Everglades Species Inventory

Below is an inventory of the species we encountered while in Everglades and Biscayne Bay National Park.

Plants and Algae

Poisonwood

Brazilian pepper tree

Shrub morning glory

Cattail

Coastal plain willow

Sawgrass

Spatterdock

Pickerel weed

Pond Apple

Coconut palm

Christmas palm

Bismarck palm

Red mangrove

Black mangrove

Turtle grass

Manatee grass

Bubble algae (one of the largest single-celled organisms)

Insects and other invertebrates

White peacock butterfly

Zebra longwing butterfly

Julia Heliconian butterfly

The dozens of species of mosquitoes known to occur in Florida

Lugworm

Barrel sponge

Hermit crab (not sure which species)

Speckled swimming crab

Fish

Florida gar

Tilapia

Honeycomb cowfish

Blacktip shark

Atlantic stingray

Reptiles

American alligator

Florida Cottonmouth

Florida red belly turtle

Diamondback rattlesnake

Green iguana

Black spinytail iguana

Birds

Turkey vulture

Black vulture

Osprey

Great Blue Heron (also in white morph)

Anhinga

Great egret

Brown pelican

Double-crested cormorant

Mammals

Raccoon

West Indian manatee

ASB TEAM: Please add any others that I’ve forgotten!

Knowledge is Responsibility

We began our service work early today at Biscayne Bay National Park, where 96% of the protected area is under water.  We worked with our learning partners, Arend and Kelsy, to remove trash and debris from sea turtle nesting habitat.  Today was a difficult day for me. I felt full of shame and dismay as I looked at long stretches of sandy beach and mangrove coastlines spoiled with our filth and debris. I even cried a little as we bagged soda bottles, flip flops, toothbrushes, fishing nets, tennis balls, light bulbs, seat cushions, plastic doll parts, hypodermic needles, ball point pens, buoys, and thousands of broken up pieces of plastic. Some of the plastic bits were so small that they couldn’t be separated from the sand grains, and I couldn’t help but wonder how all that microplastic was impacting the marine food chain. And the dozens of Mylar balloons we found wrapped around mangrove roots…we learned that sea turtles confuse them with jellyfish, ingest them, and die an agonizing death as a result starvation when the balloon blocks the passage of food.

But our ASB team diligently and reflectively continued to clean up the beach where sea turtles would be nesting in June until we’d managed to remove over 500 lbs of marine debris. The trash filled about 20 giant-sized trash bags, included a 150 lb drift fishing net, and covered the full stern of our boat on the return journey to the park office.

At reflection, some of the students found themselves wondering whether the work we’d done today was worth it, given that the beach would most likely be littered with trash soon after our departure. What could I say to assure them that our hard work was valuable? Honestly, I’d had the same thought multiple times today, but I also know that a defeatist attitude leads to hopelessness rather than productivity and progress. So, can we reframe and refocus our helpless feeling into one that is more empowering?

I believe we can. The truth is that this ASB experience has the power to transform us and to motivate each one of us to take positive action in our own lives. We can be reassured by people like Mava and Kelsy and all the scientists dedicating their lives to gathering data to help us find better solutions.  These people may be overworked and underfunded, but that doesn’t stop them from trying. There are other people out there who – like us – care about environmental issues. This also reminds me of a comment Dr. Hope Jahren once made in a blog about climate change. She said, “We are strong and lucky. The fact that we are a group of people with food, shelter, and clean water obligates us not to give up on the world that we have compromised. Knowledge is responsibility.” So, even as more plastic trash is drifting toward the beaches we left clean for the next generation of sea turtles, we look forward to our return journey home and the opportunity to spread the knowledge that we gained during this experience.

