Author: khira1

Service Blog Post #5

by khira1

This week for our time at Blue Heron Nature Preserve, we were putting up our weathering stations that we made for the woodlands and Riparian/Wetlands. To make the signs, I painted them with both the GSU and Blue Heron logo as well as the descriptions of all the measurements we were required to track in these upcoming weeks. I learned a lot about weather implementations and what Denise wanted us to track which were things like hygrometers which measure humidity and anemometers which measure wind speeds. It was very interesting researching all the elements of weather and correspondence of areas of more moist environments like wetlands, having a higher or lower chance of wind speeds than dryer areas like woodlands. Then my partner Kaden, put the signs together and we took them to the preserve and put them up one at a time. It was such an amazing experience seeing our creation actually be a part of the Blue Heron Nature Preserve because it is us showing a difference that we care about the environment how important weathering tracking is to the environment and the different ways the community can regulate it. In these upcoming weeks, we will be periodically going to the preserve to track the wind speeds, rainfall, humidity, and other forms of weather tracking for our final project.

While we were there this past week, Denise was planting some more native plants in the preserve and let us help in planting them. The plant in question was a Fringed Champion (Seline Polypetala), which is a rare species of flowering plant that is native to Georgia and is becoming more and more endangered. Denise explained to us that these were on the High Priority list of plants in the Georiga Department of Wildlife and Natural Resources which means they are at a high risk of becoming extinct in their natural habitats. The main reason that Fringed Champion is on the high-priority list is because of degradation and loss of suitable habitats. With the increasing gentrification and urban areas, a lot of native plant species in Georgia have been killed or are on the cusp of being extinct, which opened our eyes to the fact that we need to help spaces like preserves and natural from being ruined.

This is a photo of one of our weathering stations!

 
This is a photo of the Fringed Champion we planted!
 

Blog Post 2- Getting Started

by khira1

Kaden and I visited the Blue Heron Nature Preserve in person on Thursday to meet with Denise, the operations director of the preserve, as well as some of the team like Melody the executive director. Denise was very lovely and talked to us about our goals and why we wanted to choose Blue Heron as our main service organization, which was to help volunteer and give back to the community as well as expand our knowledge about environmental conservation. My main goal and aspiration is hopefully to continue to work with the organization a couple of times in the summer if I have the time, to fully grasp all aspects of environmental organizations and to help push knowledge about the environment. We talked about the different types of environments that Blue Heron has to offer, with riparian, meadows, wetlands, and woodlands, and how each of them combine to make Blue Heron a hidden spot in the heart of Buckhead. Melody and Denise both touched on how they wanted to expand and push the knowledge of Blue Heron onto different levels of generations to come and observe and travel through different parts of nature right in the city. We went on a walk throughout part of the woodlands and riparians, to see the different environmental works they have been preserving and planting, especially native plant species. Denise talked about the importance of native planting and preservation because of invasive species invading Georgia. One of the most prevalent we saw on our walk was the English Ivy, which crowds an abundance of trees and lower plants, cutting off their ability to have vital nutrients from the soil. For one of the weeks, we will be cutting down and removing some of the English Ivy in hopes of preventing further spread of the plant. One of the most interesting things was the information about the riparian, with the addition of two creeks, the Nancy and Mill Creek, which run through the preserve. Finding out about riparians, which I had no clue what they were before, was very interesting. This was brought into one of the service project ideas about having weathering stations to track various aspects of temperature and rainfall was an idea that we are hoping to fulfill for each part of the 4 areas of Blue Heron. All in all, I am very excited to see what kinds of things we are going to do in the upcoming weeks for the preserve and how that will tie into spreading awareness and helping Blue Heron. 

 
 

These are some pictures from our walk!

Introduction: Kayla Hira

by khira1
 Hello! My name is Kayla Hira, and I am a second-year student here at Georgia State University. I have a major in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Environmental Science and a minor in Biological Sciences. I chose this course “Urban Ecology and Environmental Conservation” because I wanted to learn more about my passion and major with the benefit of helping small communities and organizations with conserving the planet. I also wanted to volunteer because I wanted to see a difference in the communities around our city in the ways that they help our earth and spread knowledge on how others can help natural spaces as well. From the class, we have been reading excerpts and learning about what it means in the sense of natural lands, and how various places and perspectives came forth in conserving and defining what nature is. Many of the excerpts shed knowledge on their concepts of what is natural and what is inorganic and had their own experiences with places that are less fortunate to be conserved to push for a recognition of conservation and environmental help.  
 
The community partner I was matched with was the Blue Heron Nature Preserve, a 30-acre area of nature with various Environmental situations in woodlands, meadows, wetlands, and riparian. Thier aim is to engage people about the environments and natural habitats, protect/preserve the habitats and their heritages, provide a natural lab for various education and research, and advocate for preservation for urban communities. Some of the volunteer work I am excited about, particularly the Tree Survey and knowledge about carbon footprints in our area. Learning about meadows and how they are such an integral part of fighting climate change and being able to plant some native species and learn about meadows (prairies) is something I would like to expand on because I have always been interested in planting and cultivating flowers and small plants. Their ability to fit four different habitats for native plants and animal communities is something I wanted out of my community partner, because I wanted to get a full grasp of all aspects of environmental conservation, and the Blue Heron Nature Preserve reflects that. I also want to find out how different environments in Georgia impacted the natural parts and ecology of the state and how I can further impact people and have the knowledge to make a difference in environmental change. 
 

Citation-“The Nature Preserve.” Blue Heron Nature Preserve, August 25, 2022. https://bhnp.org/about/the-preserve/.