Creative Critical Reflection

With the last post for this project, I'm feeling a little bittersweet.  I'm happy have to put forth the product I created, but it will be strange to not have to post anymore on my blog and not have any single project to work on.  Still, I'm content with the magazine I have created and the CCR I made to go along with it.  Click here to watch my screencast.  (If it's hard to understand anything I'm saying, here is the script I used for my screencast.)

This has been such an amazing journey, and I'm so happy with how much my skills have improved over the past year.  I'm excited for the future and for whatever is next for me.  

Thanks for coming along for the trip. 

Magazine is Complete!

My magazine is done!  This was an extremely grueling process with countless hours put into it to create the best product possible.  There were so many different things to think about when I was creating this project.  I made decisions that I eventually stuck with or completely discarded based on what I thought was best for the final product.  I'll talk more about my magazine in my CCR.  For now, click here to view my magazine!

Last Minute Changes

As the due date for this project fast approaches, I see more and more issues with the way I am presenting my final product.  In order to create the best product possible, there are certain things that I want to change, add, or alter in order to produce the best magazine possible.

The first of these things that I want to change is the cover page, I believe that I should change the font of the cover lines to make the image and different texts appear more cohesive.

Once I do this however, it will lead to some changes within the magazine as well.  I had been working to use as few fonts as possible to provide something that served as a constant throughout the magazine.  Since I will be changing the font of the cover lines, that means I will also have to change the other font.  This fix should be as quick and simple as the last one, so I don't see this being a major issue towards completing my project.

The final thing I need to change is the layout of double page spread.  I had been planning to include a side bar in order to break up text, but I managed to simply forget about it.  I'm not really sure how I managed to lose count of this idea that I had spent so much time deliberating about, but I managed to do it anyway.  I'll need to take a couple more pictures to get the sidebar exactly how I want it, but I'm sure the payoff will be worth it.  

Writing and looking over this blog post has given me the opportunity to see my project as a whole and analyze both its success and its shortcomings.  I can't wait to finally finish this project that I have dedicated so much time to.  I am confident that the final product will be worth all the effort I put into it.

Story Complete!

Since my last post, I have been working to integrate Ms. Mason's responses into my story for the double page spread, and I am happy to say that I have finished my story!  I have been working with the information she supplied, reading and rereading her responses to find what was relevant to the story I wanted to write.  Like I said in my last post, I found that I asked her far too many questions that really weren't relevant to the direction I wanted to take.  Still, the information that she provided helped me to write the story I wanted to create, so I'd like to thank her for the help she provided.  I'm very happy with the story I managed to write, and I look forward to integrating it with my layout for the double page spread.  Once I finish with this, I will begin to work on my CCR.  This seems interesting, so I'm excited to work on that.  Until then, here is what I wrote for my story:

        weed

wēd/ 

noun

1.a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants.

            Anonymity is a luxury not often afforded to the things we choose to hate.  We know the names of the people we don’t like, the foods we think are disgusting, the brand of the sweater with the scratchy collar.  Regardless of the trend, this still isn’t true for everything.  One object of our hate that is unknown and largely misunderstood is something we see everyday: weeds.  We see them in our yards and in our neighbors’ yards, and immediately there is judgment.  We decide that the person who let them grow is lazy or uncaring, that the plants themselves have something inherently wrong about them.  They are simply bad.  There is something intrinsically negative about them.  But do we really understand these plants?  Never mind understand them, how many of them can one person name?  These weeds are considered menaces and scourges but we can’t give a name to this enemy, nor do we truly understand anything about them. 

            When scientists consider weeds, they arrive at a dichotomy.  Since weeds are wild plants growing where they aren’t wanted, this could be because they are growing in competitions with two kinds of plants, cultivated plants or native plants.  In both cases, the weeds are competing against the preferred plants.  However, this situation lead may sometimes lead to an interesting occurrence: both plants involved may be labeled as weeds.  This is because one is a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and the other is an invasive species.  The first approach to this idea is the one that is more commonly thought of.  This perspective holds that weeds are issues to be dealt with and eradicated in order to maintain a perfect garden.  Examples of these such plants are the Asiatic Hawkesbeard and the Spanish Needle.  But looking at these examples introduces a further dichotomy in the idea that the former of these two plants is an invasive species and the former is a native plant.  People often don’t think about this difference when they are attempting to remove these plants from their lawns and gardens.  They will indiscriminately attack both types because they supposedly pose a threat to cultivated plants, which are probably nonnative and may then be labeled as weeds themselves. 

              While it is important to look at weeds through the first lens, it is also imperative to consider the complexly and look at the from different angles.  To do this, invasive plants must also be viewed as weeds. According to Christen Mason; Chair of Land Resources Bureau, South Florida Water Management District; some examples of these kinds of weeds are “Brazilian pepper, Mexican petunia, earleaf acacia and carrotwood”.  These plants are often grown in homes but may sometimes manage to creep into protected and natural land areas where they will grow and begin to compete with natural plants.  They will then be designated as invasive species.  These plants can have disastrous effects upon native ecosystems.  These are especially dangerous in places such as the Florida Everglades.  “Terrestrial species such as melaleuca create dense thickets that outcompete native plants, provide no wildlife value and alter topography and hydrology.  Old World climbing fern grows up and over tree canopies in our tree islands, causes canopy collapse and alters fire behavior,” says Mason.  These are just some examples of these plants' negative effects, but these plants are issues across the world and pose a constant problem to natural ecosystems.

            Weeds are good and bad, invasive and native, small and expansive.  Nothing is what it seems, and everything deserves a second look.

