The trip to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary today was a lot more fun and interesting than I thought it would be! Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary was initiated to help save the natural and native plant and animal wildlife along with restoring the original processes that occur there. It has turned in to a great education spot as well, seeing over 100,000 people a year. I learned that the area we were in was considered a pine flatwoods area, and what that means is that it is dominated by pine trees and is relatively flat. This type of area helps slow the water flow so it stays on the land for a longer period of time which benefits the wildlife and us as well since it helps replenish our aquifers. It also helps cleanse the water as it sifts through the plants and soil. I was really able to understand this concept when we saw the plant based sewage plant (as I like to think of it) at the beginning of the tour. There were underground tanks that filtered the water first, then it went to the above ground tanks, and finally to the plants and greenery for a final wash through. Pretty amazing what nature can do for us without even trying.
Conservation is preserving and protecting the land, nature, animals, and anything we can for future generations. It goes hand in hand with stewardship, which means to take care of the Earth and everything she provides for the future generations. In order to be a more eco-conscious society we need to understand the importance of conservation and stewardship. If everyone cared just a little it would benefit the Earth, the future, and the lives we lead now.
Private non-profits are wonderful assets in the goals of conservation and stewardship. Most of them have the same ideas or ideas along the same lines to help something in some way. These organizations help educate people in many different ways about how they can become better Earth stewards through prevention and conservation. Besides education they are the ones who are out there actually trying to make a change and save what we have left. Without non-profits we would see a vastly different number when it comes to how much nature we have left in the world. Civic engagement, like the service projects we are going to do for this class, help to keep non-profits running and operating. It would be extremely hard to maintain a non-profit without people who are willing to help protect and save what we have left.
The government should play a role in the preservation of the natural world. It is difficult to find enough funds to properly manage preserve land, and this is where the government can help. A government’s resources plus the dedicated people interested in preservation equals a great way to save the Earth piece by piece. This may not jive with some peoples’ ideas of a nice place to live because that would mean sharing with wild animals and bugs. But it is not a good idea to just bulldoze everything and build up condos! This destroys the natural landscape and natural flow of water and other materials. It also destroys habitats for hundreds of thousands of creatures big and small! It is better to try to work with the land in order to get what we need out of it instead of just taking everything down.
Can't wait until the next field trip!
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