This place. This neglected park. Cannot be described as beautiful or aesthetically pleasing. The grass is scratchy and sparse. The Trees are not spread out, and there are dirt paths that have been created by the trodding of many feet. There are invasives taking over and wild flowers peeping through the brown grass. The open space of the park exists only because of the occasional mowing. However, the land is regenerating. New saplings have sprung up and the other plants are becoming wild again. They are no longer dominated by constant pruning. Were they ever? It is not considered a city park on Google Maps. Who owns it? What is its purpose? Does it belong to the nearby Burlington College? This scrap of land could be seen as worthless.
However, if you sit by the base of the huge cotton tree that swings out over Lake Champlain, you can see a rugged beauty that only shows itself after you have sat there for awhile. How many people have sat there? Why would they? This land is not the manicured lawns that we are accustomed to in a city park. Should this land be left to regenerate? It is at a prime time to let it grow further. There is a variety of species and a somewhat small range of tree age, but the new saplings that would spring up would quickly change that.
