Show Title: Conserving Urban Wildlife
Producer: Erin Easterling
Time: 27:40
Show begins here:
>>>TODAY ON IMPACT, CONSERVING URBAN WILDLIFE.
---(Habitat loss is a major reason for decline of wildlife species in the state of Florida, so people can actually do something to off-set that habitat loss by creating habitat.)---
---(This subspecies is disappearing with development. They want to know what is it that we can build into golf courses and golf course arrangement on the landscape to try to keep these despite development.)---
---(It's nice having it at school because um we can learn about it more than if it was in our backyard. Cause we have somebody to teach it to us.)---
>>>THIS IS IMPACT. A WEEKLY LOOK AT ISSUES AND ANSWERS THAT IMPACT OUR LIVES AND THE WORLD AROUND US. PRODUCED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES.
---(music)---
>>>WHEN THE EARLY AMERICAN SETTLERS WERE STAKING CLAIM ON VARIOUS PARTS OF THE COUNTRY, MUCH OF FLORIDA WAS ONLY FOR THOSE WHO COULD STAND THE HEAT AND MOSQUITOES. THE STATE'S POPULATION GREW STEADILY FROM THE EARLY 1900'S, WITH HELP FROM AIR CONDITIONERS AND MOSQUITO CONTROL. AS WE APPROACH THE 21ST CENTURY, MORE THAN A THOUSAND PEOPLE ARE MOVING TO FLORIDA EACH DAY. LAND IS BEING CLEARED, HOUSES ARE BEING BUILT, AND THE PRESSURE ON NATURAL RESOURCES IS GROWING RIGHT ALONG WITH DEVELOPMENT. WILDLIFE THAT WAS HERE BEFORE MAN IS CONSTANTLY BEING DISPLACED AND THE REMAINING SPECIES MUST FEND FOR THEMSELVES IN AN EXPANDING URBAN ENVIRONMENT. FLORIDA IS HOME TO AN ABUNDANCE OF ENDANGERED OR THREATENED SPECIES LISTED, INCLUDING THE KEMPS RIDLEY SEA TURTLE, THE SCHAUS SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY, AND THE FLORIDA PANTHER. STUDIES ARE UNDERWAY TO INCREASE POPULATION NUMBERS OF MANY PROTECTED SPECIES, BUT ANY IMPROVEMENT IS OFTEN LIMITED WHEN THE ULTIMATE CAUSE OF DECLINE IS HABITAT LOSS. RESEARCHERS ARE HOPING THIS ISN'T THE CASE WITH A LARGE POPULATION OF THREATENED FOX SQUIRRELS LIVING ON A FEW GOLF COURSES IN A VERY URBANIZED AREA OF NAPLES.
>>>DR. STEVE HUMPHREY- UF WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST: Although the fox squirrel lives throughout the Big Cypress swamp, in the wild they're very shy. Difficult to see, difficult to find, almost impossible to study. In fact we tried to study them there and failed. But we found that they're abundant on the golf courses on the urban fringe of the west-southwest coast of Florida, so we began a study in golf courses in the Naples to Fort Myers strip, where there is quite a large population.
>>> UF WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST REBECCA DITGEN HAS BEEN STUDYING FOX SQUIRRELS ON SOUTHWEST FLORIDA GOLF COURSES SINCE THE FALL OF 1995 AS PART OF A RESEARCH PROJECT FUNDED BY THE NON-GAME WILDLIFE BUREAU OF THE FLORIDA GAME AND FRESH WATER FISH COMMISSION.
---(She's right in this area someplace.)---
>>>THE PROJECT GOAL IS TO LEARN WHICH COURSES CURRENTLY HAVE FOX SQUIRREL POPULATIONS AND WHAT HABITAT FEATURES ENCOURAGE THEM TO LIVE THERE. DITGEN VISITS 60 COURSES IN LEE AND COLLIER COUNTIES TO RECORD DATA ON FOX SQUIRREL NUMBERS AND LANDSCAPE DESIGN. SHE IS ALSO CONDUCTING INTENSIVE TRACKING STUDIES ON 2 COURSES IN THE NAPLES AREA TO DETERMINE HOW FOX SQUIRRELS ARE USING THE ENVIRONMENT. ONE OF THESE IS THE CYPRESS COURSE AT ROYAL POINCIANNA COUNTRY CLUB, A COURSE WITH 25-40 FOX SQUIRRELS.
