Will I ever stop putting colons in my titles for blog posts? Probably not. But we’re not here to talk about me. We are here to talk about a personal hero of mine and #nastywoman, Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Her name is common one in South Florida, but why do I consider this legendary woman a Nasty Woman? Read on and see what this COOL LADY accomplished in her 108-year life. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1890, Marjory grew up in the Northeast U.S. and received her degree in English from Wellesley College in 1912! What a cool lady! What were women doing in 1912? MOST OF THEM WERE MOST CERTAINLY NOT GRADUATING COLLEGE – ESPECIALLY with a degree in English. Marjory left the Northeast, and her garbage brief marriage to a con artist, to work as a reporter for her father’s newspaper in Miami, you know, the newspaper that casually became The Miami Herald. After serving as a nurse in Europe in World War I, she returned to the Herald to serve as an editor – because why wouldn’t she??? Because she’s the absolute coolest! Did I mention that she was the ONLY woman working at the Herald? No? WILD. And then in the 1920s, because she had some important things to say, Marjory started her career as an author, writing books and short stories for the rest of her life. Now naturally, she was known for being an environmentalist (which we will talk about later), and has been recorded fighting for Women’s Suffrage, fighting against slum-lords, and for free milk for babies whose parents needed aid. Douglas is best known for her work titled River of Grass about America’s Everglades. Now as we are all aware, I am a HUGE fan of the Everglades, but Marjory took her passion for this incredible ecosystem to the page and the people. The book begins: “There are no other Everglades in the world. They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth; remote, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them…” Not only does she capture the essence of a natural place so perfectly in this opening, she goes on to describe the natural history of the region in a way that transports the reader to the swamp where she invites everyone to see and love the Glades for the natural wonder they are. In an NPR article about Douglas, one of her old English teachers, Kevin McCarthy stated Marjory “was fearless, it didn’t matter who she was talking to, with engineers, or governors or even presidents. She believed so strongly in preserving the environment that she was very effective.” For her environmental activism and writing, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993, when she was 103 for those keeping track of the years, and was posthumously inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in the year 2000. Fun fact: Marjory and I love the same Miami parks! Here is one of them (Matheson Hammock) at sunset. Douglas lived in a cottage she designed in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami from 1926 until she died there in 1998. Do I take inspiration from living in the same place as this incredible woman?! Every freaking day! But she also recreated in the same places I do – in the beautiful Everglades, in Matheson Hammock Park. She loved southern Florida for what it is and was – a beautiful, wonderful swamp. And in case I haven’t proved how motivating and incredible this lady was, I’m going to end this blog post on a quote from this lovely lady and real #nastywoman. “Speak up. Learn to talk clearly and forcefully in public… Do your part to inform and stimulate the public to join your action … Be depressed, discouraged, and disappointed at failure and the disheartening efforts of ignorance, greed, corruption and bad politics – but never give up. You have to stand up for some things in this world.”
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My love affair with alligators is one that is well-documented, but it came from an abject fear of them as a child. Big scary lizard = bad news was about the metric that young Bree had, but since moving to Florida in the Fall of 2017, I have discovered a soft spot for the reptiles that even my college self would have been baffled by. So how do you go from a manatee-loving, marine biologist to loving a freshwater dwelling ambush predator? I think it relates to my love of comics and all things nerdy, and of course, the fact that everyone loves a good redemption story. My embarassing love affair is documented here (we're making the same face) Photo credit to my father, without whom this moment would have been lost to memory Alligators are organisms that are well-associated with Florida (and the South), and have numerous headlines associated with them. My favorites include:
The formidable gator in her natural habitat/also my most frequented National Park in Florida - the Everglades Alligators are large reptiles found throughout the southeast United States, occupying an important role in the swamp as ambush predators. They can weigh up to 1,000 pounds and grow to more than 12 feet. They have characteristic toothy grins (you can see both top and bottom teeth when their mouths are shut), and nice round snouts. During the winter, they can be found basking in the sun near water bodies – Shark Valley in Everglades National Park is a great place to find these toothy bois. They are cold-blooded reptiles so they spend that time basking warming up through the scales along their backs. They feed on fish, invertebrates, frogs, bids, and mammals. A resting juvenile gator. Now personally, I understand the fear of a large dinosaur-looking swamp dragon (or alligator if you insist). However, fear is not what caused the precarious dip in population: instead it was people hunting for alligator hides which drove their populations into a state where they were listed as federally endangered. The hide trade began in earnest in the 1800s, and by the 1950s, this species was severely depleted. Upon federal protection in 1973, alligator populations were able to begin the process of recovery. Alligator farms also aided in wild population recovery as they allowed for decreased pressure on wild populations to meet the commercial demands for alligator hide. As of today, you can find alligators in most fresh water bodies in Florida (and throughout the South, but my focus is of course where I live), and they are an amazing sight at that. I love a good redemption story as much as the next comic book fan, but I really think that the American Alligator is an unsung hero of the American South. |
AuthorBree Gibbs, here. I'm a recent Master's Grad just trying to share what it's like to be a trash scientist (for those who aren't in the know, I'm a marine biologist). Categories
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