A Response and What it Means

Earlier this week, Ms. Mason finally got back to me with the responses to my interview questions I had previously emailed her.  While her information was helpful, and I hope it will be an instrumental part to my magazine, her responses weren't exactly in line with what I had planned. I had thought that her answers would pertain more to the different types of garden weeds, but a lot of her answers also pertained to invasive plants. To be fair, I should have prepared for this outcome, considering that many of my questions were formatted and worded in such a way that these kinds of answers were inevitable.  Still, I believe this interview to be something I can work with. I will work it  into the draft I have already created for the story for the double page spread.  Below are the typed answers to my interview questions. I look forward to including them in my story!

Interview Questions and Responses

Why did you get into this area of study and work and what is your favorite part about it?  Many years ago I worked in greenhouses and nurseries in Connecticut and California.  When I moved to Florida I saw the plants that I used to sell as house plants growing in the wild.  I thought that was really cool.  But then I learned that these plants didn’t belong here and I became even more interested.  My favorite part about this job is restoring areas that have been invaded by invasive, non-native plants and seeing the native plants return.

In your experience, how often are what people consider weeds invasive species and how often are they actually native plants that are beneficial to the environment?  In our yards, plants that are considered weeds are frequently just annoying to us.  Many yard weeds aren’t aggressive in our natural areas and many (such as Spanish needles) are native plants that are very important to our pollinators.  However, we do see invasive plants in our neighborhoods and yards.  Many of these problematic species are ones that people recognize, even if they don’t know what they’re called.  Plants such as Brazilian pepper, Mexican petunia, earleaf acacia and carrotwood are good examples of commonly seen invasive plants.

What were your responsibilities and experience concerning "weeds" when you worked as a field biologist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission?  When I worked for FWC I monitored invasive plant removal contracts.  I was responsible for ensuring that the conditions of the plant removal contract were being met.  Contractors had to have the appropriate equipment, they needed to be applying herbicide at the appropriate rate, and all the plants needed to be properly treated.

How do herbicides work to remove plants that would be considered weeds?  What effects do they have on other plants in the ecosystem?  There are different types of herbicides.  Some disrupt hormones which cause the plant to grow itself to death, some disturb photosynthesis, some impact cell membranes, others inhibit amino acid production.  The impact herbicides have on the surrounding plants depends on many factors including method of application, type of herbicide and individual site conditions.  Herbicide applications to a cut stump, if applied correctly, have little to no impact on other plants in the area.  The herbicide is “painted” on the cut surface and is immediately absorbed by the plant.  Foliar applications can sometimes impact non-target plants because the application is not as precise. 

What is an invasive plant removal contract and what is your experience with them?  An invasive plant removal contract is a general term that encompasses any type of agreement with a company that provides non-native plant treatment services.  This work can be completed using heavy machinery on woody species, using herbicide to treat terrestrial or aquatic plants or even using a helicopter to apply herbicide to very dense infestations.  I have and continue to oversee these methods of non-native plant removal.

What are the dangers of non-native plants within the Florida Everglades?  Non-native, invasive plants if left untreated, can dramatically hinder Everglades restoration.  Terrestrial species such as melaleuca create dense thickets that outcompete native plants, provide no wildlife value and alter topography and hydrology.  Old World climbing fern grows up and over tree canopies in our tree islands, causes canopy collapse and alters fire behavior.  Fortunately we have many agencies in Florida that are all working together to address invasive plant issues.  We are continually sharing research and coordinating invasive plant removal efforts.  We are very fortunate to have a stellar community of invasive species biologists in Florida!

Magazine in Motion

Since my last post, I have been working on my magazine.  However, the goal I set for myself in my last post was much too large of a goal.  I said that I would be finished with both the cover page and the table of contents.  While I was almost finished with the former, the latter still had a lot of work left to be put into it.  Here is a picture of the finalized cover page:

While I might still add more elements or change some existing ones, this is pretty much the final product for my cover page.  

As for the table of contents page, I realized that I had a lot more things to do then I had originally imagined, just as with the rest of my project.  I  have so far increased the number of pictures and added the smaller stories on the far right.  Because of the little amount of time I have left, and the amount of work left still to do, I will be taking this time to establish a schedule of things to complete over the next week.

By Tuesday, I will be finished with the table of contents, and I will finish writing the story by Wednesday.  Hopefully, Ms. Mason will respond by then, but who really knows. By Thursday, I want to have the the entirety of the magazine completed.  However, I have a lot going on this week and weekend so I'm worried about not finishing or keeping up with this schedule exactly.  Hopefully, everything will turn out okay.  

Progress with Pages

I have been working on the magazine since my last post, and also a little before then.  I've been making certain strides towards accomplishing my goal, but there is still a lot of work to get done.  So far, I have been working on my cover page and my table of contents page (because I'm still waiting for Ms. Mason for the double page spread!).  We're not going to talk about that right now, it's a time for progress, not setbacks.  

Out of the two pages I have been working on, I have made more progress on the cover page. This is what I have been doing so far:

I picked the name because it is a synonym for vegetation.  I think I want to add some cover lines, but I will wait until I finish the table of contents page to figure out what my exact stories will be.  

For my table of contents, I have only made some progress.  It obviously still looks like it is in the rudimentary stages of production, but this is what I have for right now:

I've started to create the table of contents by simply writing the title and by putting each of the pictures into a circular format.  I still want to add more circles and to add a different section on the right which will be lined and more rectangular in comparison to the rest of the pages.  

By the next post, I hope to be able to be finished with these two parts of my project.