In this picture, I see some trees and a bridge and sculpture behind the trees.
What I notice is the sculpture in the background and the walls around it. The walls seem to indicate that there was once something it blocked in, most likely water.
At a first glance of the picture, people might just see trees and branches because the art instillation seems to blend in with the earth.
When I look at this picture, I feel relaxed because of the overall color scheme and the trees.
I think picture is about bringing attention to UGA’s watersheds because the art instillation intrigues one to learn more about why it is there, bringing attention to the watershed.
This is a picture of the erosion around Lilly Branch. The first thing that struck me was how much erosion there was. Lilly Branch must either rise a lot when it rains, or it used to be at some point a much larger stream. I suspect the second, because there is a lot of foliage which has grown on the new bank over time which would’ve probably not survived if the river significantly rose each time it rained. When I look at this picture, I can’t help but wonder what caused Lilly Branch to change in size so much. I think erosion is fairly common in waterways, but I don’t know if this is a normal amount. If the stream lowered, we’d see more interesting erosion patters that you can currently see through the water.
In this picture, we found a culvert traveling under River Road near East Campus.
In this picture, I noticed that the culvert did not have any water near it at all, and I assume that all of the water had evaporated over time. Due to no recent rain at the time, the culvert was still dry.
When looking at this picture, I wondered what it would look like if we had gotten lots of rain a few days before the scavenger hunt. I think someone would look at this and assume that it is a drain, but I do not think the average person would assume that it helps carry water all the way to the other side of East Campus through an underground system.
When looking at this picture, I feel relaxed due to the fact that I now know how our campus transports water back to the Lilly Branch, and then eventually the North Oconee River.
I think that this picture is meant to show people that without knowing it, water is being transported underneath places that we visit every day, such as East Campus.
In this picture I see a drain with a large warning posted right next to it.
I noticed how hard it is to miss the warning as it uses colors that contrast the surrounding environment and how many of these drains have the same warning next to them around campus.
This picture makes me realize how much of a problem public dumping that leads to rivers is in our community. If there was no problem or if it was a small problem, there would not be so many of these warnings around our community.
I feel guilty when I look at this picture because I, along with many others, occasionally throws some small item of trash into these drains without thinking of the consequences to the environment. However, I feel better that there are actions being done to prevent this.
I think this picture reveals that there is a problem with public trash being drained into the river, but that there are actions being taken to prevent this phenomenon.
I took this picture at the area where Lilly Branch comes out
from underground to daylight near Joe Frank Harris. The main thing that struck
me with this picture was the amount of erosion along the bank. The fact that Lilly
Branch has been kept out of sight in most areas kept me from knowing it existed
for the past year at UGA, even though it is easily visible on my morning walk
to class, as I first noticed the next day. The sheer notion astonishes me that the
water from our community, that has been hidden from mine and others’ sight for
so long, has also made such an impact on the environment over the years to
create the erosion we see in the image.
This image prompted me to have more awareness and start to
take action in the community. The fact that our campus was built over the stream
makes me realize that our community has a lack of awareness, and even care,
about where our water goes, and more importantly, where our pollutants end up. Thus,
I am excited to learn more about the specifics of such pollution in Athens and
make a difference through our semester projects.
In this photo I see a storm drain with a warning sign that reads “No Dumping! Drains to River.”
In this photo, I noticed the effort made to protect the environment by keeping the river clean and not allowing waste products into the local water sources. This really stuck out to me because sometimes local water sources can be overlooked.
This picture makes me think about how important it is to keep the materials that shouldn’t be in the rivers and streams out of them. I see these signs on storm drains all the time, but I never thought about why they are necessary or how important they are.
When I look at this picture, I feel proud of the steps being taken toward bettering the local water sources. I hope this is one of the first steps of many leading to cleaner water locally, as well as within the larger community.
I think this picture is about moving forward in the attempts to protect the local watersheds, which is something that affects us more than we think. I see this photo as a way of shedding light on a topic that goes unnoticed.
In this picture, I see the daylight water source of Lily Branch located on East Campus.
