More than a year ago, Dan Tortorice (read his introduction on p. 17) approached the Northside News to inquire about publishing a feature on Northside natural areas and their connection to development in the area. Economic development is a core part of the Northside Planning Council’s (NPC) mission, and we often approach it from a lens focused on building, supporting and attracting small businesses. But Dan’s proposal happened to highlight another part of NPC’s history — leveraging community organizing to ensure continued access to and preservation of land on the Northside. 

NPC supported resident efforts to protect and ultimately purchase the land that is now Troy Gardens, as well as advocacy to conserve Cherokee Marsh and create an organization committed to its restoration. Recently, conversations have focused again on land access and ownership as strategies to prevent gentrification as housing costs rise and development on the Northside increases. 

Many issues, more than 50 photographs and eight pages of articles later, a special section on Northside natural areas is inaugurating our “second front page.” While currents of community and economic development run through the feature, its strength is filtered through a different kind of lens. One that puts community perspectives, and their passion for everyday interactions with the Northside’s landscapes, in the spotlight. From four-season sunsets to curbside wildlife encounters — most of the photos published don’t include people, but they are nevertheless present, looking out from behind the camera.

The focus on natural areas extends beyond the section; elsewhere in the paper you can hear from many elected officials on environmental topics, and from Warner Park Community Recreation Center Facility Manager Terrence Thompson in his regular column.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this feature by sending in photographs over the last year, and by submitting articles. I only wish we had been able to publish more. Perhaps it foreshadows a future nature feature, part two.