>>>REBECCA DITGEN - UF WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST: Fox squirrels are native to the pine forests that burn with open understories, and they spend a lot of time on the ground. And so the golf courseness, which is the open pines, open cypress stands, is good for fox squirrels. They seem to do well in that. They can move around and they can move long distances easily. This golf course is particularly good I think because they have a lot of large stands of trees, they have a good quantity of large pines, good quantity of large cypress. They have over 3,000 palms, cabbage palms, native palms, a lot of lakes, a lot of water.
---(Had seven males chasing her around the course day before yesterday.)---
>>>5 DAYS A WEEK, DITGEN TRACKS THE SQUIRRELS SHE HAS RADIO COLLARED, TO GATHER DATA THEIR MOVEMENTS AND USE OF THE HABITAT. FOX SQUIRRELS ARE VERY DIFFERENT THAN THE GRAY SQUIRRELS MOST PEOPLE SEE IN THEIR YARDS. THEY ARE VERY LARGE SQUIRRELS WITH VARYING COLORATION OF BLACK, BLONDE, AND RED.
>>>DITGEN: They're a very graceful squirrel. They're on the ground a lot, and they leap and move and so forth, so I think people find them beautiful to watch, certainly the native Floridians that I talk to, the people who've been here a long time, take real pride in having fox squirrels around, they like them a lot.
>>>SOMETIMES A SQUIRREL'S COLLAR NEEDS TO BE REPLACED, AS WITH THIS MALE, BUT CATCHING IT ISN'T ALWAYS EASY AND CAN TURN INTO A SORT OF GAME. DITGEN OFTEN TRIES PEANUT BUTTER, AND A LITTLE COAXING, BUT SOMETIMES THAT'S NOT ENOUGH FOR A SQUIRREL TO ENTER A CAGE.
>>>HERE'S ONE OF THE FEMALE SQUIRRELS BRINGING MOSS BACK TO HELP BUILT HER NEST.
---(She will go on up, and go out a branch. She's got this, I mean this is a highway--watch her, and now she'll go into the queen palm tree.)---
>>>DITGEN SAYS NESTING SQUIRRELS ARE ALSO VERY TERRITORIAL
---(I've seen this squirrel fighting with, you know, chasing and squeaking and so forth with the one in an adjoining home range, number two, and so they seem to be doing some defending while number two has young and her--still has a young in nest. She chases number 15 off of her territory. And it's fun to watch them cause the edge of her territory is right at a canal, so this takes place on the bridge that goes over the canal and they chase each other back and forth, and if 15 happens to get on number two's, across the bridge and into her home range, number 2 will be up on the top of a tree and she'll see her from a long ways and come running down the fairway and chase her back across the bridge.)---
>>>ALL OF DITGEN'S RESEARCH IS DONE ON GOLF COURSES, BUT SHE IS INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT THEIR MOVEMENT AND FEEDING HABITS IN THE WILD. THIS YOUNG MALE WAS BROUGHT INTO THE CONSERVANCY WILDLIFE REHABILITATION CENTER IN NAPLES AS A BABY. HE IS NOW OLD ENOUGH TO BE RELEASED, AND DITGEN AGREED TO PUT A RADIO COLLAR ON HIM, SO HE CAN BE TRACKED IN HIS HOME RANGE. HE WILL BE LET GO IN A SPOT MUCH LIKE THIS ONE IN THE BIG CYPRESS NATIONAL PRESERVE.
---(The reason that we're putting the collared squirrel out here is we want to see what they're eating in the wintertime. It's not immediately obvious what the winter food source is. In town, in urban areas, they bury a lot of food and can feed off that, and then they have introduced species that they're feeding on in the winter, but we want to see what they're doing here. )---
>>>THE BIG CYPRESS FOX SQUIRREL HAS BEEN ON THE THREATENED SPECIES LIST FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS. MANY FACTORS CONTRIBUTED TO ITS DECLINE, INCLUDING HUNTING AND CONTROL OF NATURAL FIRES, WHICH DITGEN SAYS REALLY BOILS DOWN TO ONE THING.
>>>DITGEN: People. Whether it's in the wild and changing that or whether it's development, it's habitat alteration.
