Free entry-Buspool

I want to take this free journal entry time to show my appreciation and understanding for our bus car pooling. I only came to uunderstand this concept fully after a recent field trip where everyone one of my classes was instructed to carpool themselves. I am extremely guilty here...well kind of because I had a buddy coming with me that could not go when it was time. Therefore when I showed up alone to take up a limited parking space, I felt sort.....un sustainable. Thats when it hit me that most people were with one other person or alone. And that it would have been far better to have everyone meet in the auxillary lots! kind of like I am about to do now. In conclusion, The bus is, and always will be the ultimate carpool!

Field Trip #3

Another great field trip, and a must see for residents/ students in the area. I like the information we received about hunting of Egret feathers for hats. This is real life familiar evidence and example for how a species can become directly threatened and how it is important to protect it as a natural species/resident of Florida. I have to say I do not like boardwalks for large groups of people. Boardwalks are definitely far superior to beating down a path through the woods, but it makes for a lot of noise when walking as well as less chances of seeing wildlife. Again, as in the campus trails, I found myself straggling to get a better vantage point for observation of my surroundings. It was effective because I feel like I was able to see a wide variety of flora and fauna, including alligators, anhingas, strangler figs, and buntings. All in all a great trip that I would do again and again.

State Of The World

I have to say that my section was one of the most important. It was called Water in a Sustainable Economy. Water is an environmental resource that underpins economic activity. I guess the issue that makes an impact on me most for water, is the sustainable rates at which water can be used, and the actual ever increasing usage patterns that humans have. This is scary because you really can not tell people they can not have water.....yet the way we use it now and in the future, may force us to tell people there is no more water. The other section which hit home for me was Meat and Seafood. This is because I love both of these protein sources. The chpater shows how much stress the world's dieting puts on these markets. There is extemely high demand for protein rich meats and fishes. I realize how I contribute to this, but at the same time do not have a solid solution for the demand problem, which is conflicting for me. And last but not least the chapter dubbed The Challenge of sustainable lifestyles. I think this chapter touches on all the others in the fact that living sustainable, or with only what you need, is a very challenging quest. Aamerican lifestyle has shown us otherwise.

Food Intake

A day in the life of my food(given a glass of water per food item). First I eat some Ezekiel cereal and a bannana and some yogurt. Then a couple eggs and some potato bread and a slice of cheese. then a beef turkey and cheese sandwich and another bannana. Raspberries and some crackers. Dinner is a dominant meal. Chicken Stir fry (broccoli, carrots, habanero) and thai sesame noodles. and some cereal before bed as well. My estimated daily caloric intake is around 2500-3000 cals. I try to keep intake on the high side because of excercise.

Water Rights

I do not like how water rights are able to bought and traded as commodity. This type of commerce is and continues to be highly controversial. Florida has whats called an Eastern Water Law, which utilizes the riparian or reasonable use doctrine. In most cases due to the doctrine, water rights in Florida are held by state gov., or other responsible entities. On the other hand, the Western Law uses prior appropriation. This is how T.Boone gets his water rights. T. Boone said "he acquired a newfound regard for water as a commodity that should be bought, sold, and traded for the benefit of those who own it and those who can afford it". With prior appropriation, most water rights holders are private and very wealthy. Unfortunately this disposition is biasing in the way of economic gain. This water exploitation can be damaging for the whole community, including non humans. There will have to be some sort of straight line construction of water piping from point A to point B for allocation. This in itself will likely go through natural habitats, and most definitely established human living as well. This will be costly and will upset life in the local communes. Another aspect to look at would be upsetting a balance in the aquifer by over extracting. This could create future problems. If this falls through, I say Dallas should get by in the manner they have been, by tapping their aquifers in a more conservative matter than that which a private owner would. Florida will likely have no problems like this because of the laws and doctrines in place.

Daily Water Usage

20 gallons is my estimated use for one day. I am surprised to find that almost half of that is in showering. The other half is more evenly spread. Besides showering I have a miscellaneous category for brushing my teeth, toilet, sink, dishwasher, drinking, etc. The two categories are roughly half and half of 20 gallons per day, with my misc. category probably having a gallon ro two more use. I consider myslef as water conscious. I wash dishes directly after use if possible, conserve toilet water, turn off the sink as much as possible when shaving or brushing my teeth. I know the worst one for me is showers. The showers use 10 gallons or more per use, and I love being in the shower bacause it is refreshing. Even so, there is a price to pay for that, so I have to work on cutting down on shower time.

