Final Impressions - Journal Entry No. 10

What are your final impressions of the Colloquium?

Mostly, I am glad this class is over. There was an overwhelming amount of work and time spent on this course. This was a difficult course when you work fulltime and are taking additional classes as well. I still feel like this course is a bit paternalistic of the university system in that the school thinks it is best for me to know something and therefore, requires me to take this course, which is not directly related to my major or career field. I do feel like the course improved my critical thinking skills. I do feel that this course helped to revive my appreciation for the beauty and wonder of nature. I do feel like this course made me more aware of my personal responsibility and civic duty help preserve the environment. This course brought up a lot of problems that currently exist in the environment; but not very many solutions. It felt like the main purpose of this course was to make students aware of the current problems and then try to inspire them to want to work for change.

What changes would you make to the course?

I would not have assignments that require students to learn new computer skills in order to complete the course. It is reasonable to expect students to know how to maneuver Angel and to know basic computer programs such as Word, Excel, Power Point, etc. It is reasonable to expect students to know how to search articles and information on the World Wide Web. To me, it is not reasonable to expect students to know how to create a blog or a wiki site. I have never had an occasion to “zip” documents or make pictures “smaller” in order to upload them prior to taking this class (and this is my last semester at FGCU and all of my classes have been online). I did not know how to do this and had to get help in order to accomplish the task. There is a lot of pressure just to complete the assignments and do well on the projects without throwing in the added stress and confusion of trying to figure out how to “do” the assignment in a blog or a wiki site. There were many occasions where I spent hours of time trying to figure out how to upload a picture, or a video, or a sound clip and simply could not figure out how to do it. This is not a computer class.

Also, I do not think it is fair to “require” students to do service learning hours when they have already completed the number of service hours “required” by FGCU in order to graduate. I was told by the Legal Studies professor that I could only take this Colloquium class in the year that I planned to graduate – so this is the last semester. I had already completed all of the service learning hour requirements prior to taking this class. Then when I get this class – I learn I am required to work ten more service learning hours. If a student has already completed the number of service learning hours required by the university to graduate – then the requirement for ten additional service learning hours for this class should be waived for that student.

What assignments would you keep or discard?

I would keep the writing assignments (Papers 1 and 3) because they require critical thinking and organization and comprehension of the material presented. I do not agree with the “peer review” of the draft of the paper. I do not feel qualified to “judge” or “critique” another student’s paper – because I am a student myself. I would discard the peer review part of the writing assignment.

I think the field trips should be an option to choose and also have the option (if you cannot go on field trips) to write papers about nature preserves, swamps, farms, etc. Or, field trips could be “extra credit.” In my particular case – I had surgery on both of my feet and could not walk very much and could not drive – so in order to complete the field trip assignments, I had to arrange for someone to drive me there and had to walk the terrain (which was against my doctor’s orders). None of my previous classes had required field trips – so I was not concerned with scheduling the feet surgeries during a semester – actually thinking since I would be spending more time at home, I would have more time to do my schoolwork. Also, in order to go on the field trips and do the service learning hours for the final project – I had to cancel or change things in my schedule. When people work fulltime and have a family – it is not always easy to come up with the additional time to go on field trips and work volunteer hours.

I like the discussion board assignments. I always learn a lot from the other students from their ideas and postings.

I would keep the “journal” idea to chronicle things we have learned and experienced in this course, but I don’t think it should be required to be in a blog format. A written journal could be kept and uploaded instead of a blog.

I would discard the wiki assignment and the group work related to it. Group work is difficult unless everyone in the group works together and works hard. It is not fair for other people (in a group) to have an impact on my grade – when I have no control over the actions of the other people. I don’t understand why we need to create a wiki page. Most of my classes in Legal Studies caution us not to use wiki as a source for any assignments. I really did not understand the “point” of the wiki assignment.

I did not like the assignment to interview your grandparents. Not all college students are young people. I am 55 years old and my grandparents and parents are dead. I find it a little embarrassing at my age to have to interview someone for a school assignment.

What readings did you like or dislike and why?

I really liked reading A Land Remembered. It was an interesting book with a very good story. I feel like it helped me to learn a lot about the history of Florida and having been to the Everglades on previous occasions, it brought the Everglades to life in my mind. The State of the World book was interesting; however, it seemed biased to me in the way it was written. I thought that the articles by Dewey, Low and Orr were difficult to read and difficult to understand. I had to re-read them several times to get the “gist” of the message. The single spaced two column pages in landscape format made it hard to read.

