Archive for year: 2015

“We are all connected.  To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe, atomically.”

― Neil deGrasse Tyson, “Symphony of Science: We Are All Connected”

Going out to Santa Rosa Island I was very overwhelmed by how much nature could be left “untouched. ” Waking up the next day from the withdraw period of no technology, us surfers were left with a very busy day. Starting the day we could tell two things some needed their sleep more than others and who didn’t mind getting dirty at all. After breakfast, we were sent out and into our pods to explore the island.

 

Our first trip was by a 4- wheeler and it was a pretty long ride to the nursery. This is where the seeds of the endangered plants were being kept as a plan of a restoration project on the island. I had spoken to a couple of the botanists and discovered that there are various opuntia (cactus) species out in the island. Also to my surprise there is 100% no sage on the island only sage shrubs. I found this kind of ironic because the majority of the plants at a school where found on the island and so where those planters at school lying to us? As the rest of my group arrived by 4 – wheeler we were divided into two more groups to separate acorns and plant the state grass also known as California Purple Grass. Planting the grass was actually very relaxing and something that was pretty easy to do to the point of me considering if I wanted to completely switch my major.

 

Moving on a bit further into the day we got to discover the topic of art. At first I was a bit spectacle on how could art possibly be in the island in the worst place there is nothing to really draw or mold or even take a picture of it was just shrubbery everywhere. Boy was I wrong- going through our hike we where told to pretty much step out of our bodies and see everything from another perspective. I found this pretty hard when they would say, “ look at this plant.” To me it was more than just this plant- it was sweet fennel but to others it was a spice or a stick or even worst just a plant. However, these where the perspectives we were taught to see from when going on the island.

 

These two when going through my day stuck out the most more than just because it wasn’t all silence and nodding of a head. These I found to be connected in the strangest way. Art was in botany and no it is not a Karate Kid cutting and shaping trees art form (bonsai). There is a type of beauty in nature where we take it for granted. We can plant something that honestly is a pain just to collect a seed with the thickness of a needle but it will grow and it will become beautiful. When that plant grows it will be appreciated by someone else for either its beauty or repulsiveness.

We all see the world with a different perspective, we all have different opinions of life and our surroundings. When we went to the Island the faculty there had a diversity of perspectives of their own views of the Island. It was nice to see how different the Island was to everyone for Cause the Island was his home, where his daughter was growing up, where he lived with his wife and where he could help the environment. For Matt he saw the Island as a work of art, and it was his muse where he was inspired to create art, it was also a place he went to when he needed to be isolated but at the same time not alone. He felt like it was just him and nature, where no one could disturb him. As for Allison she saw the Island as what it was nature and she saw it as a way to see what she loved most, which was the birds. By being on the Island she got to see so many different species of birds in their natural habitat without having to go through so much effort to find them they usually just came to her and she could watch them and analyze their DNA and the structure of their bodies. Though they had different perspectives of the Island they wanted the same thing which was to keep the Island safe from further destruction and to restore the Island to its natural beauty.

Though all the perspectives were different they shared one goal and that was to recover the Island and in a way the all saw the Island in a loving way. Because they all deeply cared for the Island and would fight to protect it. The Island has become a personal home for all of them, mostly because they all thought of it as a safe haven. Where they believed they could take a break from life and enjoy the isolation and the beauty of nature and most importantly life in the moment and make every moment matter.

One project that would be in the interest of Allison, Cause and Matt would be to grow more plants. It would benefit Cause because by having more plants the Island can nurture itself and would, overall be more healthy. Also if it was healthier there could be agriculture in the near future, which would be good for the Island instead of the dry land it has now. The way it would benefit Allison is my having more trees and plants more birds would migrate to the Island giving her a larger variety of species of birds. For Matt having more plants would increase the beauty of the Island giving him more inspiration to work from and create more art. Also having more plants adds to the freedom of isolation and helps add more diversity to the view of the Island and the inner perspective one has about different things in life. The fact that when you really think about it we are all unique because of the way we look at life.

