Feeling really good until noise and stink of raw gas hit. We saw the dark green parks department pick up at the north entrance and a guy in red wielding a hand-held gasoline fueled blower, no bag for collecting litter.

My tax dollars at work: Blowing leaves and trash around…blowing dust, smelly and toxic fumes into the air…and disturbing the peace of a lovely day.

What do Albany, N.Y., Seattle, Wash. and Boone, N.C. have in common? They’re among 10 U.S. cities that have passed resolutions urging President Barack Obama and the EPA to use the Clean Air Act to curb global warming pollution right away.

It got me wondering what could be if the city council, or the “green mayor” took positive steps to make the city cleaner, greener and more livable?  Do you share the dream? http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/action/toolbox/clean_air_act/city_council_resolution.html

One of two pine branches wrapped in plastic tape and left to melt into the pond.

Last week when I was dealing with a sick cat and vet trips, I saw fire engines were in Van Horn. In the past they have had ice rescue drills here. Never before did they wrap pine branches in plastic tape and leave them. And so continues the degradation of this little oasis that means so much to the quality of life for nearby residents.

The bitter irony here is that this city has a self-described “green mayor” and the cluelessness about environmental stewardship is demonstrated by yet another department.

Yellow plastic tape left in the pond.

*For readers who don’t know the city, Forest Park is the crown jewel of Springfield’s green space and the surrounding neighborhood is home to prominent residents, unlike Van Horn Park and Liberty Heights.

Fresh sadness for me today includes fresh-cut brush that contained live buds (rhododendron) and tree trunks stacked on top of logs where chipmunks sheltered and gathered acorns.

I counted more than 14 piles of brush along the way…a small yellow dozer…2 GINORMOUS dump trunks (one with a trailer) and at least 3 other van/truck-like vehicles. Needless to say, no quiet, no fresh air, no succor here.

Another note: This morning Mass Wildlife issued a public call for help with its wood duck nest box program – and I think sadly of the pair that raised broods in Van Horn from 2004 to 2010. I saw wood ducks but a few times in 2011 and no young at all.

I just read a Salon.com piece,The bold urban future starts now and one of the examples is great – Governor Quinn Announces Millennium Reserve Initiative in Calumet Region of Chicago. One of key objectives is this:

Improving the Environment by:
- Managing and restoring the 6,000 acres of natural areas that contain important high-quality biological communities and support over 20 rare plants and 40 rare animal species.
- Completing and connecting 53 miles of trails and wildlife corridors throughout the area, and promoting public access and recreational opportunities.
- Expanding and connecting natural areas and habitats in a system of Green Infrastructure.

Imagine Springfield waking up like Chicago in 2012…

Still happy about the nice young man and the fact that no “work” was going on. Rounding the loop end at Greenwood School, a whistle pierced the quiet. I ignored it (Helpful Hint for Men: Women aren’t as much like dogs as you think). The whistlew became a  yell, – from a police officer. He suggested my daughter and I might want to leave the park, as two men had robbed a bank with a gun, and were thought to have gone into Van Horn. The officer said, it was okay to continue if we “felt safe.” He declared he would stay outside on the street edge, I don’t want a gun stuck in my face, he said.

On Saturday, 12/24, a large paper sack lay across from the playground. It was torn open and a white plastic bag protruded, blood and feathers visible within. To spare a man and little boy who were feeding the ducks (and others to come) the ugly sight, I hefted it to the nearest trash barrel. — Last year and before that I have found such evidence, I suspect relates to cock fighting.

Sunday, 12/25 were nice and quiet, if breezy and chilly, however orange fluorescent arrows had been spray painted on the ground pointing away from the asphalt, ominously toward what flora and fauna yet survive.

The pond surfaces began icing and cleared, and started icing again this past week (beginning 12/26) under mostly cloudy skies.

On Friday, 12/30: Machinery noise, toxic fumes, a music-playing van and three teams of men, armed with gas-fueled blower and a rake. The city awarded a contract to ‘keep the walkway clear of debris,’ which means until there is snow, walking and wildlife watching can be spoiled by noise and toxic fumes while leaves are blown in a wooded park. I chatted with a pair of extremely polite young men with the group. I was happy to know they had jobs, but unhappy my tax dollars were funding a needless task and destructive practices.

When will the city act to remove the tires, household appliances, old garbage and plastic floating in the pond? I’ll bet 99% of Van Horn Park visitors are more offended by these things than they are by dead leaves.

The picture below shows what could only be a critically dangerous situation to the public, one that could not possible be put off until Monday…right? So I considered what had become so dangerous, way the hell back there behind the ball field (but wasn’t menacing during the peak clean up). The best I could come up with was that…

Contractors Cutting Trees on Saturday

Someone (the mayor? the parks super?) thought about all the games held here from December through April…and all the players who retrieve stray balls from under those trees, which at that second, would drop a branch onto hapless victims. — Yeah, the victim pool is pretty much 0.  Which is also the amount of sense this makes for stewardship of the park and the welfare of our community.

Today there were TWO crews of tree cutters. Contractor vehicles listed company addresses in Indiana and Georgia. It’s not just limbs they are pushing into the fragile strips of habitat to cut, but entire trees. At least two healthy trunks were  felled with diameters of 24″ and nearly 30  inches. They took years to grow and seconds to die at the hands of men with chain saws.

A man on the ground with the second crew kindly signaled the guy in the basket, the guy in the dump trunk, and the guy in the 4X4 to allow my daughter and myself to pass.Trying to keep a light tone, I asked, Is there going to be anything left when you’re done?

He replied with an affable southern drawl, I don’t know. They keep callin’ and sayin’ come back in; keep cuttin.’

Nature is responsible for an awful toll on life-supporting trees this year, but humans  destroyed much of what remained, leaving small creatures not killed by tree falls and heavy machinery to freeze and starve over winter. The city authorities will claim this was all necessary –  to make the park safe for people. The people whose daily lives include the park, know that is rubbish.