>>>THIS PROJECT SHOULD PROVIDE USEFUL INFORMATION ON HOW GOLF COURSES CAN BENEFIT FOX SQUIRREL SURVIVAL THROUGH BETTER MAINTENANCE PRACTICES, COURSE DESIGN, AND ADDING NATIVE PLANTS THAT PROVIDE A FOOD SOURCE FOR THE SQUIRRELS. GARY GRIGGS, SUPERINTENDENT OF ROYAL POINCIANNA WELCOMES MANAGEMENT ADVISE THAT COULD HELP PROTECT THESE THREATENED SQUIRRELS.
>>>GARY GRIGGS - SUPERINTENDENT - ROYAL POINCIANNA GOLF CLUB: I didn't know until 5 minutes ago that those squirrels were nesting in the top of those palm trees. And so it becomes important to us to know that so that when we trim our palm trees we do it in the time of the year when we're not going to disrupt that, and if Rebecca can show us ways that we can help the Big Cypress Fox Squirrel, then we want to do it, cause we want to be the good guys, and this happens to be a story that we think is a good story, as these squirrels are doing good and they are doing good on golf courses.
>>>DITGEN'S FIELDWORK WILL CONTINUE THROUGH MOST OF 1997, AND THEN HER DATA WILL BE ANALYZED TO HELP CREATE A MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR FOX SQUIRRELS IN URBAN NAPLES. HOPEFULLY, WITH STUDIES LIKE THIS ONE WILL PROVIDE THE ANSWERS NEEDED TO HELP MAN AND SQUIRREL CAN CONTINUE TO SHARE FLORIDA'S REMAINING GREEN SPACE.
>>>FLORIDA'S BATS ARE ANOTHER GROUP OF ANIMALS AT RISK. SEVENTEEN SPECIES HAVE BEEN FOUND IN FLORIDA, BUT ONLY THIRTEEN ARE CONSIDERED RESIDENTS. THEIR NUMBERS HAVE BEEN DECLINING STEADILY FROM HABITAT LOSS AND CONSERVATIONISTS ARE WORKING TO CHANGE THAT.
>>>KEN GIOELI - UF ST. LUCIE CO. EXT. - NATURAL RESOURCES: We're trying to find some balance between nature and humans and that balance can be reached in part by respecting bats in their habitat, putting up bat houses, creating an awareness of the benefits of having bats. And really the response that we've gotten is tremendous.
>>>GIOELI STARTED HOLDING BAT SEMINARS, SO PEOPLE COULD MEET SOME OF THE EXPERTS AND GET THE FACTS ON BATS. CYNDI MARKS WORKS FOR THE FLORIDA BAT CENTER NEAR TAMPA. SHE BROUGHT IN SEVERAL OF HER BATS TO SHOW THE GROUP, INCLUDING THIS EGYPTIAN FRUIT BAT, WHICH IS MUCH LARGER THAN ANY OF FLORIDA'S NATIVE BATS.
>>>CYNDI MARKS - FLORIDA BAT CENTER: A quarter of our mammal species on earth are bats. And they've been the least studied and probably the most persecuted of the mammals. They're so beneficial for us because they can, each bat can eat up to 3,000 insects a night, and people just have all these misconceptions of them, so when they find a bat, they generally think they're supposed to kill it, but they're actually gentle and highly beneficial animals.
>>>SOME OF FLORIDA'S NATIVE BATS SHOWN AT THE SEMINAR WERE THE BIG BROWN BAT, THIS ONE WITH ITS LONG TAIL CALLED EITHER A BRAZILIAN OR MEXICAN FREE-TAILED BAT, AND A BABY YELLOW BAT, BEING FED FORMULA. THESE BATS AREN'T ANYTHING LIKE THE ONES OFTEN DEPICTED IN MOVIES.
>>>GIOELI: Some people have a general fear of bats, and some of that has to do with the old wive's tales that, I'm sure that we've all heard. And we try to educate people, you know, this is what the actual facts are, versus what the myths are and the misconceptions.
>>>ONE FACT IS THAT BATS, LIKE ALL MAMMALS, CAN DEVELOP RABIES.
>>>MARKS: They get the paralytic form and usually die within a few days. But if you were to pick up that bat, you could get bitten, so we tell people not to handle a bat. If it's flying around their house, we tell them to open a window or a door and the bat should fly right out.