What suggestions for activities or field trips do you have?

I think that finding and summarizing current newspaper or magazine articles about the environment or sustainability would be something that could be added. As far as field trips, I think there should be more inclusion of animals as part of the environment in the curriculum. Perhaps a visit to a sea turtle habitat or beach or zoo with “natural habitat” exhibits or animal sanctuary. I think it would be interesting to have people write about places in nature they visited in the past or as a child that they remember as special. Or, I think you could even write about national parks that people can visit and why you would like to go there.

Sense of Place Interview - Journal Entry No. 9

This assignment was to interview one of your grandparents or someone of their generation. I am 55 years old and all of my grandparents are dead and both of my parents are dead. I contacted the professor about the assignment and she suggested that I “turn it around” and interview my grandson instead. So that is what I did.

On June 29, 2010 I interviewed my grandson, Dane Coleman, age six, for the “Sense of Place Interview.” Dane just turned six on May 13th of his year, so when he was in school last year he was in kindergarten. Since I am his grandmother, I admit that I am pretty prejudiced, however, I do believe he is extremely intelligent for a child of his age.

Dane was not familiar with the words “sustainability” or “ecology” but he knew all about the words “environment” and “recycle.” I asked him what the environment was and he said it was “the world all around us.” He knew all about recycling because they do that at home and at church and at school. He said he was the winner in his class of the Recycle Project where they were supposed to make something useful out of trash (something that was being thrown away). For his project, Dane made a bird feeder out of a two liter plastic coke bottle by punching holes in the side, poking a stick through the bottle (for the bird to stand on), putting birdseed in the bottom, and tying a string to the top to hang it up. He cut holes in the middle of the bottle so the bird could fly in and he left the cap on the bottle so that rain would not get in and wet the birdseed. He has it hanging in a tree at his house and he says he has seen birds fly in there and get the birdseed.

Dane said they had discussions in his classroom about the importance of not wasting supplies, of turning out lights when you did not need them and picking up litter. Dane’s mother is the Children’s Director at Lakewood United Methodist Church and he said that he helps his mom at the church to put all the cans and plastic bottles in the recycle bins there. They also collect newspapers at his school that are to be recycled.

I told Dane about the different activities we had in the Colloquium class. He thinks it is pretty funny that grandma is still going to school. I told him about the field trips. He said he would not like to visit a school for a field trip. He has been to the Timucuan Nature Preserve before and liked going there. He said he would like to go to a swamp, especially if he could see snakes. He has been on a farm before and always likes that. He has been to downtown Jacksonville and did not think that was much fun, but he does go to the Museum of Science and History a lot and he always enjoys doing that.

Dane likes to read and he likes for people to read to him. He said he has not seen very many books about the environment. I had previously shown him the book National Autobon Society Field Guide to Florida which I purchased for this class. He enjoyed the book and he liked all of the pictures and he was pointing out the things in the book that he has seen before.

Dane really did not grasp the concept of sense of place, even though we talked about it a little. He said he likes to play outdoors. Dane is very lucky because his other grandparents have an 80 acre horse ranch in Kentucky and when he goes there he has his own horse to ride. He is also taking horse riding lessons in Jacksonville. Also in Kentucky his uncle has a farm – so Dane has been there on many occasions. Dane’s uncle is a game warden in South Florida, so when his uncle comes to town or they go to see the uncle to visit – his uncle takes him out fishing. Dane likes fishing from the land and fishing from a boat. He is very fortunate that he has been exposed to a lot of nature and a lot of animals.

Dane’s upbringing is quite different than mine was. He is exposed to a lot more technology and is learning things a lot faster than I. I grew up in the city and he has had the opportunity to visit farms and ranches for extended periods of time. He has had an opportunity to ride horses and experience that sense of freedom. He has been able to go fishing and boating. He does like to play on the computer and play video games; however, his parents are very careful to limit his time on these activities.

Dane thinks the world is very big and he does not think “we will run out of things.” He does understand the importance of saving and reusing and recycling things. He understands that it is not good to be wasteful. Dane spends time outdoors and he loves nature and animals. He has grown corn and tomatoes on his back porch. They grew individual plants at school this past school year.

