Reigel 1

Hayley Reigel
English 4
Mrs. DeBock
November 20, 2014
Real World Experience Narrative Writing
All my life I have wanted to become a park ranger; I decided to associate my dream into
my senior project. I will be majoring in Forestry in college. For my experience, I traveled to a
beautiful place called Hobcaw Barony, where I will be doing some of my Forestry classes. For
my research topic I wanted to know the answer to the question: What is society doing to help
protect endangered species? Refuges and acts help endangered species by keeping them safe in
an economic and safe from being hunted, and that is what society is doing to help protect
endangered species. Through many real world experiences, the many encounters, and the
valuable lessons I learned that being outdoors and working with animals and plants, being a park
ranger is the right job for me.
To begin, I called a few places such as the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge, but I
then decided I should check out Hobcaw Barony for future references also. I traveled about
thirty-five minutes south towards Georgetown, South Carolina to a beautiful refuge right on the
waterway. I went on a bus tour, it required a little walking and includes highlights of Hobcaw
Barony's 16,000 acres of history and ecology. A privately owned research reserve, the property
represents every environment and century in the lowcountry. Naval stores, indigo, and rice
production ended by 1905 when the land was purchased by Bernard Baruch. A native South

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Carolinian and Wall Street financier, he and other millionaires hunted ducks, deer and wild
turkeys on this winter retreat. The bus stops for a tour inside his 1930 home that played host to
politicians, generals and newspapermen as well as Winston Churchill and President Franklin
Roosevelt.
After that I joined a small class that were on a field trip at Hobcaw Barony and had the
opportunity to learn about an endangered species called Longleaf Pine. The lesson focuses on
good fire and bad fire in the ecosystem and the benefits of fire specific to Longleaf Pine habitat.
Also, I loved walking around and just experiencing the amazing outdoors, filled with millions of
trees and wildlife. I walked to the Clemson Forestry Research Labs, and looked around at the
building. Inside the Hobcaw Baronys welcome center is filled with information on endangered
and threatened species and also they have a great amount of living animals such as snakes and
alligators. They had huge and small skeletons of animals and also skin of certain types of
animals too. The environmental center was beautiful and had a ton of information about wildlife
and endangered or threatened species.
After all of my encounters, I realized the valuable lessons I learned from my real world
experience. When I arrived, I was extremely excited. I learned that the people at Hobcaw Barony
are very understanding and want to help you learn about the environment. They were extremely
open to letting me join in on a bunch of events going on that day. Also, I learned how much I
want to work with the environment and pursue my dream of being a park ranger.
After spending my day doing what I love, I am glad I got to experience doing my senior
exploration on endangered species. Through many real world experiences, the many encounters,

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and the valuable lessons I learned that being outdoors and working with animals and plants,
being a park ranger is the right job for me.