Class May 23

On this blog i wanted to reflect on the videos we watched in class.
It was pretty interesting to see the 3 different places around the world and the new things that were presented to us. To see the destruction that the human population has done to places like Africa, Vancouver, and even close to home Kansas, was really disturbing and really hit home. It is crazy to think about how the human population can be so greedy at times or even think they are helping places out by changing the plant life when it is really so destructive to that environment. Such as the places in Africa that were mentioned during the video.
When European settlers had thought they would be doing a good deed by planting seeds all across Africa but in reality these trees were stealing water from the native species and flowing rivers. Once some of the trees were cut down the rivers started to flow again and the native species and human could now live their daily lives without having to walk miles to a water supply. This can relate to us to because of how many invasive trees there are in florida such as the maliluka and brazilian pepper.
Also in Vancouver island how the they have switched from the destructive clear cutting that destroys the land and environment to a spot cutting technique. This technique requires surveyors to look over the land wanted to be cut. After approval a team comes in to chop the trees down while a helicopter starts to air lift the trees so they can be made into lumber. This relates to us because the lumber made from these trees are marked in stores as certified lumber and when a purchase for anything wood related, such as a deck, it is important to support the use of lumber that have not greatly affected the area from which it came from.
Lastly in the video we had seen the affects of pesticides in Kansas. As one farmer is trying to stray away from pesticides and focus on the nutrients and health of the land. He had mentioned that the soil had been stripped a large amount of top soil and nutrients since the dust bowl and wide spread use of strong pesticides. The pesticides are so strong in fact there is a dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi river and those pesticides flow into the gulf of mexico.