Dong Lee once described himself to me as “just a kid from the rice paddies.” He came here from his native China as a young man and has now retired from a career in the post office.
For Lee, the job has provided a focus for his enjoyment of nature. For the people who tag along on his nature walks, he provides an opportunity to use the park and a starting point for another informal network like our group of dog walkers. Networks like these strengthen the ties between the park and the community, ultimately the best protection against park takeovers by gangs and other creeps.
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The 17 also disseminate information and ideas to other staff members. The Park District has day camps serving 25,000 kids every summer, and Iza has been developing and sending out ideas for nature-related games and activities for these kids.
To complete the vegetation of the island, Olmsted sent out crews to gather native plants from Illinois, Indiana, and southern Wisconsin. He wanted the island to look natural and to be natural.
The division of the world into elitists, who enjoy seeing prothonotary warblers, and honest Middle Americans, who care nothing for such silliness, was a major feature of the Watt years at the Department of the Interior. Only elitists care about preserving the ecosystems in our national parks, Watt’s followers proclaimed. All the average park visitor needs is a few pretty trees around. It doesn’t really matter what they are.
