Integration Day 3 Trip (Hartwick Pines): A Lesson in Decision Making
On this week's integration day, we students visited several places to learn about the forests surrounding Au Sable. While no insect specimen collection took place, we gained significant insights into how our forests sustain the entire ecosystem (which are crucial to supporting insects) and how anthropogenic disturbances have impacted them. First, we learned about how our everyday activities contribute to unsustainable practices, even here at Au Sable. We use cars, electricity, and gas, emitting carbon dioxide at increased rates. A key question posed was how we reconcile the tension between being separated from nature in the city and being integrated with nature out away from the city. While it may be easy to see humanity as the focus in the Anthropocene, Rolston III said in the assigned reading for this day that we should not turn it into the "Anthropocentric era" [1]. Figure 1. Our group at Au Sable location. Our first outing was on the trail a