On the banks of the Mississippi River, Vento Nature Sanctuary is now home to bald eagles, blue herons, and acres of restored wetlands. It’s also popular with rock and ice climbers who like to propel themselves up the steep walls that rise from the river.  Yet, Vento was once a dying rail yard, left to rust by the Burlington National Railroad. Thanks to a grant from the city’s Metropolitan Council and private donations, all contaminated soil was removed and the boundaries of the park were expanded so folks can have more green space to play.
 

One of 34 Boston Harbor Islands that dot the waterfront and are part of a National Historic Park, Spectacle Island had its heyday in the 1840s as a large gambling resort and brothel. As of late, the island was merely a dumping ground for garbage. Then someone had the brilliant idea to create a dike to contain the trash and use the dirt from The Big Dig to reshape the island, providing topsoil for planting trees and other shrubbery.  Today, the heaping mound of soil has created the highest point on the Eastern Seaboard south of Maine. Leaving its smelly past behind, the 105-acre park has a trail system weaving through the interior, beaches to comb for sea glass, and public access by ferry. Local naturalist and Walden author Henry David Thoreau didn’t have Spectacle Island in mind when he spoke of preserving America’s “wild spaces,” but it’s refreshing to see good ole Yankee ingenuity at work.
 

For most of the 20th century, this large plot of land in downtown Los Angeles was used as an immense Union Pacific railroad yard. When Union Pacific closed shop in 1989, the property laid dormant until 2001. As California State Parks hemmed and hawed about how best to convert the space into a park, artist Lauren Bon, backed by a grant from the Annenberg Foundation, had her own ideas. With the help of The Trust for Public Land, they excavated some 5,000 tons of soil contaminated with hydrocarbons and metals, planted more than a million corn seeds, and installed an irrigation system to create her artwork, Not a Cornfield. The large crop has now been harvested to make way for bike trails and fields of wildflowers. Los Angeles State Historic Park is still being landscaped, but close to half of the property is open to the public.
 

The curved rusted steel of Richard Serra’s Wake (2004) resembles the hull of a ship, perfectly suited for Seattle’s seafaring tradition. Children run around the large structure, warned by their parents not to touch. Other families meander by Calder’s tall, red Eagle (1971), eyeing the iconic Space Needle in the background. A dog walker ambles past one of Oldenburg’s signature typewriter erasers, following the zig-zag trail that rises above railroad tracks and leads to the waters of Puget Sound and the snowcapped peaks that stand tall in the horizon. 

Unveiled in January 2007, Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park is a glorious addition to the city’s waterfront. It’s even more remarkable when you understand the history behind this 9-acre parcel of land.  For more than 60 years, this section of Belltown was dotted with oil tanks owned by UNOCAL (Union Oil Company of California). The petroleum seeped into the land creating a brownfield that would take over a decade to clean up when operations ceased in 1975. Yet, today, the once vacated industrial wharf is now brimming with life as more than a half-million people visited Olympic Sculpture Park in its first year.
 

The latest trend in urban design is blurring the line between civilization and nature to create parks from contaminated sites, landfills, and abandoned manufacturing plants. This week, I want to focus on green spaces that were once urban eyesores and are now popular spots to walk, bike, and simply be outdoors. For decades, the High Line served as an elevated railway track that brought freight into Manhattan. By 1980, the trains had stopped running and the tracks were sliding into decay that, somewhat remarkable, was also a kind of blossoming. Nature re-established itself as saplings and wind-sown grasses sprouted in the rail beds. The trees took root and so did an inkling of an idea, almost Seuss-like, to create a public space that would be 30-feet high above the city and nearly 1.5 miles long. What a way to see New York, from above!
 

While we’re touching on ecoresorts in Central America this week, one of my favorites is in Belize. Home to the longest barrier reef in the western hemisphere, Belize has long been popular with scuba divers who head to the island of Ambergris Cay to float among the manta rays, turtles, dolphins, and sharks. As of late, however, travelers are heading inland to hike in a rainforest full of parrots and butterflies, visit rarely seen Mayan ruins, and canoe along the Macal River. This is where you’ll find a 365-acre nature preserve in the Cayo district called Chaa Creek. Mick and Lucy Fleming opened this eco-resort in Belize long before green was the magic word. They have grown over the past 28 years decades to include two dozen bungalows with thatched roofs and a restaurant that serves grilled fish from the region. But it’s the grounds, with its brightly colored flowers and a forest of tall mahoganies and cedars on a hill overlooking the river that gives the locale its deep-in-the-jungle allure. The resort’s expertise is setting up rainforest and Mayan tours with guides. Explore the Mountain Pine Ridge on foot or horseback or stay closer to home on the Macal River, where you can swim under waterfalls and very likely spot toucans.
 