Place a group of college freshman in a secluded place, ancient to the world but brand new to our eyes, and there will be a sense of wonder, perhaps fear, and a desire to explore. Although getting to take time to get to know the island on our own terms was crucial to the “sense of isolation” all of us were encouraged to have, the faculty-led sessions were especially critical when it came to truly understanding the land we were on. Two concepts in particular really resonated with me, not solely because of how they contributed to my understanding of Santa Rosa and its environment, but because of how they contributed to my overall world view.

The first idea was introduced in Allison Alvorado’s discussion of the theory of island biogeography, which describes how the size of an island and its distance from the mainland can be used to estimate the amount of diversity on that particular island. she explained that animals on the island have developed certain adaptations that have caused them to differ from their mainland counterparts. It is a slow evolutionary process but after generations and generations, the island has become a diverse and divergent ecosystem completely unique from anywhere else in the world. The other concept that I found to be perhaps the most profound of everything I learned this weekend had to do with Matt Furmanski’s discussion of how nature is art in and of itself. He gave us a lot of perspective and insight into how Santa Rosa has come to exist in the way it does now in terms of biology and in art- how the island is not solely an academic setting to be studied, but how it has also served as his artistic muse. A recurring theme throughout Matt’s lecture was how we all exert our own forces in this world, the same way that the world exerts forces upon us. He discussed how naturally occurring ripples in the sand and arches in the trees on the island allow something like the wind, which is otherwise an invisible force, to become a tangible, visible component of the environment.

These lessons both developed from an analysis of the distinctive characteristics of Santa Rosa, just through different lenses. Every singular aspect of the environment on the island, from the tiniest insect to the highest-velocity gusts of wind, has created the pieces of a never ending and ever-growing puzzle. The “sense of community” that we were encouraged to find on the island seems to have been two-fold. One, of course, was the sense of a growing bond between the people we came to the island with. The other, however, already existed on the island before we went there. The entire island lives and breathes because each entity there, sentient or not, plays a pivotal role in its overall survival. Like a well-oiled machine, the island must be composed of equal parts art and science, evolution as well as origin.

Humans and the world are linked by different series of characteristics that make them so similar. For one they are both living organisms that contribute to the world we live in. Our similarities is what makes us one world. At Santa Rosa, I couldn’t stop looking around I was so curious to learn about everything. Everything looked so unperfected yet so perfect. I was constantly taking mental pictures of everything I saw not only the big picture but the small details that made everything look the way it does. As I was looking around the island and now visualizing it in my head, I can see so many human characteristics within nature. While I think of the people around me, I see a world of nature. It’s funny how I did not think of how humans and nature could be the same but now that I’m thinking of it we are so similar. Nature like humans have an attitude. I see the attitude in nature by there weather or by the way nature naturally sets a vibe to the area. I view Santa Rosa Island like a stubborn yet free living person. I thought of stubborn because while I was there for three days throughout the days at least once it had to be windy. From what I hear it’s always windy and blows of geologists’ hats off there head like if it were a way of nature portraying it’s stubborn personality. I know people who have these characteristics and as soon as I saw the prompt and it asked how humans and nature relate I right away thought of the first characteristics I saw from the island and what was living on it. I came up with an attitude by the weather but also by everything I saw around me. Also by the way the island had created everything from the cricked unperfected trees and the perfect view of the ocean. This reminds me of how people always tend to think everything about themselves is perfect yet it’s not the island proved it by having perfect characteristics like the view from the mountain to the ocean and also the not so pretty things like the uneven bushes or tree’s. Since everyone who worked on the island kept repeating it was a young place it made sense especially because of what I saw the Island do the trees and the ocean move freely with so much life inside of them like a young child would. overall Santa Rosa Island gave me peace, seeing the ocean rock back and forth like a little kid playing on a wooden horse. the trees with no particular shape reminded me of how kids don’t know about imperfections. These characteristics are important because just like kids make adults happy and many times change them. The island makes people happy whether its being secluded and having time to themselves or simply the desire to be in touch with nature. It changes many people’s way of thinking as well as living, I know I personally like many other surf students Santa Rosa island changed me .

