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Concepts that are
implicit in the Habitat Exploration strand of this book include
biodiversity, watershed, and the community.
Biodiversity refers
to a variety of species living together in balance in an ecosystem.
A species is at risk when the available food and water supply
is not enough to sustain its population, Remove one species
from the system, and the balnce may be threatened; remove
several species, and the balance may be destroyed so that
all species are at risk.
A primary factor
that helps to maintain the balance in an ecosystem is the
availability of food. In a food web, the population of a prolific
species is kept under control by the species that uses it
for food. As a result of a complex predator-to-prey interactions,
wildlife populations fluctuate naturally over time. For example,
in some years foxes raise many pups because there is a plentiful
supply of rabbits. The rabbit population may decline in years
of drought, when its food supply is diminished, or it may
be decimated by an abundance of foxes or other predators.
When rabbits become scarce, a decline in the fox population
follows. When a predator, such as a wolf, is removed from
an ecosystem, the population of its prey, such as deer, explodes.
The more species there are in a system, the less it is likely
that the system will be out of balance.
All of us live and
transact our daily business in a watershed. A watershed is
an area that drains rainfall and snow melt from the high-ridge
line of hills and mountains down into a body of water. Whether
your home is in a forest, a farm area, a suburb, or a city,
it is located somewhere in a watershed. Whatever happens upstream
in a watershed affects the communities and habitats downstream.
For example, when a forest is harvested on the side of a mountain,
one of the results is increased runoof of rain or snow-melt,
which leads to soil erosion on the mountain side and possible
flooding in communities down the mountain.
A
community can be defined as a group of species living together
in a mutually supportive way. Such a group may be found in
a school or a neighborhood; it can be the population, both
human and wild, of a town or a city; or it can be as extensive
as a forest. A farm can be considered either a community unto
itself or a necessary part of a larger community,
back to top
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The Participatory
Democracy strand of this book focuses on laws relevant to
environmental issues, such as the Endangered Species Act.
Students become familiar with the structure and roles of the
three branches of government: the legislative, the executive,
and the judiciary. They also examine the effect of nongovernmental
groups (such as media, political parties, and environmental
organizations) in supporting or opposing the law.
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When students address
an environmental problem, they may feel overwhelmed by the
number of diverse factions involved. Small groups of students
working on different aspects of the same problem can alleviate
that feeling while modeling how problems are addressed in
a real-life situation.
For exqmple, a town
may be faced with a proposal to route a new section of highway
through its residential areas, which may include a number
of small businesses. The highway would make a posssible faster
delivery of materials to a nearby factory, a major employer
in the region. It may also destroy neighborhoods, afffect
wildlife habitats in wetland areas and back yards, and change
property values all over town. Different student groups could
identify the stakeholders interested in each of those outcomes,
investigate the srakeholders' reasons for their positions,
and debate their positions in a class "town meeting."
Then students can determine what action might help to resolve
the issue. They can research local, state, and federal laws
that may affect the highway proposal and can determine which
laws are applicable to the issue. As they work with community
stakeholders to advance their project, students will develop
communication and negotiation skills.
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