Gator Girl!

 Note to self: never skip the class before spring break. 

Wild. If a picture is worth a thousand words, these have to be worth a blog post. 

Thankful for the adventure...and an incredibly docile gator.

Where is the Lorax?

 There once was a Lorax. He spoke for the trees.

He was yellow and orange with small knobby knees.

And oh that Lorax, with his hatred for Thneeds,

Tried to teach us all the follies of greed.

He urged us to care, and to care quite a lot.

But caring is different than doing, is it not?

And the people who DO, well they don't seem to care

Despite their similar tuft of orange-yellow hair...

I ran across this post on my Instagram feed a few days back. The carousel post summarized a recent Guardian article about one of Trump's latest victims: the trees. Whatever end of the political spectrum you sit on, policies are subject to public scrutiny, and this quick graphic pushed me to investigate the reality of forest decline in the U.S. under the Trump administration.

The action, titled "Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production" went live on March 1. It begins with:

The United States has an abundance of timber resources that are more than adequate to meet our domestic timber production needs, but heavy-handed Federal policies have prevented full utilization of these resources and made us reliant on foreign producers.  Our inability to fully exploit our domestic timber supply has impeded the creation of jobs and prosperity, contributed to wildfire disasters, degraded fish and wildlife habitats, increased the cost of construction and energy, and threatened our economic security. 

Certainly, this can't be true. We have endless timber? Surplus trees? And these "extra" forests, they're causing wildfires and killing habitats? When did tree limbs grow thumbs and start swinging axes? “Hotter temperatures caused by climate change, in turn, create dry forest conditions that are more susceptible to fire,” said a spokesperson for Earthjustice. In addition, the debris often left behind by the logging industry, including needles and leaves, “essentially acts as tinder,” they added. So...lack of land management may be a shortcoming, but adding more logs to the fire isn't going to stop the smoke.

The order continues:

Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior, through the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the Secretary of Commerce, through the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, shall complete a strategy on USFS and BLM forest management projects under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) (16 U.S.C. 1536) to improve the speed of approving forestry projects.

Yes, let's endanger more species faster! Who doesn't love streamlined extinction? The order calls for the overall expansion in tree cutting across 280m acres (113m hectares) of national forests and other public lands. Scientists, environmentalists, and other experts all point out the massive flaws and deadly consequences of this plan. 

It's not entirely clear if the forests Trump is referring to are mostly dead brush, therefore aiming the order more toward actual land management than total deforestation, but I may have to trust scientists over comment trolls here. More clarity on exactly what the logging practices will be is needed from the industry.

The order also prioritizes "self-reliance" and accompanied a 25% tariff on Canadian lumber, which supplies 23.6% of the lumber consumed in the US. The economic undertones of the order have lumber industry professionals praising the move toward homegrown profits, but the dying industry produces more carbon dioxide and puts 400 threatened species at increased risk. 

Despite Trump's (obvious) motives, there are some safeguards in place. The Endangered Species Act, for one, will help stall the immediate increase of logging in national forests. Kristen Boyles, managing attorney of the Northwest Regional Office of Earthjustice in Seattle claims:

Any effort to cut protected areas — especially by working around the Endangered Species Act, as the order suggests — would be challenged in court, Boyles said. The nation’s forests are, under multiple federal laws, to be managed for multiple uses — species protection, recreation, clean water and air — not just timber production.

So it's not the END of the world, but you don't know it's the end until it is. Catching late-stage cancer is ineffective. We are watching the tumors grow, spending our time arguing about whether or not they will remain benign - mere threats - or become vicious killers. We are in the early stage, caring instead of doing.

I thought about this as I hacked away privet on Thursday. Knees in the dried out dirt, toes poking cacti, arms burning from the effort of relieving this singular tree from the constraints of its invader. For those two hours, I did what I could for the trees. 

There is no more Lorax to speak for the trees.

It's a childish notion, if you ask me.

No magical creature will voice his concerns

For the safety of flora or fauna, or ferns.

So we must be the Lorax, in our own small ways

In how we make choices in each of our days.

So we help just one tree? Whatever, who cares?

But if we all help just one, we can cover hectares.

FWNC Social Media Strategy

My authority to suggest social strategies for the Fort Worth Nature Center lies almost entirely in my addiction to Instagram Reels, but perhaps also in my multiple years of experience working in marketing and PR for TCU, Rally Department, and Sun Public Relations - take your pick.

Active and engaging online presence is critical to any organization's success. Social media is how you draw people in with relevant content that hopefully spirals into a subset of brand loyalty, in this case consistent visitation to the FWNC. While there are endless approaches to social media management (and in truth, the "right" approach is constantly changing as the platform is dictated by audience whims) I suggest the following ideas to begin enhancing the FWNC social accounts in a way that is manageable and sustainable for the existing team:

1. Creating and Highlighting an Event Calendar

The program calendar is hidden on the FWNC website, and is admittedly a thorough (yet sketchy) PDF. I suggest we create a graphic for each month of programming that can be posted on socials and pinned to the top of the feed so visitors can see the next few weeks of events at a glance. 

