Journal Entry – Turtle field trip

Last Thursday, June 2nd, we got the opportunity to plant trees with the Leatherback Trust foundation in an area in Playa Grande. Our whole class was able to enjoy this experience, alongside some visitors from a school in Boston we had at the time. The reason these trees were needed in the specific area was not only for reforestation purposes, but to hopefully block some of the unnatural light that travels to the beaches and scares away the turtles. Playa Grande is a well known beach for turtles to breed in and visit, and with more and more expats coming down, there is constant development and therefore more unnatural light and noise traveling down to the beach. This field trip encompassed the learning outcome #2 from CAS, which is challenges and skills. It wasn’t an easy task to plant 150 trees! We had to carry all of the trees and shovels to the specific area, and then dig holes about 5 meters away from each other. I worked in a group of three or four and between all of us we planted about 15 trees. It was super hot and humid as well. A part from the challenge, learning outcome #4, working collaboratively with others was important to this task. I worked with different classmates to make sure all tasks were taken care of, and even talked with the guide who explained different elements and facts about some of the trees. Another important task I helped with was marking each tree after it was planted with bright pink tape. This was so that our guides would be able to come back and check on our trees every once in a while and make sure they were growing properly. All in all it was a fun field trip and experience, I really enjoy helping out the community and local areas in any way possible, especially in nature.