>>>EACH PARTICIPANT CAME TO THE SEMINAR FOR A VARIETY OF REASONS. AMANDA LUCAS WANTED TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE HUNDREDS OF BATS LIVING IN HER HOUSE.
>>>AMANDA LUCAS - SEMINAR PARTICIPANT: I have bats, not in my belfry, but my attic. They come into the southeast corner of the attic through the molding on the outside of the house, and actually they're little evening bats, I think. From the indications that I saw today and the bats that I saw today, I believe that's what they are. And we've had them now for three years, off and on, they come and go. But we're very happy to have them because we have our own little mosquito patrol.
>>>SOME OF THE OTHER ATTENDEES WORK FOR PEST CONTROL COMPANIES AND CAME TO LEARN HOW TO REMOVE BATS IN A SAFE MANNER.
>>>MIKE GOODNER - PEST CONTROL OPERATOR: These bats that I'm dealing with are in an attic. I thought I'd have to go in there with the bats. But now that I've been to the seminar, I can stay outside the building, and create a way for them to leave and not come back without hurting them or me getting too close to them.
>>>THE GROUP ALSO VISITED A PORT SAINT LUCIE BASEBALL STADIUM WHERE THE NEW YORK METS HAVE THEIR SPRING TRAINING. THEY GOT TO SEE WHERE BATS WERE LIVING WITHIN THE STADIUM STRUCTURE, EVIDENCED BY STAINING ON THE CEMENT BEAMS AND GUANO DROPPINGS IN THE STANDS. STADIUM MANAGERS HAVE TRIED A NOISE DETERRENT WITH LITTLE SUCCESS AND MAY NEXT USE SOME OF THE EXCLUSION TECHNIQUES DISCUSSED IN THE BAT SEMINAR. IN 1989, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S GAINESVILLE CAMPUS HAD A SIMILAR PROBLEM WITH BATS LIVING IN THE TRACK STADIUM.
>>>KEN GLOVER - UF PEST CONTROL: When bats are in buildings that people occupy, the main pest is associated with the odor that the bats have. They can smell pretty bad in a building and they can contaminate breathing air to the point where it may even cause some people to have allergic reactions.
>>>BY 1991, THE BATS HAD BECOME SUCH A BIG PROBLEM, THEY WERE REMOVED FROM THE TRACK STADIUM AND PLACED INTO A BUILDING DESIGNED ESPECIALLY FOR THEM. BUT AFTER RELEASING THE ENTIRE COLONY INTO THE NEW BAT HOUSE, SOMETHING UNEXPECTED HAPPENED.
>>>GLOVER: They left the following night, and basically they didn't return for about 3 years. And so finally, they started coming in small groups, staying for small periods of time.
>>>THE NUMBER OF BATS GREW STEADILY FROM 1994 ON, AND BY 1996 THERE WERE MORE THAN 20,000 BRAZILIAN FREE-TAILED BATS LIVING IN THE UF BAT HOUSE.
>>>GLOVER: This particular species of bat like to live in large groups, such as old barns, church steeples, and since those types of structures are becoming less common, it was decided that a house specifically for these bats should be built so that they could live somewhere undisturbed in large numbers and continue to increase in numbers in their colony size.
>>>MANY CHILDREN, ADULTS, AND BAT FANS ARRIVE AT THE BATHOUSE JUST BEFORE DUSK TO WATCH THE NIGHTLY EMERGENCE OF ITS RESIDENTS. IT'S A FASCINATING SIGHT... THE FIRST FEW BATS TRICKLE OUT AND THEN IT TURNS INTO A RAPID STREAM OF CREATURES FLYING ACROSS THE SKY.
>>>GLOVER: This is sort of a unique opportunity to employ a wildlife management tool in that we can build a structure for them to live in and encourage them to occupy it without being disturbed and help contribute to natural pest control.
>>>LIKE THE BIG CYPRESS FOX SQUIRREL, BATS ARE NON-GAME WILDLIFE SPECIES PROTECTED BY A FLORIDA STATUTE, SO IT'S ILLEGAL TO KILL THEM. WILDLIFE CONSERVATIONISTS FEEL EDUCATING THE PUBLIC ABOUT BATS AND OTHER ANIMALS IS ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO PROTECT THEM. WHEN IMPACT RETURNS WE'LL VISIT SOME SCHOOLS AND RESIDENTS DOING THEIR PART TO CREATE WILDLIFE HABITATS IN THEIR OWN YARDS.