There are so many amazing, affordable events happening! They need to be advertised. Additionally, content capture at these programs is crucial for recap posts and continued promotion.

Here is an example that one TCU organization - Her Campus - has:

2. Invest in a Linktree

A linktree is a convenient way to add all the links you want consumers to have access to into your social media bios without overcrowding it. It's simple to make, and can be easily updated to include new links as needed. See the Her Campus template again below.

Examples we could include in the linktree are:

• Direct access to purchasing entry tickets
• A Google Maps directions link
• Current month's programs
• Any recent news features or stories
• YouTube and X accounts
• Contact Information

(Pasting links into comment sections is ineffective and people never click on them because they physically can't. People are used to being directed to the "link in bio.")

3. Get Trendy

Part of impactful social media is capitalizing on trending sounds and video ideas. These vary by platform and of course must be tone adjusted to be appropriate for the nature center, but ultimately, getting on people's "for you" pages requires sticking with the times. 

Some current trending videos (that will probably be old news in a few weeks, thanks to the nature of the internet) include:

• Somebody's watching me, it's my anxiety
• Frozen song
• Flipped perspective pic
• Sports Car by Tate McRae
• Kendrick Lamar halftime performance

It takes a little creativity to work these into the FWNC messaging, but it's entirely possible!

Other strategy suggestions might include:

1. Capitalizing on local media spots and getting intentional about PR and earned media
1. Reach out to local news outlets
2. Create a reporter pitch list
3. Send story pitch emails to media lists to land features
2. Vary long and short form content
1. Utilize Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X, and even LinkedIn
3. Plan a content calendar
1. Schedule posts/ideas in advance to make posting seamless and simple
4. Curate a content library
1. Generate photos and videos regularly to create a backlog of resources
5. Make "Day in the Life" and interview style content
1. Approachable AND informative

The key to social media is just consistency. Once we establish a messaging and branding plan, curating content will come more naturally. 

Here's to the second half of the semester!

Don't Look, it's Flooding!

 Poor Leo, water is evidently not his friend.

As avid a Titanic fan as my roommate forced me to be (at gunpoint on a Tuesday of her choice in February), I was entirely unaware of Leonardo DiCaprio's commitment to climate change. Much like many of the skeptics at the beginning of the film Before the Flood (which is free to watch on YouTube, FYI), it initially struck me as odd that an actor found himself so entwined with a highly scientific cause.

But the more I thought about it, the more a celebrity spokesperson for the planet made a twisted sort of sense. People follow their favorite media personalities with cult-like loyalty, actors are somehow experts on diet and nutrition, and public presidential candidate endorsements in 2024 soared to an all-time high in attempts to sway voters. 

And the truth - for better or worse - is that it works. The average person believes the average famous person, not the expert scientists. I'm making an assumption here, but I may as well since authority can come from anywhere.

Watching the documentary, the scene that stood out to me the most was the conversation Leo had with Sunita Narain from the Centre for Science and Environment in Dehli, India. The film focuses on climate challenges and solutions on a large, industrialized scale in mostly developed countries, but Leo's trip to India sheds light on the tangible challenges faced by the poor population in India. Millions of people live without power at all, surviving by burning cow dung. To that person, the global harm of fossil fuels is secondary to their day-to-day living necessities. 

Dr. Narain tells it like it is, begging Leo to understand that America must lead the charge to sustainable energy because we have the means to do it. Who in India can afford to invest in alternative energy sources when access to electricity is already sparse? When fields of crops are flooding in a matter of days?

"If it was that easy, I would have really liked the U.S. to move toward solar, but you haven't. So, let's put our money where our mouth is... Your consumption is really going to put a hole in the planet. We need to put the issue of lifestyle and consumption at the center of climate negotiations," Dr. Narain shares with Leo. He's eager to agree with her. 

Later in the film, Leo chats with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who essentially reveals that 100 Tesla-style gigafactories producing power-storing batteries could effectively transition the entire world to solar energy. Tesla currently has three completed gigafactories in Nevada, Austin, and Berlin, with a plan to start construction on a fourth in Nuevo León, Mexico, in 2026. The gigafactories range in construction costs from $4 billion to $10 billion. With a humble net worth of $402 billion, the one thing Musk can't afford is to build the remaining 96 gigafactories on his own dime in the next few years. 

He could, however, easily fund at least a few gigafactories each year. But he's quick to defer construction responsibilities to other developed countries and large industrial companies. Because as Dr. Narain pointed out, just because we can, in theory, do something, that doesn't necessarily mean that we will. 

Anyway, this whole film gets me thinking about another movie DiCaprio starred in back in 2021, a Netflix creation called Don't Look Up. 

