Ashton Chastain
Pcsc
Assignment 3
On the pacific coast we have all kinds of plants and animals. The environment is
a very big part of our town and its way of life. The Salmon coalition goes out and repairs
tampered with ecosystems and habitats. Some of the vegetation we have around the
pacific North West are grass, ferns, salmon berry, lupin, and for invasive species we
have knotweed, and reed canary grass. All of these plant work to feed oxygen into the
atmosphere and some of them feed certain herbivores and omnivores.
The animals we have around here are Deer, cougars, eagles, hawks, crow’s
coyote, elk, rabbits, western toads, red legged frogs, and salmon. These animals all are
important parts to keeping our eco system running healthy and efficiently. Salmon are
one of the keystone species in our eco system without this species our ecosystem could
fail. Elk and deer are very important part of our ecosystem they eat vegetation and the
predators will eat them. The Birds around here are for the most scavengers and eat
whatever is dead. They also feed on plants and when we put salmon into the stream
some of the birds eat the fish and spread the nutrients further into the ecosystem.
The sources of water that feed into are eco systems are ponds that have rivers
flowing in then it pools up before exiting out into the river then flowing into the ocean,
some lakes are spring lakes that have springs fueling the water that eventually flows out
into a river or to the ocean. All these water sources provide vital habitat and nutrients to
all the animals of our ecosystem. The land animals drink the water so they do not
become dehydrated and die. The amphibians and water animals live in these waters
and spawn in these waters, these waters allow the water animals to survive and keep
surviving to provide nutrients to our eco system.
Humans have impacted our ecosystem in many ways and they are all bad.
Humans have destroyed and tore up ecosystems to get what they wanted. Luckily the
ecosystem around the Pacific Northwest has been well preserved and there is a lot of
people helping to keep the eco system up and running for many years to come.
Humans have affected the ecosystem by building cities that destroyed miles of habitat
for elk deer and other land animals. We have built dams that have together blocked off
hundreds if not thousands of miles of spawning ground for fish this makes it harder to
provide nutrients upstream for all the animals that depend on the vital nutrients from
fish. We have also built culverts that limit fish passage into spawning habitat potentially
cutting off miles of habitats.
Around the Pacific Northwest we have a lot of hills and mountains this provides a
lot of elevation changes for the animals to traverse between meals for certain animals
this also provides more surface area for plants to grow and more room for animals to
have to themselves with more plants growing animals can have a lot to eat and not
have to worry about starving.