Sara's Nature Blog

This week at the Fort Worth Nature Center felt a lot more intense than the first time we went out. Instead of bamboo, we were working in a field that was completely overrun with privet. Before this class, I did not even know what  privet  was, but now it is easy to recognize. It grows in thick clusters and spreads everywhere, creating these dense walls of shrubs that block everything else. It looked like the privet was taking over the entire area. Our job was to cut it all down, and we spent about two hours out there doing that.  At first, it just looked like we were clearing random bushes, but once we got deeper into it, I started to see how much it was  affecting  the environment. The privet was crowding out other plants and making it hard for anything else to grow. In the pictures, you can see how thick the piles got after we cut everything down. There are branches stacked on top of each other, forming these huge piles that will eventually be burned. It was...

Today was our first day out at the Fort Worth Nature Center, and honestly it already felt different from anything I have done so far. Even just driving there felt like we were heading out into the middle of nowhere. Once we got there, everything slowed down. No buildings, no noise, just trees, dirt, and open space. After we got briefed on what we were doing, we headed out to our site. Our job was to clear out bamboo,  cutting  and  dragging  the stems into piles. At  first  it did not seem that hard, but after doing it for about two hours in the heat, it definitely caught up to me. The bamboo itself was thicker than I expected, with long hollow stems and thin leaves that spread out in clusters. In the pictures, you can see the piles we made, especially the large clump of green bamboo branches stacked together. It was satisfying to actually see the difference we made in  the space .   What I started noticing while working was everything around...

Over spring break, I was able to celebrate Eid, which is one of the most important holidays in Islam, and I noticed how much of the experience was connected to being outdoors. During Ramadan, Muslims fast every day from sunrise to sunset without food or water, and by the end of the month, the community feels very alive. Most nights are spent at the mosque praying, and there is  a strong sense  of togetherness. What stood out to me this year was how many of these moments happened outside, not just inside a building. The night before Eid, people gather to sight the moon, which marks the official end of Ramadan. In the first picture I took, you can see the thin crescent moon in the sky just after sunset. The sky had a soft gradient from orange to blue, and everything felt quiet and still. There was something  really meaningful  about looking up and waiting for that small detail in the sky to confirm such an important moment. It reminded me that even with all the structu...