Rob Bixler, associate professor in park

Rob Bixler, associate professor in park, recreation and tourism management, has studied why children play in the creek beside the playground rather than on the shiny new equipment. His recent research has been on people’s waning interest in nature and the environment and in the fear, disgust and discomfort people feel in wild and natural places.

Contact Bixler, (864) 656-4849, or Ross Norton in News Services, (864) 656-4810 or 207-1157, for assistance.


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Part II: Vickie Green's Story of Heartache and Healing
The Fix, Chapter 2: To Smile Again
Posted: August 3, 2009 - 2:00amPhotosVideo Back Photo: 1 of 5 Next BOB SELF/The Times-Union
The parents of Vickie Green, Lynne and Ralph Green, say a prayer before having lunch in the dining room of their Westside home. The wall behind them is covered with photographs of their slain granddaughter, Jessica Green. Back Photo: 2 of 5 Next BOB SELF/The Times-Union
A large sign about Jessica Green's slaying stands in the front yard of her grandparents' home as her grandfather Ralph walks their dog. Back Photo: 3 of 5 Next BOB SELF/The Times-Union
Clinical coordinator Gail Grant rubs the face of Vickie Green to help warm her up as she comes out from under anesthesia following surgery by Andrew Forrest (left) to place implants in her reconstructed lower jaw. Back Photo: 4 of 5 Next Vickie Green's mug shot from a drug arrest on Dec. 9, 2007. Back Photo: 5 of 5 Next BOB SELF/The Times-Union
Andrew Forrest wishes Vickie Green well as she leaves his office following surgery to put implants into her rebuilt jaw on Sept. 23, 2008.



SECOND OF THREE PARTS

SUNDAY Tragedy times two
TODAY Chance to smile again

TUESDAY Chapter Three: Trading demons for angels, Vickie finds hope

ABOUT THE SERIES

Bridget Murphy began documenting Vickie Green's struggle in late 2007, after violence tore Green's family apart for a second time that year. Bob Self joined Murphy in 2008, following Green through two surgeries.

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By Bridget Murphy
Christmas 2007 came in a cold cell block for Vickie Green.

Her daughter was dead. The mother's try at nursing her grief in the burn of a crack pipe had landed her in lockup.

One by one, Vickie counted down her days in jail on a calendar until she reached 50.

Fifty days in a cage for a parent who would have given anything to save her slain child, Jessica Green.

Fifty days to obsess about why she was the battered soul still standing.

Vickie had gone back to booze in the three months after her 18-year-old daughter's slaying. The recovering addict was seconds from lighting a crack pipe when the beam of a Jacksonville police officer's flashlight found her in a car with a California fugitive.

The cops seized the contraband in Vickie's lap, handcuffing the woman who already suffered a worse kind of confinement. Seven months before Jessica's death, a separate shooting disfigured Vickie's face and blew out all but one of her bottom teeth. Now, the same questions kept rising from Vickie's gut, trapping her in a living hell.

Why Jessica? Why not me? How much can one family withstand?

No amount of prayer seemed to answer it. But something started to lift inside Vickie as she sobered up in the Duval County jail. It was as if an angel nudged her spirit off rock bottom.

For Jessica, there could be justice. For herself, Vickie only craved some sort of peace.

---

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For you are with me.

A year to the day after Jessica's slaying, a gold-framed version of the 23rd Psalm was on the dining room wall at Ralph and Lynne Green's home on Jacksonville's Westside. A montage of about 50 photos of Jessica surrounded it.

Below, her ashen remains rested inside a 2-foot-tall urn. Shaped like an angel, it had a "Jessica" nameplate with a blue stone that had adorned a necklace she wore as a child.

Reminders of her were everywhere - reminders that she was not with them. Not the way they wanted her to be.

Twelve months had done nothing to quell the anguish of Jessica's grandparents. They wept as they had a year earlier, when Ralph opened his wallet and fanned out 18 photos of Jessica he carried with him always. One for each year of her life.

Soon after, her face appeared on a 4-foot-by-4-foot sign Ralph erected in the front yard of the couple's 105th Street home. "UNSOLVED MURDER," it announced above Jessica's picture and name.

"18 YEAR OLD KILLED IN HER HOME," it said, giving the address of the slaying scene.

It pinpointed the exact time the victim's grandparents said their lives became trapped in a purgatory: "SEPT. 5, 2007 at 2:00 A.M."

Seasons passed, but every day without Jessica - and without justice - seemed the same.

"STILL UNSOLVED," the billboard repeated.

Then it made a request, words that only hinted at the river of pain rising behind it:


The hiker’s notion of leaving only footprints and taking only pictures may be the original ecotourism, but environmental tourism is a growing international phenomenon.

According to Bob Powell, assistant professor in Clemson’s parks, recreation and tourism management department, the ecotourism movement has influenced the entire tourism industry to be more sustainable. Ecotourism is tourism to natural areas and parks that that supports conservation, environmental education and social equity. Ecotourism helps preserve and sustain