Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary Trip #1

1) After visiting the corkscrew swamp sanctuary I was amazed of how much wildlife was on the side of a two mile boardwalk. There were many habitats around too. One which I came upon first was the Pine Flatwoods. The Pine Flatwoods is full of palmettos and pine trees. Inside of the Pine Flatwoods I learned about Controlled fires. The fires were able to preserve the natural resources with ash being the fertilizer for the new plants. Some plants in the Pine Flatwoods are, Palmetto, Cabbage palm, slash pine and poison ivy. The Pine flat wood is a very dry area in the sanctuary .The plants adapt well to dry climate.

The next habitat I examined was the hardwood hammock. The hardwood hammock is full of shade and does not let in too much sun light at all. Some plants were, the button bush, ludwigs, pepper vine, elderberry, cypress tree, and tilladsia.

Last habitat was the wetlands. The wetlands is surrounded by water. During the summer the water levels are high. But in the winter they are low. This makes it easier for predators to catch their prey. Cypress trees, pond apple tree, bahoon holly, moon vine and the ghost orchid are just a couple plants in the wetlands.

2) Much wildlife was seen on the field trip. The wildlife I saw when I was passing through the pine flatwoods was spiders, hawk,lizards, and a warbler. I did see some raccoon scat too. In the hardwood hammock I saw a viceroy butterfly pollinating flowers, and a pine warbler. In the wetlands I saw, a blue green tree frog, dragon fly and apple snails and another type of warbler.

3) Water is in fact a very important element. The landscape retain and detain water by having living machines. Living machines is a treatment for wastewater.

4) People are taking care of the corkscrew swamp sanctuary. The boardwalk there is made out of sustainable wood and is named the worlds best boardwalk. There are signs everywhere stating do not feed the wildlife that way the wild animals are not harmed. They also do controlled burns to replenish healthy plants.