Dane is very lucky because, despite living in the city, he is routinely exposed to nature. He does love and appreciate plants and animals. He is pretty young right now to entirely grasp the concept of sustainability; but he has a pretty good understanding of the importance of and the process of recycling. He also understands that we need to take care of animals, plants and the land and not do anything to hurt them.



(Photo of Dane Coleman taken by me with my camera)

Field Trip #5 - Urban Area & Local History Museum - (Journal Entry #8)

This field trip assignment was to visit urban area and the local history museum. I live in Jacksonville, Florida and work as a paralegal in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. So – I go to downtown Jacksonville every weekday. My husband and I purposefully visited downtown Jacksonville on Sunday, June 6, 2010 to take pictures for the field trip assignment. Jacksonville, the largest city in area in the continental United States, is a rapidly growing metropolitan city in Northeast Florida, with approximately 850,000 residents. As a rapidly growing municipality, Jacksonville is recognized as a national leader in managing development. Mayor Peyton formed a growth management task force in 2005 which formed a vision for the next 25 years. The overall strategy involves balancing commercial and residential development with transit and infrastructure capacity and the preservation of green space.

One of Jacksonville's many natural assets is one of the largest urban park systems in the country. The active and passive parks and preservation lands are a key part of Jacksonville's quality of life. So are the miles of beaches and waterways, a major symphony orchestra, a sports and entertainment complex downtown and a myriad of special events that this sports-loving city hosts each year. The home of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, the city welcomed its first Super Bowl in 2005. With a growing population, a strong economy, diverse cultural and recreational opportunities and abundant natural resources, Jacksonville continues to distinguish itself as one of the nation's most dynamic and progressive cities. I think that Jacksonville is a beautiful city. Whenever we have out of town guests we always take them on a tour of downtown Jacksonville.

One of my favorite buildings in downtown Jacksonville has a beautiful painting of a Jaguar like it is captured inside the building. Here is a picture:



I work for the law firm of Foley & Lardner in the Modis Building. The Modis Building contains 37 floors, and held the title of tallest building in Florida until 1981, when One Tampa City Center was completed. It remained the tallest building in Jacksonville until 1990, when the Bank of America Tower surpassed it in height. The building was designed by KBJ Architect and it takes up an entire city block in Jacksonville's downtown. A notable feature of the structure is a four story atrium of tropical vegetation where the public enters. The first floor also contained an auditorium with seating for 360 patrons, a bank, restaurants, and several retail stores. The beautiful plants in the atrium are wonderful. At Christmastime it is decorated especially nice!

As a paralegal in Jacksonville, I frequently visit the Duval County courthouse. Here is a picture of me in front of the courthouse:



The Police Memorial Building is right across the street from the courthouse . Here is a picture of me in front of the police station:



Also in downtown Jacksonville is our City Hall. It is across the street from Hemming Park. Every Friday there is a Farmer’s Market in Hemming Park that sells fresh fruit and vegetables. Here is a picture of me in front of City Hall:



Also in downtown Jacksonville there is a Veteran’s Memorial Wall. It is a wall with the names of people from Jacksonville that have died in all of the wars (going back to the civil war through the current war). Here is a picture of the wall: (It is a very moving experience to visit the wall. My husband’s father’s grandfather died in World War II and his name is etched in the wall).



Also downtown and right across the street from the Modis building where I work there is the Jacksonville Landing. It is like a little shopping mall on the water (St. Johns River) downtown. In front of the Landing is a statute of Andrew Jackson. Here is a picture:



And of course, we can't forget that Jacksonville is home to the NFL football team - the Jaguars. Here is a picture of me in front of the football stadium standing by the statute of the jaguar:



Also downtown is the Museum of Science and History (called the MOSH). Here is a picture of the MOSH:



My husband and I visited the MOSH on Friday, June 25, 2010. The cost to enter was $9.50 each. They gave us the “senior” rate – 55 yrs or older). This is primarily a children’s museum. I have been to the MOSH many times. I often take the grandchildren there to see the various exhibits. Also – when my youngest son got married we had the wedding rehearsal dinner on the second floor of the MOSH with the animatronic dinosaur exhibit. It was really cool – they put the tables amongst the moving dinosaurs. Also they have a planetarium and you can see laser light shows and cosmic concerts. I have been to them on several occasions.
Here is a picture of me at the MOSH parking sign:



The MOSH does have a great Florida history exhibit. It has many displays about the Indians and the history of Florida. Here are some photos of me at the history exhibit:






