Parks, bike paths, sidewalks and other things that encourage us to interact more with our neighbors and the natural world are, simply put, some of the best things communities can do.

Here are a few pictures from a couple of great little neighborhood nature preserves over in Marshfield, a community where good health is a way of life.  As the home of the renowned Marshfield Clinic, the community also knows how good health is good for the economy and business.

I headed out to these parks early last week primarily just to get away from our toxic political environement for a few hours.  Being in these neighborhood jewels — one next to a retirement home, the other in a sleeply suburban neighborhood — gave me plenty of impetus to think over who uses parks and why they’re irreplaceable in community life.

I discuss some of these issues in last week’s Portage County Gazette column (available in full-text form).

(Note: It seems I mistakenly put 7 p.m. instead of 6:30 as the start time for the Nov. 3 Revisioning Point meeting in my original column.  Please pardon my error, which I regret.)

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