Walking Tour

“To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or sea-side stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with fine art works, nine tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall. Teach him something of natural history, and you place in his hands a catalogue of those which are worth turning around.” — Thomas Henry Huxley, 1854.

Most natural history activity today is geared towards children, which is fine, but, frankly, I think a lot of adults could use a refresher course. Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods diagnosed “nature deficit disorder” among techno-bubbled, junk-food saturated, media-manipulated kids, but really, how different are adults?

So, feel like a refresher? I’m offering a natural history tour of Prospect Park to the person(s) who give(s) the highest bid at The Nation’s on-line fundraising auction. The bidding starts today and runs through Dec. 5th10th. It’s for a great cause (“Since 1865” — but I haven’t been subscribing that long), especially in light of this month’s disastrous election, and perfect for a couple of people, or several, to pool their resources together to make a bid.

I used to give tours for the Prospect Park Alliance of the fenced-in Ravine during its reconstruction. I’ve also given historical (A Man/A Plan/Stranahan!) walking tours of the park, so this biddable walk will include the “tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral” etc. flavor of the place as well as its astonishing flora and fauna. (The winners can schedule this walk for the springtime, of course, but the beauties of winter should not to be denied.)

For Manhattanites still afraid of crossing the East River, check out this other biddable offering, a bird watching walk in Central Park.

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