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At ECHO I learned that sustainability starts with where you are. In countries that are forced to farm when they aren't used to it or in poor conditions it can become very hard to live at all, but especially in a way that is sustainable for the environment around us. In terms of food production and farming, sustainability starts with where and what kinds of seeds you get, as well as how you plant and whether you share your extra crops or allow them to rot on the vine. We learned that everything can have a function on any farm, but especially a makeshift farm, and that its just as important to support those small scale farmers as it is large scale ones. These types of organizations are so important to the world and to myself because they seek to educate people on the free facts of the world with as little bias as possible. Especially with their website where the free membership gets people what feels like exclusive access to incredibly important and, frankly, life changing information. I enjoyed learning about this program because I enjoy raising various plants from seeds at my own home, but there are certain plants I struggle with getting to fruit, so I'm hoping that this website might have some more information for me.

2. This program is essential to international communities because it gives them room to support themselves. A lot of companies or NGOs will go into lower income countries and ruin the economy in the name of helping. Self sustaining processes provided by places like ECHO and Nyeri Diaspora Leadership Academy (NDLA) give the opportunity for self driven growth that will actually raise up the community in a long-term and sustainable way, instead of creating falsified growth that ruins the area after the help has stopped intervening. These organizations and ones like it seem to be the best option when it comes to creating positive, yet sustainable, growth for various international communities. At ECHO, for example, they do this by giving people many different types of seeds for free and also giving them the knowledge, or access to it, needed to improve their lives around them. Similarly, at NDLA, they give people in Nyeri, Kenya the tools they need to succeed by educating them on the world and leadership in general.

3.d. Most of my food is made up of whole foods. I used to struggle with the types of food I ate and how much of it I ate, but when I switched my way of eating from highly processed, grab and go packaged food to making my own meals with ingredients I recognized I saw a wonderful change for the better. I still eat processed things, but i know now that moderation is key. I allow myself to indulge in certain things while keeping in mind that most of my food should, ideally, be healthy things. The most important things in my opinion when it comes to eating healthily and sustainably is getting things locally when you can. Going to farmers markets and meeting people there can increase your education on food in general, but it can also really impact how much you truly know about what your putting in your body. So, overall, i think the best advice would be to buy locally when you can and to use moderation.

The CREW field trip was an absolutely amazing experience. It was a long and hot walk, but getting to see everything was incredibly fascinating.

Stop 1: Trail Head. This is a photo of the trail head, where our walk started and ended. Here we were introduced to Piper who is the newest member of the CREW staff and is the education coordinator. She gave us a brief overview of the trail and what we would be learning before we began.

Stop 2: Pine Flatlands. Here we learned that this is one of the higher points associated with this portion of the land dedicated to preservation that crew works on. Its flat land with sandy, dry soil that makes the perfect living conditions for the pine trees.

Stop 3: Seasonal Marsh. The seasonal marsh is called this because it is only filled with water seasonally. Here there are usually many birds you can see grazing on various prey. Piper said this is a better version of one of these Marshes because it is in the shape of a circle, so it makes it very easy to see around the whole place to get a view of the wide array of wildlife.

Stop 4: Controlled Fire. Here at crew they preform prescribed controlled fires in order to keep the foliage less dense to make it the optimal living place for animals who need to graze. We also learned about that some of the plants they burn here have seed sacks that can only shed their seeds when they're exposed to high temperatures.

Stop 5: Ecotone. An ecotone is a place where two different ecosystems meet up. Ecotones have many benefits, but one of their main ones is that they promote biodiversity among same species in different environments. Animals from one ecosystem can cross the ecotone and bring their new genes over to create and even more diverse group of organisms, making it harder for them to be susceptible to various things.

Stop 6: Saw Grass Marsh. The saw grass marsh is a far far stretching marsh known for its saw grass. The plants have small purple flowers that we were able to see because they had recently bloomed. This marsh always has water in it, although during the wet season the water levels do rise significantly.

Stop 7: Marsh Boat Ramp. This is another marsh located along the walk, one that is also consistently filled with water, although this one is a lot more densely packed with foliage and Piper said that compared to the other marshes this one usually has fewer birds because of how densely packed the foliage is.

Stop 8: Pop-Ash Slew. These trees are known for being helpful to many different organisms. For example various mosses, epiphytes, and lichens live on these trees with varying degrees of symbiotic and commensalistic relationships. Similarly the trees can also be seen to be littered with holes from wood peckers who get sap out of their bark.

Stop 9: Oak Hammock. The oak hammock was located in terrain with dirt, so now quite the flatlands, but not a marsh either. These trees with their wide spread limbs host a variety of organisms in the form of habitat, food, and both.

Stop 10: Suzanne's Pavillion. This was our final stop of the trip where we were able to stop and recharge while Piper finished her tour and were able to discuss the walk and SDS topics with our group members.

