Restoration of Oakland’s Ecosystems
The quality of any water sources is imperative to every creature in the ecosystem due it being vital to survival. For example, humans can’t go without water for a few days while can survive for days without food. Hence protecting water sources is imperative. Lake Merritt is a tidal lagoon in the center of Oakland California, a refuge for animals. Lake Merritt was created by Dr. Samuel Merritt, the Mayor of Oakland, who at that time owned a majority of the properties near the shorelines of the lagoon ("A Brief History"). He proposed to construct a dam to manipulate the flow of the water to enable the water level inland to rise, thus turning the lagoon into a lake. Sewages and storm drains were later directed into the lake, thus the condition of the lake reflects the community level of pollution within the ecosystem. Throughout the years, Lake Merritt has deteriorated and still is due to the pollution and the stagnant state of the water. The pungent stench releases during the drought seasons and the summer’s heat cause the lake once beautify state to decline. However, in November 2002, Oakland voters approved a $198 million dollar bond measure to fund restoration and clean water projects throughout the city. A total of $115 million was allocated for Lake Merritt’s restoration (Miller). However, there are critics conveying the misused of funds and that Oakland can’t afford to fund this project. The enormous loan from the projects will have to be pay off from the people of Oakland through higher charge for public services and tax’ rates. With the restoration project, not only will the stench of the lake be resolve, but the ecosystem around the lake will have major improvements. The constant influx o...
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... piece of wildlife within a city. The purpose of the project is to restore the refuge into a place that it really meant to be, an ecosystem fit to support the refugees within. It will bring back a real slice of nature back to everyone backyard. The improvement to water quality of the lake can finally support the organisms that used to live there. The improvement can be sighted with the appearance of the river otter and the disappearance of the smell. The smell that once drive away joggers and children will be gone enabling them to experience the beauty of the lake within its blemishes causes by humans. Children can finally experience the true of an actual sanctuary for all creatures both aquatic and terrestrial when the return of aquatic life recovers. This project is a small step to bring back the former glory of Oakland’s main aspect of attraction to the world.
The primary purpose of Friend dam is to help regulate the flow of San Joaquin into available uses of its environmental, wildlife, and farmer’s impacts. The dam controls the flow of water delivery where it needs authorization first before the schedule can release any delivery waters into canals, steam, and wild life habitats. There will be agreements and many protocols to do with it first to avoid unnecessary spilling. There are 5 release schedules which include quantity of water available, time water, flood control requirements, release schedules from storage reservoir above Millerton Lake, and water user requirements. These benefits of flood control, storage management, modification into Madera and Friant-Kern Canals, to stop salty water from abolishing thousands of lands in Sacramento and throughout San Joaquin Delta, as well as deliver masses of water into agricultural lands in 5other counties in the San Joaquin Valley.
As global temperatures and ocean levels rise, the water levels of the Great Lakes continues to fall. As the lakes hit their all time lowest level in global history in 2012, society remains ignorant to the imposing doom that lurks ahead. Since the Great Lakes make up the largest group of fresh water lakes on Earth and are responsible for approximately 21% of the Earth’s fresh water supply, this issue is becoming one of the largest environmental and economical issues our modern world faces. The effects of this issue include destroying animal habitats and a major economic market; shipping. Water levels in the Great Lakes have been dropping for the past fourteen years, but it wasn’t until boats were scraping the bottom of Lake Huron that people began to take notice. This terrible environmental issue has been dubbed a long term cycle of over evaporation and not enough precipitation to replenish the Lakes. Keith Kompoltowicz, chief of watershed hydrology for the United States Army Corps of Engineers in Detroit has been monitoring this issue for a decade and has made startling discoveries, such as in 2012, he discovered Lake Michigan and Lake Huron’s water levels only rose four inches after winter, whereas the Lakes have been regularly recorded as gaining a foot of water after the winter season had ended. This amount of water added is not enough to maintain a proper water level during the dry, hot summer seasons that evaporate much water from the Great Lakes. While some scientists say that this is just a cycle that will adjust itself naturally, most experts that have been studying this phenomenon, such as Kompoltwicz, would agree that the issue has gone to far
The forecast calls for rain. The erosion of the Le Sueur River has been an ongoing problem for a while. The rain has caused the river to rise, and make residence, and wildlife flee to a safer area. A plan is in store to make this area a quality, safe, and useful area again.
