Final Impressions

 http://www.scc.spokane.edu/?hfchsustain

      Colloquium was a very enlightening class for me this year.  I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.  I had previously taken Environmental Biology of Southwest Florida and I thought it would be almost identical.  Instead I actually learned more about my campus in this class, which made it more interesting plus I got to learn about the city of Ft. Myers.  If I could make changes to the course I would try to limit the number of online sites we had to use.  I did not like having to use angel, wikki, and blogger.  In my opinion the wikki site could be very confusing so I would have rather just handed my assignments in on angel.  In my opinion, I believe that the assignments were fine and correlated with the class.  A Land Remembered by Patrick D. Smith was actually a good book, because it was relatable.  University Colloquium: A Sustainable Future articles were very redundant throughout the year and I do not believe that they were backed by very many facts.  If some of the reading was to be eliminated I would suggest getting rid of that book.  I enjoyed all of the field trips even when we had to stand in the pouring rain at the cemetery.  Thank you for a good semester.

http://chrlibrary.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

Sense of Place Interview

      I interviewed my grandmother for this journal about sustainability.  She discussed with me the problems of younger generations today.  We take up too many resources and do not live sustainably she stated.  For instance we always need the latest technology whether it is a TV, computer, phone, or other modern device and then we throw away something that is perfectly good just, because something new and better came along.  Growing up on a farm in Massachusetts, she learned the value of hard work and to respect nature.  Her family tried not to take more than what they needed form nature.  Since she grew up on a farm I believe her lifestyle, as a child was totally different from mine.  She thinks that it is great that we are learning about respecting nature and sustainability.  Teenagers today get too caught up in the latest trends and consume too much.  “It is wonderful to see students learning more about their environment today,” said Lorraine Perry.  

Urban area and local history museum or Fort Myers

    

http://www.photographersdirect.com/buyers/stockphoto.asp?imageid=1367663

http://www.efwefla.org/home.asp

      Driving to our first stop we past by the Edison and Ford Winter Estates.  I wish we could have stopped to tour the estates, because the museum explains how the area has changed and become industrialized over the years.  I have previously been to this museum on a school field trip, which everyone seemed to enjoy.  The main part of this field trip definitely did not start off on the right foot.  We stood in the pouring rain while we looked around the cemetery. Once the rain stopped we got to go and enjoy the sun in Centennial Park.  We got to see the Uncommon Friends fountain, which featured Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone camping.  I enjoyed this part of the trip and could see myself going to the park especially to go running.
   

http://www.focusofswfl.com/2010/07/pepsi-refresh-for-art-cente

   

    

http://www.floridarep.org/building.shtml

      When we visited the downtown area we got to see the Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center, which was my favorite building that we visited.  Most of the building was constructed out of coral from Key West.  Though it was beautiful it was not the best resource to use for construction, because coral is very scarce.  This building used to be used as a post office, but now they use it as an art center.  Instead of tearing it down and building a whole new building it was great to see that they did not waste more resources on constructing a new building.  Another interesting thing about this building was the pillars outside that light up at night with different names of native plants.  A Victorian playhouse called the Arcade Theater was in the local area and still puts on plays, but has been renovated since the early days.  Other stores in this plaza donate a portion of their proceeds to local charities.  I thought that it was great to see businesses giving back to their community.    

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/neoclassicalarchitecture/interesting/

     

      The downtown area of Fort Myers seemed like it would be a great place to visit, but it still needs some maintenance.  If the area was kept up better and had more special events than I believe more visitors would be attracted to it.  Recently for Halloween they had an event called Zombie Con, which drew in more business for the local area.  I believe events like this can continue to help increase community engagement.

Agricultural Area - ECHO

http://www.houseplantsforyou.com/how-to-grow-an-indoor-herb-garden/

      Visiting ECHO agricultural area seemed like it would be my favorite of all the field trips that we went on, but unfortunately we missed out on more than half of the information and tour due to inclement weather.  I loved the fact that the purpose of this organization was to help provide and tech how to grow food to the less fortunate. 
      I live on the east coast of Florida with my parents, where I do help with the gardening.  Since orange trees are so productive in this state I planted my own orange tree, because I love being able to go out and pick oranges with my mom that we can then squeeze into orange juice.  We recently planted an apple tree that has not produced any fruit yet, but I look forward to getting to eat the apples from it.  My mom also has an herb garden, which is great to have fresh whenever we are cooking.  Unlike people in other countries I do not believe I am a good enough gardener to be fully self sufficient on my own farm. 
      Even though it is not native to this area I loved seeing bamboo trees at the park.  We also got to see a pink lemonade tree, which was my favorite.  I love pink lemonade so I wish I could have bought the plant.  On the tree it even had pretty white flowers, which was unusual.  At the end of the trip I bought star fruit that they had grown, which I have never tried before, but I enjoy eating now.  

http://www.easytogrowbulbs.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1214

Estero Bay Historic Cottage and Matanzas Pass Preserve

     Estero Bay Historic Cottage was a really great field trip.  Not only was the woman very sweet, but she was also very informative.  It was interesting to hear about how the land has changed over the years.  The cabin that we visited was constructed during the beginning of the 20th century.  The environment was thriving during that time, because people lived simpler lives.  When the bridge was built to connect Ft. Myers Beach to the main land, it began to see a dramatic increase in numbers of visitors and residents.  Due to this increase, more of the local fish decreased and the water quality went down due to contamination.

