A Saturday in Santa Rosa Island
“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.
