Will Larkins, a Florida International University student, spent most of his junior year in the Everglades working as an air boat operator and animal caretaker for the national park four days a week, and going to class the remaining three.
And, the 21-year-old studying sustainability and the environment has gained a hefty following on Instagram while doing it.
Over 25,000 followers, and counting, are tuning in to see Larkins, dressed in colorful outfits, trudging through the Everglades and talking about how they can help conserve it.
His mission: getting people to visit the Everglades and connect with it, using his unique role as a college student to get younger people involved in conserving the ecosystem.
And, he was able to use is prior experience in organizing LGTBQ advocacy events and protests as a guide for how to get people involved in the political side of conservation, he said.
‘Amazing’: Everglades newcomer fell in love with the vast landscape
Originally from North Florida, Larkins first visited the Everglades just a few years ago.
“Going to the Everglades for the first time when I was 18, that was my first time being in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “As far as I can see in every direction is just the land, it was so amazing.”
He said the biggest shock going back to school after that experience was learning that many people have never been to the Everglades. It’s an experience everyone should have because the best way to learn about the Everglades is to go there, he said.
“Nothing compares to someone getting in the water and feeling being in the land, being part of it,” he said.
So, he was shocked to hear that people who have lived 30 minutes away from the edge of the Everglades have never stepped foot inside it.
“This huge entire land that makes up the vast majority of South Florida and provides us all our water and provide us all kinds of other ecosystem services is being completely ignored by the majority of people who have lived here their whole lives,” he said. “It’s a completely different world.”
Experiencing the Everglades first-hand
That realization led him to start bringing his friends and everyone he could to the Everglades. And, then, about a year ago, one of those people told him he learned so much about the Everglades from him and suggested he start posting about it on Instagram to reach more people.
Less than a year later, he has almost 25,000 followers and has inspired countless people to visit the area.
“The goal with everything I do is to try to help the Earth as much as I can,” he said.
He said he hopes his videos teach people to care about the world around them, inspire them to visit the Everglades and help sustain it. With that, comes combatting harmful stereotypes of the ecosystem, he said.
“We are taught that the Everglades is dangerous,” he said. “It’s so much safer than being in a city.”
As long as you respect the space of the animals and look where your stepping, you will be completely safe, he added, and there’s so much people don’t understand about the Everglades.
“People don’t understand that it stores our water. They don’t understand that 80% of the fish in the Gulf of Mexico are born in the mangroves in the Everglades, and that so much life is dependent on the Everglades,” he said. “It filters our water in a way no technology ever could.”
Conservation efforts
His social media and lobbying efforts also educate people on what they can do to help the Everglades, including specific actions they can take to decrease the harm to the Everglades, including decreasing sugar intake and not using fertilizers.
“The number one call to action: stop fertilizing your lawn,” he said. “People do not know that by fertilizing their lawn, they are choking out the food that feeds the manatees.”
The fertilizer from both sugar farms and individual lawns causes toxic blue-green algae blooms, which blocks sunlight from getting to the plants on the river beds and causes them to die, eliminating the main food source for manatees in Florida.
This is an issue across the entirety of Florida, not just the Everglades, so anyone in the state can help. He views his role as helping to get young people and FIU students involved in already robust conservation efforts.
He said all he can do is help long-time conservationists who have been working in the area for years, and bring more attention to the cause.
This article originally appeared on Marco Eagle: Want to connect with the Everglades? Influencer is here to help
Reporting by Alexa Ryan, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Marco Eagle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Alexa Ryan, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida | USA TODAY Network
