Personal Journal #5 - Exit Reflection on Accomplishment

I think I have accomplished a lot in this class. I have learned about not only the importance of conservation and education, but the things being done now and years before that are still helping us today. Through this class, I've also discovered an amazing horse ranch that I will be continuing to volunteer at. Without the requirement, I probably would have never made the initiative to start volunteering there, but I am certainly glad I did. I hope that the things I learned in this class will stay with me and I will always remember how important it is to become one with nature and our environment.

Reflection - Marine fieldtrip

I really enjoyed my trip to the beach. It wasn’t overly hot so it wasn’t uncomfortable to be in the sun for an extended amount of time. The most annoying thing was probably the heavy amount of smoke, which did shorten our stay there considerably. It was nice to pay attention to the atmosphere of the beach and observe the different people that were all probably vacationing, or at least were mainly tourists. There was minimal wildlife, and we didn’t see many birds or seagulls. This could probably be blamed on the smoke as well, but I still had a great time.

You can see the thick smoke, visibility not great.

Flags changed to warn the public about the safety concerns.

Personal Journal #4 - My Personal Land Ethic

Now that this class is coming to an end, I have discovered to always appreciate nature. I've always loved nature, but sometimes it is easy to take everything for granted. It's nice to just take a walk or go swimming or something that is just outside. My land ethic has stayed about the same, I would say. I always try to waste as little as possible, take as little as possible and appreciate most as possible. I will continue working with the retired horses, it feels great helping them and it is such a great cause. It makes you feel like you are a part of nature and are part of something special. If anything, it has instilled my belief that the world is not ours. We don't really own land, we don't own animals or plants either. We're simply living on it and it is our job to take care of it.

Reading 17- Love It or Lose It: The Coming Biophilia Revolution

Biophobia is the discomfort one gets from basically being outside too long. They long for technology, a modernized world, and air-conditioning and feel stressed or uncomfortable if they are in nature too long. Biophilia is almost the opposite. These people long to become one with nature. They have an affinity for nature and want to spend time outside more often than not. I think that there could be a biophilia revolution, but I wouldn’t say that is necessarily the case. it is hard to tell how a mass of people feel about nature. One could enjoy it while others prefer to stay indoors. Although I love nature, I’m not going to lie and say I don’t like air conditioning in 100 degree Florida heat, because I do. 

However, I don’t think I will ever get over nature. There is something extremely calming about just being outside by yourself. I specifically enjoy the night time, gazing up at the stars. It gives you a sense of life. Like you’re part of something bigger than yourself. I don’t think nature will ever get old, and I would hope that others feel the same. But I don’t think I can accurately say whether I think biophilia is trending or not. It is all in the eyes of the beholder.

Agricultural Field Trip – Personal Reflection

Personal Reflection

The UNF verb (vegetables and hers) garden was a small sample of what is being done in a larger scale around the world. There were many butterflies around, which was nice to see and being so close to something like that really makes you appreciate the beauty of the world. Although it did not blow me away, it still gave me a good idea in how agriculture preservation works and is being used everywhere.

Squash being grown.

As you can see they are also doing their best to limit the amount of fertilizers they use by trying to gather natural materials.

Tomatoes growing!

Reading 16- The Earth Charter

I have mixed feelings on the Earth Charter. I would be on the fence to sign it. If I had to make a decision at this point, I would probably be against it. It is one thing to create a pact of goals, but the goals on the Earth Charter I find many problems with. It’s too fast, too much and quite overwhelming. Rome wasn’t built in a day. There is no way that all of these things are possible to complete, not even in the near future. I think that if we severely limited the objectives in the Earth Charter, than things would look easier and not be as discouraging. 

In my Civic Engagement class in the spring, I learned that you can not stress yourself out with so many goals. You take it one step at a time. I feel as though the Earth Charter is the layout for the perfect world, and that is unrealistic at the moment. Yes, it is good to have goals, but making smaller, more attainable goals at first I think is a better route to go. The Earth Charter sounds like a fantastic plan full of high set goals and optimists, but right now, it is too unrealistic and I would not sign it.

Reading #15 - The Land Ethic

Land ethic, according to the reading, is appreciating our land in a new light. Not taking it for granted, and becoming one with the land was what Leopold stressed. It’s a community. Nothing will succeed unless we work together, learn to appreciate the land and all it has given us.

Being that he died 60 years ago, it may not seem realistic that his ideas about conservation are still legitimate today. But when you think deeper about it, the concept is still much the same. There is a practical appreciation for nature, but we also get the aesthetic and beautiful types of nature as well. 

Leopold worked to create the first dedicated wilderness area in the world. I give him much credit to understand, much before the majority of his time, about the partnership that rural and urban areas, and the relation of people to land have an effect on our world. I think it’s amazing how he picked up on how to live alertly in life. It is one thing to preserve for land, it is another to actually care about the wellbeing of the earth. He taught us how to enjoy land, how to not take it for granted and appreciate what we’ve been given. We don’t need to be taking from it all the time. Sometimes it’s nice just to just be. It’s amazing to see how just far along he was in his ideas, he really was a man ahead of his time. It’s nice to know that, even in modern days, people are still learning and reading about what he had to say about the environment and community.

