{"id":593,"date":"2017-08-04T09:28:58","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T13:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.emilysper.com\/blog\/?p=593"},"modified":"2017-08-04T09:28:58","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T13:28:58","slug":"access-to-nature-shouldnt-be-a-privilege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.emilysper.com\/blog\/access-to-nature-shouldnt-be-a-privilege\/","title":{"rendered":"Access to Nature Shouldn’t Be a Privilege"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Crystal
Crystal Lake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most days of summer I ride my bike up the street to Crystal Lake where I swim. On the way, I pass Bullough’s Pond<\/a>. Trees line the streets and small wooded parks are scattered throughout the suburban city in which I live. I’m lucky and know it.<\/p>\n

If I want to go one notch up the niceness scale, I can drive a half hour to Walden Pond<\/a>. And, when invited, I visit friends with houses in beautiful areas of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. This makes me doubly lucky.<\/p>\n

Thinking about privilege reminds me of The Fresh Air Fund<\/a> that gives New York City children the opportunity to spend part of the summer with a host family or at a camp outside the city. While a summer of fresh air is a start, everyone deserves a safe and healthy environment all year long<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Mountaintop
Mountaintop near Ossipee Lake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My first trip of the summer was to Freedom, New Hampshire. My friend Tatjana introduced me to a trail up a small mountain overlooking Ossipee Lake<\/a>. On another trail, with varied terrain, I wasn’t quick enough to see the beaver<\/a>, but later had a long look at a broad-winged hawk<\/a> perched high in a tree next to the house. That evening we enjoyed wild edible mushrooms Tatjana found on our hike.<\/p>\n

\"Danforth
Paddling the kayak, Ossipee Lake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lily
Lily pads on Danforth Ponds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a double kayak, we paddled through the inlet to Danforth Ponds where we found lily pads, the eyes of a swimming turtle, and mountains in the distance. With only a paddle boarder and two kayaks on the other side of the pond, I listened to the sounds of nature that are usually drowned out by man-made noise. I did have to ask the paddleboarder guide to turn down the volume of the music blaring from her phone!<\/p>\n

\"
Wild blueberries<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Summer in New Hampshire means wild blueberries. They grow alongside roads, in the sandy soil of a former airport, in the woods, and on mountaintops. We spotted a few wild strawberries, too.<\/p>\n

\"View
View of Mount Monadnock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a few days at home, I was ready to head back to Troy, New Hampshire to pick more blueberries. On my annual trek with Judy and Harry, we climb a small mountain near Mount Monadnock where blueberries are plentiful. It’s the perfect hike to do with friends who’ve never seen a blueberry growing wild. One in the bucket, one in my mouth, one in the bucket, one in my mouth…<\/p>\n

While we ate our sandwiches, two birds on treetops tweeted back and forth. On our way down, fellow hikers showed us a photo of the snake they encountered on the trail. I wasn’t disappointed to have missed the real thing!<\/p>\n

\"LIttle
Little Squam Lake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unlike Sal in the children’s book Blueberries for Sal<\/em><\/a> by Robert McCloskey, I didn’t meet a mother bear and cub. But, the night before I arrived at Little Squam Lake<\/a>, my friends heard the growl of a bear behind the house. And I wasn’t the one to see the bear on the road, which was fine with me. Years ago, I had my own sighting of a bear lumbering across the road while cycling the Cabot Trail<\/a> in Nova Scotia, Canada.<\/p>\n

To ensure a healthy planet for future generations, we need to do all in our power to protect it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

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Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most days of summer I ride my bike up the street to Crystal Lake where I swim. On the way, I pass Bullough’s Pond. Trees line the streets and small wooded parks are scattered throughout the suburban city in which I live. I’m lucky and know it. If I want to go one notch up … Continue reading “Access to Nature Shouldn’t Be a Privilege”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[52,89,79,86,82,91,85,83,81,88,84,90,87],"class_list":["post-593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-climate-change","tag-crystal-lake","tag-environmental-protection","tag-fresh-air","tag-healthy-kids","tag-kayaking","tag-little-squam-lake","tag-mount-monadnock","tag-new-hampshire","tag-newton","tag-ossioee-lake","tag-walden-pond","tag-wild-blueberries"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7v1ZG-9z","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emilysper.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emilysper.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emilysper.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emilysper.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emilysper.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.emilysper.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":631,"href":"https:\/\/www.emilysper.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593\/revisions\/631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emilysper.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emilysper.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emilysper.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}