Our Environment: “The Big Walk” by Scott Turner
Sunday, March 15, 2020
One of the ways that Karen and I courted more than 30 years ago was to take long Sunday afternoon walks through our leafy Columbus, Ohio neighborhood of Clintonville, where certain streets curled through steep wooded ravines.
We nicknamed our strolls, the “big walk,” or BW.
Recently, we took our first BW of 2020. We wandered along some of the trails behind the Seekonk Library off Newman Avenue, entering the greenspace via the Seekonk Meadows Passive Recreation Area.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAn interpretive sign told us that the 9-acre site sat atop a former landfill, with direct access into the 60-acre Gammino Pond Conservation Area, including its five-acre pond.
The sign defined passive recreation as activities “that do not endanger the capped landfill and respect other users…,” such as “walking, running, wildlife observation and snowshoeing. Pets on a leash are welcome.”
The paths, protected from erosion by a generous layer of wood chips, were well-marked by signs and blazes. We headed for the pond, which is a former sand and gravel quarry, reaching it via a moist trail, rich in red maples and other lowland vegetation, including several specimens of the much-less-common silver maple.
With its still waters reflecting shoreline vegetation and the partly cloudy sky, the pond appeared bucolic and attractive. We met two guys fishing there, who told us that although there were clouds of small insects flying over the pond that afternoon, plus fish jumping out of the water after the bugs, they themselves had failed to snag anything.
Then, we climbed a relatively new staircase of wood, rope, and stone up a slope and into a piney woods. The dominant conifer was the uncommon pitch pine.
The stiff, slender needles of pitch pine come in bundles of three. The grayish cones are prickly and often found hugging the gnarly branches. Pitch pine is one of region’s most fire-resistant trees. The thick bark and bending trunk of pitch pine protects its buds, which often sprout after fire kills a tree’s foliage. A fire-swept pine may also regenerate from seeds housed within the cones, or from sprouts around the base of the tree.
There were also a good number of young Eastern white pine trees atop this ridge, their feathery foliage in needle bundles of five, producing a hushed swoosh in response to a breeze that also rustled the brown leaves that persisted on some of the white oaks.
We walked in relatively mild temperatures, as well as the extended light of ever-longer days. More light both feels good and provides us with more time in the day to get outside.
Earlier this winter, a new study published by the Outdoor Foundation, found that roughly half of the U.S. population doesn’t take part in any outdoor recreation. Among the highlights of the study, Americans went on one billion fewer outdoor outings in 2018 compared to 2008.
Research shows that spending time outdoors improves mental and physical health. Kids who get outside even have better grades than peers who spend their recreation time indoors.
If I was asked how getting outside benefited me, I would respond that after more than three decades of big walks with Karen, outdoor recreation was a great way to keep a relationship healthy.
Scott Turner is a Providence-based writer and communications professional. For more than a decade he wrote for the Providence Journal and we welcome him to GoLocalProv.com.
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