Self and Group Reflection:

FGCU Sustainability Efforts:

The first field trip for this class was very informative! Before I went on the field trip I didn’t know anything about FGCU’s commitment to sustainability. Of course I had seen the solar powered trash cans on campus, but for some reason it had never clicked for me that they might also be trash compactors while limit the amount of trips to the dump you have to make for each can. I had also never heard about the way the buildings are cooled with ice under the flooring in almost all of the buildings, although I will say it makes sense now that the buildings aren’t thermostat controlled because during the peak hours of the day it can get kind of hot in some of the classrooms. Although maybe the trade off for how energy efficient it is is worth the few hours of brief bit of uncomfortableness. Moving on, the environmental rating system that Seidler Hall has, called the Leed System, was very interesting to hear about. It was interesting to hear about all the ways the building is built to be environmentally friendly and to hear about the way the buildings are configured to promote wind flow between them so that they don’t become heat islands. Finally, hearing about the way FGCU has constructed the campus to have interconnected waterways and intentional flood areas, was really inspiring to know that they have actually committed to their promises about the environment since the very beginning. 

Nature Trail Walk:

Going on the nature trail walk was a phenomenal experience. I enjoy spending a lot of time outside, so going into the muddy and water filled areas made this an even better experience, than just a normal walk. From the pine flatlands part of the walk, I learned that they used to do controlled fires in the area, but due to the nature, layout, and size of the school it's just not safe anymore. Now, they have created an artificial way to get the same results as a controlled burn but without actually using fire so that it's safe for the environment and the people at the school. I learned that the oak hammock is where the ground level starts to get a little lower so that water begins to pool there in the wet season. At this point in the year the ground isn’t too saturated, but it's just wet enough that the ground became pretty slick with mud and we all had to hold on to the trees around us to make sure we didn’t slip and fall, that part was a little intimidating at first, but after I got the hang of it I ended up enjoying that aspect as well. However, the part I enjoyed the most was when we actually got into the water in the cypress dome. There I learned that that is the lowest place on campus and its where most of the water collects. I also learned that the cypress trees have these features called knees that they use to help support themselves in the water and that wherever the knees rise to is usually about where the water level goes. We were able to see this feature because the water level was not at its usual capacity due to it only being a few weeks into the rainy season. This was by far the most interesting part of the walk for me and honestly I wish that the water level had been higher because I think it would have been so fun! The only thing I really knew before going on the nature walk was that pine trees are conifers and that its hard for the cypress trees to catch on fire due to the way their bark snuffs out a fire by depriving it of oxygen. Finally, standing in the cypress dome for the moment of silence was incredible. With my church youth group we often do an hour of silence while we’re outside to help us reconnect with ourselves in the midst of our busy lives and with nature. I was mostly feeling peaceful which was very nice to take a break away from the day to have that moment.

Ecological Footprint:

For my ecological footprint I need 3 Earths to sustain my lifestyle and overall I think the biggest thing I can do to improve my lifestyle is eat less meat or find more sustainable ways to eat meat, so that my carbon footprint isn’t as big as it is. As a whole my group got an average of 5 Earths needed to sustain our lifestyles and while we were discussing we came to the conclusion that we all had the same highest category, which was also food. We all came to the similar decision to try and reduce the amount of meat we eat as well as trying to eat more produce that is locally grown. We also all agreed that there are times when we drive somewhere where we could’ve walked and agreed that that is something we can work on too. 

Overall Learning Experience:

My name is Ayla Coine and I am a junior with an environmental studies major. I am twenty-one years old and I've lived in Florida for the past 18 years, but I was born in Boston, Massachusetts. I work as a lifeguard in Collier County and I enjoy going to the beach with my friends and the gym with my boyfriend in my free time. 

The only preconceptions I had about this course were that we would be going on some field trips, but I didn’t know that it had an environmental concept until the first day of class. I enjoy that I went into this course blind because I think I will enjoy it more with the surprises that not knowing brings than I would have if I knew about everything we would be doing. For example, a few of my group mates had heard a lot about the specifics of the field trips we would be going on. Cam had even heard about the nature trail and how there would be high water and that we might even see an alligator. My other group mates, like Tiff,  had also heard about the service learning component and the fact that the course heavily discusses the environment and the community around the school. Overall, what the members of my group knew about the course varied from almost nothing to a decent amount. 

My major is environmental studies, so the course outcomes seem to align very nicely with my major and my own personal beliefs. Personally, I prefer to research the things I hear about the environment a lot because I think with it being such a hot topic the facts can get mixed up in the excitement. So, because of that the fourth learning outcome speaks the most to me. I also really appreciated how the professor said that he would love to hear everyone's opinion regardless of what it was and that we should all listen to it and respect it. In this day and age it seems like people have a really hard time with that so  I appreciated that he took the time to really emphasize that point and that he actually seemed to mean what he was saying as well. 

I also really enjoyed hearing  about my groupmates' sense of self. They ranged from Cam’s grandmas backyard, a mountain in Utah for Ryan, and a nature preserve in Immokalee for Tiff. I thought it was really cool how all of their senses of self was aligned with nature of some kind, which resonated with me because my location that is associated with my sense of self is Barefoot beach in Naples. I loved how we all enjoyed a place in nature but that they were all fairly different.