As you may know, preserving the "scrubland" area on the northwest side of campus
has been the subject of much debate. Essentially the issue is that the biology and ecology clubs (with faculty support) have been trying to "Save The Preserve" because it's home to box turtles, raccoons and various types of birds and thus also doubles as an on-campus nature research area. However, FAU has already begun to eat in that space with the football stadium and the forthcoming Parking Garage 3 and has earmarked space north of the track'n'field for Innovation Village Apartments Phase 2/Greek Housing.
To help people better understand the Preserve, FAU club S.E.E.D.S. (
Strategies for Ecology Education Diversity and Sustainability) has constructed the "Tortuga Trail" through the Preserve and honestly, they've done a pretty good job. As a nature trail fan, I'm very happy to see this and think it could still be preserved even when the Innovation Village build-out is complete. As it stands, the longest path takes about a half hour to walk but there are a couple diverting paths throughout. Here's the main idea:
And here are some of my pictures from the trail:
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| Entrance from North University. The club has cut down palm trees and used pieces of the trunks to frame the path. |
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| Coyotes? What? |
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| There were blue, red and green trails. |
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| Deeper into the Preserve it gets a little more shaded. |
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| Various totems were along the path with student organization names. |
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| A swing along the trail. |
Additionally, SEEDS has been holding a "Trail of Terror" event during Halloween week where students walk the trail as "monsters" (SEEDS volunteers) jump out to scare you - an AWESOME idea Program Board is working with them and hopefully this will grow that into a large-scale event.
In case you can't read it (the font is fancy!),
this year's Trail of Terror is scheduled for October 26th (this Friday!), 30th and 31st from 7-10 pm. Looks like you enter from the parking lot north of the stadium.
GO OWLS!
On behalf of SEEDS, thanks for highlighting the trail in your blog! We put a lot of work into building and maintaining the Tortuga Trail, and it's really quite nice to hear positive feedback. If you ever want to talk more about the trail, the Preserve, or the other work we do out there, feel free to contact us at SEEDSFAU@gmail.com. Thanks!
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