I just read about this over at Friends of Sam Smith Park. I have to say that I’m not a fan of this. To quote from the Friends of Sam Smith Park blog,  “Anything that draws visitors’ attention to wildlife and habitat in the park helps to cement in peoples’ minds the fact that Sam Smith is a nature park and awakens a strong interest in preserving it as such.”  Sorry but I’m just not buying in. At some point it will cease to be a nature park and become a classroom.  Just let the park be. Manage the habitat and resist the impulse to tell people what to think about the park or what they ought to know about the park. If park users want to study birds, great. If they want to just go for a peaceful walk, that’s good too.

Art museums sometimes do a similar thing, putting up cards explaining this or that about the curatorial stance or about the artist or whatever. I don’t like it in that setting either. Let me think for myself, thank you very much. If I need to research something, I can do it very quickly with the help of my friend Mr. Google. I don’t need interpretive signs in the park.