Agriculture - Blog 5

Southwest Florida has been great additions to not only help the environment, but to help the people living in these environments.  In 1981 ECHO was created to help people eat foods grown out of the ground in an effort to end hunger.  ECHO is based on a 50 acre farm that has conducted research to figure out ways to grow nutritious foods in difficult areas.  ECHO uses a variety of technologies and techniques to grow the plants: raised beds, wooden trellis raised up, growing on slopes and using rocks to hold soil back.  ECHO is focusing on both international and places in the United States and what was interesting and heartbreaking to hear was how children in Lee County, Florida wouldn’t eat their next meal once they left school on a Friday until Monday when school would resume.  ECHO has done a fantastic job educating people like you and I of the possibilities of growing edible plants in any environment with the techniques of growing in difficult areas. 

In Robertson’s textbook it talks about Fast-Food Food Deserts and says, “Food security is defined as having access to nutritionally adequate, safe, affordable, and culturally acceptable food on a daily basis. People in low-income urban neighborhoods are particularly at risk because they may not have access to healthy foods…” (pg. 244).  In the YouTube video for ECHO, the woman talking says something very similar to this statement and that is why ECHO is working so hard with international farmers to educate them on ways to grow plants that are not only healthy for them to eat, but for the village they need to feed as well.  ECHO has made a large impact since 1981 to help world hunger by teaching ways to grow plants that are safe for people to consume in difficult parts of the earth that could be difficult to grow.  

Urban Experience - Blog 4

Babcock Ranch is the closest thing to a perfect town with their goals, aspirations and soul.  You asked a valuable question: “How does the design of the town help residents to create a sense of place there? Why is that Important?”.  Everyone that lives in this town all share the same common goal, which is to live with preservation and to leave a legacy that it is possible to treat the land you live on in an environmental way to be an additive to future generations.  The design of the town presents a sense of unity and that everyone is there working together for a common goal.

The initiative for this entire town to use only solar power energy will help slow down climate change.  All energy used during the day is powered by solar energy and then once it gets dark out and nighttime begins then the energy shifts to using natural gas.  Florida Power Line (FPL) has been working with Babcock Ranch and has supplied over 350,000 solar power panels.  According to our textbook, “Grants from utilities, government programs, or donors may be available to help funding… [solar panels] evaluate not only the potential for emissions reductions but also financial costs and payback period” (p.82).  The use of solar panels reinforces Babcock Ranch initiative to build a town right from the very beginning and to preserve the environment surrounding the town. 

It is important for a town to provide a sense of place when you go there to visit or live there because unity is everything.  You want to feel like you belong and that the work you go through in life is meaningful and that is Babcock Ranch in its entirety.  Everyone that lives there works together and the diversity present in this town show how important it is to take care of your neighbors. They all treat the environment with pride and will leave the legacy that it is possible to live a full life while keeping you, your family and friends and the environment safe.

Marine and Coastal Field Experience - Blog 3

Every weekend my fiancé and I get on our jetski and find an adventure!  This past weekend we decided to launch our jetski at the Cocohatchee River Park boat ramp and we rode through the channels to Lover’s Key.  On our journey through the channels we came across so much wildlife, it was amazing!  The first thing I noticed that stood out was all of the mangroves.  I believe the mangroves in Wiggins pass are black mangroves and they were everywhere.  It was low-tide when we first went out, so we were able to see the roots very well.  While riding in the channels we saw so much life from the birds up in the sky to the manatees and dolphins in the water.  In Roberson’s textbook we learned about biodiversity, which describes the biological diversity of genes, species and ecosystems.  The more biodiversity there is in an ecosystem the more stable it will be.  When I saw all the different forms of life surrounding the channels it just showed how all these different animals and life forms work together.  In the estuary we saw a couple manatee for a brief moment but it was such an amazing moment.  From my experience I feel that the manatee stay pretty close to the channels floor and will only come up for a brief moment, but dolphins like to make their presence known!

Once we arrived to Lover’s Key we beached our jetski and walked around.  On the shoreline of the beach I sunk my hands into the sand where it was still wet and lifted my hands out of the sand and saw a large amount of tiny coquinas.  It is so interesting to watch the coquinas as they dig into the sand once they’re washed up on the shoreline to hid from birds so they don’t get eaten.  The coquinas made me think of a sentence in A Sense of Wonder, “For me the sight of these small living creatures, solitary and fragile against the brute force of the sea, had moving philosophic…”.  Although the author is talking about the crabs I feel the coquinas have a similar story because they are so small but they contribute to the large ecosystem of oceanic wildlife.  While walking along the shoreline at Lover’s Key we saw a mini forest of what appeared to be live oak that ran along the coast.  I go on these jetski adventures every weekend but had never paid such close attention as I did on this last one.  It had never crossed my mind all of the different species in the channels or ocean that all work together to make the ecosystem strong and stable.  I definitely recommend spending an afternoon in a kayak, jetski or paddleboard going in these channels because there is so much to see and learn!