11 THINGS I LEARNED DURING MY ASB ASHEVILLE EXPERIENCE:

  1. When staying in a hostel over top a trendy brew pub featuring nightly live music, BRING EAR PLUGS!
  2. The store, Ingles, is pronounced “IN-GULLS” not “EEN-GLACE,” and it is a general – not a latino – grocery store!
  3. Baby wipes are an essential item to pack for any ASB trip – you never know when you’re going to be covered in mud or when you’re going to have to “go” along the side of a road!  HA!
  4. If you find your canoe headed for a tree, a rock, or a stream bank, it is absolutely the sternman’s (i.e., person in the back of the boat) fault…it is also her responsibility to correct the course of the boat!
  5. Although we traveled all the way to Asheville, NC to learn more about the environmental and human health impacts of coal ash, we discovered that Pennsylvania ranks #1 in the United States for coal ash generation and that there are 3 coal fired power plants with potentially dangerous coal ash disposal sites in Northampton County.
  6. Environmental justice is a profoundly anthropocentric ethic, meaning that human beings are the central moral concern.  However, I believe that, although “justice” is a human creation, there is a way to extend the definition of environmental justice to include non-human beings.  Animals, plants, and even mountains have intrinsic value and are owed ethical obligations.
  7. The most challenging aspect of any social or environmental movement is finding ways to drive the people of the community into a state of positive action – organizing the ambivalent majority into an engaged, committed, united and more forceful whole capable of making significant change.  As Sandra Diaz of Appalachian Voices put it, getting the community on board can be like trying to ignite a wet match – at times, success may seem hopeless but, with persistence and patience, you CAN make it happen.  This trip has shown me that, although mobilizing a community to achieve positive change is incredibly difficult, the most effective means of bringing people together are the simplest ones – community gatherings with food and fellowship (e.g., community gardens, picnics), communication through art (e.g., DeWayne’s Peace Garden, Jonathan Santos’ music), education (e.g., canvassing – examining public perception and providing accurate information about the issue), and providing green spaces and wildlife areas where members of the community can find peace, solitude, and their own personal relationship with nature (e.g., the campsite along the French Broad).
  8. Although anger, fear, and sorrow are generally considered negative human emotions, these feelings – when properly channeled – can be the catalyst for positive change.  Like the story of how Green Opportunities began in DeWayne’s backyard, we often decide to make a change when we are at our most uncomfortable.  I like the way M. Scott Peck put it in his book The Road Less Traveled, “The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”
  9. The Gilded Age was a period in American History after the Civil War characterized by enormous industrial and economic growth.  The term was coined (in part) by writer Mark Twain in a novel he wrote that satirized greed, materialism, and political corruption in public life.  We learned about the Gilded Age during our cultural day, but came to discover the deeper relationship between consumerism and environmentalism in the Peace Garden.  Shakespeare said it best: “to gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw perfume on the violet…is wasteful and ridiculous excess.”  For me, DeWayne’s artificial flowers symbolize this concept.
  10. The Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore wrote, “I slept and dreamt that life was joy./ I awoke and saw that life was service./ I acted and behold, service was joy.”  Like so many of us, I get caught up in my own life and driven to acquire more knowledge, more honors, more respect, more things.  Self, self, self.  We think these “things” will bring us happiness, but, like the effect of a McDonald’s Happy Meal, we are briefly satisfied but left wanting more.  Being of service through ASB is a wonderful reminder that service IS joy – generosity, love, and compassion are sustainable forms of nourishment for the soul.  We only have what we give.
  11. I really appreciate all of the passionate people out there (especially my students) who are enthusiastic about environmental and social movements and motivated to change the world.  In an academic setting, we often have discussions about how the world could be a better place when communities, governments, and businesses change the way they do things.  However, the Peace Garden was a reminder that the first and most important step in creating positive change in the world is to take responsibility for and begin changing our own actions.  Jonathan Santos reminded us of this fact with his song, “Changing the World by Changing Me.”  DeWayne reminded us with all of the mirrors strategically placed throughout the garden, asking us to reflect on our own contribution to the changes we’d like to see, and the painted image of Mahatma Ghandi at the center of the garden reminded us that he said, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”