What I notice in this picture that stuck out to me initially was the size and natural beauty of it! While it is no massive waterfall or something anyone might go hiking for, it is a beautiful pop of nature we are lucky enough to have in one of the busiest places on campus. People may not even recognize what is right in front of them.
This scene makes me think about, and honestly realize, how I spend so much of my time not taking in my surroundings. I have been a student at UGA and lived in Athens for over a year, and I have never noticed this watershed site until I was forced to go searching for it. I even work at the Ramsey Student Center which is directly next to where this picture of Lily Branch was taken and I had no idea it was there! Along with that, I had no idea about the intricate watershed system that I learned about while on my scavenger hunt. There are so many intricate places and structures that go into Lily Branch that I was oblivious to! This East Campus scene also made me realize that when I am not noticing things like this in my environment, it causes me to loose consciousness of how I am treating the environment and watersheds in my area. While I do not treat them “bad”, I have not put in any effort to treat them better. I have been oblivious to the situation and the need on campus for us to care for our watershed.
When I look at this picture, I feel peace. Water has always been a place where I feel calmed whether it be by an ocean, lake, pond, river, and even stream. The gentle movement of the water always allows me to take a step back and clear my mind. This picture also makes me feel motivated to spread awareness about how we can promote healthier watersheds in our area.
I think this picture is about realizing what is right in front of us that we often overlook. It will serve as a reminder for me, and hopefully others in our class, that we should recognize what our environment needs from us so that it can continue to be healthy.
Here, we can see a storm water pond on East Campus. It is decently sized and can hold quite a large volume of water, although it is not near full capacity in the photo. This pond is something we as the UGA and Athens communities should care about as it helps to reduce flood damage and retain excess precipitation.
One thing that really strikes me as interesting is just how shallow it is. We have had lots of rainfall lately in large bursts and while it has not exactly been pouring everyday, I would expect a higher water level from the rainfall.
To the average person walking around campus, this seems like just another pond, maybe with some fish. This made the gears in my mind begin to turn: what would happen if it was not there? How would campus be different? Would we not be able to drive on some roads during heavy rainfall? Would students not be able to attend class? Would deliveries not get made on time? As an economics major, the simple idea of a small disruption to the ecosystem has me thinking about all the ripple effects in our daily lives not having a storm water pond could cause.
When I see this photo, I feel a sense of security knowing that we as a group can always continue our battle against Mother Nature. I think this picture is about the value we place on simple things like storm ponds that help us, quietly and behind the scenes, live our daily lives.
In this picture I see the Lily Branch stream tucked in next to River Rd and the East Campus Dining Hall. The first thing I noticed about this was how the stream is sunken into the ground and tucked away; I had never noticed it until I took this picture and did the scavenger hunt. This picture makes me think about how out-of-sight the streams actually are, even if they’re daylighting. It surprised me how ignored and hidden the stream is. When I see this picture I feel the beauty of the land and stream, but I also feel the neglect of the stream because it is “out of sight, out of mind.” I think this picture is about noticing the world around us and attempting to protect and recognize nature.
In this picture, I see a broken up red solo cup close to the watershed.
What really struck me about this picture is that the piece of trash is so small, that anyone who passed by it could easily pick it up. It is also unclear how long this piece of trash has been there. It could have been there for years for all that we know, so it is very sad that no one picked it up yet.
This picture makes me think about how little we care for our environment, even our closest surroundings. This is not like throwing a piece of trash in a place you will never visit again (which is still bad). This shows people trash their own home, and also don’t care enough to fix it whether or not it is theirs.
When I look at this picture, I feel sad. I also feel hypocritical because I know that as bad as it is to leave this trash there, there have been plenty of times where I have just left a piece of trash somewhere because I was in a hurry or I just did not care enough.
I think this picture is about being aware of how our small actions affect something as big as a watershed. It is also about being aware of how much impact we can make just by being conscientious of our own and others mistakes.
I think that the groups I am interested in, cleaning the watershed and the tailgating cleanup, would both agree that this is an important issue. At the tailgating initiative especially, they probably have seen many more red solo cups around that people just discarded.
