Pavement no friend to wild animals, trails

Three years ago I become a daily trail runner in Knoch Knolls Park. It was a space to be in touch with nature, in silence; my refuge.

Coyotes, foxes, raccoons, squirrels, falcons, snakes and different kinds of bugs were some of the wild animals that I used to see there along with some other guys that were willing to get dirty in the nature. It was their refuge too.

Two years ago the forest started changing; a parking lot was built, then a school and nature center too. I thought that we were missing something of the "wild" aspect of that place, but both were placed in the entrance to the forest and both are beautiful, so they didn't alter the wild life inside the park. But then, some months after that, a new project was started; hundreds of trees were taken down, construction trucks and crews started working in the park. This time the project split in half an area that was free of people and full of wild animals. They built a pavement road.

The project is finished now, but many of the wild animals are gone, the trees that they cut down are gone too and the unpaved trails too; they altered the refuge. Around two miles of unpaved trails were disabled; for those of us that love cross country, cyclocross and hiking, this is an unfortunate loss. Sadly there's no plan for reforestation and the wild animals lose a space free from humans.

I hope that the park district can realize that a city like Naperville is ideal for integration between wild animals and humans and that more unpaved roads and human free areas are needed to preserve those beautiful animals and the green sports that many of us love.

Mario Guzmán

Naperville