Do public parks fulfill a basic need, or are they just a nice frill?

Lucinda Wingard

guest columnist

Documenter-in-Chief of the nation Ken Burns believes the National Park System defines America. His 12-hour TV series this fall illustrated how taxpayer-funded parks are “America’s best idea.”

To be sure, the natural scenery of this continent — land we immigrants usurped and exploited — is awe-inspiring. After nurturing highly creative indigenous cultures for many centuries, this land nurtured the bodies and souls of displaced peoples from around the globe.

So, in thanks, it seems only right that some land remain in its natural state, wilderness preserved for generations to come.

But is preserving scenery essential to preserving an orderly society? Is investment of tax dollars in Open Space a bottom-line necessity? Beyond looking beautiful, what do parks do, anyway?

Ask passersby on Gig Harbor streets about our local parks, and I’m fairly certain they will agree parks enhance this community. Some will argue parks are needed to save areas from commercial exploitation, like the forest and beaches of Kopachuck State Park.

Others will say local parks should function as wildlife corridors for deer, bear, raccoons and smaller terrestrials.

In the campaign to encourage biodiversity on this planet, parks are like a bank where wildlife genes are saved.

Many of us can tell a fond story of camping out under the starry sky or share photos of some “wild” area they’ve been. Parks supply the soul a restorative place to be alone in nature.

Most of us prize physical health, too, and parks offer fresh air and exercise. Our public ball fields swarm with kids and adults who look for a safe places to practice teamwork and non-violent competition.

Nice list so far, but what about Burns’ declaration that the National Park system is American democracy working at its best?

Parks are basically funded by everyone’s taxes, not through charging high user fees. That ensures people of modest means aren’t dependent on the generosity of the rich to experience spectacles such as Old Faithful and Mount Rainier.

Consider olde England, where the wealthy Lord rode across his private park, prosecuting trespassers.

But the landless commoners needed land for their livestock and gardens, for their markets and faires. The Lord ceded them a “commons.”

Some of our local parks function like the English commons. I think of Narrows Park, where people can fish from the beach, Jerisich and Skansie Brothers parks, where summer concerts draw large crowds, Crescent Creek Park, where families celebrate birthdays, McCormick Forest Park, where people ride horseback and schools sponsor cross-country races.

Many parks are educational. Park visitor center displays show how land is more than square acreage; they are ecosystems. They are where we learn thick forest canopies are the lungs of the planet, cleaning the air and sequestering the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.

Not all parks have greenery, though. Some preserve our history, reminding us of how we got to be what we are today, like the City of Gig Harbor’s newest park, Eddon Boatyard.

Almost all parks offer the community a way to be of service. Volunteering in parks is popular, from trail building to refereeing youth soccer games. The baseball field at Rosedale Park is a great example of local volunteers partnering with the taxing district PenMet Parks.

Given this list, it’s hard to believe parks can be controversial. But there have always been competing interests.

Colossal fights in Congress occurred when logging tycoons declared their right to make a profit by clear-cutting in the Olympic National Park. Opposition to damming the Elwha River was overruled, resulting in disaster for the salmon runs and the Indian culture living at the foot of the Olympics.

History and science in our museums and monuments have been bones of contention. Whose version of history and whose version of science gets displayed? Who were the real Civil War heroes? How should religion be presented? Just how old is the Earth, anyway?

Tax protesters figure government-owned land, including parks, could be sold or leased in hard times to offset budget deficits.

Parks are a colossal money pit, they’ll argue rightly. With an annual budget of $2.5 billion, National Park maintenance left undone amounts to about $8 billion.

And parks are deteriorating even faster now due to climate change.

Environmentalists will point out that green plants can offset global warming and parks are part of the solution. Preserving habitat for cute furry things may, in the end, preserve human civilization.

I hope this short summary of park controversies may help us focus on the fate of local parks.

Next month, I mean to review the tears and triumphs, battles won and lost over Gig Harbor Peninsula’s first comprehensive multi-use facility, Sehmel Homestead Park.

Lucinda Wingard is a guest columnist for The Peninsula Gateway. She can be reached at wingardjl@comcast.net.