Planetary Stories Project
"To Act Globally, Think Locally – Through Stories"
Black Earth Institute
Place: Fairbanks, AK, USA
Sylvia Ringstad Park
By Patricia Monaghan
Near downtown Fairbanks, Alaska, something that looks like a big vacant lot stretches along the Chena River. Sylvia Ringstad Park has no landscaping, no lawns for running the dog, no pavements for playing basketball. Instead, lowbush cranberries and tiny crowberries creep across the ground beneath small black spruce. A few patches of wild raspberries lift their canes into a dense thicket. A summer day brings fireweed; a winter day, ravens.
When I lived in town, I used to take my bike to Sylvia Ringstad during the summer to pick berries; in the winter, I walked through the dark streets to wander in the twisting paths of the park. I was always alone. Perhaps the people in the nearby apartment buildings didn’t realize that it was public land, available for their use. In any case, I cherished solitary hours there, picking berries or watching the snow gather on the spruce and birch. When I dream of Fairbanks, I am as often I that park as on the heights of Ullrhaven or at the cabin I built on Farmers Loop Road. How many other towns have patches of wilderness so near their heart?New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT)
Kent Falls, CT; Salisbury, CT; Sterling Field, CT; Corn Hill Beach, MA; Boothbay Harbor, ME (2); High Valley, NY (2); Tarrytown, NY
Mid Atlantic (DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA, WV)
Southeast (FL, GA, NC, SC)
Midwest (IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, WI)
Detroit, MI; Madeline Island, WI
South (AL, AR, KY, LA, MS, TN, TX)
Mammoth Cave, KY;
Great Plains (IA, KS, MO, MT, ND, NE, SD, OK, WY)
Kalona, IA; Prairie City, IA; Waterloo, IA; Red Owl Mountain, MT
Southwest (AZ, CA, CO, NM, NV, UT)
Northwest (AK, ID, OR, WA)
Sylvia Ringstad Park, AK; Hood River, OR; Newport, OR; Seattle, WA (2); Skagit River, WA
Hawaii and US Territories
North America
Central America
South America
El Chorro, Girón, Ecuador
Eastern Europe
Western Europe
Africa
Middle East
Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Turkey
Asia