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| (Photo: Lauren Lukasik) |
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| (Photo: Lauren Lukasik) |
1. Reflect upon your Six Miles Cypress Slough field trip
experience. Why is the importance of its preservation? Please identify the
various species that you saw or heard about on this trip.
The slough acts as a multifaceted area of
ecological importance. It is home to a diversity of plants and animals, a
number of which are endangered. Two examples would be the Southern Bald
Eagle or the Florida Panther. Furthermore, the preserve is also an important
pit stop in the migratory patterns and a wintering habitat for so many
birds. The slough also provides a vital wildlife corridor for various
animals moving through the county.
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| (Photo: Lauren Lukasik) |
It was also interesting to see the Otter Pond
and learn about the different levels of water that allow certain organisms
to thrive at specific times, and six months later, the entire landscape is
altered once again. For example, the pop ash trees thrive around the pond
due to the wet environment and thus provide a healthy area for
epiphytes, like bromeliads, to thrive upon. Another important characteristic of
the slough are the cypress knees of the cypress trees that can grow in deeper
waters. These knees stabilize the trees in the mucky soil acting as buttresses
and some scientists even think the knees help the tree to breathe.
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| (Photo: Lauren Lukasik) |
There are various birds--egrets, ibises,
storks, anhingas, cormorants--that all spend time in the slough. The anhingas
use their sharp, pointed beaks to pierce the fish they plan to eat. The cormorants
dive down like a dolphin and capture their prey that way. Great egrets have a
yellow bill and black legs and feet. Snowy egrets however have a
black beak and legs and yellow feet. The wood stork is another example of an
endangered animal on premise. White ibises usually pick around in the grasses
to find their bugs; they are the birds that are all over your lawn during the
rainy season. These birds thrive during a feeding frenzy when the water in
the Pop Ash Pond gets so low that the remaining fish are trapped in the low
water levels.
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| (Photo: Lauren Lukasik) |
Another common visitor of the swamp are the
alligators. The alligators sun themselves on the platforms and promote the
growth and development of all sorts of various animals. The birds hang out
around the pond due to all the liveliness. Despite gators laying around 30-50
eggs, only one or two gators will survive to adulthood due to predation by
animals like raccoons, wading birds and turtles. While they are no match
for full grown gators, baby gators are so small and easily scooped up.
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| (Photo: Lauren Lukasik) |
2. How does this trip help in your understanding of sense of
place, ecological imprint and sustainability?
With regards to my sense of place, I am really
looking forward to return to Six Mile Cypress Slough. I've previously been here
in middle school on a field trip or two, but this time I really enjoyed my time
there. I had been very stressed out over various school and work commitments
and the time we had to walk around in the beautiful greenery, look out over
Gator Lake and observe all the unique attributes of the preserve was very
comforting. My experience was a perfect example of the nature-deficit disorder
because immediately after walking around for while, I was much more focused and
more importantly, a lot more calmed down.
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| (Photo: Lauren Lukasik) |
This trip made me question once again our
ecological imprint, especially in an area as fragile and unique as southwest
Florida. The slough is a slow moving river that naturally filters out
pollutants in the water, yet developers came in and did what they wanted.
Without the Monday Group at Fort Myers High School, this special piece of land
wouldn't be here anymore and would instead be littered with developments,
roads, shops and the like. Aside from the beauty and wonderful aesthetic
qualities, this natural filtration would be lost. Furthermore, it probably
doesn't help that runoff from nearby communities and roads may sometimes
overwhelm the slough, which is another important factor in this system.
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| (Photo: Lauren Lukasik) |
With regards to sustainability, I think we can
learn a lot from nature's natural processes. In the past, many developers and
city planners filled in a lot of these areas (sloughs, swamps, etc.) and
destroyed many of the earth's tried and true ways of dealing with pollutants,
weather changes, migration patterns and so forth. A lot of what we've done as
humans have led us to believe that we know best and nothing can top what we do.
However, we have failed to reflect on the fact that the earth has been here way
longer than we have and will definitely be here way after we're gone.
Therefore, just as we tend to respect our elders, why not respect some of the
long standing ways of the earth and learn from it instead of trying to conquer
it? I think only then will we learn to live and use our resources in a way that
we can continue indefinitely.
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| (Photo: Lauren Lukasik) |
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| (Photo: Lauren Lukasik) |
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| (Photo: Lauren Lukasik) |
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