Destruction Of The Columbia Basin example essay topic

Ryan Stabonis Our Enviroment After reading the requires material for the week regarding the natural resource of water and watching Dr. Bob Beschta's lecture I was amazed at what I had learned. I have come to realize that I personally have an impact on the water supply and habitat of the Columbia Basin. It is clear that my actions can be linked to the destruction of natural habitats and the destruction of naturally occurring water supplies. I have chosen to analyze this week's topic with regards to my food consumption. I found several links between my dietary habits and the destruction of natural environments. First I found that Dams have been built thought the Columbic Basin as they have thought the United States.

The purpose of these dams it to extrapolate hydrogen power and provide irrigation. "Today irrigation takes 10% of the Columbia's flow". (Week 5 lecture) Ten percent may seem like a small amount but in reality it is a massive amount of water. Many of the foods I eat must be grown and thus require irrigation. This ten percent draw of flow along with dams themselves has created a major problem for the native salmon of the river. Their problem can be seen be the reduction in Salmon harvest over the past hundred years.

The amount of salmon harvested has declined from 30,000,000 pounds a year to only 2,500,000 pounds a year. That is a drastic decline, so what does the next hundred years hold for the salmon if we continue on at the rate we currently sustain? Speaking of salmon harvesting, salmon is my absolute favorite fish to eat as I am sure it is far countless others. So what does that mean? We have tried to compensate for the loss in fish harvest be building hatcheries along the Columbia. The final result has been devastating effects to the native fish runs of the river.

And finally probably most devastating to the natural habitat of this water supply is grazing of animals along the rivers banks. How does this relate to me? I eat beef plentifully that's haw. Over time the grazing or over grazing in the area "removes riparian vegetation, causes erosion, and results in incised can nels". (Week 5 lecture) What is wrong with incised canals? Many things the water is not as nutrient rich as it would be with riparian-forested banks.

The water temperature increases in wider areas making spawning more difficult for the salmon. "Riparian forests introduce large woody debris to streams, providing cover, rearing habitat, food, and routing systems". (Week 5 lecture) So to conclude nearly all the aspects of my eating habits reflect the destruction of the Columbia Basin. Be it the riparian forests that protect both fish and the locally grown produce I eat which requires irrigation. Or the salmon I enjoy so much, which is slowly being depleted from the river completely. And finally the beef that I enjoy so plentifully which is destroying river.