Category Archives: Uncategorized

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Recently, people have had more reasons to stay indoors than ever before. It is important that we keep our health and safety at the forefront of our priorities. But it is also important to remember the effect that being inside for too long can have on you. Being outside and connecting with nature has proven benefits to your health.

Fact, nature walks can improve your memory. Have you been feeling scatter brained the more cooped up you have been in your house? A study done in 2008 by psychologists Marc G. Berman, John Jonides, and Stephen Kaplan ran experiments to show that walking in nature can improve memory, or what they refer to as “attention restoration theory.” (1)

Fact, nature can improve your health. I don’t just mean by extracting important medicine from vital plants, or essential oils. I am talking about Vitamin D directly from the sun. Just because we do not photosynthesize like plants, doesn’t mean we do not gain anything from a little sunlight. Vitamin D is necessary to our body and, according to Harvard’s Health Department, is potentially linked to fighting diseases like cancer. (2)

Fact, walking through nature can relieve stress. Scientists led by Liisa Tyrvainen of the Finnish Forest Research Institute ran a psychological investigation into the psychological impacts being in nature had on stress levels. Their findings “suggest that even short-term visits to nature areas have positive effects on perceived stress relief compared to built-up environment.” (3)

Fact, outdoor time is imperative for childhood development. According to the Child Mind Institute (4), playing outdoors is important to children for a variety of reasons such as reducing stress and fatigue, to building confidence. The outdoors provides kids with a stimulating environment that allows them to safely engage in independent and creativity inducing scenarios. Without a phone screen constantly supplying thoughtless entertainment, they are challenging themselves to provide their own entertainment by interacting with the world around them.

The Sawgrass Nature Center hosts a unique environment for people of all ages to engage with nature and enjoy wildlife. By visiting you are not only providing yourself with a healthy walk through nature and a chance to see interesting  wildlife,  you are also helping to sustain a center that has been protecting and healing Florida’s native wildlife for twenty-five years.

Citations:

1. Berman MG, Jonides J, Kaplan S. The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting with Nature. Psychological Science. 2008;19(12):1207-1212. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02225.x

• Harvard Health Publishing. Spending time outdoors is good for you, from the Harvard Health Letter. Harvard Medical School. July, 2010. https://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/spending-time-outdoors-is-good-for-you

• Liisa Tyrväinen, Ojala A., Korpela K., Lanki T., Tsunetsugu Y., and Kagawa T. The influence of urban green environments on stress relief measures: A field experiment. Journal of Environmental Psychology. June 2014. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272494413000959

• Cohen, Danielle. Why Kids Need to Spend Time in Nature. Child Mind Institute. September 2020. https://childmind.org/article/why-kids-need-to-spend-time-in-nature/

What is a Native Species?

Here in Florida, we are privy to a ton of unique and exciting wildlife due to our proximity to two very important natural features: The Everglades and the ocean. These two exciting ecosystems provide us with animals like Key Deer, the Everglades Snail Kite, and the Florida Panther that may not be found elsewhere in the world.

Any ecosystem or habitat in the world has native species. This means that the species arrived and has evolved in an area by only natural processes.  Other species in the ecosystem often evolved together and adapt to sharing an environment. For example, Florida Panthers and deer have adapted to sharing an environment together despite one being predator and the other being prey. It is a relationship they share and rely on to keep each other’s populations in check.

Unfortunately, not every animal we see in the wild is meant to be here. Take, for example, the Burmese Python in the Everglades.

An introduced species like the Burmese Python could affect the environment is several ways. They could adapt poorly in the new environment and perish, they could live within their new home and cause no major harm, or they could thrive with the lack of natural predators and outcompete native species. That scenario could mean that they could take the food, water, space, and other resources that would typically go to native animals. This would disrupt the natural balance in the ecosystem that has evolved over time. When this happens, the non-native species becomes invasive.

Wildlife hospitals like the Sawgrass Nature Center and Wildlife Hospital (SNC) take in and treat native wildlife, but it is illegal for the SNC and anyone else in the State of Florida to release non-native species into the local ecosystem. That means, the SNC can only admit injured or orphaned native animals for rehabilitation and release. Unfortunately, any non-native animal that might come our way would legally have to be euthanized or provided a forever home. Since we cannot always guarantee the space for all non-native animals and do not prefer to euthanize a healthy animal, we encourage finding other places that are specifically meant for taking in and sheltering non-native species.