Neighborhood Questions: Answered!

1. How many different types of palm trees are there?

There are 27 different types of palm trees that live in Florida.

2. What banana trees are inedible, if any?

I'm pretty sure I found the banana tree in our yard. Musa ensete, an ornamental Banana tree that produces inedible fruit.

3. How long do banana trees take to grow?

From a new plant, a tree takes 10-15 months to begin to produce fruit.

4. What kind of animals live here?

Many animals live in this environment. This includes armadillo, barred owls, banana spiders, deer, squirrels, cockroaches and many others.

5. Why are there no lightning bugs here? Is it too hot?

Apparently there are lightning bugs in Florida, they just happen to like wetter environments. Perhaps Gainesville and Fort Myers is too dry for them. However, They're around in wetter places like the Everglades.

Service Learning Reflection

I really enjoyed my time at the Mill Creek Farm for Horses. We let the horses out, groomed them, fed them, and put them back in their pasture. It is a relaxing and inspiring farm that takes care of retired, and/or abused horses. Instead of putting them down, Mill Creek takes them in to live out the rest of their lives in peace. I have had experience around horses, going to horse camp when I was younger. However, it was very refreshing to see the horses freely. There are no saddles, none are being ridden. They are just simply living naturally. The same group of 5-10 people were there every week I went. They don't have a lot of help, but they have enough. I really got to know the volunteers, and I am actually going to continue volunteering on thursdays until I have to go back to FGCU in the fall. I hope to continue my work there whenever I make my way back to Gainesville. It was interesting seeing the variety of horses. Some are retired police horses, some are blind due to cancer, others were abused, and the 1970's Triple Crown horse Secretariat's grand daughter is actually there, who I groomed one week. You can not help but feel like you are a part of nature when you go.

This is Slick, a retired police horse.

Feeding, waiting to be groomed.

As you can tell by the hoof on the left, it is quite deteriorated from being neglected and what could have been a simple fix, was ignored by the owners and now permanently damaged.

Personal Journal #3 - The Wonders and Realities of Nature

For this, I did not need to go very far to experience the wonders of nature. Our back yard is virtually all woods, so I took a walk back to the deeper parts. It was just after an afternoon rain shower, and everything was damp and the birds were beginning to chirp again. It was nice just walking around and taking a step back from the modernized world for a moment. Being in and around nature is one of the most relaxing and uplifting feelings ever.

A fallen tree. Probably due to a storm, rotting, or old age.

There were about 3 of these holes within a few feet of each other! I'm guessing some kind of rodent or snake lives in here! Really cool to see up close!

Field Trip - Freshwater - UNF Nature Trail

I really enjoyed walking through the nature trail. We were hoping to go canoeing, but they were already rented for the day. It was very nice just to take our time, dip our feet in the lake, and walk around looking at all the different species the nature trail had to offer. I really liked seeing the raccoon paw print in the sand, I thought that was really cool. You can really get a feel for how everything works together and coexists in the habitat. It’s nice to see people still appreciate nature and working to preserve it and keep it as natural as possible.

Raccoon track!

Lots of lily pads

Red eared slider!

Map of the trails

Species Identification Near Freshwater

Jenny and I walked around the UNF lake and nature trails. We found many species that live in or near the freshwater lake.

^ These little minnows were at the bank of when we entered the lake.

^ Cow tails grew near the edge of the lake, needing to live near an abundance of water.

^ Snail found underneath the cat tails.

^ Red lilies

^ I believe this is a small, baby banana spider. It was hard to see through the sun, but I am fairly confident that the yellow and black stripes on the legs means it is a banana spider.

^ It was cool to see an Osprey hovering over the lake. The mascot for UNF.

^ A red eared slider swam up to us when we crossed a bridge. Probably hoping we had food.

^ I got a nice shot of the monarch butterfly that I found near the butterfly garden.

^ Pine cones filled the nature walk from all of the pine trees.

^ Fungus or mushroom

^ I spotted this as we were walking out. Pretty sure this is poison ivy.

^ Sunshine Mimosa

^ Coral Honeysuckle

They were growing Coontie! The plant mentioned in A Land Remembered that was used to make flour. It did actually feel kind of soft!

^Coontie.

Species Identification

A few days ago I saw a Barred Owl in the back yard. He literally was just staring at us and let us get super close to him. I was able to snag some pictures!

Urban Field Trip - 5 Points - Reflection

I really enjoyed walking around the small shops with Jenny. The town was very cute, and some parts even reminded me of St. Augustine, which is also an area rich in Florida history.  The monument in Memorial Park was really cool, and it was interesting to read about the history of it all and how it came to be. It’s nice to see that people are still nostalgic and like going to places that are not as modern and more old fashioned than we usually see these days. I really liked 5 Point and it would be a great place to have dinner in one of the old restaurants.

(click pictures to enlarge)

This is what one of the plaques on the statue read. The wings stand for courageous humanity in the chaos of war.

You can see the RAP sign on the right. Meaning limited renovations can be made.