Environment in the News

Rescue Flight is an interesting article about ultralight planes leading whooping cranes migrations from Wisconsin to Florida. It is called Operation Migration. Operation Migration has been one of several organizations collectively trying to bring whooping cranes back to the eastern part of the continent. The baby whooping cranes were hatched at the federal government’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland. The birds never hear or see humans, only a worker disguised as an alpha whooping crane. From there they are taken to the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin where they learn to fly with ultralights.

I love efforts such as these. I am very familiar with the whooping crane and I appreciate it's existence in Florida. This method is interesting for acclimating a bird to the wild. I have seen it in a movie once with canadian geese, but never have read about it's use with whooping cranes.

Cited source
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/magazine/22cranes-t.html?_r=1&ref=earth

ECHO field trip

I loved the ECHO field trip. I want to grow many of the exotic fruit bearing trees they have at ECHO. I would love to cultivate Carambola, Strawberry Tree, Kieffer Lime, and Variegated Pink Lemon. ECHO is a good trip because of the fact that it shows that a large variety of edible plants can be grown in our somehwat extreme climate. This gives confidence to an amatuer like me to pursue sustainable crops of my own. I have grown some small edible crops of my own here and there, but not a whole lot. ECHO is a good resource I gained for example and for a seed bank as well.

Sense of Place

I have a sense of place on FGCU campus. I have been here for over 3 years, in the buildings and on the land. First off, the roads of FGCU are very familiar. Even some roads that are less traveled. It is good to know the best vantage point to get to a class from the loop which rounds the academic buildings. I think everyone should get to know the dorms atleast once. I had a fun experience and realized how much I wanted to live off campus. The woods of campus are one of my favorite parts. I like playing disc golf on all 18 holes through the beach front to the edge of the woods. It's also fun to hop from tree to tree throught the woods, on a fallen trail probably created by a tornado or hurricane. The only other spot on campus which rivals the woods, would be the lake. The lake has a lot of bass to fish as well as cichlids and other small fish. The lake is very large and very deep, I think it was an old mine pit or rock quarry. It is not quite like a natural lake, but it has its odd attractions to me because of this in some ways.

Your Neighborhood

When you eneter my neighborhood, you start into a big circle on which you can go left or right. In the middle of the front of the circle by the entrance there is a big wetland with a small cypress head(the only cypress trees in the wetland). To the right is for guests and right side residents, and to the left is for residents of the left side only. The left is my path, which is pretty nice. It would be a lot better if the woods bordering the outside if the circle were not all maleluca(almost all...some pines). After about an eigth mile you reach the gate. This gate is somewhat a separation from the natural world, and my neighborhood. Once you go beyond the gate, the mitigation is over so to speak. There are a couple man made lakes inside, but beyond that there is mostly concrete jungle. There is no hiding the tall rectangular housing units inside the gates. I cant say I dont like it here, but when I think about it, it is what it is.

Field Trip #1

I loved the campus trail. It was a breezy/windy day, on the verge of rain. I like these type of days because of the cool air. The trail was winding so you could not see what was ahead. I like to walk by myself so I straggled to the back where I could gaze at each new scene the trail revealed. I like our campus and its trails, they remind me of how FGCU conserves land while still having the University for us. This is one of the reasons I chose to attend FGCU, You never have to far from the natural world.

Incoming Reflection

I have heard Colloquium was a fun ecological based course. I agree with this statement. This is a plus for me, because I love Ecology and hope to be an Ecologist one day myself. I work for an environmental consulting company sometimes, so I have a lot of experience exploring wilderness and walking transects all over Florida. I think doing this type of work gives me a great relationship with the natural world, with continued consistent interaction. I have no hesitatioins or reservations about this class, I hope to further strengthen my relationship with the natural world in this class. Colloquium is good course for my major considering its ecological roots. Colloquium is a good class in general because I believe it will strengthen your relation with the natural world, and this is important because you will always interact with the natural world.