---(music)---
>>>RESTORATION OF WILDLIFE HABITAT ISN'T GOING TO HAPPEN WITHOUT HELP FROM MAN, BECAUSE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IS WHAT LED TO ITS REMOVAL IN THE FIRST PLACE. THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA SPONSORS SEVERAL GOOD PROGRAMS TO INCREASE ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS AMONG RESIDENTS AND GET THEM INVOLVED IN CONSERVATION EFFORTS.
>>>SCHAEFER: Surveys have shown that the majority of Florida residents are interested in wildlife and want to do something to actively help wildlife. And one thing that they can do is to provide habitat in their own yards. And so we have a Florida wildlife habitat program that guides them in how to do that effectively.
>>>COYLA SEELEY LIVES IN CHARLOTTE COUNTY ON THE SOUTHWEST COAST OF FLORIDA, WHERE SHE'S TURNED HER SMALL YARD INTO A WILDLIFE HABITAT.
>>>COYLA SEELEY - HAS A CERTIFIED WILDLIFE HABITAT: At the beginning it was just playing my own likes, and then as I got into it and found out more about things that fed butterflies and things that fed birds and so forth, I added some of those things. So your goals, when you start out, they'll change as you go along and you find out what works and what doesn't work.
>>>ELIZABETH PASNAK IS THE EXTENSION AGENT WHO WORKED WITH COYLA IN GETTING HER YARD CERTIFIED.
>>>ELIZABETH PASNAK - CHARLOTTE COUNTY EXTENSION AGENT: We tell applicants of the Certified Wildlife Habitat Program in our county, that their back yard has to have food, cover and water for wildlife. And of course, Coyla's yard has those things, and I don't mean water because of the canal. Canal water generally doesn't give water to all the animals. It's too deep for small pasturines or song birds to get water. She's got a watering dish. She's got food in the form of plants and flowering plants that attract insects feed the insect-eating birds but she's also got a whole lot of plants that produce acorn such as this oak tree, berry, such as the American Beauty berry and the wild coffee and the sea grape. She's just got a lot of fruit-bearing plants. Then also, cover; she's got a couple of different forms of cover.
>>>SHE HAS SEVERAL TREES GOOD FOR NESTING BIRDS, A VARIETY OF SMALL SCHRUBS AND GRASSES, AND A MULTI-PURPOSE BRUSH PILE.
>>>SEELEY: That was one of the things that was listed as habitat in that book with the cardinal on the front. It said a habitat for critters, I thought, great! This takes care of two things, it gives them a place to hide, and it gives me a place to put broken limbs without having to throw them out and take them to the dump.
>>>PASNAK: It's good to have wildlife habitat in everyone's back yard, be it small or large. We are coastal, and we do serve a lot of migratory birds, things of that sort. So even if Coyla just had a few wax myrtles, she could probably feed a couple flocks of migrating tree swallows that were coming through and going somewhere else. So even if it's not as comprehensive as this landscape, it's still good to put some native plants in the landscape and try to do your part for the wildlife.
---(This is a deck and the roof of the butterfly house)---
>>>ON FLORIDA'S EAST COAST NEAR ST. AUGUSTINE, RUTH MYERS IS CERTIFIED WITH THE WILDLIFE HABITAT PROGRAM IN ST. JOHNS COUNTY.
>>>LORETTA HODYSS - ST. JOHN'S COUNTY EXT. - DIRECTOR: The idea of this program is to make sure that we don't lose, in urban areas, the kinds of wildlife that will survive in those areas, so the idea is that we plant things that will bring wildlife to your back yard. Small wildlife is what we're talking about. Usually butterflies and insects of all kinds, small mammals, that sort of thing.
>>>RUTH MYERS' USUAL LANDSCAPING DESIGN OFFERS HABITAT FOR A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING. SHE HAS AN ORCHARD OF FRUIT TREES, A SMALL VINEYARD OF WILD GRAPES, SEVERAL SMALL MAN-MADE PONDS, AS WELL AS MANY FOOD PLANTS FOR BUTTERFLY LARVAE AND SMALL MAMMALS. IN THIS GREENHOUSE, RUTH PRODUCES MORE THAN 500 CUTTINGS A YEAR TO SHARE WITH OTHER GARDENERS AND ORGANIZATIONS.