In 1982 the Great Salt Lake had begun to rise once more and Williams’ mother’s cancer had returned. As naturalist-in-residence at the Utah Museum of Natural History, she was interested in the effect this rise in the lake would have on the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge as well as the measures implemented by the state to control this unprecedented rise. The Great Salt Lake preserved many of Williams’ childhood memories in its briny waters. Its rising waters threatened to destroy everything that had grown from it and depended on its stability. Williams believed that left on its own the lake would right itself. ...
From reading the author’s book “Ecology of Fear,” Mike Davis’ main thesis for writing this book was to make readers become aware of the underlying problems and threats which have existed or currently exist in Southern California and how these problems shape the way we live today and in the imminent future as well. Although Davis did not really provide us with any remedies for the problems facing Southern California, this book made it very clear to the readers that problems do still exist, although at times they may sound subtle in nature. Of the numerous problems which do exist in Southern California, I will discuss only a handful of the problems that Davis provided us insight to. In the following paragraphs, the main problems of Southern California that I will discuss about are suburbanization and how it made Southern California lose its natural beauty and the effects of overdevelopment, the wild fires which occur and similarities and differences the rich and poor communities faced in terms of adversity, how suburbanization brought people closer to the wildlife, and how numerous books and movies portrayed Los Angeles as the center for calamities. The culmination of all these problems clearly shows that there are many glaring weaknesses of Southern California that need to be closely examined.
The San Joaquin River Project was a plan completed in 2009 made to recreate San Joaquin River, which was dried up after dams were built in 1942. The San Joaquin River restoration is to bring back water flows from the San Joaquin river to the Friant Dam, and to revive the salmon and other fish population. There are two articles debating whether they either agree or disagree with the project. I chose the article, “River Plan Too Fishy For My Taste Buds”. This article came from The Fresno Bee newspaper, which correspondingly means it came from Fresno. The type of people who live in Fresno are farmers, workers who work for other people, democrats, and people who care more about jobs rather than the environment. I agree with this article from The Fresno Bee because I believe Bill McEwen, the author of this article, is the better expert because of his credentials and achievements. I will be using the article “River Restoration Project Offers a Sprinkling of Hope” by Daniel Weintraub to back up my argument.
There is an important crisis in the Indian River Lagoon that nobody really wants to address. Why? Well, if everyone knew that the lagoon was so polluted, nobody would swim in it. In fact, the five counties bordering the 156 miles of the lagoon could suffer extreme economic loss. If tourists don’t come to visit the area, then the beach-side shops will certainly decrease in number, leaving more people without a job. Have you ever been outside during season (mainly early January through late March)? The snowbirds (people that come down to Florida to wait out the winter) are all over the place. They make up for a large amount of the purchases during that time. If these people think the lagoon is polluted, they might decide to go somewhere else
We all need to help our lakes. Right now lake Erie and other water sources have dangerous Algae Blooms that's corrupting the water that's in them. In the past we have polluted our streams like in 1960’s. We just kept dumping pollutants from factories in Lake Erie, and the government payed no attention to it.
