Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
enjoying a pleasing and uplifting landscape that would “cultivate an appre-
ciative and refined taste in those who seek its shade for the purpose of
breathing the free air of Heaven and admiring nature.”
29
Michler articulated the prevailing vision of an idealized “natural” envi-
ronment in his report to Congress. “There should be a variety of scenery,”
Michler maintained,“a happy combination of the beautiful and the pictur-
esque—the smooth plateau and the gently undulating glade vying with the
ruggedness of the rocky ravine and the fertile valley, the thickly mantled
primeval forest contrasting with the green lawn, grand old trees with flow-
ering shrubs.Wild, bold, rapid streams, coursing their way along the entire
length and breadth of such a scene, would not only lend enchantment to
the view but add to the capabilities of adornment.”
30
All of these qualities could be found along the valley formed by Rock
Creek, Michler insisted. To nineteenth-century eyes, however, even this
intrinsically attractive landscape required significant human intervention to
fulfill its potential as an exemplar of nature's beauty and beneficent influ-
ence.Trees, rocks, and hillsides were not ecological entities to be preserved
for their own sake, but raw material from which to develop pleasing com-
positions and edifying experiences.While the proposed park site was richly
endowed with diversified natural amenities, Michler advised that it still
required “the taste of the artist and the skill of the engineer to enhance its
beauty and usefulness.” Michler proposed “gentle pruning and removing
what may be distasteful, improving the roads and paths and the construc-
tion of new ones, and increasing the already large growth of trees and
shrubs, deciduous and evergreen, by adding to them those of other climes
and countries.” He also advocated the construction of dams along Rock
Creek to produce ornamental lakes and ponds.Though the existing wood-
lands had many attractions, the “natural” forest was also found wanting.
Michler advocated a carefully considered campaign of selective vista cutting
to provide more varied and expansive views.
31
While this sort of aggressive reshaping of nature might strike today's
readers as inappropriate and even “unnatural,” by the time Rock Creek
Park was finally developed at the turn of the century, the culture of nature
had changed significantly. Traditional landscape design and appreciation
were becoming lost arts. In fact, the notion that park-making was an art and
not simply a matter of legislative protection was gradually disappearing, first
among the general public and then within the profession itself. Rather than
attempting to reshape existing conditions to produce classically ordained
