Entrance to the Horne Wetlands Park - Trails and Travel

The Horne Wetlands Park has been an interesting field study to conduct over the last few months and has resulted in a lot of information on the local biodiversity present in the City of Orangeburg as well as the state of South Carolina. One of the things that I found surprising when conducting my initial research on the location was that there was not a good amount of information online, even on sites dedicated to the Edisto Memorial Gardens and Department of Parks and Recreation.

Most of the information found within my blog posts on the species data or location details had to be composed through other sites and compared to validate the commonalities. In the last few months, I have learned how to conduct field studies to effectively, collect samples and make documented observations of plant and animal species found in the wild.

Throughout the project, I have been introduced to many free resources that can be used when observing the natural environment such as OrnitO (for bird species information) and the Web Soil Survey site (for soil samples and land composition).

After finishing the field study for the Horne Wetlands Park, I have found that the biodiversity within the area is still present. Even though the area has been impacted by recent natural disasters in the last five to ten years, the area has proven to be resilient. Locally, the importance of the Horne Wetlands Park is not commonly known to the general public unless they are involved with certain conservation programs or organizations.

For the future, I would pioneer conservation programs that would work with the Park and Recreation Department who manage the Edisto Memorial Gardens and Horne Wetlands Park. These programs would range from academic field studies for college and high school students, summer camps, and other educational programs. By doing this, the area could be used to help expose adults and kids to the concept of environmental conservation and how humans have an impact the environment both positively and negatively.