Fresh Water Field Trip

I really enjoyed going to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. I liked being out in the open with nature’s beauty surrounding me, knowing that this place has so much history and is hopefully going to be protected forever. It occupies about 13,000 acres and is part of the Western Everglades. It is mostly made up of wetlands and nests all different species. One of the endangered species that the sanctuary provides habitat for is the wood stork. It also provides habitat for species like the Florida Panther, American Alligator, Gopher Tortoise, Florida Sandhill Crane, Limpkin, Roseate Spoonbill, Snowy Egret, Tricolored Heron, White Ibis, Big Cypress Fox Squirrel, and the Florida Black Bear.

In the early 1900’s, egret and heron plumes were in high demand for use in the fashion industry, so plume hunters could make a fortune just spending a weekend hunting for egret and heron. Rhett Green was a warden at the National Audubon Society and was in charge of protecting the Corkscrew rookery. So when he found out that people were hunting for egret and heron just so women could wear their feathers, they started a campaign to stop that demand for the plumes, which was successful, so the plume hunters went away and it became a protected area. I think that it is great how this happened so long ago and it is still in affect today. People are continuing to protect this land and the wildlife in it, and now people can go and see the natural beauty of it.

Corkscrew swamp is very flat and is only 17 feet above sea level. It is very rainy during hurricane season, which is June through September and sometimes extends through November. When rainy season ends, the water is constantly evaporating into the atmosphere and being taken up by plans and soaked into the soil. Fish eventually get trapped in the small pools and birds start to come around which inspires nesting, this typically last from October to May.

There is a unique system called the Living Machine. It is used to purify wastes without additives, and recycles 90 percent of the purified water back into the restrooms for reuse in the toilets. I think that this is very clever because this place is trying to conserve nature and I think by inventing something like this shows that they are trying to reuse water.

Overall, I found the whole experience very beautiful and interesting to see something with so much history.