The ecology unit
Find a Solution Proposal
Ecosystem: Dry areas/mountains in Novato, such as Burdell or Big Rock Ridge, etc.
Impact: Drought combined with careless human error (or arsenry) has caused fires. With the drought and careless water consumption, it’s hard to combat fires so we must warn people about this and what to do if a fire breaks out/how to prevent one.The Novato and Marin area tends to be a very dry climate with winds and is constantly at risk for fires.The drought has been a constant previous issue and puts the region at more risk for wildfires.
Of course, El nino just came so we will be more safe from the fires. The grass is more likely to not dry out because of the rain.
“A wildfire or wildland fire is an uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside area. Other names such as brush fire, bush fire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, vegetation fire, and veldfire may be used to describe the same phenomenon depending on the type of vegetation being burned, and the regional variant of English being used.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire
Solution:
Report any suspicious activities
Report any fires seen
Always check the weather before going out camping or hiking
When camping, make sure you have a sand & water bucket nearby
Set your fire in a circle pit surrounded by rocks and cleared from grass
Same goes with cars, do not park them next to dead grass (exhaust from ignition can cause fires)
Stay on the right trail
Do not obstruct any trails in case firemen need to get to area
no smoking outside controlled areas
no burning yard waste or firing fireworks in forests
raise awareness for how at risk our region is for wildfires
To learn more ways to help go to:
http://www.cultureofsafety.com/wilderness/forest-fire-prevention/
have more controlled fires, more places for people to throw away their cigarettes and anything hazardous to fires, have safer more controlled fires when camping and being outdoors. Raise awareness to the problem and how at risk we are.
But events like these are hard to fully prevent. There are many things that we can not do to stop them from happening, but we can lean more ways to stop them that we have control over.
At the end of the day we need to raise awareness and spread the word to help people be more cautious.:0)
Ecosystem: Dry areas/mountains in Novato, such as Burdell or Big Rock Ridge, etc.
Impact: Drought combined with careless human error (or arsenry) has caused fires. With the drought and careless water consumption, it’s hard to combat fires so we must warn people about this and what to do if a fire breaks out/how to prevent one.The Novato and Marin area tends to be a very dry climate with winds and is constantly at risk for fires.The drought has been a constant previous issue and puts the region at more risk for wildfires.
Of course, El nino just came so we will be more safe from the fires. The grass is more likely to not dry out because of the rain.
“A wildfire or wildland fire is an uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside area. Other names such as brush fire, bush fire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, vegetation fire, and veldfire may be used to describe the same phenomenon depending on the type of vegetation being burned, and the regional variant of English being used.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire
Solution:
Report any suspicious activities
Report any fires seen
Always check the weather before going out camping or hiking
When camping, make sure you have a sand & water bucket nearby
Set your fire in a circle pit surrounded by rocks and cleared from grass
Same goes with cars, do not park them next to dead grass (exhaust from ignition can cause fires)
Stay on the right trail
Do not obstruct any trails in case firemen need to get to area
no smoking outside controlled areas
no burning yard waste or firing fireworks in forests
raise awareness for how at risk our region is for wildfires
To learn more ways to help go to:
http://www.cultureofsafety.com/wilderness/forest-fire-prevention/
have more controlled fires, more places for people to throw away their cigarettes and anything hazardous to fires, have safer more controlled fires when camping and being outdoors. Raise awareness to the problem and how at risk we are.
But events like these are hard to fully prevent. There are many things that we can not do to stop them from happening, but we can lean more ways to stop them that we have control over.
At the end of the day we need to raise awareness and spread the word to help people be more cautious.:0)
Vidya reflection
Our vidya goes through what and what not to do when camping out in a forest. More specifically about your good ole campfire. Our group members and extras worked together rather well and got the filming done in due time. However the largest issue was editing the video which took longer, much longer in fact, than it should of. Also we had problems with dividing up the work of editing. Half the group was off doing something else while the other two would try and work on the video. Then again it isn't easy having multiple people work on editing around a single laptop. Our group enjoyed the project as a whole and we were rather optimistic even when faced with issues that proved to be significant setbacks. We realized that many forest fires are caused by human ignorance or even intent and that we can severely impact our enviroment and ecosystem if we are not cautious. So we made this little video to show what campers should do when out and about on their little adventures. Hopefully one day wild fires will become nearly nonexistent.
