Entry 16: My Experience in University Colloquium at FGCU

 

I learned a lot from the class, University Colloquium.  It touched on many world and environmental subjects, such the global warming, greenhouse gases, agriculture all over the world, fishing and the wastes we dump into waters, fossil fuels, and the political issues with all of these subjects.

My most memorable moments for the class will be the field trips and service learning time.  The field trips to ECHO, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, and Downtown Fort Myers were far for me to drive to, but very enjoyable.  My trip to Ding Darling was very long and did not end up working out.  I will revisit there when I have the time and money.  My service learning time was spent doing something I have never done before, research on rainfall correlated to plant growth in the Six-Mile Cypress Slough, and I got to see things I have never seen before, like the swamp rabbit.  Besides the hard work to dredge through water, mud, and tangled water plants the service learning time was positive. 

I also really enjoyed listening to the cd’s and reading the book, The Weather Makers.  It touched on many different subjects with regards to carbon dioxide and the environment, and it will be a great research tool for my future classes at FGCU since I am majoring in Environmental Engineering. 

I, however, did not enjoy reading the excerpts from the University Colloquium book or State of the World book. The articles seemed to be long, drawn out and I did not seem to get as much out of them, compared to The Weather Makers.  Because I did not gain much of an interest in the excerpts and articles, it made it very more difficult for me to write the discussion posts and journal entries about them.  There was a lot of writing for this class- much more than I had anticipated.  Although, I did like writing the research paper because I could convey my thoughts and ideas about carbon dioxide emissions and the roles people play.  I have started working on the final project and have enjoyed it so far as well because I get to convey my ideas.

The class gave me the opportunity to create my own blog, which is my first ever blog, and I used the opportunity to get some of my friends to join so they can read about the things I’ve been learning.  The videos we watched during this class were all good, entertaining, and informative, except A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (it was boring and hard for me to keep my concentration). 

Overall, I had a great learning experience from the University Colloquium class and will be able to use the information I obtained from this class in my future endeavors.

Thanks Professor Eric Muldoon:

~Max G.

 

Entry 17a - The “Untold Stories” of Fort Myers

I enjoyed learning about the history of Fort Myers and hearing the views of older people who grew up there.  Fort Myers started out as a small military post, named Fort Harvey, with only a few hundred people and now it’s grown to have about 70,000 people.  It’s a newer city, incorporated in 1885, compared to most of the cities in New England.  The News Press has been around since 1884, but it was known as The Fort Myers Press back then.  Another company that has been around for more than 100 years is the Arcade Theater.  However, in those times, it was only 11 cents to see a movie, and it was one of the only places that had air conditioning.  The Edison Mall was built in 1965 and it also has air conditioning and it expanded the Fort Myers town. It is amazing how much things have changed since then.  One interesting fact from this video that I already knew was that Thomas Edison lived in Fort Myers, but I did not know that Henry Ford visited there often, had a house there, and trails for his cars were made in the 1920s.  I think it would have been great to see Fort Myers at that point in time.  I would have also like to have seen the fields and fields of gladiolus flowers that were once in Fort Myers.  The land used to have huge fields of these beautiful flowers, but now the land is mostly comprised of concrete buildings and roads.  The town expanded greatly and changed a lot in the 1960s.  During this time Hurricane Donna hit (destroying most things), retired people started going there, Edison Community College was opened, and the black people and white people finally became integrated.  I am not sure why this is surprising to me, but Fort Myers was one of the last cities in the country to become integrated.  Fort Myers has nice weather, a great history, and many attractions (Imaginarium, Edison's home, Ford's home, Barbara B Mann, etc.).  After watching these videos, learning about the history, and seeing old photographs of Fort Myers, I am very glad the city put together the restoration program to revive downtown.  I am also glad I visited downtown Fort Myers and saw the great job they have done so far in reserving it.

~Max G.

Journal 14 - Endgame.

The Everglades Future in the Hands of Politicians

               When I was 17 years old, there was an Everglades Coalition Conference in Naples, but I did not know of its importance until later in life.  The main focus of the conference was a restoration project and building an airport in Homestead.  At that time, just as today, conservationists were helping to preserve the wetlands by focusing on the water flow, cleaning it up, and getting the Everglades' ecosystem back in balance.  Many people of Florida have a long history with the Everglades and would not want to see it destroyed.  Other Floridians looked forward to an economic impact they thought would be good for Florida.  Because of politics and the greed of money, an airport in Homestead was on the agenda.  Some politicians thought it would bring more money to the area, developers were paying over $1 million to a top Washington lobbying law firm, and some people were saying that anyone who opposed the airport was a racist and wanted minorities in poverty.  Florida tourists and residents $2 million to the campaign to keep an airport out of the Everglades.  Al Gore was one of the politicians faced with the decision to approve or not approve the airport.  Research was done showing the airport would not cause any disturbance to the Everglades, but it would cause a noise nuisance to surrounding areas.  Al Gore was on the fence about the issue- he wanted a boost in the economy but wanted to make sure the environment was not hurt because of it.  Environmentalists did not like this and actually created a group called Environmentalists Against Gore.  Eventually, after much debate and more research, they decided not to construct the airport.  I agree with the decision made.  We have enough airports and vehicles to help us travel around.  We don't need to destroy the precious Everglades.

