What could be a better way to relieve stress before finals week than connecting with nature and collaborating with fellow students to clean up a local spring?
Cleaning and collaborating
As the Spring 2025 semester ended, TESI organized a cleanup event at Little Awesome Preserve, partnering with Alachua Conservation Trust (ACT). This event was part of TESI’s The Swamp for the Springs Campaign, which was funded by the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida.
Little Awesome Preserve spans 195 acres and is overseen by the Alachua Conservation Trust, located near the lower Santa Fe River. It features unique geological aspects, longleaf pines, and upland hardwood forests. After introductions, Ema Olmos, the conservation events coordinator for ACT, equipped us with gloves, shovels, and buckets. We crossed the busy county road to a section of the property that has not yet been opened to the public. There, Olmos shared details about ACT and its land management team’s efforts to create trails and remove debris in this part of the preserve, with the goal of eventually making it accessible to the public.
Once the students had divided into several groups, they wandered along the existing trail and ventured into the forest to discover bits of trash and debris. The most frequently encountered items were roofing materials, particularly shingles, which seemed to be piled up in various corners of the property. Even after one hour of filling up a whopping 10 large outdoor trash bags with debris, we still spotted many more shingles scattered about. Additionally, some students stumbled upon tires, old TVs, glass, and other they set aside to be cleared away.
Walking through the woods
Following the cleanup, Olmos took the students on a guided hike through the publicly accessible area of the preserve, where they discovered its distinctive features. These include limestone karst formations along the trail, offering glimpses into the aquifer, and a natural siphon known as Little Awesome, which enables underground water flow. Additionally, the students admired the cypress-lined lower Santa Fe River while walking along the bottomland swamp section of the trail.
Winding down
After expressing gratitude to Olmos for her time, TESI took the students to nearby Rum Island Spring for lunch and swimming. The cool waters offered the students an ideal way to refresh after a long morning of hard work!
TESI’s Swamp for the Springs campaign is funded by the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida. The project is supported by two undergraduate student fellows, funded by the University of Florida Gulf Scholars program.