The MOSH has many murals on the wall of pictures of the way the City of Jacksonville looked many years ago:




They also have a conservation exhibit and naturalist exhibit – which includes reptiles and whales. Here is a picture from the whales exhibit:



I always like visiting downtown Jacksonville. It is a thriving and active place. It has many new buildings and also many historical buildings. I always enjoy visiting the MOSH – it has exciting and relevant exhibits. Downtown Jacksonville has many one way streets and this confuses many first time visitors. The things that impact me the most about Jacksonville are: the veteran’s memorial wall – I love it when our veterans are appreciated and honored; - also the St. Johns River runs through the middle of downtown Jacksonville. It is a beautiful natural resource.

The city has been trying for years to redesign the urban area to encourage more community involvement – but it really is just not working. Most people work downtown and then they want to go home when they get off of work – they do not want to “hang around” downtown after work. Many people have children or pets at home and cannot just stay downtown after work. Jacksonville has a serious homeless people problem and there are a lot of homeless people that are downtown at the bus station and in the parks.

I really do not have any idea how to redesign the urban area to encourage more community engagement – because Jacksonville is already doing a very good job of that. They have Farmer’s Markets on Fridays in the downtown area and they also have Art Walks on Wednesdays during the summer. They have built condos downtown. They have the Jazz Festival and other festivals downtown on a regular basis.

The thing that impacts me the most about Jacksonville is how very beautiful it is. The river runs through the middle of the city. The downtown buildings are a mixture of modern architect and old architect. The churches downtown really stand out and are gorgeous. We have a beautiful new arena, a beautiful new baseball stadium and a state of the art football stadium. They have a huge municipal park downtown on the water where outside concerts are held. I am glad that I live in a city like Jacksonville.

(NOTE: All photos were taken by me and my husband (Steve) with our camera)

Field Trip #4 - Agricultural Area - DOWN TO EARTH FARM (Journal Entry #7)

On Thursday, June 10, my husband (Steve) and I visited “Down to Earth” Farm. The address for the farm is 9355 Old Plank Road in Jacksonville, Florida. Brian Lapinski is the owner of the farm. It is a small family farm that began in late 2007. Brian says he and his wife started the farm because they believe in the importance of vibrant, local, sustainably-grown agriculture. His goal is to grow healthy, delicious vegetables in a manner that is gentle on the Earth. He uses compost and CMRI listed products instead of petroleum based fertilizers to feed his plants.

Here is a picture of Brian on his tractor working on the farm:



Down to Earth Farm grows plants year round as follows: Vegetables include: arugula, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, eggplant, green beans, green onions, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, okra, onions, potatoes, radishes, salad greens, salad mix, spinach, summer squash, sweet peppers, swiss chard, tomatoes, winter squash and zucchini; Fruits include: cantaloupes, strawberries and watermelons; Fresh Herbs and also Edible Flowers and Fresh Flowers. When visiting the farm I noted a long row of sunflowers – here is a picture:



He uses organic potting soil and he fights bugs and disease with responsible techniques such as crop rotation and regular scouting. He does not use any chemical pesticides or herbicides. Brian explained that the biggest agricultural challenges he has been faced with are stink bugs and excessive rain. He said the stink bugs are very bad this year and he is putting soap on his plants and kaolin clay to ward off the bugs. I wasn’t sue what a stink bug was so I looked it up and learned they are bugs ranging in color from brown to green and they are recognized by a triangular shaped plate on their backs. They are plant eaters and have an ability to reproduce rapidly. They are particularly common in southern parts of the United States. Stink bugs do not harm you, but they will emit their odorous production, which most people find very offensive to their olfactory senses – hence the name stink bug. The odor of a stink bug does tend to linger, but it can be washed away with soap and water.



The farm grows a wide variety of vegetables that they sell through the Green Market in Neptune Beach, Florida and at the Riverside Arts Market. Brian also has a small CSA for the ease of a weekly share of fresh food and connection to the farmer. I didn’t know what a CSA was, so Brian explained that it stands for Community-Supported or Community-Shared Agriculture and is also sometimes called subscription farming. You buy a subscription from a local farmer and you receive a “share” of fresh, locally grown or raised fruits and/or vegetables and/or eggs. Brian further explained that CSA fruits and vegetables are “in season.” Grocery stores know no seasons and are disconnected from nature (and thus so are the shoppers). With a CSA you know where your food comes from and you eat in harmony with the seasons and enjoy delicious, healthy, pure, fresh foods. You can buy fruits and vegetables from the grocery store – but they are of picked weeks ago and blasted with ethylene gas before being sent to the store. While the supermarkets are convenient for shopping – you lose flavor, freshness, nutritional value and human connection to each other and to the land. He highly encouraged joining a CSA.

