Baker: Into The Forest

“What do trees have to talk about, hmm… except the consistency of squirrel droppings?” Gimli, Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers

One of final days in the Florida Keys, the class drove to the opening of the Watson Trail, a small trail through a forest of thatch palm and mangrove trees. The trail was named after Jack Watson who was the first successful settlers in the Florida Keys. If these trees could talk they would indeed have stories most recently a controlled burn gone wrong. In forests like these, firemen create controlled burns to catch the underbrush ablaze and bring new life to the forests. Unfortunately if there is too much wind during a burn, the results can scar the landscape quite significantly. Luckily after walking through the forest that day we saw plenty of trees coming back to life so hope still goes on.

The final part of the day ended with the class traveling to a nearby freshwater hole where I got several photos of alligators, and a close up on a spider.