Art to Capture Learning About the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem – Why a Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Abstract

Nestled within 48,000 acres of privately owned conservation lands in the Florida Panhandle is an oasis for environmental learning – The E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center at Nokuse Plantation. The Center is the capstone to an ambitious environmental stewardship project, Nokuse Plantation, conceived and implemented by M.C. Davis, with the mission to create a model that connects the large-scale preservation of lands with experiential learning. The center serves as a catalyst for the preservation of nature’s biodiversity. Davis believes that the future of biodiversity lies in the combined resources of multiple actors and is best accomplished “by joining the passion of individuals with the resources of the entrepreneur and the power of government, all guided by science” (http://www.nokuse.org/).

Appendix I

Introductory Video on Dr. Wilson and the Biophilia Center

This video is presented in the Center’s Theater and introduces students to the namesake of the facility, Dr. E. O. Wilson and the mission and importance behind the development of the Biophilia Center at Nokuse Plantation.

Exhibit Hall Exploration

This activity is a combination of free exploration and guided discovery where staff of the Center introduce students to various stations in the exhibit hall. The hall has the following stations/exhibits for student interaction:

• Large sculptures of animals including, gopher tortoise, harvester ant and indigo bunting.

• A cast/mold of a harvester ant mound showing the intricacies of the tunnel.

• Display of historic and archeological artifacts.

• Frog biome that shows live frogs and plays the call of each.

• Bird window with placards identifying bird species that may be visible.

• Molded gopher tortoise burrow suitable for students to crawl in one end and out the other.

• Longleaf pine diorama that shows the various stages of the longleaf pine from seedling to mature tree with a depiction of prescribed fire.

• Active beehive contained in plexiglass that has a connection to the outside.

• Large interactive schematic of a leaf and photosynthesis.

• Diorama of a transition from an upland ridge into a wetland community showing pitcher plants and other flowering species that are not easily seen during all times of the year.

• Aquatic exhibit with live turtles.

• Snake exhibit with several different species.

• Exhibit demonstrating heat sensing ability of predatory snakes.

• Musical exhibit substituting animal calls for notes.

• Taxidermies of beaver, feral hog, black bear, Florida panther, bobcat, quail, wading birds, woodpeckers and other typical species.

Longleaf Pine Hike

The Longleaf Pine Hike is completed on a blazed trail that loops around some mature remnant longleaf pine uplands and through several embedded wetland drains. Through this excursion students often see the various stages of the longleaf pine (grass stage, bottle-brush and mature), turkey oak, yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria), purse web spiders/spider webs, evidence of yellow-bellied sapsucker foraging, harvester ant mounds, the microcommunity developed when a tree falls and the roots form a vertical substrate, a red bellied woodpecker cavity, a tree that was struck by lightning, different fungi and lichens, a shell from a box turtle and deer antlers. Students are also shown the differences between the slash pine and longleaf pine with respect to cone size, needles, growth forms, etc.

Tortoise Exploration

During this activity one of the staff that is expert with turtles and tortoises introduces students to the gopher tortoise and its life cycle. This is based primarily within the exhibit hall and uses the diorama and tortoise shells and skulls that the students can hold and examine. Occasionally live gopher tortoises are available, but not all classes have the opportunity to interact with live animals. Staff explains the gopher tortoise relocation plan that is being conducted on other parts of Nokuse Plantation and how biologist mark and number the tortoises for later identification.

Turtle Trail Hike

This hike takes students along a wetland finger adjacent to a high upland where they can see the elevation change from uplands to wetlands and the change in vegetation that occurs. Students also often see the characteristics indications of yellow-bellied sapsucker foraging and the microcommunity that develops when a tree falls and the roots form a vertical substrate. The students are also introduced to beavers and their role in the ecosystem as well as a discussion of various aquatic wildlife that is collected in traps pre-set along the trail. Species encountered in the traps include crawfish, spotted sunfish, pirate perch, pickerel, warmouth, lesser siren, two toed amphiuma, loggerhead musk turtle, largemouth bass, tadpole madtom, river frog, bronze frog, and others.

Tortoise Carrying Capacity SIM

This exercise is designed to demonstrate how populations might fluctuate over time through the introduction of the concept of carrying capacity. Carrying capacity is the highest number of organisms that can be supported by an area or habitat without the numbers resulting in damage to the area. The SIM activity estimates how gopher tortoise populations can change from year to year and how many tortoises a simulated habitat can support.

