What did you do for spring break? When I wasn't working on my house, creating curriculum, or just slaving away in general I actually took some time to enjoy my favorite pass time - being outdoors!
Early last week I got the chance to visit the nearest National Park - Congaree Swamp National Park . Despite the relative proximity to this park (slightly more than an hour drive) I am ashamed to say that I had NEVER been to visit! My friend and mentor Rudy Mancke told me that I would love it - and he was right on the money! Between the champion trees, the great weather, and the well placed boardwalks I was in heaven. The only thing that would have made it better would be finding snakes. But alas, it wasn't meant to be that day. On the positive side the kids loved the nature center, and they even became Junior Rangers!
Later on in the week I visited a State Natural Area that I hadn't been to in a couple of decades. Lee State Natural Area (formerly Lee State Park) is a beautiful park nestled along the Lynches River. Once again the weather was perfect. We saw one little snake (a banded water snake), an eastern fence lizard, and a whole bunch of Cricket Frogs (pictured above), all of which I photographed, GPS'd and sent to the Carolina Herp Atlas (more on this in a later post).
So now, here I am at the beginning of another Earth Week. Thanks (in large part) to my adventures into the 'wilderness' I have a renewed sense of why I do what I do. To quote poet and naturalist Baba Dioum: "In the end, we will protect only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." I am here to teach the next generation about what I love...and hope that they will protect it.
But we have to more than just hope that the next generation will take care of our problems in the future. We have to take actions now that will benefit us AND future generations (Sustainability). I think that is a large part of what Earthday (April 22nd) is about. So this week I have a long list of things to. Tomorrow I will be giving two talks to the college about sustainability in the form of energy conservation. I have some goodies to give away (CFL light bulbs, canvas grocery bags, and Earthday t-shirts to name a few), so we may get some interest. On Earthday I will be teaching elementary school kids about birds at Oakland Primary School. Why birds? Mr. Dioum said it best. While I'm away some of my students are going to be on campus educating others about our campus recycling program. After hours we are all headed to Downtown Sumter, where we are going to take part in the Climate Change spotlight conversation from ICLEI. Finally, on Saturday, we'll have a booth set up at Swan Lake as part of the Sustainable Sumter: Going Green is Living Green family day event.
It's going to be a busy week. I hope to see some of you out and about, perpetrating random acts of 'green'
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