Sense of Place - My Neighborhood

While walking around my neighborhood, I noticed many environmental features, species, and wildlife. There are sabal palm trees, saw palmettos, lizards, tree frogs, butterflies, and more! There is a medium sized lake with fish and other wildlife. I am explaining the apartment complex that I currently live in. It does not offer a recycling area on site yet, so I have to take my recyclables to Publix Supermarket for now.

There is a grassy area that overlooks the entire lake that is close enough to trees for shade when it's hot out but there is usually a slight breeze blowing in the area. This is where I have a feeling of Sense of Place. I like to sit on the grass with my dog and relax. I can just let my mind wander and I feel very comfortable there.

Surrounding my apartment complex is lush wilderness. There are trees everywhere; pine mostly, but some palm trees too.

Field Trip #2: Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

The second field trip that our class attended was to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary located in Naples, Florida. The Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary was founded by the Audubon society who realized the importance of preserving the land. It is the only area in Florida that has not changed dramatically since people began colonizing Florida. The government at that time built man-made waterways throughout south Florida to remove the excess water in preparation of future civilizations. This dramatically affected Florida and we are currently working to reverse the damage and improve the future.

We began our tour in The Living Machine. It is an area of various plants growing near the public restrooms. Our tour guide explained that the facility recycles the waste water from the restrooms to water the plants in the enclosure. It is passed through pipes and held in large tanks with bacteria to break down the water then it is used to water the plants. The water that is left unused, is chlorinated and then un-chlorinated and recycled back to the restrooms to be used in the toilets. I thought that this was very interesting! The money that the facility is saving everyday just from The Living Machine is immense.

Continuing our tour, we walked on the boardwalk through the different environments represented in the sanctuary. We stopped periodically to discuss facts and interesting things about the environments that we walked through. The first area we saw was the pine forest uplands. We stopped and discussed the fire that had been through the area and how we could see
the effects on the remaining trees. (These pictures are of burnt palm trees visible from the boardwalk.)

We saw an area of crushed plants in the marshy area of the swamp which our tour guide explained to us was most likely made by an alligator. The next time we stopped, we were able to see three specific environments. The pine forest uplands, the wetlands, and the cypress forest. (photo on bottom)

We continued our tour and discussed alligator flags/fire flags, lettuce lakes, Florida panthers, spiders, and the interesting facts of the boardwalk. The boardwalk was made of Brazilian wood from the Amazon forest. It would last longer than the cypress trees they could have made it from, but they would be using the tree they were in the process of saving. Also, in building the boardwalk, the trees were taken into account. If a tree was in the way, they built around it instead of cut it down. I thought that this was really interesting. And each year they cut the hole around the tree bigger to allow it to grow naturally.

I really enjoyed this field trip! The weather was decent and the environment we were able to learn about was very interesting. Being able to actually see and touch the environments that we read about and talk about for this course is extremely helpful in creating understanding.

Field Trip #1: Campus Trail

We began our field trip walking through the beautiful FGCU campus. At each stop, I learned something new. I learned that the bodies of water on campus are all connected, I know what the purpose of the solar panels are now, and much more! While walking toward the freshman dorms, it started to rain. I was completely unprepared for the rain, as was the rest of the class, and we all got a little wet before our actual trek through the marshes.

It had been raining almost everyday before our field trip which meant the ground was very moist. As we began walking the trail through the woods, the water level fluctuated from squishy to knee-deep. I was very worried that I was going to slip in the mud on the floor and fall into the water. Because it was later in the evening, the bugs were out; so at the end of the field trip, I had my fair share of bug bites.

I learned that there was a fire on campus about 7 years ago. We also talked about the importance of fires and how dangerous the underbrush can be if it is not taken care of. I also learned the difference between a sabal palm and a saw palmetto. A sabal palm is the palm tree that is all over our campus. A saw palmetto is a small bush with saw-like leaves that grows in groups.

<----- Sabal Palm
Saw Palmetto ----->




I enjoyed this field trip because it taught me a few things that I would have never known. I wish it was a little dryer outside but I can't do anything about the weather. I am looking forward to our other field trips for this class.