>>>RUTH MYERS - HAS A CERTIFIED WILDLIFE HABITAT: Almost everything is condusive for the butterflies, the caterpillars, hummingbirds, birds, lizards, even for the snakes.
>>>THERE IS ALSO A BUTTERFLY HOUSE WHERE SHE RAISES BUTTERFLIES AND KEEPS AN ASSORTMENT OF CREATURES INCLUDING BIRDS, IGUANAS, AND RABBITS. SHE ALSO HELPS REHABILITATE INJURED ANIMALS LIKE THIS TURTLE, THAT HAD ITS EYES POKED IN BY A CHILD.
>>>MYERS: If we released him back into the wild, he would just simply become part of the food chain. But isn't he cute?
>>>HODYSS: I think that people are excited about all kinds of more natural things, as we get farther and farther away from that in our lives and our homes, and our businesses, and our occupations it becomes more and more natural, I think for people to want to bring some of that back into their lives.
>>>MYERS: I as an individual do not know for sure that simply encouraging them in back yards is going to help preserve some of the wildlife. But on the other hand, we've destroyed such huge areas where there was wildlife, that it's at least something that you can do and I think that it, in the long run, may be one of the answers to restoring or keeping alive some of the species.
>>>REBUILDING WILDLIFE HABITAT ISN'T JUST SOMETHING FOR ADULTS WITH HOMEYARDS, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S DR. JOE SCHAEFER DEVELOPED THE SCHOOLYARD ECOSYSTEM PROGRAM TO TRAIN TEACHERS AND STUDENTS HOW TO RESTORE NATURAL ecosystems ON SCHOOL CAMPUSES.
>>>SCHAEFER: We started the Schoolyard Ecosystem Program in 1992, basically to provide an opportunity for students and teachers to get out of the classroom. They already had some training materials on activities that can be conducted outside, but they really needed a place to conduct these activities.
>>>BEFORE AN SCHOOLYARD ECOSYSTEM IS STARTED, AN INVENTORY SHOULD BE TAKEN OF THE AREA'S PLANTS AND ANIMALS.
---(Just on that side and hold it out perpendicular to the line transect, O.K., so we're going to record everything within a yard of this transect, that that touches. O.K.?)---
---(O.K., that's the first tree we have here. So what kind is that, now we have to collect the information about this tree, right? Yeah, it's a pine tree. A pine tree, O.K.)---
>>>A TRACKING STATION CAN HELP DETERMINE WHAT SMALL MAMMALS MIGHT BE USING THE PROPERTY.
---(Then they have the 5 toes up front there. So I think they're probably squirrels. They're kind of narrow, huh? Yeah. Probably a squirrel)---
>>>STUDENTS CAN PUT IN A DRIFT FENCE AND TRAP, WHICH WILL SAMPLE FOR AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES IN THE AREA.
---(This is a drift fence they call it. And so the animals are going to walk along and then they're going to come up to the obstacle, the fence here, and they're going to have to either go right or left, and so they'll walk along the board and fall into the buckets. And then we'll come back tomorrow and the next few days and we can find out what we caught. O.K.)---
>>>A PLACE FOR A MAN-MADE POND MIGHT BE CONSIDERED TO TEACH STUDENTS ABOUT VARIOUS WETLANDS CREATURES.
---(I want to catch it with this. O.K. See if there's anything in there. See all the little crevices. Some of them are farther apart than others, huh? Yep. I don't see anything in there. I see a bug. Do you really? It's right in the water. In the water? O.K.)---
>>>THESE ARE JUST A FEW OF THE MANY HABITATS THAT CAN BE CREATED AS PART OF THE SCHOOLYARD ECOSYSTEM PROGRAM.
>>>SCHAEFER: Kids can restore some of the plant elements of the ecosystem, they put in ponds, they put in burrows, they put in tree frog houses, bird houses, all the different elements in a natural ecosystem that really help to enhance and provide food, cover, water, for wildlife.
>>>RODNEY IVEY - GARDEN CITY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - TEACHER: What this does is offer the teachers that have that initiative to come back in and replant what was there prior to the ravaging of the land. It-it affords them an opportunity to do some research, to find out what was there, perhaps even before the people were there, and try to re-establish that ecosystem.
