Steven Johansen wrote:

Why are many Canard designs (Cozy , Eze's etc)
parked with their noses resting on the ground?

Is it simply to reduce wear on the Nose gear or
for a more esoteric reason?

The reason is because on those designs the static Cg is only
slightly ahead of the main landing gear. Without the pilot aboard
there is a very real risk that a gust of wind will tip the
aircraft back onto its butt. Collapsing the nose gear when parked
shifts the Cg forward.

The next question you're going to ask is "why don't the builders
move the main landing gear aft?" Two possible reasons: moving the
gear aft might make unsticking/rotation on takeoff a much too
exciting event (think uncontrolled stall on takeoff), and the main
gear has a tendency to throw up runway debris which we'd rather
not have pass through the propeller disk.

Russell Kent