Courtney's Blog

I thought that Aldo Leopold took an interesting stance on land conservation and ethics. He commented on the fact that humans often take advantage of the land the we live and use but don’t realize it. He focuses a lot of his writing on land ethics, which is somewhat of a strange concept to me. It makes sense to have ethics in a decision-making or business setting, but to apply ethics to the land? That seems a bit more complicated. In typical ethical dilemmas, one party has to decide whether or not something is morally right/wrong un regards to an action that may or may not harm a second party. In this situation, we as humans are the party making the decision and the second party is the environment, which really has no say in how we treat it. We as humans are making use of what the environment is providing for us, but edge dangerously close to taking advantage of it. Leopold argues that we are definitely taking advantage of the earth and the environment. By utilizing earth’s resour...

I really enjoyed reading the excerpt from John McAphee’s  Under the Snow.  His unique style of creative nonfiction drew me in to the story he was telling despite it not being a work of complete fiction. Typically, I am not a fan of reading nonfiction, however when told in story form, nonfiction becomes more interesting. He explains that mother bears often run away and leave their cubs in the den when humans get too close. I have always pictured mother bears as ferocious and willing to stop at nothing in defense of her cubs. This could be attributed to the stories you often hear of bear attacks, which often occur when the person stumbles upon bear cubs and/or the den. I didn’t realize that mother bears can get scared too, and their most feasible option at the time is to run off. I think that this shows just how misunderstood nature can be. Wild animals in particular are often depicted in movies, media, etc. as different from how they actually act in nature. This gives the...

While filming for the final video project, I took a few minutes to soak in the Trinity River once again. My earlier observations were in September, when the weather was warm, and the trees were all green. Today, the weather was quite chilly- in the low 40s. It was finally starting to feel like fall in Fort Worth. Trinity Trails were absolutely empty, which is quite different to what it normally is when the weather is nice out. I sat on a large stone that acted as a bench and looked out across the water. It wasn’t obvious which direction the current was moving due to the strong breeze blowing across the water. The birds were flying overhead and chirping out a loud, happy tune. Rather than the sound of the hustle and bustle of people on the trails, the majority of sound came from the nearby bridge. Besides the bird calls, all I could hear was the zoom of cars across Rogers Ave. and University Ave. The trees were barren and almost looked dead . To me, the river looked much prettier in th...

video link:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mqlPamF78Iln4dPNFLevNrhq3MD1Npiw/view?usp=sharing  Final Video Reflection Justification   Prior to the start of the semester, our involvement with the natural community around us was minimal. We had exposure on various vacations and excursions but had not been immersed in nature on a weekly basis. Additionally, our exposure into nature writing was lacking as well. Reading a few poems and excerpts in various high schoo l and introductory English classes was the extent of our background. This class gave us the opportunity to dive deeper intellectually by increasing our exposure to natural literature and thought-provoking poetry and song. Along with the various perspectives from naturalist authors, being able to go into our surrounding natural environment allowed us to disconnect from our daily routine and schedule and reconnect with nature. Our thought process and inquisitiveness began to include questions pertaining...

My family moved from Fort Collins, CO to Austin, TX my freshman year of college. I loved Colorado and really enjoyed growing up there but was excited to hear that my parents were moving to the place they have always wanted to live. Throughout the last few months of Texas fall, I realized just how much I missed experiencing fall in Colorado. Colorado is known for its beautiful, although short, autumnal seasons. The aspen trees change slowly, and then all at once, starting out green and transitioning to a bright yellow color. If you’re lucky and time it just right, you can see the aspens flash bright red up in the mountains. Last class, we discussed Ackerman’s piece about the leaves changing color on trees. I have seen leaves change color every single year but didn’t ever question it, I just accepted it as the way things happened. Reading into detail about the science behind it made the biology major inside me jump for joy! I never realized that the colors were actually there all along a...

Fort Worth has a number of museums packed with art and history. I always see the signs that encourage visitors to attend the Amon G. Carter, Kimbell, or Modern Art Museums of Fort Worth. I don’t consider myself someone who knows a lot about art. I typically enjoy art that is “pretty”, however I don't have much of an eye for technique. I was pleasantly surprised about how much I enjoyed the Amon G. Carter Museum of American Art. I loved the landscape paintings the portrayed “ideal” versions of landscapes inspired by real places. I really enjoyed the soft, blended colors in the sky and the major attention to detail that most of the paintings showed in the foreground. The most striking painting to me was titled “Thunderstorm on Narrangansett Bay” and was painted by Martin Johnson Heade. It depicted a dark black and grey sky with rain coming down and lighting striking the water. Sailboats were rushing into shore in attempt to escape the rain. This shows that while nature can be beauti...