Analysis of Burn Plots

The Center maintains 4 contiguous plots approximately 1/2 acre each which are provided different treatments. One is an unthinned and unburned slash pine plantation – this represents the conditions on site before any environmental restoration was completed by Nokuse Plantation. The other three have been thinned of slash pine and have been burned during different seasons and frequencies. The students are asked to compare burned plots from unburned plots and to collect observations in their field journals.

Prescribed Fire PowerPoint

This brief powerpoint is shown in the theater at the center and provides information about the value of prescribed fire for the longleaf pine ecosystem and the natural fire regime of the system.

“Remnants of a Forest” – Video

This multimedia presentation discusses the longleaf pine ecosystem and its decline in the southeastern United States. Students are provided with a brief history of the longleaf pine ecosystem, the role of fire in maintaining the community and its diverse groundcover, and some of the prototypical species of the ecosystem, including red-cockcaded woodpecker, pitcher plants, gopher tortoise, quail, indigo snake, burrows, flatwoods salamander, gopher frog, pine snake and rattlesnake. The value of the gopher tortoise as a keystone species of longleaf pine is introduced.

Understory Exploration

During this activity the students return to the forest burn plots to look specifically at the understory of the longleaf pine ecosystem. The students are asked to write down the plants (using general descriptive terms or drawings) they see at ground level, one foot above ground level, and then those even taller but still within the understory. This is designed to emphasize the vertical structure of the longleaf pine forest and forests that are managed/shaped by fire. Depending upon the effort expended on looking at the plants some groups also engaged in a food web game. Students sit in a circle with a ball of string and one individual names an animal and extends the string ball to another student who needed to either name an animal that would be either a prey or predator to the first animal. This engagement continued until a “food web” was created.

Jeopardy

Fashioned after the popular game show, this version uses a similar format of providing the answer with the students needing to provide the response in a form of a question. Topics focus on the experiences the students have both in the exhibit hall and on the trails at the center.

Harvester Any Activity

In this activity the students investigate the foraging behavior of the Florida harvester ant, which is common to the longleaf pine forest upland communities. As the name implies, these insects gather food and store it in chambers underground. Food sources consist of seeds, which are collected from the ground or off of plants, with the chaff from husked seeds deposited around the main entrance to the chamber. Students working in teams examine harvester ant mounds in the field, and conduct guided inquiry on preferred food types through several simple experiments.

Estimating the Height of a Tree

This activity involves the students in the application of simple measurements that are used as one technique to solve a real world problem, in this case, the height of a large pine tree. Although foresters and ecologists often have sophisticated equipment to estimate tree height, a simple technique involving pairs of students, a 1-foot ruler, and a 100-foot tape measure are used to provide a very good estimate of height.

Field Measurement Techniques

In this activity, students learn a technique to measure their own pace, or the distance covered by one normal step, to be able to measure distance and calculate area. This technique is often used by field biologists as a simple and fairly reliable measure.

Wetland Fauna Collecting and Identification

This activity takes place in the artificially created wetlands and pond that straddles the entrance boardwalk to the center. The students follow the instructors as they use dip nets to collect predominately aquatic invertebrates and occasionally small fish or amphibians for transfer to small containers for observation as they use identification cards to attempt to determine the different kinds of animals collected.

Tortoise Home Range

The students are introduced to the concept of home range, defined as the area in which an animal lives, using the gopher tortoise. While the ecologists at Nokuse Plantation use transmitters attached to tortoises and incorporate data over many months, the students are given representative locations and a simulated burrow and use their field measurement skills to estimate the maximum distance the tortoise travels from the burrow and the approximate area it covers based upon a minimum of 5 measurements.

Exhibit Hall Diorama and Snakes

For some students this represents a second visit to the Exhibit Hall and this focuses on the live snakes and characteristics of snakes.

Bird Video

This video is narrated by a young girl and provides video of birds in different habitats, including the beach, marshes, ponds, fields and forests. Individual species are discussed with identification features and some specializations provided.

Exhibit Hall Bird Exploration

During this activity the students are provided with a scavenger hunt list of birds that they are to locate in the Exhibit Hall. Students are to identify several species of birds and fill out characteristics such as size, color, beak size, etc.