Reflection on "Last Child in the Woods"

Reading “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv really made me look back and reflect on my experiences with nature and the woods as a child. As soon as someone asks me to remember, what life was like as a child I automatically think of always being outside. I have three brothers who loved playing out in the grass and dirt and my parents would not let us stay in the house when it was a nice day outside. Looking back now, I can always remember as a family we were always at either the beach, or playing in the tree house in our back yard, or swimming in the swimming pool and bouncing on the trampoline. At the time, I may have gotten frustrated when I just wanted to lie inside and watch television but now I am thankful for the way my parents raised us. I now appreciate the outside more and the fact that I did not need to grow up with video games and nonstop movies online per month to watch constantly to have fun. I am so thankful I live in the state of Florida where we have our beautiful sunshine that attracts so many tourists and makes me realize that I am very lucky to live where I do and have the things I have had. The experiences my parents offered to me through living here and raising me the way they did truly has had a huge impact on my life.

 These experiences also affected my decision of which college to go to. My choices were the University of Central Florida in big city Orlando or where I chose Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. My first instinct when I toured FGCU was how beautiful our campus is and how environmental friendly and walking around UCF, you wouldn’t see alligators sunning themselves on the pond sides or bald eagles flying through the trees on campus. After I finished my tour, I didn’t even need to see the campus of UCF to make my decision, I knew I had fell in love with FGCU and it would be the right school for me.

I can also say I am thankful that I didn’t grow up addicted to machines and computers and video games because it taught me a lesson for my future family that I know they will be raised without these electronics glued to their eyes. Its sad to me when I see 12 year olds running around with cell phones texting when they should be outside kicking a soccer ball or playing with friends. I know my childhood experiences will definitely reflect on my future and how I live my life.

Going back to old Ft Myers

Going back in time and hearing about old Ft Myers beach while getting to enjoy homemade sea grape jelly and lemonade really reminded me of sitting at home with my grandparents hearing old war stories and about life on the farm in the early 1930’s in Iowa. I cannot recall the name of the sweet old woman who took her time to tell our class about her childhood on Ft Myers beach but I definitely will not forget this trip. Today, Ft Myers beach is look at as a crazy vacation place as one of the top 10 beaches in the United States and a landing ground for local college students. Our tour guide on this trip (the sweet old woman) went back about 2,000 years and began with the Calusa Indians that started with the construction of the shell mounds, where one is still being preserved today. The place we visited was almost like a museum of Pictures and artifacts of Ft Myers from the past 20 years. She has pictures of the hurricanes that devastated the island and the very first bridges that were built but were destroyed. This woman told her stories and this history and made me feel like I was living on the beach and saw all the history happening right around me. It must be quite an experience for this woman to have lived and watched history happen all around her and be able to share her experience with students who only know the present day Ft Myers Beach.

Hearing stories just about how much this beach has changed in the past 100 years blows my mind, just imagine what other important places in Florida looked like over 100 years ago. If we do not preserve these beaches and the beautiful nature around us then we will have nothing left to enjoy in Florida. Our beaches are the main attraction for Florida and although the tourists do not exactly know how to treat the beach, such as not feeding the seagulls and throwing trash in the designated cans, etc, they still are important for the government and each county and beach as an individual. We pride in our beautiful beaches and the awesome history that follows each beach. The town of Fort Myers beach recently celebrated their 13^th birthday. But since 1935, the residents of the beach have discussed incorporation and thankfully with the approval of the development of Estero Island, Ft Myers beach was successfully incorporated. The residents and tourists keep this beach a lively business and community involved society to the present day. 

This website definitely summed up some of the history we heard about during our trip: http://www.fortmyersbeachfl.gov/index.aspx?nid=60

I also researched and found several pictures of Past and Present Ft Myers Beach. 

Damage from 1960 Hurricane Donna:

Old Satellite picture of Fort Myers Beach:

Current Satellite Picture: 

Just an old picture I found entertaining of some community fun on the island:

Readings on David Orr

David Orr discusses many different aspects of educating students and creating a connection between humans and sustainability in the few chapters of his book, that I read, “Ecological Literacy.”He makes several connections back to Greek mythology discussing how even back then there was some connection to sustainability because they didn’t have the technology we have today and to me I feel like that was a very relative strong point. Orr discusses that through time we have lost our connection with sustainability and stopped caring about the environment and the damage we are contributing to the Earth’s atmosphere by living our daily lives so carelessly. As our technology is increasing, we are in a way getting dumber because we are becoming addicted to these machines that are doing everything for us and nobody is learning how to go out and work for what you need in life. New generations of children aren’t going to learn how to go out and successfully plant crops and what chemicals you need to keep them growing successfully and in what seasons what plants will grow the biggest; or how to use minimal water and electricity so we aren’t putting so many bad emissions into the atmosphere. We are just learning how to run bigger and more modern televisions, and how to use Microsoft Office, which is a useful tool, but will never get us as far as being able to grow your own food properly so you can live. Orr also discusses the concept of ecological literacy. He defines ecological literacy as understanding your environment and being able to read environmental terms and relate to it and understand what is going on around us in the world. He talks about how much the government, and international companies, and corporations can do to contribute to sustainability but Orr also says that nobody is talking about what schools, colleges, and universities can do to make a difference. One of the main things we need in American and all over the world is an education. Although Orr believes in trying to teach children about ecological literacy, I have to disagree. As a child you won’t be able to retain the information required to learn about ecological literacy. Instead give the children fun environmental related projects and games to play that will teach them what is right and wrong. You learn the majority of what you remember for the rest of your life as a child, so teaching land ethics, as Aldo Leopold discussed, in a simpler way so the new generations can understand will create a whole new era of future environmental scientists and “green” children.

