Lake Crabtree County Park-Jennifer Yara

I visited Lake Crabtree County Park.  It has many trails and is therefore a good park to take the dogs for a walk.  They currently have some stations set up around the park and lake where you can learn about types of native flora and water conservation and management. 

 

One of the areas has a “green” butterfly garden.  It had a pretty garden with low maintenance plants and it had a system to collect rain water to use in the garden.  These are all efforts to decrease the park’s water usage and environmental impact.  It also helps to educate park visitors  on methods to create a “green” garden.

On one of the trails I found a wheel that taught you about the different trees along the trail.  When you pointed the arrow at specific trees, the wheel would provide some basic information on that species.  They also had a sign to explain an odd “three-legged maple tree”, that was caused by the seed of one species taking the nutrients from a decaying member of another species.  This could support an argument for less management in the parks system.  If park workers had taken away the dying stump, then the maple tree would have lacked the nutrients it needed to grow.

Finally, we went to the lake and saw some of the signs warning against the PCB contamination of the lake.  We talked about this park in class.  It was an example of restoration ecology and the effects of water pollution from poorly managed chemicals and unethical practices.

Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area: Sara Berry

Over fall break, I visited The Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area, containing the highest point in Orange County.  It is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna not found in other regions in the state.  One such species is the rare brown elfin butterfly which is not again found over 100 miles westward.  These butterflies once vastly populated the piedmont area, but after the last ice age, the Occoneechee Mountain butterflies were all that remained in the area. The rare sweet pinesap and witch-alder plants can be found on the mountain.  The mountain marks the eastern most limit for many other plant species such Bradley's spleenwort.  The Occoneechee State Natural Area is unique in geology as well.  Occoneechee mountain has suffered severe rock slides on one rock face over the past decade due to a loss of vegetation on the rock face that would normally keep the rock in place and increased stress due to temperature variations on the natural cracks in the quartz. Unfortunately, I was unable to access the trail that would have allowed me to take a picture of the rock slide.  Instead, I hiked the mountain loop trail. I have included a picture of the rock slide that I found at http://www.ajmm.net/mountain/Geology/slide.htm. 

Instructions

Here's how to do the blog project. Visit an environmental education center (see the link on the right to find one near you) Some are even on or very near campus, but try to visit some around the state if you are able. I will accept experiences from out of state, but check with me first. Don't "recycle" a visit from the past. I prefer environmental education centers, but I may take an alternate visit site such as an ecological restoration project, a recycling facility, a landfill, etc. Check with me first though.

Post a blog entry about your visit and include one to three photos. Tell about what you see and learn, about 150 to 200 words. If possible, include yourself in the photo, or at least include some kind of proof that the photos are original, such as something with the date, such as a sign or calendar of the center's events, programs, etc. Show me that you learned something, but make it a fun experience as well!

See the sample post below to get an idea of what I am talking about. Don't worry if you have never used blogger--it is very similar to using an email, and putting in photos is like doing an email attachment.

Instructions

Blogger is really simple. It's a lot like using an email. Here is a video on how to do it from youtube ( you may want to turn down your volume, or crank it up depending on your taste in music).

It doesn't show how to do photos, but it is just like attaching photos or images to an email. In the post window in blogger, you'll see a small icon of an image in the toolbar, to the right of spellcheck ("abc") You just click it and it will let you browse to where you saved your photos and attach them. I suggest you choose "small" on the size. You can alwasy see me in class if you have a question and I'll show you how to do it when we return from break as well.