Project Reflection Back to Biology...
My strongest management strategy is the rehabilitation of intensely damaged habitats through the germination of native plant seeds. This involves creating plant seed mixes that are relevant to the elevation of the burn, and concentrating on more drought tolerant and dry climate plant species that will be able to survive in the up and coming hotter climate that we’ve been experiencing here in Colorado recently. Reseeding burned areas that have been severely burned can in turn create positive effects on water sheds, prevent soil erosion that can pollute those water sheds, and prevent future wildfires from occurring in the same area.
A large factor within this project was being able to learn skills like objective/technical writing, the use of Excel and making spread sheets, and researching information on your topic effectively, (which involves finding and reading scholarly articles, and using in-text citations). This is the first year within science that objective language has been concretely introduced into my education. It’s been a difficult process but I feel that’s its super beneficial to learn this technique of writing for future assignments in college, and possibly my career after college. All of these skills were required to be a factor within my project and I incorporated them to the best of my ability.
The most important thing I learned about ecology during this project is how the earth and its many ecosystems directly affect humans and we directly affect those ecosystems as well. As nature and humans co-exist together, it’s our responsibility to make sure those ecosystems stay healthy and stable. Through things like our tax-dollars, and down to super personal things like our actual homes being in danger, we must realize that these connections to nature are not just random natural disasters, these things we have helped create. For example, the recent hurricane called superstorm Sandy wasn’t just a freak happening, Super Storm Sandy was created by a climate change that has been shifting into greater presence due to our consumption in green gas fuels. These projects were just a super specific way to understand these connections, and let us students stretch our thinking and try to come up with appropriate, realistic solutions.
There have been multiple large fires spread throughout Colorado this past summer, and going into fall even. Now in light of studying the topic of Mega-Fires, I have such a better understanding to what goes on in the world of fire policies, forest management, (things like that). Before I had no idea what the strategies were to actually preventing and mitigating these fires, and had no grasp of what a large-scale operation it usually turns out to be, (fighting these fires). As a local in the southwest community, being aware of things like how fires are caused is a valuable knowledge, because it directly affects me. Throughout this project, these realizations slowly dawned on me.
Back to Biology...
A large factor within this project was being able to learn skills like objective/technical writing, the use of Excel and making spread sheets, and researching information on your topic effectively, (which involves finding and reading scholarly articles, and using in-text citations). This is the first year within science that objective language has been concretely introduced into my education. It’s been a difficult process but I feel that’s its super beneficial to learn this technique of writing for future assignments in college, and possibly my career after college. All of these skills were required to be a factor within my project and I incorporated them to the best of my ability.
The most important thing I learned about ecology during this project is how the earth and its many ecosystems directly affect humans and we directly affect those ecosystems as well. As nature and humans co-exist together, it’s our responsibility to make sure those ecosystems stay healthy and stable. Through things like our tax-dollars, and down to super personal things like our actual homes being in danger, we must realize that these connections to nature are not just random natural disasters, these things we have helped create. For example, the recent hurricane called superstorm Sandy wasn’t just a freak happening, Super Storm Sandy was created by a climate change that has been shifting into greater presence due to our consumption in green gas fuels. These projects were just a super specific way to understand these connections, and let us students stretch our thinking and try to come up with appropriate, realistic solutions.
There have been multiple large fires spread throughout Colorado this past summer, and going into fall even. Now in light of studying the topic of Mega-Fires, I have such a better understanding to what goes on in the world of fire policies, forest management, (things like that). Before I had no idea what the strategies were to actually preventing and mitigating these fires, and had no grasp of what a large-scale operation it usually turns out to be, (fighting these fires). As a local in the southwest community, being aware of things like how fires are caused is a valuable knowledge, because it directly affects me. Throughout this project, these realizations slowly dawned on me.
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