How Logging Affects Pacific Ranges

  The impacts of humans in the ecoregion start with the large logging industry that is within the region.  The logging companies cut down trees, disrupting the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen cycles as well as destroying homes for animals.  The people also put fertilizers in the soil where they know where they will be taking the trees from, putting excesssive nitrogen into the soil, stunting growth of smaller shrubery.  With less trees and more nitrogen, the soil and the water are both affected causing less animals all throughout the food chain due to stunted growth.  The logs are also transfered on bodies of water, leaving less habitat for miniature water ecosystems within the region.  With less fish there will be less animals that eat fish and therefor a larger population of animals in the same trophic level of fish is created.  Salmon populations are dwindling due to the logging companies, and bears who are very dependant on salmon as a food supply in this region begin to die off because of this.  The other animals such as woodland caribou and snowshoe hares population then increases in this ecoregion because there aren't as many bears to devour them.  With the new population of hares and caribou, new populations of other tertiary consumers begin to grow, such as the cougar.  The balance of energy between the trophic level is now off balance due to the logging industry, people need to learn how to be more careful when following through with complex processes such as this. 
  Logging affects the oxygen and carbon cycle by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed in the air during photosynthesis and the amount of oxygen put back into the air.  This can throw off the cycle which is also connected to the nitrogen cycle, upsetting the whole essence of what the ecoregion is like.  Trees such as the yellow cedar and western hemlock are home to many animals such as squirrels and minks, the logging compaines are taking this away from them.  If humans want this beautiful ecoregion to remain a heavenly utopia of nature then they need to slow down on the logging within the regions forests.  Second succession takes place after logging in Pacific Ranges and this is when ecosystems rebuild themselves from whats left over, this process helps a little for recovering the land and people also have special provincial parks within this region that ban logging, so people are taking a stand and making a change to save this amazing ecoregion.

Other Human Impacts

   Humans population has risen in the last decade and keeps rising at a tremendous rate due to better health care, sanitation, and more food products being created, leaving the death toll lower then ever.  With all of these people living on our planet they are bound to pollute and burn more fossil fuels then ever before.  People everywhere can burn fossil fuels and affect their environments and this also happens in the Pacific Ranges ecoregion.  When fossil fuels are burnt by humans they go into the air and form nitric acid, a component of acid precipitation, in Pacific Ranges acid rain is not uncommon.  The acid precipitation affects the water sources, creatures, and soil.  When the acid precipitation falls it acidifies lakes reducing fish populations even more then they already are being harmed like the salmon population.  The fish are then eaten by scavengers or the ones with high acidity levels in them that aren't dead yet are eaten by other carnivores, such as bears or lynx, passing the acidity onto them.  If the acid level is high enough death can occur, and when these animals die, the acid goes into the soil, hurting the plants in that area.  Some trees such as the yellow cedar, and types of hemlock can be damaged from the acid rain, weakening their leaves and lowering the amount of nutrients the trees can hold.  If humans stopped burning fossil fuels it would take the environment a long time to recover even though the process harming them has been stopped.  People need to figure out other ways to get energy and reduce the harm they are doing on our environment, specifically the Pacific Ranges which holds alot of Canada's amazing and unique wildlife.  
  Fishing and hunting are very common activities in Pacific Ranges and these activities can mess up food chains.  Most animals that are hunted in Pacifc Ranges are the woodland caribou, black tailed deer, elk, and snowshoe hares.  The most common fish caught is the Pacific salmon.  With smaller populations of these animals it leaves the carnivores searching for other food sources, so they either leave the region or die.  Angling and hunting limits have been set throughout all of Pacific Ranges national parks, but the declining number of animals is making me think maybe they should lower the numbers of animals allowed to be caught and/or killed.  People need more respect for this regions wildlife.

 

How People Can Change It

  There are many ways people can change there affects on the environment to make a change for the better.  In the first place, B.C. as a province or Washington as a state could both put out hunting and angling restrictions that are more harsh, conserving more animals lives keeping the food chain balanced.  Logging companies could figure out different methods of transport instead of using water ways, to keep the popuation of fish up to normal standards and reducing harm on other aquatic animals and animals that feed off of them, this will also keep the food chain in balance.  For the other problem of fossil fuels, it has to be a world effort on stopping putting out so many emissions into the atmosphere since the majority of the fossil fuels that are affecting Pacific Ranges aren't even from British Columbia.  Global winds carry the pollution to all the corners of the world so the people of our world need to make changes and perhaps start driving hybrid cars and finding new ways of energy use.  Other power sources should be getting used now such as wind or hydro power to reduce the emissions.  For specifically conserving nature in Pacific Ranges I believe more provincial or national parks should be created where no hunting and angling are allowed and no disruption of anything in the wild is allowed.  If all these measures were followed I believe that this ecoregion would be more beautiful and healthier then ever before. 

Other Reasons People should be Conscious about Pollution and Harming the Environment