Human Impacts on the Colorado Life Zones

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Human Impacts on the Colorado Life Zones
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Vocabulary

• Consequence

- The result or effect of an action
2) Ecology
- The study of how living organisms and
non-living elements are inter-connected
3) Fragmentation
- To break habitat up into pieces
4) Indirect Effect
- A result of an action that is not obvious at
the time, or is the result of a chain reaction
4) Exotic Species
- A plant or animal that moves into an area where
it did not evolve to live. This happens when
certain conditions change to make it possible.
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• Rules of the Web of Life
• Everything and everyone is connected together.
• All of our actions have consequences for other
  members of the web.

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Balance
Consequences to Our Environment
Human Needs Wants
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Colorado Life Zones
Alpine 11,500 ft.
Sub alpine 10,000 11,500 ft.
Montane 8,000 10,000 ft.
Foothills 5,500 8,000 ft.
Riparian
Plains 3,500 5,500 ft.
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Q Why do we live in a dry environment?
East
West
x
A Rain Shadow Effect
Where does our water come from?
Thinking question
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Human Impacts on the Prairie

• Changes to wildlife habitat

• Air quality

• Water quality

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Changes to the Land
Need Housing
Consequence Loss of farmland wildlife habitat
Need Jobs Homes
Need Transportation
Consequence Fragmented wildlife habitat
Consequence Water air pollution
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How Does Agriculture Effect the Prairie?
Oil
Land Changes
Transportation
Need Food
Water
Feedlots

• What is an indirect effect of growing food ?

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Water Quality
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Farm chemicals can move into streams by erosion.
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Food chain effects of water pollution.
The pollution cycle
What is the lesson ??
We need to make sure our waste is disposed of
correctly and safely !!!
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Air Quality
Lots of cars!
Consequences
Smog

• Pollution builds up in atmosphere brown cloud

• It doesnt disappear it can fall or rain out
  of the atmosphere onto forests, lakes, streams

• Human health problems

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Human Impacts in Riparian Areas

• Changes to stream environments

• Water quality

• Fish wildlife habitats

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Dams
Dams have destroyed many Riparian systems in the
United States, and in the world.
Why do we need dams?
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Grand Ditch
Horsetooth Reservoir
Are there consequences to moving water from
rivers to reservoirs?
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Human Impacts in the Foothills Montane

• Changes to wildlife habitat

• Increased Fire Risk

• Invasive plants species

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Threats To The Foothills
When people start building houses in the
foothills it pushes out animals that use to live
there. Can you think of any other problems new
houses cause?
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Wildfire in the Foothills Montane
How do we balance human safety keeping
environment healthy?
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Human Impacts on the Subalpine and Alpine
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Snowmobiles
Ski Resorts
Pets
Humans
Livestock Grazing
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Wildlife habitat
Water Supply
Air Pollution
Tough Problems Need Creative Solutions !!
Fire
Weeds
Water Quality
Human Interactions with wildlife
Waste Disposal
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Tough Problems Need Creative Solutions!
Habitat Corridors
Plants that like dry weather
Create New Wetlands
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Heres some more simple solutions.
Ride a bike instead of taking the car !
Reuse Refill!
Recycling
H2O Purifiers
Use Non-disposable containers
Keep it out!
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Important Lessons
1) Human activity can affect our environment in
many different ways.
2) Sometimes, the effects of our actions are hard
to see.
3) Human needs wants should be BALANCED with
environmental consequences.
4) There are always things we can do to prevent
or make less impact on the environment!