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ECHO was an amazing experience. My friend Christina, who had taken this class before, had assured me that I would like it. We all met up at ECHO's office and were eager to get started. We watched a video about the founding of ECHO and what they were all about. I liked that this organization was based on trying different approaches to solve everyday problems. I also liked that they went overseas as well as trying things here in Fort Myers. Our tour guide's name was Justin (at least, I'm pretty sure that was his name!)
Anywho, the first thing we saw was the Duck Hut. The ducks were put in this hut thing and their poop droppings fell into the water, in order to feed the Tilapia fish. We then learned about two different types of bamboo. Running Bamboo is bad! It can get out of control! The next things we saw were the worm composts. I did not really want to look too closely because worms gross me out.
I learned a lot about the environment and ways to do things to help with just a little imagination. For example, their water purification system, growing plants in tires, as well as housing for third world countries!
I'll have a link up for pics soon. I just have to figure it out...
Since I do not really like dirt and things like that, gardening has not ever been a hobby of mine. Our neighbor, Jill, does our gardening because she enjoys it. However, I can account for numerous weekends in which my sister and I did the weeding. I think that growing vegetables would be pretty cool. I remember my sister used to grow some tomatoes and peppers in our backyard until my father accidentally ran them over with the lawn mower.
In the sixth grade I had an experience with grafting two different types of flowers. I thought that was pretty cool. I do not remember the type of flowers we used, however. I could definitely grow my own vegetables. But one cannot live on veggies alone. What if we could grow meat? Sounds kind of gross, but it would be cool if it were possible.
Ever since my childhood, I was never very big on the outdoors. My sister had always been the "tomboy", playing street hockey and collecting lizards with the neighborhood boys. I, on the other hand, preferred to spend my time indoors with Barbie and Ken. My dislike for playing outside has still not changed. While I no longer play with Barbies, I continue to have a strong dislike for bugs and the sunshine and sweat.
I know that bugs are a necessity to both our ecosystem as well as the food chain, but I do not understand why they must co-exist so closely! Also, I am not one of those people who can be in the sun for hours and tan. Or burn and then tan. I just burn. It is annoying and painful. I could be wearing SPF 85 and I would still probably get sunburned. Not only that, but I would probably sweat all of that sunblock off anyways! I sweat A LOT. These are the main reasons I do not spend a lot of time outside.
I went home to Tampa this past weekend. My parents were both in Jersey, so I had to stay with my sister. She has two puppies, and I watched them while she went to work. I took the dogs out many times during both the day and night. Since my sister was having a fence put up, I was able to observe a lot.
The grass was green and taller in some places than others. I saw lots of ants, beetle-looking bugs, and even a lime green frog. The cows behind her home mooed loudly during the day, and the Sandhill Cranes whooped at night. Since my sister lives waaaaay back in the neighborhood, driving to get there provided a lot of observation opportunity. there was grassy fields and people walking. More than once I passed a group of children riding bikes and playing football in the street on my way to her house.
I had been regretting taking this class. I had heard that it was not just boring, but also a lot of busy work. Two of my friends had taken it previously, and had both complained about the John Dewey book. Also, I am in no way an "outdoorsy" sort of girl, and had had a bad experience in the class of Marine Systems. Needless to say, I was not too thrilled.
However, the moment I walked into class, I could tell that it would not be so bad. What we first did was go out on the trails. Assuming it would be gross and buggy, I braced myself for the worst. It was not bad at all! The trail was very pretty, and I got very excited when I learned we had trees that were native to Australia, where I have dual citizenship. I know this sounds cliche, but I really did learn a lot on the trail.
These are some notes and/or definitions of the key terms we learned in the first class. I don't have all of them, so feel free to comment if you know some that I have left blank.
Restoration- the act of restoring or the condition of being restored.
Keystone Species- examples: 1) Alligators- without them digging holes, there would be less animals around. 2) Sea otters- eat urchins and kelp. 3) Gopher Tortoises.
Umbrella Species-
Mitigation- Allowing natural systems to survive human impact.
Growth Management-
Green Building-
Habitats- where animals live (duh!)
Conservations- places designated to help save animals.
Watershed- Examples: Streams, lakes, Lake Okeechobee.
Carrying Capacity- The ability of land to hold a population.
Aquifer- "a water-bearing stratum of permeable rock, sand, or gravel (www.merriam-webster.com)"
Preservation- Kind of self-explanatory, no?
Sustainability- "of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged (www.merriam-webster.com)"
Sense of place-
Ecological Perspective-
Today we walked the trails around our campus with Professor Davis. I'm not really a nature kind of gal, so I wasn't too thrilled to "explore the wilderness." However, once we got out there, I realized just how beautiful our campus truly is and learned a lot about some of the animals and trees along the way. I actually enjoyed learning about our ecology here in Southwest Florida.
We also watched a video about how our school came about. I cannot believe how much planning, money, and lawyers it took to get our school started. It's actually really inspirational. Thank goodness for Ben Hill Griffin!
So, I thought I'd post some pictures and information about some of the things we saw along the way on the trail. The first, is the Melaleuca tree (see above, it's from www.killerplants.com). The Melaleuca tree is also known as the "paper" tree as well as the "punk" tree. This tree is native to Australia, and has a paper-like bark texture. It is indeed a "punk", in the sense that it dries up water and is difficult to get rid of. My father, a fellow Aussie says they are, "bloody nuisances."
Another "species" we encountered on our journey was the Common Grackle. Professor Davis explained that the bird can often be confused with a Crow, but the Grackle has a distinct difference. It has a yellow ring around the eyes.