Echo Field Trip

On the most recent Colloquium field trip, we visited a farm called ECHO. Echo stands for Education Concerns for Hunger Organization. Their mission statement: “Our goal is to improve the abilities of international community development workers assisting poor farmers by providing useful, important information and by networking their skills and knowledge with each other.” At Echo, almost all of the staff is volunteers, and they provide internships for students who are majoring in an agricultural field of some sort and are looking to benefit their own knowledge by getting an awesome hands on direct experience. The volunteers give many many tours a day around their farm to all sorts of groups of people looking to be more informed about programs like echo and how they are contributing to the environment.

While I was at echo, I learned about many different aspects of farms that I have never seen before. They use many appropriate technologies at Echo, which are tools made out of resources you can mostly find in nature that help run the environment. For example, biogas turns cow manure into gas for cooking and lighting. They also had many animals on their farm such as chickens, will help eat and kill bugs that will destroy crops, goats, which are used for milk and transportation and their manure, and bunnies, which I honestly wasn’t quite sure why they were there but they were very cute.

Echo is a Christian based organization that has such strong faith in their community and the people who are contributing anything to help the poor farmers and inform them of how they can raise a better environment to grow food for themselves and their families. They offer tours to the community so they can share their faith and beliefs so other people will get involved. Echo’s core values are “We are Christian in our behavior, beliefs, motivations, and attitudes; We are Stewards of the resources God gives us; We are Servants in both our management style and our focus on others; We are Partners as we join with other organizations and agencies to accomplish our goals; We value People as we work and interact with each other and those we serve, giving priority to people over institutional structure; and We are committed to helping those who help the poor!”

The staff at Echo have the right attitude and commitment and this visit made an impact on me and taught me many interesting aspects about farms I never would’ve thought of before. I am glad there are people like these that are truly committed to making a difference.

"An Inconvenient Truth"

“An Inconvenient Truth” is a movie hosted by Al Gore that taught students the seriousness and severity of global warming if Americans keep up with our attitude and habits towards the environment. After watching this movie, I realized how much of an effort Gore made to reach out to all sorts of crowds and teach us about how our everyday activities are affecting our planet. We only have one home, planet Earth, and if we do not take these harmful effects seriously, our home will slowly start deteriorating and global warming will start killing the population in numerous amounts that no one would think possible. Many countries already have head start on the United States, such as China and some Scandinavian countries. Although China has a larger population than the US, they are forcing their citizens to become more “green,” and therefore are already making a huge difference.

Al Gore uses many techniques throughout his video to teach us how serious this matter (Global Warming) is becoming. Gore uses statistics and numbers to really get into our heads and think, wow we need to do something about this. When people think about serious matters, such as global warming, they typically do not put it into number proportion. Well Gore does it for us and it really drilled into my head and made me realize what a huge impact just a couple hundred people have on our environment. He also uses examples with animals, such as polar bears, showing that the ice is melting and they will be swimming for miles and miles trying to find a chunk of ice to lay on. This part of the video really affected me and made me upset. It shows were destroying more homes than we think.

Gore explains that there are simple steps to decreasing these problems. The first and foremost step is to educate. If the government supplies as much education about ways to create a healthier environment as they do sex education then students will be so much more aware of their surroundings. They will also be more cautious when they go throw a can or bottle in a trash can, not a recycle bin, or shutting the water off when they brush their teeth. If I had some kind of power in the government, educating about the environment would be one of my top priorities, just as Gore took it upon himself to teach many groups of people about the severity of global warming in today’s society. Our generation can make a difference, and we need to start now.

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

In my colloquium class, we recently visited the Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. The corkscrew swamp sanctuary is a very long stretch of land and many many animals use these woods to travel from western Florida down to the everglades. During this trip the class split in half and we walked on the boardwalk around almost the whole trail. At this sanctuary, they offer many informative and leisure programs such as sunset stroll and early bird watching. Most of the staff are volunteers truly committed to helping the environment and informing children, students and the elderly of our beautiful environment and remind us of what needs to be done to keep it that way.

In the beginning of the walk through the trail, I did not really have very positive thoughts and just could not wait to leave. However, as we kept going I realized how beautiful the trail actually is and kept taking pictures on my phone. We had binoculars with us and got to see a few cool animals and I learned many facts about different native Florida plant species. Some of the animals we saw were many Ibis birds, an American alligator, two mating turtles, several squirrels, some little minnow fish, and some type of mosquito or bug stirring above the water. My guide was actually an environment major student at Florida Gulf Coast University, she was easy to relate to which made the trip more fun.

Looking back at the trip now makes me realize the beauty and serenity of nature and how one picture or one minute of silence can capture so many different aspects of the woods and all the nature that surrounds us every day. During the trip we also learned about a filter system that uses strictly natural resources to recycle toilet wastes into healthy water for the plants and animals to use. At Florida Gulf Coast University, we are looking into installing some sort of filter like this one to help recycle our water. Students are already looking out for their environment just by throwing cans, bottles, and plastic into the appropriate solar powered trash can that breaks down trash for the environment. This trip made me look at nature a whole new way and makes me appreciate what I have around me and that Florida needs to be be more grateful for some of the awesome aspects of our nature that you can’t find in other places.