Side story: Why I am interested in Agi Sci...

I was exposed to the outdoors as a very young child. My grandfather made simple bird feeders out of pvc pipes and scrap wood and let me help 'feed' the birds and my uncle thought it was ever so funny that the 'Easter Bunny' would drop off baby chicks and bunnies each Spring. My great-grandparents had a Christmas tree farm in Georgia where we would go and pick out a tree during the holidays and my father started bringing me to 'hunt-camp' when I was about eight. I learned the value of clean water and how hard it was to hunt and fish for dinner. I'm sure he would have been able to hunt a lot better had iPods been invented back then as I might have stopped talking long enough for a deer to get anywhere close to us!

Environmental Science: Habitat Park; SPC Seminole

Observations:

The Habitat Park seemed to slide back and forth between Upland and Wetland environments, sometimes within just a few feet of each other. While pretty, the environment felt forced, and the plants were not cohesive within the areas they inhabited. The ponds all seemed to want to natively be upland environments with drier soil and more trees like oak and laurel than the smaller shrubs and cattails, lilies, and grasses that we saw. At the end of the trip, after taking soil samples we came across a small purple/pink flower from the mint plant. This is commonly referred to as Hitchhiker’s plant or Florida Betony. Its scientific name is Stachys floridana.