Race Reed March 20, 2026 Visiting the Virginia Living Museum (Free Choice)

 I visited the Virginia Living Museum a bit ago and I've been thinking about it since we started talking about native ecosystems and species management in class. The museum is set up to show Virginia's native plants and animals and what I loved about it was how intentional everything felt. Every exhibit exists to show you something about the relationships between species and their specific environments.

The part that stuck with me most was seeing native fish species up close that I had no idea existed in Virginia waterways. It made me realize how little most people know about the ecosystems literally right around them. I think that kind of local ecological knowledge is exactly what Ostrom was talking about when she argued that communities with deep knowledge of their specific environment take much better care of it. You can't protect what you don't know exists.