---(Today we're going to actually lift the tree frog house out and shake it a little bit and see if we've got any in there.)---
>>>RODNEY IVEY IS A 5TH GRADE TEACHER AT GARDEN CITY ELEMENTARY IN JACKSONVILLE. THEIR SCHOOLYARD ECOSYSTEM IS UNIQUE , BECAUSE THEY WERE ABLE TO TURN THE 12 ACRES OF PROPERTY BEHIND THE SCHOOL, INTO AN EXCELLENT OUTDOOR STUDY CENTER.
---(Again this one has a stripe down the side. You can see the stripe. This one because he's a little larger, you can see the transparency in the legs there.)---
>>>FIELDTRIPS INTO THE ECOSYSTEM GIVE STUDENTS MANY EXPERIENCES THEY WOULDN'T HAVE OTHERWISE.
>>>IVEY: A lot of these children, this is the first opportunity they've had to go out into the woods, to um see a lot of the things that-that it has to offer.....that even the smallest little creature back there is-is part of our world, and that we share it with them, and that if we take all that away, then pretty soon, you know, we may not even be here.
---(I'm not sure, but make sure you duck under so we don't mess up this web, O.K.)---
>>>EACH PATH INTO THIS ENHANCED WILDERNESS OFFERS A DIVERSE LOOK INTO NATURE THAT EVERY STUDENT EXPERIENCES IN A DIFFERENT WAY.
>>>COURTNEY SURRENCY: I like the brush habitat, because the animals can go sleep and have a home, and birds. I love birds.
>>>AMY BLACK: There was the thorn spider, the gardener snake--the gardener snake.
>>>DWAYNE REDDICK: Human beings are kind of like animals, they need shelter, some food, something to drink, and somewhere to sleep.
>>>WHILE MANY SCHOOLS DON'T HAVE THE LAND RESOURCES AVAILABLE AT GARDEN CITY, IVEY RECOMMENDS STARTING A SCHOOLYARD ECOSYSTEM ON ANY LEVEL THAT'S POSSIBLE.
>>>IVEY: Even a school that had nothing but asphalt all the way around, I would say just bring in a log and lay down on the asphalt and watch it decay and watch what kind of insects ah come in, decomposers come in and just take over that piece of rotting wood.
---(Some of you all have been pointing out what you think are bird nests up in the trees. If you look at this one over here you see another one. There was one up here. Those are squirrels.)---
>>>IT'S THESE KIND OF OPPORTUNITES THAT REALLY GET CHILDREN EXCITED ABOUT LEARNING.
>>>COURTNEY SURRENCY: I think this environment is great. You can find out a lot of information about the nature and you can see lots of cool animals.
>>>GEORGE CUNNINGHAM: It's nice having it at school because um we can learn about it more than if it was in our backyard. Cause we have somebody to teach it to us.
>>>EVERY YEAR MORE THAN 1,500 TEACHERS AND VOLUNTEERS ARE TRAINED IN THE SCHOOLYARD PROGRAM AND NEW ECOSYSTEMS ARE ESTABLISHED . THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA WILL CONTINUE TO REACH OUT TO RESIDENTS THROUGH WILDLIFE EXTENSION PROGRAMS AND MAINTAIN RESEARCH EFFORTS TO PROTECT ANIMAL SPECIES AT RISK. BUT IT'S EQUALLY IMPORTANT FOR PEOPLE TO LEARN TO GIVE BACK SOME OF WHAT'S BEEN TAKEN AWAY, SO THAT NATURE'S SMALLER CREATURES CAN SURVIVE IN FLORIDA'S URBAN ENVIRONMENT.
>>>FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SUBJECTS SEEN TODAY ON IMPACT, AND A FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO IMPACT MAGAZINE, WRITE TO IMPACT, P.O. BOX 110190, GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA, 32611-0190. OR CALL 352-392-0437. TRANSCRIPTS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FOR SIX DOLLARS. VIDEO COPIES ARE TWELVE DOLLARS. VISA AND MASTERCARD ARE ACCEPTED. AND REMEMBER TO VISIT OUR WEB PAGE FOR MORE ON UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA RESEARCH AND EDUCATION.
>>>IMPACT... A WEEKLY LOOK AT ISSUES AND ANSWERS THAT IMPACT OUR LIVES AND THE WORLD AROUND US. IT'S PRODUCED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA'S INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES.
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