A sad Earth Day Park in Washington, D.C.

The entrance to Earth Day Park on Independence Avenue, Washington, D.C. with a hard-to-read sign that may have been installed when dinosaurs roamed/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 

The entrance to Earth Day Park, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie

This unsightly rock, uncovered during excavation for the nearby expressway and surrounded by weeds, serves what purpose at Earth Day Park? Restrains weeds?/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Looking towards the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum, on the right, across Independence Avenue/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Bring a hacksaw to reach this bench at Earth Day Park/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A sad little bluebell matches its surroundings amidst the weeds at Earth Day Park/Photo by Patricia Leslie

If you look closely, more bluebells peek through the weeds at Earth Day Park/Photo by Patricia Leslie

What's this?  Little flowers waving in the wind in Forgotten Park/Photo by Patricia Leslie


On the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, it's a sad little Earth Day Park which lies on Independence Avenue squeezed between an on-ramp to an expressway and a dull federal building which, ironically, happens to house transportation concerns, the Federal Aviation Administration.

Alone, unkempt, isolated, and uncared for are the adjectives which immediately spring to mind when visiting the park, not only during coronavirus, but all the time.  

It's abandoned. 

Who takes care of it?

The little park, dedicated by U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary on the 25th anniversary of Earth Day in 1995, is so unimportant it even lacks a page in Wikipedia, only the second time I've found a subject missing from its pages.*  

Think of that, not even important enough to warrant a Wikipedia page!  Now, this is a sad, little park. 

The link above says the park was built by the Department of Energy, an absent landlord for sure, which, in a March, 2010 quarterly report (page 101) still called the park its own.

One cannot blame coronavirus and the closure of the federal government for the forgotten park's appearance since it always looks like this, overgrown and ignored. 

Why not blame the Department of Energy under the Trump administration which despises everything environmental?

I say now is the time for the U.S. National Park Service to take over Earth Day Park and restore it to its original lustre and grandeur for obviously, the U.S. Department of Energy doesn't give a damn. 

*The first was "posy holders," and no, "nosegays" do not count.

patricialesli@gmail.com.