A détente has been reached between the Parks and Recreation Department and Steven Brill, the self-taught environmentalist arrested for picking edible plants in Central Park this year.

Mr. Brill is to lead his first official tour this morning as a Parks Department naturalist. Among those on the tour will be the Parks and Recreation Commissioner. Henry J. Stern.

A court appearance May 2 was postponed, and now the department will drop the charges against him, Mr. Stern said.

“Mr. Brill has promised to confine his appetite to plentiful species,” according to Mr. Stern, “and those approved by the Parks Department as a surplus,” Dandelions and mulberries, for example.

He will be paid $15 an hour. Next weekend Mr. Brill will begin leading free walks in several parks pointing out edible plants. For information on his schedule, call (718) 291-6825.

“My walks are wild-food walks,” Mr. Brill said. “I’ll be picking the most common plants and leaving the rare plants alone."

Everyone seems happy with the solution. “He'll have regular employment,” Mr. Stern said. “The public will have his ecological knowledge and the plants will be eaten, and we will have a devoted employee to raise people's consciousness without breaking the law."