“Conservation is getting nowhere because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic concept of land. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
– Aldo Leopold
The end of the semester is here and I personally learned many interesting things in the environmental science class. The project about Urban Roots, the lectures, the debates, but especially the monthly nature blogs made me think different about the environment we live in.
I’m a person that loves to be outdoors, so the monthly nature blogs were something that I enjoyed a lot. This semester, I visited Blunn Creek about 15 times and it was a great experience every single time. The biggest change over time was of course the weather. When I went to Blunn Creek the first couple of times, it was very hot and humid. The weather was about 90 degrees or even higher. The last time I visited in December, it was cold, windy and kind of wet because of the rain. It was noticeable that I saw a lot more wildlife during September and October. The amount of squirrels I have seen in Blunn Creek is unbelievable. Besides the squirrels I have seen rabbits, salamanders, and of course many bugs and birds. The whole park just felt more alive during the months of September and October. There were always people walking around in Blunn Creek to walk their dogs for example, or to just enjoy the nature. In November, I only saw one person the 4 times I visited that month.
Blunn Creek is a very peaceful place, the trees and plants are very pretty, and they were of course a lot greener in the beginning of the semester. The water level of the little creeks is very low, probably because of the lack of rainfall that Austin has. Because of the fewer animals during the last months, there were less sounds as well. One of the great things about Blunn Creek is that you totally feel that you are in the middle of the nature, although you’re really close to the highway. You can’t hear any noises from cars and anything else that is related to humans in general. The wind, the sounds of the leaves falling of the trees, the animals, the water of the creeks, and my own footsteps were the only thing I could hear.
I realized that I prefer to walk around and observing nature instead of just sitting in one place. You see and hear more, and it gives me more satisfaction. I felt that there was to much trash in the nature park. To many people leaving their bottles or empty bags in the park, personally I think that Blunn Creek should have some trashcans. Of course, people should not throw away their bottles and bags in the park, but people will keep doing that.
My last blog was focused on the nature up North around Dallas when I visited my girlfriend’s farm. Every time I visit her parents, I like to just walk around on their property, which is very big. Here I experienced my most exciting observation when I first found deer tracks in the mud, and later saw the actual deer looking straight at me. I also could hear the coyotes at night, which was a cool experience.
It is noticeable that the other students in class had very similar observations compared to my own when I looked at the word cloud. The first word that got my attention was “beautiful”. Although, it is not one of the biggest words, it gives me joy that everyone experienced this nature blog assignment just like me. Beautiful is the perfect way to describe the nature environment we live in. Another word that cached my eye was “morning”. It seems that many students went to do their observations in the morning and also often on Saturdays, whereas I personally liked to around 5 or 6PM. This way I could both observe Blunn Creek when it was both light and dark. It doesn’t surprise me that the word “nature” is the biggest word on the cloud. After all, every time we go out, we go into the nature. I’m happy to see that the word “people” is also in the cloud. It means that everyone wasn’t alone when they observed the nature. Every time I saw someone else in Blunn Creek, it just gave me a good feeling and I think most of the people get that feeling when they see someone else depe into the park. It means that there are still many people appreciate nature. It seems that many students went to forests to do their nature blogs. Another thing worth noticing is that the word “peaceful” is included. I used this word myself many times because it just feels very peaceful when you are out in the nature. You can forget you’re stressful life for a moment and just be one with the nature.
Visiting Blunn Creek and observing the nature was a great experience. I’m not going to call if “life changing”, but like I said before, it makes me look at nature different than before. I care more about it and I’m certain that I will go to Blunn Creek every once in a while just to enjoy the nature there and to keep troubled thoughts of my mind. It is walking distance from campus so that is perfect. It made me realize how beautiful the nature is and that we should be thankful that we can be part of it. Hopefully the amount of wildlife and nature will won’t disappear too fast as it is right now because of us humans. I strongly recommend everyone to visit Blunn Creek. It’s a very pretty, peaceful and interesting place to just walk around and observe the things around you. Once again, I learned a lot from this class in general and I will never forget it.
