As the sun began to set at the UCF Arboretum’s Fall Festival on Wednesday, UCF environmentalists gathered for an evening of climate-conscious fall celebrations, from smashing pumpkins to watching bats emerge from a cave.
Blake Henry, a senior ecology major, has worked at the UCF Arboretum for a year and hopes the festival will excite the community about UCF’s natural spaces.
“I think it’s important to keep these lands green and to preserve the environment we have around us,” Henry said. “It’s good for the students and it’s good for the ecosystem.”
The event hosted multiple registered student organizations with environmental and sustainability focuses.
Sam Keller, a senior communication sciences and disorders major, approached her internship with UCF’s IDEAS For Us chapter eager to promote sustainability.
Keller and others from the IDEAS team organized a pumpkin-smashing activity, and composted their pumpkins after they were smashed, leading by example.
“In every single aspect of anyone’s life, they need to be eco-friendly,” Keller said. “That is what’s going to make the biggest impact in the long run.”
Si Zhang, a junior environmental science major with a geographic information systems certification and vice president of the Knighthawk Audubon Club, also attended the event. The club goes birding and participates in conservation and education efforts.
“Being involved with Knighthawk helps me feel connected with my peers who are also passionate about the animals around us and caring about Earth,” Zhang said.
As part of the Arboretum’s activities for the evening, event leaders led a guided tour of the Arboretum property that finished with a viewing of the nearby bat cave.
The Arboretum has red lights placed outside the bat cave. Since red lights have no significant negative effect on bat activity, their placement on the property allows humans to watch them leave their cave, fly in the area and still be seen clearly by the naked eye.
After dark, when the bats come out of their cave, it’s a sight to behold as the swarm of bats flutters between the branches of the low-hanging trees. All the while, human activity does not impact their habitat.
The event demonstrated a point particularly close to the hearts of the Arboretum staff: campus fun without campus harm.