When it comes to creating ecoresorts, Costa Rica has always been at the forefront. These boutique retreats in the bush or on the beach employ all the tenets of ecotourism. The lodging is built on land that will be preserved for future generations. They employ and thus give back to the local community financially. They educate both their employees and guests on the natural and cultural significance of the surrounding land. And they use renewable sources of energy and local fare for building materials. But lately, the price of staying at an ecoresort in Costa Rica has come with too hefty a pricetag. Especially when you can get the same scenery from one of its Central American neighbors.

On an archipelago in the northwestern part of the country, a short boat ride from the town of Bocas del Toro, is a three-cabana lodge socked in the middle of the verdant jungle and surrounded by a working cocoa plantation.  All of the cabins at La Loma Jungle Lodge were created from fallen trees and inspired by the architecture of the local Ngobe Indians.  The employees are also local, including your guide through the rainforest and beach to see sloths, armadillos, small crocs called caimans, and the graceful blue morpho butterfly.  At dinner, lobster and conch will not be served, as the owners try to use only sustainably harvested fish like yellow jack. Rates are $110 per person a night, including three meals, the boat ride over from Bocas town, and some of the excursions. 
 

I’ve done my fair share of articles on the increasingly popular trend of placing green roofs on buildings, used to absorb rainwater and cool the structure, thus saving on energy costs. But I knew something was up last night when I followed Chef JW Foster to the roof of the Fairmont hotel in downtown Dallas. Wearing his goofy chef hat, Foster pointed out some of the 2,000 plants up top. We’re not talking grass. There were heirloom tomatoes, sweet potatoes, a half-dozen varieties of peppers, pumpkins that were recently used in the Halloween carving contest, numerous herbs including cilantro and mint, and a small fig tree. He tells me that 60 to 70 percent of all the vegetables he now uses in the hotel’s restaurant, Pyramid, come from the roof’s organic garden. A new greenhouse just arrived so Foster can plant saplings and four beehives are coming shortly so he can have homemade honey for his cheese plate. In the meantime, take the elevator down and sample the braised buffalo short rib, raised on the Broken Arrow Ranch in west Texas, topped with an heirloom tomato chutney. Then ask sommelier Hunter Hammett to bring over a coffee liqueur that he makes in-house for eight months. Life is good when the food and drink are local.
 

First opened in 1976, Maho Bay owner Stan Selengut has reaped accolades for his eco-sensitive resort where 114 tent-cottages are woven into the tapestry of the landscape. And what a landscape that is! Only a few miles east of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, St. John has virtually nothing in common with its overdeveloped neighbor. More than sixty percent of the island and its surrounding waters are comprised of Virgin Islands National Park, a mecca in the Caribbean for the green traveler. Enjoy it now, because one of the Caribbean’s last natural outposts could be gone when Maho Bay’s lease is up in 2012. As luck would have it, Omega Institute, who normally books Maho Bay in January each year is heading to another resort in Costa Rica (more on that in a later blog). So Maho Bay has many openings in mid-winter. Starting at $80 a night, it’s a steal.
 

Good news from the Appalachian Mountain Club this week, which reported that they have just purchased the 29,500-acre Roach Pond tract in Maine’s North Woods. The land abuts the 37,000 acre Katahdin Iron Works property the AMC already owns. So what this means is that hikers, cross-country skiers, even mountain bikers will have the opportunity to go on a 63-mile-long corridor of conservation land near Greenville north to Baxter State Park, home to mighty Mount Katahdin. Instead of hut-to-hut hiking, the cornerstone of the AMC’s legacy in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, you’ll be able to venture from historic sporting camp-to-sporting camp. The purchase provides a permanent connection between four sporting camps, used for over a century to bring “sports” up from Boston and New York to fish and hunt.

AMC bought the Roach Ponds parcel from Plum Creek Timber Company for $11.5 million. The purchase is part of a planned 400,000-acre conservation network negotiated between Plum Creek, AMC, The Nature Conservancy, and the Forest Society of Maine. Plum Creek Timber Company was recently given the right to build 975 houses and two resorts on the shores of Moosehead Lake, so this is more or less a consolation prize for environmental groups. The Moosehead Lake real estate plan is currently being appealed by the National Resources Council of Maine.