Laying Down a New Path

This past week at the Fort Worth Nature and Refuge Center our group was tasked with removing fencing, digging holes and adding poles, and spreading mulch along the trails. My group alongside Brianna and Rachel Ba got to spread the mulch through the start of a path

that is by a new bison area in the center. With the use of rakes and shovels, we were able to move the dirt that was delivered by Hailey along the pathway to hopefully draw future visitors' attention to this beautiful trail. 

But the activity itself got me thinking: why would we need to add mulch to a trail that has already been paved? Our group was wrestling and thinking about this question during our task of moving the dirt around the trail and we all were questioning different answers. Briana was wondering what the ecosystem benefit could be, Rachel was thinking about the consumer benefit of a paved path, and as a marketing major, I was thinking about the visual appeal and attention-getter of new mulch put down on a path.  It was cool to witness and discuss our different lenses on the task at hand and think about laying a new path event on a current or existing one. 

This also got me thinking about our discussion of evolution with nature reserves and how there is this debate around accessibility. One could argue that laying down dirt, building fences, and building a structure to view the bison from are all elements of accessibility in the nature reserve. Laying down the mulch makes what seems like a blended path with nature around it to be more prevalent and noticeable to anyone walking by. The fences provide a visitor with healthy and safe accessibility in the reserve to drive or walk past the bison area. And lastly, the new viewing tower gives visitors accessibility to see the bison up close and in their natural habitat. However, although changes in accessibility can be destructive, I felt the methods of the nature reserve were intentional and natural for using the elements that are already had within the reserve.

The last thing that was a takeaway for me from this exploration is the progress we have made as a team and community in just a few weeks at this reserve. It has been so cool to look around and see the Chinese privet we cut back, to see the mesquite cut down and removed, to see the poles added, to see the trail and mulch, and to see the fence being rebuilt which is a pretty incredible thing. Although I think it is common for changes in a natural preserve to strip away or deter from the natural land that is already there and was there before us, it has been sweet to see how healthy additions and changes can be done as well, especially as a team. Like adding mulch over an old path, I am excited to see how our changes only enrich and draw attention to the Fort Worth Nature and Refuge Center, not stripping away from anything that may lie underneath.