While at the farm I also noticed that they had a chicken coop and lots of chickens. Brian said they sell the eggs. Here is a picture of the chickens at the farm:



I enjoyed the trip to the farm. I had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon at 2:00pm (and my husband has to drive me, since I am still in the boot/cast and cannot drive yet) – so we both took off work for the rest of the afternoon. I had emailed and then telephoned Brian to get a time we could come out and meet with him and he had said that afternoon was fine. So after the doctor’s appointment we drove out to the farm. It was easy to find. Brian’s home is in the front of the acreage and you then the farm is out behind his house. He was very friendly and very relaxed. Years ago he probably would have been called a “hippie” – but he is too young to be a hippie. He enjoyed talking about the farm and he was particularly proud of his tomatoes. They were very small and not large like the ones in the grocery store. It is a pretty rural area – but actually not that far from the city. It was very quiet and very little traffic on the road leading up to the farm.

Brian had a wall of one the buildings on the farm with this sign: “You are Where you Eat.” I still am not really sure what that slogan means. Here is a picture of me standing by the sign:



I do not have any personal experience growing plants or gardening. My mother was divorced and worked two jobs and my sister and I stayed home by ourselves most of the time when we were not in school. We fixed our own meals which usually came from canned goods that we would heat up – no fresh vegetables. My husband, Steve, grew up on a farm in Alamo, Georgia. They grew tobacco and cotton. When we first got married, I visited the old relatives on the farm – but they have all died now. My husband’s grandmother lived next door to us years ago and she would always have a garden in her yard. I would watch her work in the garden, but she never liked me to help her because I didn’t know what to do and she just enjoyed doing it all herself. She grew mostly peas and butter beans and other green vegetables and tomatoes. She also had a grape vine and she would make jelly. I would help her make the jelly.

By myself, I could not grow my own food. With my husband’s help and experience we could grow our own food if we had to. He knows how to do it and has done it before. We do have two orange trees in our yard at home and we love growing, picking and eating all of the oranges when they are in season. My husband mentions occasionally that he would like to move to Georgia and live on a farm again. I think that farming is very hard and difficult work. It is extremely weather dependent. Farmers work very hard – from dawn to dusk doing physical labor.

The Down to Earth Farm operates year-round – here is a picture of a row that is dug up and ready to plant:




NOTE:
Picture of Brian Lapinski on tractor from website: http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M32162

Picture of stink bug from website http://www.flowers.vg/flowers/stink-large.htm

All the other photos were taken by my husband at the farm on the day of our visit.

Field Trip #3 - Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve (Journal Entry #6)

