Protecting Urban Forest: How Visitor Activities Harm a Park’s Natural Spaces
Forest Park is an important part of urban greeneries, it plays an important role in balancing a city’s ecosystem and environment. However, these parks face threats from nature and from a human. From nature, the park faces threats from invasive species. And, from humans, the park faces threats from park users’ activities. These activities can hurt and damage the park in different ways and to different extremes may it be permanent. These activities that have the potential of hurting and damaging the forest observed during the length of the capstone include, but are not limited to, jogging (running), walking, picnicking, skateboarding, biking, smoking, and pet-walking. Observation shows that a great portion of the observed activity can be listed and categorized as “potentially hurtful” to the park’s ecosystem. These activities observations show how park users are utilizing the park and can provide the park management team with solid data in improving their protection and protocols in protecting and restoring the forest in the park.
