The planets of our solar system, save one, are known for mythological numens. Most are Roman. One fantastical deity is from the Greek. Earth is the exception. It is named not in honor of a god but rather elegantly observes "soil" or "ground."

Every year since 1970, Earth Day has been celebrated internationally as a day, or a week, when environmental issues are recognized, usually in the context of sustainability. Topics range from pollution, litter, and climate change to clean air and water, recycling, and the proper use of natural resources. There is no more natural resource than land and the watersheds it harbors. This year, Earth Day is today, April 22.

The 2026 recognition of Earth Day emphasizes "collective action and community mobilization." And in this year of our nation's 250th birthday, it is good to remember George Washington's sentiments as a landowner and surveyor. Washington said in 1788, "I had always hoped that this land would become a safe and agreeable asylum." Another quote attributed to Washington, a professional surveyor before his military and political career, was, "Mark well the land, it is our most valuable asset."

So, our responsibility is to safeguard these assets, these gifts, for posterity and ensure their preservation and care for the good of all. It is our charge to supervise, guard, tend, and manage the land entrusted to us. As a community, indeed as a metropolitan area, lands for public use are placed in trust to us all as stewards. We care for our shared land, including public parks.

Preservation in its true sense is protection from abuse and exploitation.

And when preservation is coupled with conservation, citizens in an urban culture can act as a catalyst to protect public land through the wise use of resources. The National Park Service bridges the two. Conservation, they say, is generally associated with the protection of natural resources, while preservation is associated with the protection of buildings, objects, and landscapes. It is an effective marriage of proper use and protection from exploitative use.

The concept of sustainable development could be considered here. Not development in a private-development sense. No. That, I believe, is unwise and, because of the profit motive, unsustainable due to ever-changing market conditions. But development, re-development, or restoration that employs natural resources for present human needs can be achieved through accessibility, adaptability, diversity, safekeeping, and upkeeping for outdoor recreation and community activities.

The National Parks and Recreation Association goes one step further in the proper, limited use of our public parks: health and wellness. The association asserts, "The nation's public parks are leaders in improving the overall health and wellness of the nation. They are essential partners in combating some of the most complicated challenges our country faces--poor nutrition, hunger, obesity, and physical inactivity."

Little Rock has, according to the Department of Parks and Recreation, over 60 parks. Most are small park spaces associated with specific neighborhoods. There is one park, however, that is large, centrally located, and is easily accessible from all city neighborhoods: War Memorial Park. The park, built in 1924 as Fair Park, was re-dedicated by President Harry S. Truman in 1949 as War Memorial Park, honoring all veterans.

Today, War Memorial Park subsists with a periodically tended green space of 100 acres where a public golf course was located. The course was closed by the city in 2019. Some of the once-wide asphalt cart paths still exist for walkers and joggers. And there is a single pavilion next to a children's playground. The fishing pond is filling in with accumulated sediment.

Since Earth Day's focus this year is on collective action and community mobilization, could it be that War Memorial Park could be the embodiment of a renewed and restorative activity, bringing to greater life a near-dormant public asset?

Marian Wright Edelman has said that one of the greatest lessons she learned from Martin Luther King Jr. was this: "You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

Craig Douglass is a lifelong Little Rock resident and serves as the director of the Regional Recycling District.

© Arkansas Online