Appreciation for all I have learned: My year in the woods

A beautiful sunset in one of my client communities

When I am not running trails, chasing my little boy, spending time with my wife, or generally living life, I actually have a day job. I am a community planner. I use the term “community” because the older term, “urban planner” seems to be so much more narrow than what a planner actually does.

As it turns out, very few people have a good idea of what a planner does. We work in large cities, rural areas, and everything in between. We are actually involved in a lot of things, and people who identify themselves as planners may be engaged in a wide variety of jobs. There are also lots of people who studied planning only to get more involved in city administration, law, or social work.

More traditional planning careers may include:

• Urban design or physical planning (the guys who decide where the buildings and streets go, and what they will look like, how big they will be, etc.)
• Zoning and land use regulation (the guys who make the rules to implement what the urban design guys come up with)
• Long range planning (visioning and engaging the public)
• Economic development (cultivating growth and redevelopment)
• Natural features protection (advocating for environmental sustainability)
• Energy planning (probably the biggest growth area of the profession right now)
• Working with community development corporations (which are usually situated in rough urban neighborhoods trying to work their way back up)
• Social justice (ensuring that everyone gets a fair shake across racial, economic, age, and other various walks of life)

I work in private practice and get to dip a toe in every one of these areas regularly. I am able to serve clients in many ways. On the other hand, when you work for a municipality, you may sometimes be limited to one or two of these areas, and the same holds true if you are more specialized and work for a larger government agency or a non-profit. I am grateful that since I completed graduate school 11 years ago, I have been able to develop a more rounded career than many people in my line of work.

So, since then, I have been explaining this somewhat uncommon career to almost everyone who asks my least favorite question: “So, what do you do?” That particular question grates on me more than it used to because I’m no longer betting my “legacy” solely on my career. For my regular readers, you have likely gotten a sense that I place just as much importance on how we live our lives away from the workplace. I would rather people remember me as a guy who loved his family, and loved the earth. As a guy who loved running in the woods, and took pride in dedicating himself to accomplishing his goals. That said, we do spend most of our waking workday hours earning the family bread, so I am lucky to be able to spend most of my day advocating for a healthier, more sustainable planet.

Like any career, there are upsides and downsides. In my current job, I have to worry about making money as well as doing the right thing. We are a for-profit consulting business, after all. Consequently, I can only spend time working on projects that my clients will pay me by the hour to do. We used to work a lot more on development review, when the economy was hot, for instance. Today, we do more long-range planning, energy and environmental work, and economic development projects.

At the end of the day, however, everything I do revolves around making things better for the public in the communities I serve. This is accomplished through preserving critical natural areas, designing and regulating robust, active urban environments, advocating for non-motorized transportation and transit, protecting watersheds and wetlands, saving historic and cultural resources, and doing what we can, based on a code of ethics.

Regardless of my specific current employment, I see myself as a steward of the earth in my day job and in my greater life in general.  As a long-distance trail runner, I have been afforded an opportunity this year to run in rugged mountains, pastures, fields, and woods, across rivers and streams, in snow, heat, and rain.  I have developed a stronger appreciation for the land than I ever thought I could.  This, to me, is the greatest reward of my hobby.  It started a few years ago as a way to lose weight and relieve stress.  After developing that base capability, I expanded my horizons and covered more ground in 2011 than I ever dreamed.  I became an ultramarathon finisher. I was often afforded hours of enjoyment in remote, natural areas.  I grew to appreciate them more strongly than I ever had to that point, and it made me feel good about my way of life.

Next year, I will go farther afield, and I resolve to complete a 50-mile race, but more importantly to continue growing my personal relationship with the planet. Whether I remain a planner in private practice, or ultimately apply myself against new challenges in 2012 or beyond, I am blessed to have built a career where I get to care for the earth, I am blessed to be a steward of the environment, and I am blessed to be a trail runner.