Pepper Ranch Preserve in Action, 'proposed'

               Conservation Collier strives to protect, restore, and manage environmentally sensitive lands for biological values, water resources, flood protection, social and recreational values.  The latter purpose, includes enhancing the quality of community life.  Protecting nature for the mere sake of protecting would hold little value, but giving the protected a purpose, you have need.  The hustle of everyday life and the unnatural stresses give the Pepper Ranch Preserve a therapeutic need.

                Charles Alexander Eastman (Ohiyesa, 1858-1939) described the need for nature as, “A magnetic and powerful force that accumulates in solitude but is quickly dissipated by life in a crowd,” a Santee Sioux Indian who was instrumental in the founding of the Boy Scouts of America.  The homeless shelter can reduce the stress of its residence by utilizing the nature trail on guided hikes, identifying nature’s attractiveness and then relating it to the person—a proven approach.  Being part of something worthy not only feels good, it’s GREAT! 

Ecopsychology and homelessness

The struggles of everyday life has a dramatic impact on people, some more than others.  Sometimes their unfortunate burdens cannot be lessened by family or friends and they find themselves homeless.  The inopportune citizens find themselves in homeless shelters across America.  In Collier County, the St. Matthews House provides the homeless residents shelter and a program, that in over 80 percent of cases places them back into society within 90 days as an independent citizen. 

                One of the factors keeping the success rate from being 100 percent is stress.  A sheltered resident carries an enormous weight of mental anguish from losing their careers, homes, and sometimes their family, while still having to focus on trying to regain employment, housing, and their family.  By lowering the stress of the resident, they will have more of a focused attempt at becoming independent again, leaving homelessness in the past. 

                Government has a moral sense of responsibility to assist it’s residents in need, while making every attempt at finding low to no cost approaches to those needs.  The county already provides parks for the community to experience the therapeutic effects of nature. Excursions into nature were found to have brought balance and relief from everyday unnatural stressors while also bringing understanding as a sense of place in the world as a whole (Chalquist, 2009).  Ecotherapy brings a peaceful connection of the natural world to the human mind—and it’s free! 

                As a Columbia graduate, Michael Cohen created Project NatureConnect, a therapeutic approach in ecopsychology that bonds a person’s identity with nature settings through sensory inputs.  Carolyn Rambosk, a licensed counselor of psychology and manager of the David Lawrence Center, Immokalee Branch, states that the Nature-nurture concept actually works for some people.  There are many studies that reinforce the need to help our citizens in need through ecopsychology—a free opportunity.      

The Brochure for Schools

Today’s consumer climate is depleting the world of its natural resources faster than it can sustain itself, so the government (of the people) must make continual efforts to educate our children  and future generations on ecology and the importance of sustainability.  Each day loggers cut down an area of the rainforest the size of the state of Kansas, add seven billion tons of carbon to the atmosphere, and lose twenty-four billion tons of top soil.  The crisis of sustainability is socially driven, and it can be socially slowed.  In order to change social thinking about the world we must begin in the order of; dialogue, education, and more dialogue, before people can become socially engaged. 

Schools, scientists, and governments, have already been discussing these issues. Schools are teaching our children the impact we have on the world and our communities.  Now the government has the opportunity to educate children first hand on the importance and facts of our environment.  Through school fieldtrips to the Pepper Ranch Preserve children will; learn the interrelations between themselves and the environment, gain respect and care for the environment, and enjoy the environment as well. A brochure directed towards children provides an excellent way of communicating the wealth of opportunities Pepper Ranch Preserve offers to children.  It will provide information on the habitat and various plant species, the history of the land, the hiking trail, and a future mountain bike trail. It would also explain the importance of preserving the land and why that’s important.  The brochure will influence school staff to arrange fieldtrips for the children, and it will encourage the children to engage their family to bring them to visit the preserve. 

Why Pepper Ranch Conservancy, Collier County Florida?

Unlike our forefathers who lived with an abundance of food, wealth, and natural resources, our society and our future generations on earth are losing 115 square miles of rainforest a day, increasing in population by 263,000 per day, and are facing a food shortage in the not so distant future.  Consumerism has been the powerhouse of America since the 1950’s, but it had devastating consequences for our environment. 

Communities across America have been creating ways of protecting its natural resources, enhancing its food protection, and securing sensitive lands for our children.  Florida’s wetlands and cypress forests were devastated during the early to mid twentieth century from the logging companies, only a scarce few old cypress remain.  The citizens of Collier County, Florida have been aware of such a threat and a need to protect their natural resources so they voted to tax themselves a minimal fee for the benefit of the future generations, creating the Conservation Collier Program. 

In February 2009, the Conservation Collier Program purchased a 2,500 acre homestead called the Pepper Ranch Preserve, located on the north side of Lake Trafford, the largest lake south of Lake Okeechobee.  The land is rich in deer, turkey, migrating birds, and many other natural species.  It terrain is comprised of uplands, cypress swamps, and marsh.  Its history included farming, cattle ranching, homesteading, hunting, and oil exploration.  In the land’s current state, it contains a 1 mile hiking trail, a pioneer homestead, a scenic road, and a working cattle operation.  The preserve can also serve a therapeutic approach to stress relief for the sheltered homeless, educating our school children on ecology and sustainability, and setting a benchmark of excellence on government’s responsibility for the environment.