These guidelines for class activities and student projects in University of Florida's Natural Area Teaching Laboratory were adopted by the Natural Area Advisory Committee on 8 Dec 1995, modified on 1 April 1999, and edited to accommodate the addition of NATL-east in July 2005.

General

• Activities should be in keeping with NATL’s purpose—i.e., to help students and the public learn about ecology and biotic diversity.
• Activities should maintain, rather than significantly diminish, the usefulness of the area for its purpose.

The following types of activities must be pre-approved by the Natural Area Advisory Committee:

• Activities that permanently alter the ecology of the area.
• Activities that may interfere with others using NATL.
• Activities that may diminish the usefulness of NATL for teaching about ecology and biotic diversity.
• Activities in NATL-east or in the area south of Division Trail in NATL-west that are evident in the absence of the user (e.g., flags and stakes marking plots or transects). [See “Procedures for projects in NATL’s restricted areas.”]

Flags, stakes, and equipment may be temporarily left in the public area of NATL without permission. However, unless their origin and date of scheduled removal are indicated, they will be removed without notice. In any case, the person who leaves flags, stakes, and equipment should remove them as soon as their purpose is completed.