Blog #3

Our field trip to Corkscrew was pretty cool, the living machine was a eye-opener at how the plants are both necessary and beneficial to the cleansing of the environment naturally. The three prominent and diverse ecosystems started with the pine flatlands which was mainly dry and obviously, full of pine trees, which is the highest elevation. The second ecosystem was the Wet Prairie, which is kind of a dead giveaway of what it is, it's at a lower elevation which causes it to be a little wetter.





This photo to the right is of an actual marsh mellow plant, which of course, isn't where our marsh mellows come from today, but nevertheless is where the inspiration came from!






The third prominent ecosystem is the Pine Cypress, which was much wetter than any that we had passed through and was home to alligators, and other species that thrive in that environment. I didn't get an actual picture of the wetlands but you can see how obvious the separation is from one ecosystem to the next. This preserve homes the largest bald cypress forest in North America.







Conservation and Stewardship are both huge roles in this preserve. Conversation is the concept of conserving something so that it doesn't get ruined, or built upon in this matter. And Stewardship is the actual action of doing something to make a change. This was seen in the plume bird situation, where the feathers of the plume birds became such a high status symbol that they we're getting massacred left and right to make the ladies hats. This kicked off a movement to ensure that the plume birds wouldn't become extinct because they were extremely close to it.The role of private non-profits have a role in both conservation and stewardship by not only acquiring a parcel of land to conserve but then to also raise awareness to the public and within the community of the issues that are being faced by these ecosystems if man doesn't take the appropriate steps to ensure it stays intact. This is what civic engagement entails, engaging the community and informing them of these issues and hoping that because it is an ecosystem prominent in their individual communities they will want to be involved in taking the steps of action to make sure it isn't destroyed. Corkscrew is a 14,000 acre sanctuary that is home to not only ecosystems but many plants and animals that wouldn't have much of a chance moving on to find a prosperous environment to live in. If this land was bulldozed and built upon, it would basically be a catastrophe that many people probably wouldn't think twice about doing. I think the main issue here is education, not many people know how important it is that there are preserves like this to help keep the environment alive and it it's natural state. I don't think the government has any role in this, except maybe they gave the land to be preserved. Like-minded people are the reason that anything gets preserved, if nobody cared and didn't fight for places like these, the world would be in worse shape than it already is.