Terrarium proposal
Our terrarium is going to be a representation of a forest floor. It will be based off of plants found in the redwood forest.
The terrarium will have sword fern, redwood sorrel, rhododendron, and maybe other plants, as well as a redwood branch just for decoration. The soil suggested for growing a redwood tree is ½ soil, ¼ sand and ¼ compost, so although we will not be putting any trees in here we might want to use this mixture for the terrarium. We will start of with a layer of rocks, then soil. This will help to filter the soil when we are watering the plants. After we put in the soil, we will start adding plants.
The terrarium will need to be at least partly shaded, and the soil
We want to get worms because they can help keep the soil more fresh but require extra food and compost in the soil to survive. We would need to take care of the worms by feeding them compost or veggies/fruits (they apparently love watermelon too)
We could also add ferns to add more life to the terrarium.(deer fern or lady fern)
The case will be a jar, but because of this, it may be a little hard to add plants to it.
We hope that until December, if all goes well, the plants will hopefully survive in the same ecosystem a redwood tree should be in.
The terrarium will have sword fern, redwood sorrel, rhododendron, and maybe other plants, as well as a redwood branch just for decoration. The soil suggested for growing a redwood tree is ½ soil, ¼ sand and ¼ compost, so although we will not be putting any trees in here we might want to use this mixture for the terrarium. We will start of with a layer of rocks, then soil. This will help to filter the soil when we are watering the plants. After we put in the soil, we will start adding plants.
The terrarium will need to be at least partly shaded, and the soil
We want to get worms because they can help keep the soil more fresh but require extra food and compost in the soil to survive. We would need to take care of the worms by feeding them compost or veggies/fruits (they apparently love watermelon too)
We could also add ferns to add more life to the terrarium.(deer fern or lady fern)
The case will be a jar, but because of this, it may be a little hard to add plants to it.
We hope that until December, if all goes well, the plants will hopefully survive in the same ecosystem a redwood tree should be in.
Terrarium reflection
Things are not going quite as planned, our fern seems to be slowly but surely dying. We originally had a couple of earthworms residing within the terrarium, however the quickly died probably caused by the lack of food available. We also forgot to water it several times which is no doubt detrimental to the survival of the fern in our terrarium. Well we actually aren't sure if the fern is indeed dying, but you never know.
This was the only photo I could salvage of our terrarium. It seems to be dying and the worms inside are nowhere to be found. I could have sworn we had more photos. Oh well.
Cycles of Matter
There seems to be nothing happening in our terrarium. The worms have died and the fern is also dying. So not much to say about the cycle of matter in our terrarium unfortunately.
Socratic seminar
We had yet another socratic seminar based upon the topic of global warming. Everyone participated at some point whether they wanted to or not, and everyone seemed to take the side that global warming does in fact exist. There is lots of evidence to support this as was discussed. Nobody wanted to take up the side of the negation since the evidence that supports the NONexistence of global warming was few and far in between compared to that of the affirmative. The seminar was not too bad and there was not too much conflict except a few times between several people which was interesting.
Colony collapse disorder
In this project we learned how to read scientific journals. While they are highly informative, we discovered they are not nearly as fun to read as other articles are. We learned about the many reasons why bees are dying off rather rapidly. First and foremost being neonicitinoids which is the main culprit in CCD as well as the stress that burdens bees when they are moved from farm to farm by beekeepers. We learned how to interpret graphs and to find the general curve of the data. Scientists put their effort to find ways to reduce and stop the effects of neonicitinoids and their effects on the bee populations. The lab not only heightened my knowledge of bees but also their importance in our ecosystem.