Journal 9

The FGCU Nature Trails!!

    On Friday, May 31st, our class took a walk down the FGCU Nature Trails. Florida Gulf Coast University as a whole was established around conserved areas. There are beautiful walks that you can go on, on your own, and experience nature first hand. The trail we went on was the swamp walk and the cypress dome.
    As you can see by the picture, water rises pretty high on the cypress trees in this area. We were lucky enough not to be standing in waist deep water, or any water for that matter. It was the end of the dry season. But once again Florida never ceases to amaze me. All of a sudden it just starts pouring on us while out there. The weather can just change so quickly. Its really crazy how nature can do that.

Blood Lichen

    As a class, we had a challenge to name 5 different species of plant life out in the wild. There were just so many different types of trees out there. Cypress trees are the majority of the plant life out on the trails. There are also Melaleuca trees which are invasive. The palms are more on the outside right before you enter the dome. As you can see to the picture on the left, there was a tree with lichen, blood lichen to be exact. This usually means that the air quality is exceptional. Blood lichen is known to be usually found only in Florida.
 
    The FGCU Nature Trails are just a wonder to see. They are there for a reason! And you can go when ever you would like. This is a great campus.

Journal 8

Foooood, Inc.! 
   In class we watched the film Food, Inc. It goes behind the scenes at what we don't get to see as consumers. Where do all your meats come from? What about your canned goods? Produce? Where does it all start? Well it all begins out in the fields where farmers grow certain goods. Cows may eat it, or chickens, or other livestock. This movie follows that trail into what is finally sitting in front of you. It could have flown thousands of miles ,while it all could have started right out your back yard.
   All of most foods are owned by only 6 or so companies. Thats it. We are under this spell from the companies and they completely keep us in the dark. They would never want us to see what actually goes on behind the packaging because most of us would never buy from them again, especially us carnivores.
    This movie has really opened my eyes to what actually happens. I hate eating meat but its just so good! I want to become a better eater but healthy foods, are just too expensive. Definitely a movie to see.

Journal 7

Waste to Energy Plant! (not the incinerator)

     Last Wednesday our class took a trip to the Lee County Waste to Energy Plant and was able to have a behind the scenes look at what goes on. There is so much that happens and also how great it is for the community. It basically takes all your trash, and converts it into energy.

The main dumping area

   In the picture, this is where all the garbage trucks dump everything. From here, other trucks plow everything into the yellow lit area. You can actually see the claw that comes down and picks up about a ton worth of garbage. It then gets lifted up and over the wall where there is a chute that takes it all the burners. It all get very compacted and gets extremely hot. All the heat will turn water into steam. This steam will then turn and spin a turbine which finally goes to a generator.
   We now have electricity! From everything burning, it does create ashes. But which is better? Tons and tons of garbage that you see here in the picture, or a couple square feet of ashes that will eventually turn into concrete? I will take the burning for sure. It compacts everything so much and we get something positive out of it. The smoke is cleaned and filtered so many times that it is virtually, odorless. It is really something that i think every county should have. It burns what we throw out, and makes electricity out of it. Thats a win win if you ask me. I would love to try and see more of it.

Journal 6

Trip to ECHOOOOOO. 

    On May 22nd, we took a trip to ECHO in Fort Myers, ECHO is Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization. It is an amazing place just filled with a whole ton of plants (similar to our Food Forest but 10x bigger) and devices that can teach us how to be more resourceful and profitable. 

   People have been coming here from all around the world to learn how to plant properly. There are so many different techniques to planting, to cooking, to even purifying water. 

   Moringa, a plant with many different uses has been so unknown until we have been there. As you can see from the picture, it has tons more things that we never knew about. The best part about it all is that you can just pick it right off the plant and eat it. Moringa can also grow without roots. So if you just pick a stem off and plant it in the ground it will grow. The Moringa seeds can also purify water up to 95 percent. Just crush it up and put it in a liter of water. Once it looks pretty clear, place the bottle in sunlight and it will kill the rest of the bacteria! And you now have drinkable water that wasn't before. 

The best part about ECHO, it is complete sustainable. There is nothing harmful such as gases and chemicals. Its 100% natural. ECHO is definitely a place to go. 

Journal 5

The Human Footprint we leave behind.

   The film Human Footprint is designed to open up your mind and to show what really happens and what we use during our life time. It includes everything from the diapers we wear as babies all the way up to the pills we will devour in our later years.

I could not believe the amount of stuff that we really go through. The film couldn't cover every little thing but got all of the basics. I will always think twice when buying something and thinking, maybe it can wait. What really threw me back was that a man will spend roughly $55,000 just on clothes! Are you kidding me?! Thats like 2 years of pay just going to clothes. And that number is just for men! They couldn't even come up with a number for women. Or they just decided not to show it.

Everything we use in our life time touches at least every country in some way. A car for instance is made up of pieces from roughly 20 countries. This part is from here and this part is from there. Its crazy how this world is all dependent on trade and imports.

This film has really opened my eyes to what I have bought so far. And there is much, much more to come.

Journal 4

A walk in the FGCU Food Forest!

The Food Forest at FGCU is a wonderful that is available to all the students and faculty. It is all grown and maintained by the students. It is only 2 years old and has grown so much. You can literally just go in there, and pick strawberries right off the plants and eat them.

And thats not all they have! There is almost everything from native to non native species. But my favorite has to be the sugarcane. Its crazy how good that tastes! And the sugar is completely 100% natural. I want to take more and just chew on it all day long.

The FGCU Food Forest is one of the greatest sustainable things that has happened on campus and I hope it stays around much longer for the incoming freshman and will get larger and larger.

Journal 3

Trip to the Corkscrew Sanctuary:

I loved the adventure out to the sanctuary. There were so many cool things that it was really overwhelming. 

When we first started out it was very interesting. Went through some low brush area and some small trees. Then all of a sudden it all opens up into and grassy field. A really big change.

There were tons and tons of spider webs

This is where all the deer walk around. And then right across the field to the left is a huge wall of trees. Very dense cypress trees. I could not believe we were in Florida right now. It seemed we were in the middle of the jungle or something.

Then in some areas of the "dome" were breaks in the trees and had tons of alligator flags. Such as these. These would move in the water when an alligator was passing by them.

Then right as we were about to leave, there was a sighting of a black bear. We followed the boardwalk to only see a glimpse of the massive beast. Didn't get a really good picture of it..

There were so many more things that happened on the trip. I would love to go back there during the day as well as at night. I'm sure the stars are beautiful out there.

Journal 2

Things that are special to southwest Florida:

1. Mangroves - help clean the water and provide animal habitats.
2. Bunche Beach - The area where there are mangroves 
    everywhere, also has the salt flats.
3. Spanish Moss - Only grows here really and gives trees a cool 
    look. Takes away nutrients from the trees though.
4. Sand Spurs - They are very annoying and like to stick to 
    everything. Very pointy like thorns on a rose bush.
5. Everglades - The Everglades is one of the largest national parks.     Home to many alligators and wildlife.