Habitat Loss and Degradation. The forests of the North Cascades ecoregion are a rich resource, and forests underpin much of Washington鈥檚 identity and economy. Forest management practices on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and on private forestlands continue to evolve in response to research on methods and productivity and to regulations and incentive programs. Legacies from the region鈥檚 history of supplying timber to a wood-hungry nation and world include younger stands, changes in forest dynamics, and landscape alterations.
Stands throughout the lower elevations of western Washington, including the North Cascades, have been harvested in the past 100鈥?50 years. Most old-growth forest has been harvested鈥攐nly about 3% of western Washington forests are presently in this age class.
Forest composition and dynamics in the North Cascade have changed in response to several management practices, including clearcut logging, plantation forestry, and fire suppression. Clearcut logging and plantation forestry (primarily of economically choice Douglas-fir) lead to less diverse tree canopies and forest stands. Fire, an occasional but integral part of the ecosystem, was formerly seen as destructive to timber resources. The resulting fire suppression has led to increased fuel loads and risk of catastrophic fires. Management practices are shifting to allow fire a role in the ecosystem. However, a factor that complicates letting natural fires burn is the increasing human population on the wildland interface.
Landscape alterations include roads and other transportation corridors and many changes to riparian systems. While parts of the North Cascades ecoregion are remarkable鈥攁nd nearly inaccessible!鈥攆or having no roads, roads do create wildlife barriers and hazards and cause habitat fragmentation. An additional and increasing problem is that roads serve as corridors for invasive species, such as the tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) growing along State Route 20 west of Newhalem. Road building can also cause changes to riparian systems through increased sedimentation and debris torrents.
Riparian systems have been altered by forest management practices. These changes include shifting the composition of streamside forests from conifers toward alder and salmonberry, to reducing woody debris in a channel, to altering the hydrology of an area, and others. Much publicized effects of forestry on salmon-bearing waterways are being addressed by the Forests and Fish Law (pdf document), the Salmon Recovery Funding Board, and other initiatives.
Population Growth. The second primary threat to the North Cascades ecoregion is population growth. Population growth drives much of the habitat loss and degradation through increased pressure for development (housing, commercial buildings, transportation needs) and increased pressure on the recreational resources of the region (more people hiking, camping, boating, fishing, hunting, etc.).
More recreational use also adds to the risk of introducing invasive species deep in the backcountry. For example, infestations of reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea) have been found at Ross Lake. These infestations range from individual plants to five-acre patches.
Global Warming. The third major threat to biodiversity conservation in the North Cascades ecoregion is global warming, driven by the accumulation of carbon dioxide and other gases. This will drive multiple changes: melting glaciers, a reduced winter snowpack, and altered plant and animal distributions.
http://www.biodiversity.wa.gov/ecoregion鈥?/a>
I know its alot but i really need help, its due tomorrow. Or if you can just do a portion of it please. Thanks for yer help and support.Can Someone help me put this into my own words?
Since this question is 20 hours old, I'm assuming that you already had to turn in your assignment.
The way to take someone else's work and put it into "your own words" is to make notes of the other person's work, on note cards. Normally, you'll want to have more than one source anyway, so create note cards for the other sources. Then, putting away your sources, use the notes to write your version of the source writings. Putting notes on cards does NOT mean copying verbatim, then copying to your paper. AND when you are done, you need to reference your sources so that no one thinks you are claiming responsibility for the ideas and details that you put into your paper. This is something that your English, Language Arts, and Literature teachers should have explained to you. If they did and you didn't understand, then you need to go back to them and have it explained until you understand. If they did and you do understand, then you need to allocate time to do it yourself. The source you've given looks like a government website with a highly technical writing style. In addition, the source looks like a highly summarized work that would need to be heavily noted and sourced itself. This is usually the most difficult type of material to "put into your own words" because no one talks like this except a few professors with the ability to put 400 seminar students to sleep in less than fifteen minutes.
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