A Pleasure Island resident seems determined to create a nature preserve from an abandoned golf course and we can only ask: Why not?

Carolyn Worsham, a public school educator for almost four decades, has been hacking away at the 2.5-mile trek, which uses cart paths along the back nine holes of the now dormant The Palms golf course, for a year.

If successful, she and her friends would give walkers, cyclists, joggers, birders and more the chance to enjoy the natural wonders of a manmade island without costing the city much in resources. The trek would make a great place for student outings.

Right now, a gate bars the public from access to the path, but she and friends — they include a couple of former City Councilmembers — have used mostly their own garden tools and their own contributions to cut back the overgrowth and make apparent the gorgeous trees, budding wildflowers and the natural habitat of mostly non-aggressive animals — rabbits, turtles, hogs, gators and others — residing in a 300-acre area. The animals are wild, she said, but not aggressive to humans.

Worsham’s been at it for about a year, enlisting the talents of friends to assist the process. Her efforts have laid plain to those who walk the path its many natural features, including gorgeous ponds.

She’s found some allies but not enough. Councilmember Cal Jones has been encouraging, she said; so was former interim City Manager Harvey Robinson.

She seldom sees others on the path, and that’s likely because it lies behind a gate and has no formal standing. Signage and educational materials might encourage other Port Arthur people to enjoy the area, much of which rolls along the course of the ship channel, with excellent views of city landmarks like the Woodrow Wilson Early College High School, Lamar State College Port Arthur and the Masonic Lodge. Tankers traveling the ship channel loom large along and over the path.

Worsham says upkeep would be minimal — after all, it’s a natural setting — and local outdoor enthusiasts might be called upon to help maintain it. The benefits, though, might be huge.

Worsham said there’s no shortage of literature that suggests that exposure to the outdoors is good for our health and mental health. If a single person a day walked the trail, she said, it would be worth the effort.

“I’m not a rabble-rouser,” she said. “I just like being out here.”

On occasion, she said, she’ll see birders on the trail and one lone figure jogs the area. She lives nearby but says there are few outdoorsmen in hear nearby neighborhood. That might change if the area became an established outdoor destination.

Worth a shot? Right now, nothing’s happening there. What’s to harm by keeping the pathways clear?