Larkin Garden, 20, will be a 2025 graduate from Catawba College with a B.S. in Environment and Sustainability and a concentration in Natural Resource Management. She had the privilege of growing up in the outdoors of Asheville, NC near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and has fond memories of
“Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children’s children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches, or its romance.” -Theodore Roosevelt Theodore
When the Submerged Resources Center (SRC) first started reaching out to parks for my internship, they asked me if I had a top choice. Immediately, I said Channel Islands National Park. Most of my previous diving experience was in the cold water around the San Juan Islands of Puget Sound.
If there is one place in the world I absolutely don’t want to be, it’s in a cave. Specifically, an underwater cave. So how is it that I find myself winding my way through a system called Devil’s Eye, trying to have perfect buoyancy and convince myself that I’m not
My first splash into the coast off of Kalaupapa is disorienting. I am unable to put my finger on what feels different as I snorkel through beautiful coral heads and ancient volcanic flows. When I surface to check back on the shore, the wind echoing in my snorkel is the only
You might be surprised to learn that Mt. Everest is not the tallest mountain in the world; that honor would be reserved for Mauna Kea, HI. While Mt. Everest has the highest altitude at 29,029ft above sea level, if measured from its base on the sea floor, the volcanic summit
I thought I’d seen some spectacular places in my life, but just my first hour in Hawaii changes my entire definition of spectacular. I arrive right before sunset, and between the sparkling blue of the ocean and the enormous volcanic mountains towering above me, I am the definition of a
“Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed… we simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge, and look in.” – Wallace Stegner This fitting quote is the
My second week at Biscayne kicks off the derelict trap retrieval operation everyone at the office has been anticipating. This is the one week, every two years, that they can remove whatever lobster, stone crab, and blue crab traps they find. This is the only ten day period every two years during
The first thing I learned at Biscayne National Park is that I am, in fact, not faster than a mosquito. After being picked up from the Miami airport and driven to Park Housing by Park Biologist and DSO Shelby Moneysmith (on her day off, too, because she is the best),