Well hello again, it’s been awhile since the last post and since my last post I have spent my weekend at Channel Island, specificity the Santa Rosa Island. This post is one of three post about my weekend at the Santa Rosa Island and I hope you enjoy not only the writing and the pictures I post as well. The island is exactly what I Imagine a paradise would look like but it does look a slightly run down. It obvious that the island is feeling the effects of the drought. The island as apposed the pictures I’ve seen online is much more brown and dry instead of lush and green. Honestly though it didn’t look that bad when I got off the boat. The pier looked refurbished and as if it were maintained very nicely except for the bird poop but as I went up the hill things begin to dry up. The grass even the trees are drying up but it’s not completely desolated there was still life on this island besides human. There is also a very beatify sense of  peace on this island, maybe it’s the lack of Wi-Fi or the fumes everyone is giving off since there is no showering on the Island but the island does slightly exists in its own universe since it’s so separate from the mainland. The main guy here, Cause broke the news about the showers…it’s on next time I see him. But it’s cool I ended up washing in the ocean without soap or shampoo but then finished up in the bathroom sink, washing the essentials(you know what I mean). I really do like the island though the place does need some extreme love and it’s starting to get it. Some if the island deep in the mountain where they had us hiking was very lush and had very few signs besides the trail of human interference. The mountains we walked through were very steep as well, I’m not very sure how I got up the hills and believe it or not heading down was an even greater challenge because of the fear of falling to my death. Plus all the walking with Breana and Linzie had better have canceled out my Freshman 15 lol. While out here I’m hoping to not only earn a lot about the island and what they do here to help but also what I can do to also contribute to the island or at east what I can do to not damage it anymore that it have already been done to the island. I hope to also learn how in the field research is conducted and how I could go about doing it on the Santa Rosa Island or anywhere else.

The first day started off extremely awesome but as the day went on the things were a lot more boring and uneventful. Sorry but it’s kind of true we started off with a car ride up to a small seed facility where we were able to help with the seeds. My group started off by packing in dirt into small pods and then once we had shifted through the dirt and packed it away we were able to plant purple grass. Which were these little hair like strands with purple bulls at the end. While we were there we also separated out acorns from a bucket of water to help tell which ones were to be kept and which acorns would be trashed.  Both process were very peaceful and felt as if I was able to give back to the Island since we were contributing to the process of replanting new grass as well as acorns and it was especially fun since after I played in dirt I was able to dip my hands in cold water.

After we finished replanting we were then driven back on the ATVs (bumpy ride) to the main encampment. We then moved on to work with a different guide named Matt. We were able to see the island through a different set of eyes. Matt the artistic guide was able to show us the beauty of the island. We took a tour of the island but unlike the other ones we were able to see past dead grass as well as see much more than just the beach. We were able to see crazy things like a long row of trees that were put in to help block the wind but just ended up a bending to one side from the strong winds that had the island have to deal with. Also were able to see some very beautiful natural occurrences and on the beach. The wall backing the beach (separating the mainland from the beach) has a unique horizontal design of different 2 inch levels poking out towards you when facing them.

The final activity we experienced that day was the bird watching and sight-seeing through binoculars with Dr. Alison Alvarado. I was a major fan of this one but that was probably because I don’t have a love for birds and it was the end of the day lol. Well I did have learned a lot about birds and species on the island as a whole, for instance the species on the island are all derivatives of the mainland. And these species have gone through differ mutations to adapt to the island. Also learned about the Theory of Island Geography which is the number of species is based on the distance of the island to the mainland and the size of the islands.