Downtown Nature Hikes To Offer Residents, Workers New View of Urban Core

Nature is everywhere around us, even downtown. That is idea behind a new three-day series of nature hikes scheduled June 2, 3, and 4 in downtown Oklahoma City. Led by naturalists of the city’s Martin Park Nature Center, the downtown nature hikes will provide downtown workers and residents with a new perspective on the urban environment that surrounds them. Hikes will kick off from Kerr Park (Broadway at Kerr) at 12:15 p.m. and are FREE to the public.

“It’s fascinating how nature manages to squeeze itself into the least expected places,” says Neil Garrison, Martin Park naturalist. “From fossils, to birds’ nests and plant life of every imaginable kind, nature is, quite literally, all around us, even downtown.”

The lunch-time hikes will last about 30 minutes each. They will originate at Kerr Park and meander through downtown’s central business district. Comfortable shoes, water, sunscreen and weather-appropriate clothing are recommended.

“This is just a quick glimpse of what we can find in our urban landscape,” says Garrison, “and a way to introduce people to nature in new and unexpected ways.”

For more information, or to register for the hikes, call 755-0676.

Martin Park Nature Center is a 140-acre nature and wildlife park located at 5000 West Memorial Road, between Meridian and MacArthur avenues. Regular operating hours are 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. The park is closed Thanksgiving, and the week between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day.

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Thats a cool idea. Thats good that someone w/ the city came up with this.

Everyone needs to be able to ID a pigeon, starling, and red squirrel.

All joking aside, there are people who dedicate their lifes work to urban ecology, and there are some very interesting things that you'll find somewhere where you least would expect it.

Why don't they offer something like this on the weekend, when people can actually do this. I'm not going to get out of my suit for 30 mins at lunch and then put it back on after hiking around downtown.

Why don't they offer something like this on the weekend, when people can actually do this. I'm not going to get out of my suit for 30 mins at lunch and then put it back on after hiking around downtown.

Darn, you can't go. I might lose some sleep over it.

Downtown Nature Hikes To Offer Residents, Workers New View of Urban Core

Comfortable shoes, water, sunscreen and weather-appropriate clothing are recommended.
Should we also have a backpack and hiking boots on? j/k
Not a bad idea there are allot of area's downtown that we take for granted.

metro,

Thanks for your question. The purpose of the "hikes" (there are three total - 1 each day) is just to provide downtown folks a brief glimpse of the nature that literally lives right under their nose, even in the dense, concrete world of the urban core. In fact, the hikes will be avoiding the very obvious places like the Myriad Gardens, and will focus on some very interesting things that are not necessarily obvious to the naked eye (and not, we're not talking grass growing up through the sidewalk cracks! :smile:)

The reason the hikes are being held on a weekday is twofold:

1. Weekends are the busiest days at Martin Park - especially with lots of parties, children's groups, etc. - and we can ill afford to have staff absent on those days (There are only 2 full-time and 1 part-time staff anyway, so they are stretched thin as it is).

2. Holding the hikes on a weekday would offer the MOST people the best opportunity to participate.

I understand your passion for downtown residents and for offering weekend opportunities for those who live downtown. Perhaps as downtown residential densities continue to grow, if, in the future, the park is more fully-staffed and can afford to have staff away during the weekends, a weekend hike can be considered. Unfortunately, right now, it's just not in the cards.

> right now, it's just not in the cards.

Perhaps training volunteers as weekend guides is a program for Martin's future?