The park: The newborn Sander, soft, defenseless, feels every green leaf, every flower, every shaft of evening sunlight penetrate into him.
It lives in the park's leaf litter, the crumbling organic debris that accumulates under the trees.
The documentary, directed by Craig Rice and written by Lou Potter, adheres to Mr. Parks's leaf-in-the-wind vision of his life but doesn't omit the tensions and sorrow -- notably the loss of his grown son -- behind the gentle insouciance.
Even the parks department sign with the iconic leaf logo identifying 'Damrosch Park' was removed".
Top tip: The park posts "fall foliage reports" on their website during the peak leaf season.
Even Amsterdam's parks were bare of leaf and bloom.
In Europe and the United States, analysts say, actual numbers may not be falling but spending per trip is, provoking parks to take a leaf from the low-cost airline industry and charge for "unbundled" services, like locker facilities before being flung around on a ride or dryers after a soaking on the flumes.
All parks maintenance staff participate in leaf collection, said Abigail Lootens, a parks spokeswoman.
Warm, wet summer weather experienced at the three test locations is conductive to fungal Mycosphaerella leaf disease outbreaks (Park, 1988; Carnegie, 1994) that cause leaf necrosis and defoliation resulting in reduced growth (Park and Keane, 1982).
A handful of mostly wealthy towns assert that their contributions more than pay for returns in county services that they receive for road repairs, plowing, leaf collection and park maintenance.
"Some other parks are more sanitised, like a Victorian pleasure park," says David. "Every leaf is cleaned away so people don't get their shoes dirty.
