Introspective Spiders

Arriving at Tule Ponds with two of my friends, Auriana and Katrina was exciting.  I was ready to buck down and get my feet wet.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, my feet stayed dry during the two and a half hours we were there.  Pulling in and hopping out of Katrina's mom's blue truck, I saw a few girls standing around in front.  One girl (I can't remember her name, but she was very nice) talked to us and eventually showed us the way to the back.  At the back of the wildlife reserve, the supervisor met us and said hello.  A group of girls lagged behind, so the four of us went ahead to grab a pair of gloves and a shovel.  We later found out that we were the only high school juniors volunteering that day; the rest were college freshmen.  We were tasked with clearing out a blackberry bush.  It had thorns and spiders everywhere.  But like knights fighting for a noble cause, our group of about eight or so people valiantly trudged through the dangerous forest and moonlight spiders of death.  We eventually had a collection of shovels, rakes and hedge clippers strewn across the battlefield.  Our casualties were nothing serious, a few bumps and cuts but the only one bad enough to bleed was solved with a band-aid.  I, luckily, made it out unscathed, despite my furious campaign against a portion of the bush with my glorious rake.  I have no idea how much we actually cut down, but under the intense rain of sunlight I certainly managed to work up a sweat.  Halfway through our time, the supervisor gave us cookies and water, so that was nice.

The purpose of defeating this monstrous bush?  "To clear out a trail for vistors." Said the supervisor.

Other people were not as pleased and complained.  But their attitudes turned around eventually and the ones complaining ended up being the most powerful force on our final showdown!  

Katrina and I in front of our handy work.

Auriana joins us for a group photo.

One girl in our group brought up an interesting point: we are destroying the spiders natural living environment for human enjoyment/little kids, possible forced to learn on field trips.  Is this animal cruelty?  Are our actions on this day counter-beneficial to animal equity?  The only answer I can think of is yes.  But wait, there was plastic trash buried beneath the ground, and animals can hurt themselves on the thorns.  Maybe this is helping this ecosystem, this city, this country, maybe even this world.  Lying down on the couch after the vigorous battles today, I am conflicted.  I thought  I would be helping the environment by volunteering here, by picking up trash and planting things, but is it possible I destroyed the villages of living creatures?  I may have a terrible fear of spiders and annoyance of getting cut by thorns, but does that justify killing these creatures that need sun, air, and water just like me?  This reflection of this community service has resulted in more questions than answers.