Alternative Spring Break: Environmental Awareness

Two weeks ago UGA students celebrated the arrival of a much-anticipated Spring Break.  Many of these students traveled to the beaches to soak up the sun, relax, and forget about work for the week. Meanwhile, myself and a group of fifteen other enthusiastic kids piled into two vans for a twelve hour drive to Ft. Myers, FL to complete forty hours of community service. Although this may sound like a ruthless class requirement, it was completely voluntary and part of UGA’s Alternative Spring Break program.  ASB is a nationwide program that college students participate in every year devoting their Spring Break to serve the community in various areas such as construction, children’s issues, and the subject of our trip: environmental awareness.

We were lucky enough to have the experience of working with the Lee County Parks and Recreation on various projects that mainly involved invasive species removal and cleanup. On our first work day we had the unique opportunity to sea kayak to a part of the beach inaccessible by foot and remove trash from mangrove trees along the way. Mangrove trees are a vital part of the Ft. Myers ecosystem as they help to control erosion which has been increasing over the past few years and destroying habitats in the process. While kayaking, one of the main things we pulled from the mangroves was fishing line which washes inland and kills several of the area’s animals. We also had the pleasant surprise of spotting dolphins during the beach cleanup portion of our day which further reminded us of the wildlife and habitats we were working to preserve.

The rest of our week’s work was heavily concentrated on invasive species removal further inland throughout Lee County’s preserve lands.  The hardest and dirtiest day of work by far was Monday when we went to Lakes Park and spent six hours removing cattails from the lake’s edge so that native species could once again prevail and thrive in their natural habitats. This process required us to wade through knee deep muddy water cutting, pulling, gathering, and piling the cattails into a truck that then carried them to an on-site area where they would be incinerated or otherwise disposed of.

Kalle Cubitt, Blog Author
Office of Sustainability Intern

One of the best parts of the trip was watching my fellow students, the majority of which aren’t majoring in anything pertaining to the environment, cheerfully devote their Spring Break towards sustainable work. Our group seemed to bond in direct relationship to the arduous labor and burning sun which made the experience truly once in a lifetime. Spring Break flew by and left everyone with a sense of accomplishment of the work we completed and the people we helped.