By Sharon Korzendorfer
The trees swayed as the cool fall breeze blew. The clear fall water rushed away all the fall leaves. The squirrels scurried around hiding their acorns. This is the feeling I got when I was on the Mark Warren trip. I learned so much about the value of nature and how much we need it. One morning we took time to make a scale model of a certain area in the woods. We started by clearing a small area on the ground. Then we used twigs for trees, and small leaves for bushes. That gave us an insight on detail of the trees and textures.
Later that day we found some plants that could be used as bug repellent. We also ate an algae plant called lizard skin. It tasted a lot like parsley.
From these activities Mark taught us how much nature takes care of us. Nature gives us everything we need to survive. It provides food, water, shelter and clothing. In return we need to be stewards or caretakers of the Earth. Every animal has a purpose and place in nature. Humans have no direct place so we have to be careful because we have the power to save or destroy nature.
We can live in harmony with nature, but we have to learn how. We have to know nature and value nature. Mark helped all of us see this.