The basic premise, if you haven't seen it, is that a planet-killing comet is headed toward Earth. DiCaprio and Lawrence are scientists who point out this unfortunate fact and embark on a sort of media campaign to inform the public and urge the government into action.

The film is an obvious satire on the crises of the world and the inaction of the American government. Spoilers, but the people in power learn that this asteroid has trillions of dollars in mineable resources, and instead of blowing it up to save the planet, they opt to risk worldwide destruction to harvest the comet's materials. 

It doesn't end well.

The truth can be terrifying and debilitating, especially when it's entirely our own fault. Humans hide from shame. We avoid the dark parts of our own personal lives, so it's only following pattern for legislators to avoid owning up to their own climate-centric mistakes, bribes, and corruption. 

Films and documentaries like these shove our heads underwater and force us to recognize the major consequences of our reality. We either swim or we choke, and at the rate our cities are becoming oceans, swimming is sounding pretty good.

Week One: FWNC

I have to confess something.

As much as I enjoy the outdoors (in theory), like Abbey and his snakes, I unfortunately possess a deep fear of the wild as well. I'm the first to flinch if I hear a sharp sound and the quickest to freeze when I come face to face with most creatures. 

I'm actually deathly afraid of birds - the longer the neck and larger the beak, the more horrifying (because those are basically dinosaur descendants). I'm allergic to practically everything from oak to cedar to pollen to most kinds of grass. I certainly am not the type to hold a semi-domesticated alligator or usually even one to toss food pellets at a herd of bison. (If you ask me, that fence really needs to be thicker.)

So I knew from the get-go that this course would present a major challenge to me. I'm not a natural adventurer. But last week, during our first trip to the nature center, I promised myself I would commit to whatever task I was given. No fear, just work.

While I threw food over the wire fence in the general direction of the bison, I tried not to imagine all the gory ways the group of us could be trampled by a hoard of them. As we laid sweet potato pieces by the prairie dog burrows, I avoided the thought of the ground crumbling beneath us and exposing the deep tunnels of the earth. Writing it out sounds so dramatic, but I'll call it creative since my mind will conjure disaster anyway.

Oddly enough, I was looking forward to the piercing privet and ability to get moving in the cold. No unknown imaginary danger in a prickly plant. After picking my blade of choice, I began digging into the smaller privet tangles along the inner fence. My fingers were freezing, and some of the vines required more upper body strength than I can flaunt as a soccer player, but somehow the "grunt" work went by entirely too quickly.

For the first time in a while, my mind was quiet. There was no music in my headphones, no phone glowing in my face, no heartbeat ringing in my ears. It was a relief. A relief. 

I found myself incredibly thankful for the blank slate of my brain for that blissful, difficult hour. It's so rare to find quiet moments like that one. We forget to build it into our days. 

It reminded me of this experiment my Communication and Character professor ran on us last year. She had us sit in front of an art piece, something simple and pretty - a nature scene. She set a timer for fifteen minutes and simply demanded, "Look." For all of a minute, the class manages it. Then we begin to fidget. Our bodies shift in our seats, our minds conclude we've seen and processed every detail in the painting, and our thoughts go gallivanting.

People are itching for their phones, for their voices, or even for the mediocrity of the whiteboard behind them. But we look. And look. And look. And eventually, we understand. 

This introductory week was sort of like that experiment. An act under-practiced, a world unappreciated. Adventurer or not, I can put in the work for at least fifteen minutes, until I understand, until it all makes sense, until the fear bleeds into quiet, and the privet piles up behind me.

Five Plant Pics

My attempt at identifying 5 plants in photos...

Dwarf nandina, a foliage found outside of Tandy Hall, seems to be correctly depicted. The browning leaves of the second plant, however, seem to have tricked the app into believing the photo shows Williams rhododendron, a pink flowered bush. That being said, perhaps it will bloom into pink buds.

Call me crazy, but I didn't know this wasn't a plain old palm tree. Turns out, a cabbage tree is not a plant that sprouts cabbage, but is in fact a breed of palm tree. With so much love, I don't think the tree outside of the Bass building is a Socotra dragon tree (which sort of looks like an umbrella). 

The pretty flowers across all the soil beds on campus are known as wild pansies, and one bonus bush with red berries is evidently a Golden St. John's wort. I'm betting against that one personally, since the plant's main characteristic is bright yellow flowers that this bush sorely lacks.

Quick Pictures

 Per our post-class instructions...

1. 

This is my front yard. On the left is my grass, the natural, dying, and weed-filled
yard that suffered a cold winter. On the right is my neighbor's lawn, which has
been ripped out and replaced with turf. The "natural" is not quite as uniform or pretty,
but we joke about the "turf war" on our street, waiting until it
all looks straight out of The Lorax.

2.

Bonus: In theory, someone is supposed to cut our grass.
In actuality, no one does, so little dandelion shoots pop up constantly,
turning from butter yellow to white puffs of good luck wishes.