Freshwater Experience - Blog 2

As a new Florida resident I did not know much about the ecosystem and the water supply.  I had never really thought about where my water came from because it was always there.  After learning about CREW and their long-term goal I feel that this organization has performed services that will not only allow Floridians to live a nice lifestyle with water available to their convenience, but they are also keeping the natural environment for many different plants and animals.    

According to our textbook written by Margaret Robertson, “2.5 percent is freshwater… About 30.1 percent of the freshwater is available as groundwater. The water we can see – rivers, lakes, wetlands, clouds, soil moisture, plants and animals – makes up the remaining 0.4 percent of the fresh water” (p. 90). CREW has successfully preserved the 60,000-acre watershed that refuels the aquifers and provides Floridians water at their doorsteps.  One thing I noticed the most was how important it is to preserve these grounds.  When the video showed the aerial shot of the 60,000 acres it puts everything into perspective of how important it is to keep these ground preserved so Southwest Florida can flourish in the next thirty years. Another thing that I found very important was how these 60,000 acres have every habitat in the forest from different types of trees to black panthers and bears!

If CREW didn’t preserve the 60,000 acres of land then there would be a depletion of aquifers that could cause different animals to become endangered or even extinct.  According to Margaret Robertson, “Depletion of aquifers is another threat to biodiversity. Plants, animals, and other organisms in lakes, rivers, and underground water systems have evolved to suit the particular ecosystems where they live… [if] those ecosystems change and the organisms in them face local extinctions” (p. 93).  What I noticed was how important water truly is for CREW’s mission but as well as for us citizens to follow.  We wouldn’t be able to exist comfortably the way we do if CREW wasn’t preserved. 

Sense of Place - Blog 1

As we visited our favorite park I feel a sense of pride, pride that I live in such a beautiful area surrounded with large trees, pride that I live in a town that takes pride in its history, and pride that our town has come such a long way.  I grew up in St. Charles, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago.  My family and I moved to Florida just under a year ago, but St. Charles will always be home.  As I connect to my inner-self and my childhood the one place that I go back to is a park my parents brought my sister and I to, Pottawatomie Park.  

Pottawatomie Park view from the Fox River

Pottawatomie Park is in the heart of St. Charles surrounded by the Fox River and these very large and old trees.  Pottawatomie Park had a huge outdoor pool where my sister and I learned how to swim, a mini-golf course where my now fiancé, brought me on one of our first dates back in 2013 when we were just two kids in high school, and so many other water activities all of the locals would do in the nice spring and summer months.  The one trip that means the most to me is when one summer day my dad taught us about Pottawatomie Park.  My dad is a nature guy that knows a lot about trees and the ecosystem from growing up on a farm in Sterling, Illinois. 

Pottawatomie Park view of baseball fields and large grass hill surrounded by trees

My dad has always had a love for trees and when he first moved to St. Charles and into the house he built a family with my mom he had planted over 50 trees.  He would take the time with my sister and I almost every night and the three of us would put our hands on the trees to let them know we love and appreciate them.  From these experiences and all the knowledge my dad instilled in my sister and I we learned how important it is to take care of nature.  On our summer family field trip to Pottawatomie, my dad told us that it is very important to let the trees know that we love and appreciate them the same way we love and appreciate the trees at our house, because trees help us breath.  

4th of July fireworks at Pottawatomie Park picture I took (2014), we went every year

This became a ritual for the three of us because we knew how important it was and is to take care of our trees, flowers and rivers because they provide us with basic essentials.  The trees give us oxygen, the flowers feed some of the animals that we eat and without water from the rivers we wouldn’t survive.  In Sustainability Principles and Practice by Margaret Roberton, I learned about the drivers of ecosystem change and the most important fact that stood out to me is habitat destruction.  After learning about habitat destruction is makes me think of the lessons I learned as a young girl with my dad. If you love and appreciate the trees surrounding you then you shouldn’t cut them down for your own personal gain.  By doing this you are destroying the ecosystems surrounding them.  Pottawatomie Park is home to many different animals, insects, trees and flowers and if this park were to undergo habitat destruction it would ruin the natural ecosystem messing up all of the equal parts that make up the flow of life in the park.