The third field trip assignment is to visit a marine area. Since I live in Jacksonville, Florida, I obtained approval from the instructor to visit Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve & Fort Caroline National Memorial for this assignment. My husband (Steve) and I visited Timucuan Preserve on Sunday afternoon, May 16, 2010. Due to my upcoming foot surgery on May 21st – I was trying to get some of the field trip visits accomplished before the surgery. We had visited University of North Florida campus and natural trails that morning and then gone to church. After church we came home and changed clothes and drove out to Timucuan Preserve. It was very hot that afternoon. Timucuan Preserve provides a very unique look at the history of Florida. Pre-Columbian and Timucua Indians once lived at that location. The Preserve was established in 1988 and consists of 46,000 acres that includes Fort Caroline National Memorial, the Theodore Roosevelt Area, Kingsley Plantation, Cedar Point and thousands of acres of wood, water and salt marsh. The area we actually visited on May 16th was the Timucuan Preserve Visitor Center and Fort Caroline. (In the past I have visited the Kingsley Plantation also – it is located in Fort George Island. It is a beautiful location with slave quarters and all things related to an old southern plantation.) The Timucuan Preserve Visitor Center is a very large, nice, modern center. It has interesting and colorful exhibits. I enjoyed the visitor center . There was a ranger at the front door that you could talk to. They had a huge Timucuan Indian display. I found that particularly interesting since I had started reading “A Land Remembered.” The Timucua Indians settled along the rivers and islands near the Atlantic Ocean and took advantage of the waterways for transportation. The Timucua of this area first encountered Europeans in 1562 when French settlers arrived at St. Johns River. The Timucua helped the newcomers build a fort. However, as with other Florida native peoples, they did not survive contact with the Europeans. The Timucua had no immunity to European diseases and their population was devastated. Only 550 Timucua were recorded in 1698, from a population once in the tens of thousands. Today, no known indigenous people call themselves Timucua. My favorite display at the Timucuan Preserve Visitor Center was a large wooden owl. It is a rare surviving artifact from Florida’s pre-Columbian Indians. Here is a picture: My husband and I visited the remains of Fort Caroline. It was constructed right on the water’s edge. It is a beautiful view of the river. I enjoyed just standing there and looking at the water. There is not much left of the fort. The National Park Service acquired land from Willie Browne (600 acres) that make up the Theodore Roosevelt Area of the Timucuan Preserve. It has miles of peaceful, wooded nature trails. All along the trails there are piles of oyster shells. The Willie Browne Trail winds through a variety of habitats that include maritime hammocks, scrub vegetation, freshwater swamp and salt marsh. There is a shell peninsula that consists of mounds of oyster shells left over from 1,000 years of Indian habitation. The trails were very rooty. (The nature trails we had been on earlier that morning at UNF had been wooden planks for trails.) The trails were easily defined and well marked with signs, but the land was very uneven and the roots were tough to travel over. This is where the field trip became much less enjoyable for me. Since I am still recovering from surgery on my left foot – walking the trails over the uneven land was very uncomfortable, and painful towards the end. It is difficult to take in and appreciate the beauty when you are having trouble walking along a trail. We did not see any special wildlife. We saw some fish in the water, some birds in the trees, some squirrels. The Preserve has year round residents that include wood storks, ospreys, great blue herons, belted kingfishers, snowy egrets and bald eagles. We were told that it is also possible see alligators, otters, dolphins, bobcats, gopher tortoises, marsh rabbits and snakes on the trails. We did not see any snakes this time (like we saw snakes when we visited the swamp and that cut our trip short!). I enjoyed the beauty of the Nature Preserve. It was very hot though and not very comfortable. I very much liked one of the Indian tee-pees we came upon along the trail. I went inside of it. This reminded me of some tee-pees I had seen when we went to the Grand Canyon Skywalk last year. The skywalk is owned by the Hualapai Indian tribe. Many tribes travel to the location because it is sacred and reconstruct tee-pees. We saw many of them there and entered into them. They had a way of being cool in the summertime and warm during the wintertime. They also planted specific plants around the tee-pees that were snake resistant to keep the snakes out. Anyway – seeing this palm fron tee-pee along the trail reminded me of that. But it was not very cool in the summertime. I don’t know if it was because the palms were all dried out or not. I was surprised by the number of people at the Timucuan Preserve. There were dozens of families with children walking around the fort and along the nature trails. There were several joggers on the trails. There were lots of dogs on leashes being walked along the trails. It seems like a lot of people in this area are taking their children out to experience nature. I am glad the National Park Service protects and preserves this location. It is an important piece of Old Florida history. It is definitely a place someone could go to “get away from it all” – because when you are there you really do feel like you are out in the wilderness. The field trip was interesting, but I paid the price for walking so much when my foot became swollen and I had to spend the rest of the evening with ice bags over the area of the foot where the stitches are still healing.





NOTE: All photos on this blog entry were taken by my husband and myself with our camera at the time of our visit to this location.

Field Trip #2 - Twelve Mile Swam (Journal Entry #5)

For the second field trip assignment, I visited Twelve Mile Swamp Recreation Area. It is located in St. Johns County, Florida, approximately eight miles north of St. Augustine. This was a miserable experience. I was scheduled to have my foot surgery on Friday, May 21st. I received approval from the instructor that she would accept Twelve Mile Swamp for this field trip assignment on Tuesday, May 18th. I was trying to get as many of the field trips accomplished as I could prior to my surgery. So, my husband and I left work early on Tuesday to go visit Twelve Mile Swamp.

We came home from work and changed clothes, got some bottled water to drink and loaded up our two German Shepherd Dogs into our vehicle for the trip. I had read on the internet write up about Twelve Mile Swamp leashed dogs were allowed at the swamp and on the trails. We thought it might be fun to take the dogs walking on the trails. According to the internet write up about the location, there was fishing, hiking and horseback riding allowed at the location.