There are many issues that have to deal with pollution. Everything from algae to the supply of water we need to survive is affected by pollution. The Great Lakes makes up one fifth of the world’s fresh water and this one fifth is now being polluted. The destruction of the area and the increase in pollution has increased since the 1960’s. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2012)
The pollution of Lake Macatawa has reached a point where both government entities as well as local people need to do their part to clean it up. Through my research it is clear that Lake Macatawa has a clear pollution problem. The pollution problem is an underrated issue because its lack of coverage and its potential significant impact. Lake Macatawa is connected to Lake Michigan, which is a massively valuable natural resource. Lake Macatawa’s pollution is an issue of which needs to be taken care. Even though there are city ordinances, state-wide laws, and federal laws in place, Lake Macatawa still manages to remain incredibly polluted. The proof of the pollution can be shown through the clean-up effort that is going on now. The research includes
Lake Erie needs our help once again! From 1960-70 Lake Erie had a rough time with pollution and algae so we cleaned it up and now we have ruined it again. What all started the pollutants in the lake in the 1960s? Well factories started dumping their waste and pollution into the lake. On top of that farmers fertilizer started getting into the lake. The run off of the fertilizer on the farms would drain into Lake Erie. “As a result of these pollutants, Lake Erie contained increased levels of phosphorus and nitrogen, which contributed to eutrophication - a process that encourages the development of algal blooms.”, says Rotman. The pollutants was so bad people called Lake Erie the “dead lake” or “burning river”.
I myself have always lived in the Bay Area until now, when I recently moved to Chico. Pleasanton, Ca is a suburb in the East Bay where I have lived the longest in the Bay Area. However I have also lived for other short periods of time in the cities San Jose, Union City, Fremont, and San Francisco. This is not the case with some of my other family members. My mother, and her side of the family, where born on the Island of Pico. Pico is located in the Azores, which is a chain of islands right off the coast of Portugal. My mother stated that, “She, my uncle, grandma, and grandpa decided to try to flea the Azores because of fear that my uncle would get drafted into Portugal’s war with Angola” (Orozco). When my mom was fifteen years old, her family migrated to Santa Maria, California. They settled in Santa Maria because of its large Portuguese community. Both of my grandparents worked hard labor jobs to try to support my mom, and uncle. My grandpa worked in construction, and my grandma worked in the fields harvesting crops. After five years of living in Santa Maria, my grandparents decided to move the family to San Jose, California because my grandpa had found a higher paying construction job. They permanently settled in San Jose, which is in the South Bay Area, and that is how my mom’s side of the family came to living in the Bay Area.
Imagine walking along a wood chip path. The breeze is blowing against your face, and the sun is radiating through the treetops. The sounds of various birds and crickets chirping can be heard. As you come to the end of the path, a dock on a lake appears before you. Scanning your whereabouts, you see people fishing on the dock and catch a glimpse of a boat rental. In the glistening water, you notice children happily splashing in the water of the swimming area. You glance behind at the recreational center where individuals are sitting peacefully with cups of fresh coffee from the cafe inside. You are experiencing a quaint, little park nestled on the shores of Silver Lake called Silverwood. Silverwood Park is beneficial for
Trent Orr makes his case for the allocation of more water to environment by citing the example of salmon migration. Orr, criticizes Senator Feinstein’s decision to back a bipartisan bill being passed through the senate during the current drought conditions. This bill extricates the “protections for the San Francisco bay estuary”, in order to allocate more water to the central valley agriculture and cities. This will lead to endangering the rare species of fish like Chinook salmon, steel head and green sturgeon etc. (Lochhead, 2014).
Eric Katz’s The Big Lie: Human Restoration of Nature, written in 1992, he discusses the moral responsibility humanity has to restore nature. He starts by saying that current policies give the message that humanity has the responsibility and means to restore nature, and that these beliefs have become principles of environmental philosophers. Katz’s argues against the belief that humanity has the responsibility to restore nature, or the ability. This belief is based on a “misperception of natural reality” (Katz Restoration, 444). Any restoration would be a technological fix, which is what caused the problem in the first place. The notion that humans can repair or improve nature is anthropocentric, and any restoration would only serve human interests. Eventually by restoring nature, we will dominate it.