For this month of October, I decided to change to a different park that was recently opened couple years ago called Copperfield Park. I remember the place, growing up when it was just filled with plain forestry, with a very very small path one could crouch in and follow. I consider this park “positively modern,” and the reason for it is because to my opinion, it’s a park that does not negatively impact the environment or the community, everyone benefits compared to Harris Branch that I observed last month. Electric poles lie on the outside borders of the park, and the wires run just above.
Many different types of plants grow here, such as the Sawara Cypress, paperbark maple, white ash (fraxinus Americana), cactus, poison ivy, corkscrew willow (salix matsudana), some bits of mesquite, sweet gum (liquidambar styraciflua), Live oak, and some type of a blue kind of plant that not even leaf snap could identify. I found this plant rare as this is probably the second time I’ve seen it. The beautiful aspect I see from this park is all the biodiversity that exists. There are parts that we can consider circles that have over 5 different things growing.
The first three times I came during this month of October, there were many people that were coming to exercise and just enjoy their time here at the park. It seemed that after the rainy days many mosquitoes began to surround the park, I was bit many times when I decided to go on Sunday the 26th, after 5:00PM when it was 83*F. On this Sunday, I also noticed a river that’s just at the side of the park, filled with algae that seemed abandoned, I question if it’s been like this since the park was built or if it was an event just recent.
In addition during the four times I came, I observed different animals that also enjoy coming to this park and seem to live in between the grassy areas. I noticed birds come, mice/rats and perhaps snakes from what it sounded like, although one interesting thing was I did not see any ants on this park. The other thing that I liked about this park were the types of trails it carries, these types a trails I wouldn’t consider as a barrier to species, as it’s simply a path that someone could jog through, and at the same time have some animal cross easily unlike roads.
For my last observation, I decided to go just before 3:00PM on the 31st and see if time had any effect to the park. It was very sunny, and windy, although there was very little human activity going on. One observation that I came across in this park was that most plants receive a great amount of sunlight and are not affected by its surroundings. I found that interesting because at my first park at Harris Branch, and other areas, the big tree’s always block the little ones, causing one plant to be exposed to sunlight more than the other.
During my last observation, since I noticed there was little human activity, I decided to walk through the trails that the park has. I reached an intersection where the right would take you into the woods, and straight would just continue as the same style. When I went into the woods, it was amazing, you could see the river with still some algae, the tree’s showing their roots and just an open spot to go around and discover. The other trail was also nice; to me it seemed like a trail one could enjoy walking for days, with a clear view of what’s in between the wilderness. When I saw the map of this trail, I noticed it looped around the entire neighborhood and ended not very far from my house in a beautiful, not highly noticeable of a trail way. One last thing I noticed during my last observation was the Sawara Cypress had something growing that was blue and shaped round in between their leaves, something that I didn’t see that on the ones that surrounded the playgrounds. “To sum up, wildlife once fed us and shaped our culture. Reaping it by modern mentality would yield not only pleasure, but wisdom as well.” (Leopold, 187) In my opinion, this park shows great modern mentality that tells us we can bond with nature and benefit from each other.