The Twelve Mile Swamp Recreation Area is a 378-acre recreation area which is part of a 21,898 acre tract that is under a long term timber reservation. The larger tract – Twelve Mile Swamp Wildlife Management Area is managed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and is open for public hunting season. Together, these swamps form the headwaters for six major tributary systems. Three of these tributaries (Turnbull Creek, Mill Creek and Sampson Creek) discharge into the St. Johns River. Two other tributaries (Moultrie Creek and Red House Branch) discharge into the Matanzas River, while Stokes Creek discharges into the Tolomato River. Preservation of this site serves to protect the water quality and quantity of these creek systems and benefits the groundwater and water supply for St. Johns County, Florida.





It was about a 35 minute drive from our house to the Twelve Mile Swamp. The directions took us down Nine Mile Road at International Golf Parkway. Nine Mile Road is a BEAUTIFUL road with a large canopy of trees the entire length of the road. We have ridden on that road many times with the motorcycle club because it is such a scenic route. The road is wonderful to ride on when you are on the motorcycle because the tree canopy creates wonderful shadows on the road of dark and then light and then dark and then light as you are driving along. Here are some pictures of Nine Mile Road I took while we were driving down the road:





Even though we had been on Nine Mile Road on several occasions, we had never heard of or seen Twelve Mile Swamp. It was very difficult to find (even with the google directions and directions from the website). There are several entrances to the area. Many of the entrances are closed off with locked gates. We drove around about an hour and a half looking for an entrance we could actually access. This was extremely frustrating.





We did stop at one of the gates and walk behind it up to a map box and it was part of the Twelve Mile Swamp Wildlife Management Area. I picked up a copy of the 2009-2010 Hunting Season brochure. I thought it was extremely interesting to learn that animals you could hunt at Twelve Mile Swamp include deer, wild hog, turkey, gray squirrel, quail, rabbits, raccoon, opossum, armadillo, beaver, coyote, skunk, bobcat, otter and some migratory birds. I never knew we had coyotes and otter in that area!






Anyway, we could not access the area there because of the locked gate, so we drove around to another access point.






According to the website, the common wildlife sightings at Twelve Mile Swamp Recreation include white-tailed deer, foxes, songbirds and a variety of snakes. We should have paid more attention to the “snake” part. When we finally found a place we could park and get out with the dogs to walk the trails, we had only gone a little way when we saw snakes all along the trails. Here is a picture of one of the snakes we saw crossing the road right in front of where we were walking:




Well, of course, the dogs wanted to go after the snakes, so we had to take them back to the vehicle, for everyone’s safety. After seeing all the snakes, I was not at all inclined to walk any further on the trails or any deeper into the swamp area. We could see the swamp and the water in the distance but had no desire to venture further. Plus, by now, since we had driven around about two hours trying to find an access point, it was starting to get dusky dark and this was no time of day to be wandering out in the swamp.







Anyway, it was a miserable experience – because my husband was mad and annoyed because of all of the driving around to find the access point; the two dogs were frustrated in the car because they could not get out and walk and we wouldn’t let them chase the snakes. I was upset because I did not get to see or explore the swamp area as much as I would liked to have done – because I am afraid of the snakes and it was getting dark. I knew we would not be able to come back any other time, because of the distance to get there and because of my foot surgery, I will not be able to drive myself and would have to ask my husband to go back and I knew he would not want to do that because of the events of this day. The swamp area was really like you would expect a swamp to be. It seemed like a very “wild” area with all the animals I read about that were in the area. The grass and the trees were very green.
Seeing the swamp reminded me that Florida’s swamps remain threatened by human activities which include draining, pollution, logging, mining, flood plain alterations and introduced invasive plants. Human impact on swamp lands also threatens associated rivers and lakes and directly affects the plant and animal species that depend on them. I am glad that the St. Johns River Water Management District is working to protect the Twelve Mile Swamp Recreation Area and the Twelve Mile Swamp Wildlife Management Area.





NOTE: The very first photo at the top of the blog entry (swamp trees at sunset) was taken from the Twelve Mile Swamp website at http://myfwc.com/recreation/WMASites_TwelveMileSwamp_index.htm. All of the rest of the pictures were taken by me and my husband at the time of our visit to the swamp.