Today I visited Ormond Beach, it is a beautiful beach with a intact salt pan and dune system acting as a home to many species of birds and many more. The lense that I chose to look at is the educational lense. Ormond beach is a common site for many field trips, whether that be college field trips, primary school, middle school or high school field trips. It is also open to the public making it a wonderful place for people to come and explore and experience the wildlife. It is also a popular place for many bird watchers and members of the Audubon society to come to visit. It is home to many educational signs and docents and has many visual aspects of conservation for people to experience. Whether that be the symbolic or actual fencing, the exclosures to protect nests and the signs to help inform the public. While you are there you may even see the resident field biologist Cynthia Hartley and you will likely see and be educated by the resident Docent Walter Fuller. Ormond beach in itself offers many opportunities, there are plenty of opportunities to volunteer as a docent, learn how to do bird surveys, spot nests and help to educate the public on different topics. Not only this but Ormond beach also has a program known as Plover Pals, this program is focused on educating children so that they will learn to care about the environment and animals such as the Western Snowy Plover from a young age. This program includes activities such as story telling about how the Western Snowy Plover has babies and explains why the dunes and beaches are important to them and their chicks. The program also includes the kids making signs that often are used on fencing and the kids also make cotton ball Western Snowy Plover chicks to take home. The hope of all of these efforts is that people will care for and identify with Ormond beach and often times people begin to care when they see the picture of a Western Snowy Plover chick. Education is so important in protecting our beaches, it is important because it gives people something to care about and it makes them realize that rules are in place for important reasons. The ultimate goal is to make the public love Ormond beach so that they want to protect it.
I love Ormond Beach. I have been there a couple of times to monitor the Snowy Plovers, and I like that our school is involved with their protection. Reading Walter’s name makes me miss him! He is such a great guy and he loves protecting the habit that Ormond Beach provides. I like that you discussed the educational aspect of Ormond Beach. think it is very vital for children to learn the importance of protecting the environment and wild life at a young age, whether there is an environmental issue or not. I think that it should be required for middle schools and high schools to teach about the environment, such as laws and policies, and why it is important to protect wild life and habitats. Surprisingly, many people do not know how it can even impact humans.
Thank you, I know it is always wonderful to visit there again and Walter plays a big role in that. I remember when you and I had to go there to do service learning hours years ago haha
Yup!
Great post! I have never heard of this beach and you did an awesome job of describing it. It’s really cool that some schools take students there as a field trip to learn about the environment and culture.