Billy's Creek

 When I think of downtown Ft. Myers, I think of the urban city, massive with condo's, filled with middle-class people, and empty of parks and natural places. Prior to taking colloquium, I knew that I would have to do service learning hours but I was at a loss of what to do. However, my professor brought up some suggestions and one in particular, Billy's Creek, sounded like something that would be enjoyable. I had looked up other places to my community service, including habitat for humanity and local soup kitchens, but neither seemed to draw must interest to me. With the final decision a few days away, I picked Billy's Creek. The professor said we would be cleaning up the park but I had no idea what that meant exactly. I figured I wouldn't worry about it and just push through it. To my surprise, the park was located in a very bad neighborhood in downtown Ft. Myers, and everyone looked at me as if I didn't belong in the area. It wasn't too hard to find and seemed like a hole in the side of the earth. Walking through a bunch of trees on a path, the park opened to a huge, multipath park that had lots of animals and tons of vegetation. I felt like I was somewhere on the opposite side of the world. I met up with everyone who were working on picking up trash and hearing about things to do. The first day, we set out to remove a South-African species that the professor said was named, mother-in-laws tongue because of how it flapped in the wind. I burst out laughing. The plant was easy to pull up and before long we cleared the area. We then put them in the back of the professor's truck and with it, left to go get rid of the nuisance once and for day. We then drove to another park, Shady Oaks, which had seen better days. The water gleamed with oil and the playground looked as if it hadn't been touched in years. We walked on a graffiti covered boardwalk to the end and man's destructive ways were apparent. There was trash everywhere. We talked about coming back with canoes and cleaning the river up on the third and last visit. Then, we headed to our professor's house and dropped off the nuisance. Two weeks later, we returned, ready to do all we could. Pulling in a little after nine, the professor was no where to be found. All of us waited for his arrival and after twenty minutes I called him. He said he was going to be later because he got into an accident, so we decided to go and pick up trash instead of waiting around. The park seemed much cleaner than before. I felt like I had actually made a difference somewhere impervious to change. However, walking back to the entrance we went to a different area than before. It was apparent of how bad the area was with regards to trash. It was as if a layer of trash had settled on the ground floor. After several grocery bags full of trash, Professor Wilkinson arrived. "Were you gonna leave me?" he asked, jokingly. We all hoped in his little red truck and drove on the path into the park. We stopped at a palm tree that was being taken over by another and destroying the original in the process. The mission for the day was remove the parasite. However, it was tricky due to a giant, half dead oak tree that intertwined with it. The professor had brought a couple tree saws and we got to work. He climbed on a ladder, than into the tree itself and cut back a branch that a broken piece of the oak was resting. It came down with a large crack, I bet easily weighing a few hundred pounds. There was only one large trunk left until the rest of the parasite came down. One of our companions, Seth, was up for the challenge. He sawed and the trunk started cracking. However, he brought down half the oak with it! It was as if someone had turned slow motion as he gave me a desperate look and jumped out of the way, only inches separating him and injury. Luckily, he jimmied down the tree to safety, to our relief. We got to work making the trunk as small as possible so that we could carry it away. Having a machete in my trunk, I drove Professor Wilkinson's truck back and grabbed it. The trunk was a lot smaller when I got back, only the thick parts left. I set out chopping them in half, the parasites trunk quite easy. On the other hand, the oak's inner core was resilient to say the least. It rang out a loud ding every time I brought the blade down on it. After what seemed like an eternity I finally finished it. I cut around the parasite's base in an effort to make sure that it doesn't consume its host once more. The machete was dull and hot from all the stress placed on it but our job was finally finished. We took before and after pictures of the spot, it was a night and day difference. I was covered in sweat but felt good about the job I had accomplished, making another big difference in the ecology of the park. I feel like so much more can be done to the park to make it even cleaner, and I want to make more of an impact after two short visits.