~Max G.

Entry 18 - Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

        When I reflect on my field trip with my  8 year old daughter, I think of peaceful, birds chirping, friendly people, stress reliever, calming, nature virtually untouched, and interesting. At Corkscrew you can: bird-watch, photograph plants and animals, walk the boardwalk day or night, solar observing, digiscoping, watch film, gift shop, and visit the eatery. My daughter and I were very hungry  towards the end of our journey but the eatery was closed.

        Different areas of the sanctuary include...The Pine Flatwood area:  There were many palmetto trees, saw palmettos, and pine trees. The trees were spread out and you could see birds flying through the sky if it weren't so cold when I visited. This area was not swampy and there was no lichen found in this area on the boardwalk.  The trunks of most of the trees had been burned, but were recovered. The Wet Prairie area:  It had no trees, just many types of bushes and grasses; however, trees bordered the open are simulating a mock fence.  It was mostly made up of sand cord grass. There was no shade and no lichen.  Someone there said that lichen likes to grow in shaded, moisture rich areas. The Pond Cypress area:  This area was swampy and had lots of tall, skinny trees. I saw a brown lizard (brown anole) and lots of lichen on the boardwalk. The Bald Cypress area:  I saw many bald cypress trees here, some of which were more than 500 years old.  There were also strangler figs, air plants, and Spanish moss (Grandfather's Beard).  It was very swampy and I saw a few birds in this area, including egrets and white ibis. The Lettuce Lakes area:  This area had water lettuce, water ferns, and red lichen.  I saw a momma Alligator and her two babies.

               It is peaceful when you can tell where the wind is coming from, see and hear trees start moving from one end of the woods to another, hearing the crackle of some dead branches breaking and see a few pine needles falling down to the ground around me from winterizing cypress trees. I see animal droppings, scat, but no animals. It is in the morning, about 60 degrees and slightly breezy with white clouds and the sun hiding behind them.  I am kept even colder by the shade from hundreds of cypress trees surrounding me. It is so beautiful.  Nature is very serine and fragile.

               I love being in the woods. I live at in Golden Gate Estates, Naples so the woods are all around me in this area.  I have a canal along the side of my house. I have seen foxes, squirrels, rabbits, birds, raccoons, gardener snakes, cottonmouth snakes, bobcat, and an otter once.  I love it out here.

               I also love sharing my surroundings with animals, and some other people do also.  After going to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, I saw that many people love plants and animals.  There were so many people walking around on the boardwalk enjoying the day and environment around them.  Every person I saw there had a smile on their face and was very friendly.  Even though most of them were tourists, smiling faces are contagious.

               The following is a poem about my wife's experience when she visited Cork Screw Sanctuary. This nice poem my wife wrote is more than worthy for my blog.

Swampy Getaway

Birds are chirping, flying tree to tree,

Throughout a land they can roam free.

Trees are swaying in the breeze,

Let this day last forever, oh please.

Animals, plants, and people enjoying their day,

In fresh air that's every which way.

Many smiling faces are around me,

Catching a glimpse of this rarity.

Everyone is so friendly and kind,

Checking out the swamp for new sights the may find.

Cameras are clicking towards beautiful scenery,

So images are saved forever in this greenery

~Max G.

Entry 13-The Nature of the Everglades .

               I have grown up in the city next to the Everglades my entire life. I have walked through the swamp watched people catch alligators with their bare hands, and gone on airboat rides. The Everglades is a great place and the river of grass is a great description for it. In an excerpt from "The Everglades: River of Grass," Marjory Stoneman Douglas writes about much of the history of the Everglades. She writes about the origin of the word "Everglades." Between surveyors, map makers, explorers, and Indians over the years, this area has been known as the "River Glades," "Pa-hay-okee" also known as "Grassy Water" and now as the Florida Everglades.

               The Everglades start at lake Okeechobee and runs south to the Gulf of Mexico, in an area about 100 miles long by between 50- 70 miles wide in some areas. It is mainly made up of saw grasses and Douglas describes it as very tough, rigid, and varies in color from pale green to deep brown. They are very tall , thin blades of grass.

               It was interesting to find out that the Everglades, somewhere I have grown up around, has the highest concentration of saw grasses in the world.  It is also great that people from all over the world visit Florida, where I have lived my entire life, to see the sights of the Everglades. Many of the tourists come during the winter months and missing the rainy seasons in the Everglades, which is when I think the Everglades is at its best and seems to have more animal life roaming around. There are tons of animal life in this area, such as the infamous alligators, but there also are Egrets, Ibis, cottonmouths, turtles, and many other different types of animals. 

               Below them is porous limestone, which has been shaping itself over the years as an awesome underwater scene. There are so many wondrous things about the Everglades and Douglas is very descriptive about those intricacies. You have so see it with your own eyes to even begin to comprehend its magnitude and fragile beauty.

~Max G.