Our field trip this week was a trip to Six Mile Cyprus Slough. The slough is an area of land including a mix of conservation and restoration. This preserve was created by a group of grade school students known as the Monday Club. The Monday Club raised money through the community and bought the land in efforts to preserve it. Years later, the slough offers visitors a peaceful walk through the trees on its miles of boardwalk and an incredible look into the local wildlife.
“We don’t inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children” – Chief Seattle
The trip was also reminiscent of our dry walk through the Florida Gulf Coast University nature trails earlier in the semester. I notice that the waters at both Six Mile Cyprus and the FGCU nature trails were the same shade of brown, yet clear enough to see the bottom.
One details that intrigued me most was that the area is great for the aquifers in the area. By preserving the slough, the sitting water can run through the aquifers to create cleaner water for the residents in the area to drink. This is much more sustainable than buying bottled waters and is still safe to consume by the general public.
The quote above really stood out to me and added some much needed insight on how important conservation really is. By preserving this slough and anything in nature for that matter, the planet and the people inhabiting it will live a much longer and healthier life. If humans did not have any preserved area, the world may run out of trees at an alarming rate causing the air quality in the area to decrease. Because of the efforts made by the Monday Club, the younger generation has a voice in how to improve conservation efforts. These efforts could not only save the local areas, but also help to preserve the well-being of the earth one child at a time.
“The state of the world’s ecosystems has changed more rapidly in the last 50 years than at any time in human history” – Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005)
Reagen's Walk Into Nature 