks?
My name is Dyaami D’Orazio and I am the first Conservation Diversity Fellow at the Open Space Institute (OSI) for 2016-2017. OSI is a land trust, working to increase the conservation of and access to natural landscapes. This middle zine came from my desire to be outside and to connect with people. It is also an addition to the Pulse of the Parks, a series of reports OSI published on park visitorship. My intention is to share some experiences and connections that people have to parks, which will hopefully encourage your own adventures. Both transportation and cost are strong inhibitors of nature adventures, but with more awareness and conversation, hopefully the gap will decrease. We must continue to pool our resources, share what we know, and encourage relationships to land and history. I want you to see yourselves in these pages, to learn something new, to feel inspired, and to strengthen a relationship to the earth that is much more than struggle. I invite you to parks, to community gardens, to make time for yourself, to heal, and to bond with others. If there is one place we should be able to be our whole selves, it is in nature. 1
I asked these questions to park visitors in a few New York State Parks:
How often do you visit parks in New York State? How far did you travel to get here? What do you like about spending time here? What connections are you making? When did your relationship to the outdoors begin? Has it changed over time? What are some of your strong memories from visiting parks?
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State Park Interview Locations 1 Thacher State Park, opened in 1914, is located
outside of Albany, New York. It offers camping, educational programming, and beautiful scenery. The park welcomes over 380,000 visitors a year and opened a new visitor center in May 2017.
2 Minnewaska State Park Preserve is located in
the Palisades region of New York. The park offers waterfalls, lakes and forests, rock-climbing, and many carriage roads to walk through. About 17% of the people who visit come from New York City.
3 Clarence Fahnestock Memorial State Park
and Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve, in close proximity to one another, hold a number of attractive hiking opportunities for many local residents and city dwellers. Park visitorship has increased significantly in the last couple of years.
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Natural Landscapes Many people visit parks for the scenery, clean air, and time to appreciate nature.
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“I like seeing this view. And walking through the trailway…I grew up outdoors…Sometimes he goes to his aunt’s house and has a big space and a creek in her backyard, so he will go out there and play.”
Zainab Al-Hadi Thacher State Park visitor
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“My family liked to go outdoors so growing up we went camping a lot in my hometown in Taiwan…I like being outdoors so it’s really nice to get away from the city…It’s nice that you can see the Hudson…because New York City is downstream. I like looking at maps…I’m like ‘Oh, so this is the Hudson Valley area’ and it’s really pretty. Even if it is just an afternoon hike, I feel like I’ve been on a weeklong vacation.”
Eve Lee
Hudson Highlands visitor
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“The views and being outside of the city. Fresh air. For me, recently, [being outdoors] just got healthy…I started hiking last year. Scrambling up Bear Mountain was amazing. Thinking that you are going to fall off, but just holding on, taking a breath, keep going. It’s awesome.”
Nicole Johnson
Minnewaska State Park Preserve visitor
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“I like enjoying the weather and fresh air. And spending time with other people…I have had a better relationship with nature since moving here…I can appreciate it a lot more now that I live somewhere where it gets really cold and you don’t get to go outside as much.” Molly Fischer Thacher State Park visitor
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A Time for Rest People choose to step away from their cell phones and other technology to enjoy each other and the outdoors.
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“I just started [hiking] more...It’s good to get away and kind of relax and not be constantly on the run.” Lisa Arthungal Minnewaska State Park Preserve visitor
“I’m a big nature guy…it’s a detox for me. I’ve done frequent hiking…but since I moved to New York, that’s not really happened too much because I’ve been in the city.” Jobin Arthungal Minnewaska State Park Preserve visitor
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“We like the trees. We like the fresh air... We started camping five years ago.” “I suggested this for today. I was like, ‘I need to go out and I need to relax’…I love doing overnights. I wake up at the crack of dawn and I see the sunrise…We just come out here to relax our minds. It’s sort of our mini-vacations. Our stay-cations. It’s like our therapy. We like when there is no reception…We don’t have to use our phones.”
Kate Landon
Minnewaska State Park Preserve visitor
“I’ve been doing this since I was in middle school with my family…We would go to different parks, find some underground caves and go spelunking…When we are here we are just ignoring everything about technology.”
Alan Caceres
Minnewaska State Park Preserve visitor
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“I came here a lot when I was younger with friends and family so I wanted to show him…. my mom always took us outside. We were never inside kids until maybe I was 12 and then shortly after I found my best friends and we did things like this.”
Carlie Johnson
Fahnestock State Park visitor
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“I disconnect from the rest of society. I like the beauty of nature. Appreciating how big the world is and how small we are.” “Not having cell phone service for the first time in a park with my friends was actually a really good feeling. I didn’t have to worry about anybody calling me or bothering me. Normally people lose cell phone service and they freak out. I lost it and I was like, ‘Darn, what a shame’.”
Doug Langridge
Fahnestock State Park visitor
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Building Connections Spending time in the outdoors allows people to connect, building relationships to each other and nature.
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“I started spending more time outside on my own [as an adult]. I felt connected to the earth and spiritually connected…I usually go with someone. It gives me time to learn more about the person that I am spending time with. We get to topics that we don’t usually get to in everyday life.”
Genesis Jimenez
Hudson Highlands visitor
“We go camping once a year…we are all friends from high school.” Kyle Chadderton Minnewaska State Park Preserve visitor
“Seeing nature is really cool…We came out here pretty much on a whim…it was a group effort.”
“He’s been going camping every year for as long as he can remember and we have all been going with him, every year.”
“Friendship. We like to come here and get a good sightsee and you know, bond and be friends.”
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Hudson Highlands visitors
Minnewaska State Park Preserve visitors
22 Thacher State Park visitors
Thank You! To the people who have paved the way before me and who continue this work. To the Open Space Institute for their knowledge and support. To my family and friends for their love. To all of you for reading!