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Airfield Falls

A couple of weeks ago, Reilly, Madi, and I went to Airfield Falls Trailhead to film our video for our final project, and we had a great outdoor experience. One thing that I have enjoyed about this class has been how it has opened my eyes to ways to go and experience nature here in Fort Worth. Since I did not grow up here, I have not known what Fort Worth has to offer as far as nature and outdoors experiences goes. We chose Airfield Falls because none of us had ever been there before or had even heard of it before, and so we thought it would be a fun place to go explore.

When we got there, we saw the big airplane structure that marked the start of the trail, so we knew we were in the right place. The day was a perfect, sunny, 70 degrees. It was the temperature where I get goosebumps if I'm standing in the shade, but the sunlight feels perfectly warm. As soon as we got started walking we got warmed up. but not to the point where we were sweating. The 'trail' was a paved sidewalk, and I wondered if it was really necessary for them to pave it. On the one hand, it made it more accessible to people with disabilities, which I certainly appreciate and value. On the other hand, it most certainly also caused more disruption to the natural environment and, in a way, corrupts the 'nature' essence of our experience. The larger human footprint made it seem like we were not really in nature. Nevertheless, we still got to hear the birds chirping and breathe in the crisp fresh winter air, so it was better than slouching on the couch with the blue light of our phones in our faces.

When we got to the falls, we saw a few other people enjoying the scenery as well. Some were taking family portraits, others were photographing the falls, and still others were simply sitting on the rocks watching the water. It was nice to see so many people simply enjoying nature in whatever way they wanted to. One thing that really struck me about this experience was the smell, and I think it came from the water. A frequent subject we have talked about in class has been how humans have polluted pristine nature, and how sometimes we do not realize how polluted it is until we see it up close. This was another one of those such experiences. To the eye, the scene looked like an innocent brook passing through the trees, but when you took a breathe in, it smelled almost like sewage was nearby. I conjectured the water picked up sewage runoff from the city, and that was what was making it smell bad. I felt like the smell put a shroud over the scene because the water no longer felt safe and enjoyable. I felt bad for the wildlife who use the stream as a nutritional source. The irony struck me, that we all were there thinking we were appreciating nature when really it was a stream of human waste. Experiences like this make me wonder if anything we experience in nature is really pure or natural because of the breadth of human impact.

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