The Alerton Park Ugly

I was walking along the Sangamon river around Monticello, on the state of Illinois conservation land, and came upon this excessive amount of orange spray paint on the trees, marking the border with the University of Illinois Allerton park. I assume this is to warn the hunters not to cross into the park; If you were really so blind as to need all that orange paint maybe you shouldn't be out hunting; And those avid outdoors men should learn how to read a topo map so as not to cross the boundary, and never mind that there is already a old barbwire fence marking this line. I don't know which institution tagged the area( I will wager it was the U of I ) but if this sort of thing was done in any town, village, or city it would be called vandalism. This assault on the aesthetic quality of Allerton park has been going on for a decade or more, but has accelerated in the last four or five years. The trees are all heavily tagged to mark the hunting boundaries within the park, never mind this boundary runs along paths. The staff have been driving over the pathways while wet,creating large ruts. I don't know why this has been going on, but in the past twenty years I have been walking at Allerton, the last Three have seen the most ruts. In fact one soggy day I had to jump out of the way of a gator (an all terrain golf cart) with four or five young people barreling down the path leaving deep ruts. Why couldn't they walk? That gator was probably hauling its cargo of students to drop off their next experiment or field study. Equipment to be left and forgotten about after the student has moved on. On down the path a few culverts had been washed out and a misdirected effort at replacing them had resulted in some, highly erodible- poorly designed -stream crossings, made out of rip rap and plastic tile. UGLY!



In other places the chain link fence blocking the bridge exudes that industrial park feel. And that fence around the gardens has me looking for German guard towers, Steve Mcqueen (ala The Great Escape) or William Holden ( Stalag 17). The spiral stairway that led from the house to an old concrete room and bench ( possibly was the best feng shui in the park) was taken out, those spirits will be angry. And the final straw, somebody let the old old old hot house jade plant die.
The University of Illinois has an art department, a landscape architecture department, a horticulture department, and the Japan house; The institution has the talent resources but does not use them.
As the minster of the Department of Aesthetic Justice, I pronounce ye verging toward Ugly.

Oxymoron