 

http://www.naturefoundationsxm.org/education/mangroves/mangroves.htm 

     The boardwalk took us through a mangrove forest where we could see red, black, and white mangroves.  I took a lot of photos on this trip, but unfortunately I had a problem loading them.  I do not remember the catchy phrase about the mangrove trees unfortunately, but I do remember the differences.  The red are the closest to the water and have shiny leaves.  Red mangroves have propagules that hang off the trees until they drop into the water to grow a new mangrove.  Black mangroves are slightly more inland and have a dark colored trunk with knots on it.  White mangroves are on higher land and look more like an average tree.  The leaves secrete salt, which one of my classmates tasted and said that it was disgusting.  The lake was gorgeous along the trail and I got to see a few interesting birds.  I wish I could have identified them, but they flew away before I could take a picture. 

http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/factshts/2004-3124/2004-3124.htm

 

 

     I have never heard of Conservation 20/20 before this.  After some research I found that it was started, because a group of people in Lee County were not happy with the amount of land preserved compared to other areas of Florida.  This group lobbied for funding to go to this ecological cause. Conservation Lands Acquisition and Stewardship Advisory Committee is the group that selects, purchases, and manages the land they wish to preserve.  The goals of the committee are to protect natural wildlife, protect developed lands from flooding, and preserve water and resources.

Conservation 20/20 website:  http://www.conservation2020.org/background.html

     I have been to one of the parks affiliated with this program during my Environmental biology of Southwest Florida class.  It is called Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed.  It was a gorgeous preserve and it was huge.  I enjoyed seeing the various habitats. Another great preserve that I have been to was at Koreshan.  I have been camping there a few times with my family and I love their nature trails.

Websites:
Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed=  http://www.crewtrust.org/
Koreshan Preserve=  http://www.floridastateparks.org/koreshan/default.cfm

I have also been to do not feel like very much of our taxes should go to land preservation.  I do agree that some should, because it will be beneficial not only for now, but for future generations to have a healthy environment.

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

This is the site of the park:  http://corkscrew.audubon.org/

     I had previously been to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary before for Environmental Biology of Southwest Florida and thoroughly enjoyed visiting it again.  Even though I like being in nature I do not like walking through swamps and marshes so I enjoyed walking along the boardwalk.  When I previously went to this preserve I got to see a lot of animals so I was a little disappointed to not see to many.  We did get to see a lubber grasshopper, which is large and yellow with black markings.  Our group also got to see an Anhinga bird, which is a black bird with gray and white on its wings.  Along the boardwalk we got to see transitions between each habitat including pine flatwood, wet prairie, cypress forests, and the marsh.
     I would like to return to this preserve again once I become an elementary teacher, because I think it would be great to take the children outside of the classroom to learn about the environment around them.  By doing this I could help promote ecological literacy at a young age.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/8811

Sense of Place

    I currently live in North Lake Village on Florida Gulf Coast University’s campus.  In this community it is their goal to create a safe and ecologically friendly environment, which students can live in.  It is the goal of the dorm buildings to have a green design.  The dorms in North Lake are constructed to have an ecologically friendly roof.  Our shower heads have a restrictor on it to prevent too much water from being used.   
    Walking around the dorms you will see that there are recycle stations where students can try to separate items from their garbage, so that we do not fill up our landfills with materials that could be reusable.  At every laundry room we also have a school shuttle stop that provides transportation for students to campus so that carbon emissions are reduced.  At the center of North Lake there is a bus stop that students can use to go to Gulf Coast Town Center to take care of their shopping needs, while reducing their gas consumption. 
    Usually I do not see too many animals during the day, but you can see them almost every night.  Raccoons frequently wander around the dorms at night especially by the garbage cans, which is why we have a dumpster that has a lock code so that the animals cannot crawl into the trash and get stuck.  One night I was by the tikki hut on the lake and I saw an alligator among the alligator flag plant.  I always heard that there was one in the lake, but I never saw it until that night.  Sometimes if I’m driving by the nature trails I see a coyote or two, but they usually are more afraid of me and run away.  


http://www.fgcu.edu/Housing/AboutLOC.html
http://torontoist.com/2006/10/raccoon_rage.php