Pepper Johnson attended Barton Spring University Day in Austin. She watched Robert Mace, Eva Hernandez, and other professionals give speeches about Texas groundwater and environmental issues. The event included hands-on activities with the spring, such as snorkeling, interacting with the people behind the booths, or holding a salamander (I couldn’t hold it in my hands, but I got to hold the box it was in). They had eight booths about different environmental problems. She sat in a rewilding class where Eva Herandez
talked about ecological restoration aimed at increasing biodiversity and restoring natural processes. One example she used was redirecting deforestation from a vulnerable ecosystem/habit to a safer area. Scott Blackmen talked about agroecology. These practices used natural methods and science in agricultural practices without using pesticides. At my first booth, I got to do an activity where I had to place glass and plastic bottles, paper, cardboard, food, batteries, old clothes, wires, take-out cups, and cans into trash, recyclables, compost, and Goodwill. This was keeping our environment clean and keeping different types of trash out of the water resources. The Lithium battery booth showed various types of batteries and how they are disposed of properly so that the batteries don’t get into the water reservoir or an aquifer. When she went to the Eliza Springs Amphitheater Tour, she saw an adult Barton Springs Salamander and learned they have about 2,000 salamanders in that spring alone! (How surprising!) Nathan Bendik and Dee Ann Chamberlain were the marine biologists who worked in Eliza Springs Amphitheater. She discovered that Dee Ann Chamberlain, a Marine Biologist, had found the Austin Blind Salamander species.
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