Do You Like Where You Live?

Do You Like Where You Live? If you do then you might be interested in what I have to say if you want where you live to stay as nice as it is right now.

If where you live is beautiful, with clean air and water and whatever else you find you like then you might want it to stay that way. Historically, when people first come into an area to settle they tend to overhunt, overfish, overgraze their animals etc. Soon that place is changing and not as nice as it was and many people then want to move on and ecologically devastate another area. I know that is not their intention, that is just what usually happens down through history.

If you live in a country like the United States there might be more laws in place to ecologically protect whatever area you are in. However, these laws aren't always enforced and some laws just don't seem to be useful to the ecology or humans in general and only benefit Corporate interests.

Where I live, for example there is an overabundance of deer. I have to be careful if people visit and then try to go out to their cars at night because they might startle a deer with unexpected consequences.

For example, I was riding my bicycle a few years ago and heard a girl about 13 crying and running after her dog. I looked at the dog and he was a black dog about 70 pounds and had obviously chased a buck with horns and had been thrown through the air and his flesh on his chest was torn away to his ribs by the horns. Deer know how to protect themselves very well having done it for thousands of years.

There are a lot less mountain lions around where I live to eat these deer and hunting where I live is completely forbidden. So people come from all over to golf and see the deer on many golf courses in this area. However, I have to be sure that My 70 pound dog is on leash on the streets so he isn't hurt by a deer or buck protecting itself.

What I'm trying to get at is that too much or too little of any of the species of creatures both plant and animal that had existed where you live for thousands of years begins to change forever the local ecology. It doesn't matter what the species of plants or animals is. It could be ants or bugs or birds or wasps or whatever. Too much or too little of whatever species it is permanently begins to change the ecology where you live to the point where it becomes something else entirely.

For example, over 50% of the Monterey Pines where I live have died and had to be removed during the last 8 years or so I have lived here. My theory is that too many houses, the removal of pine needle mulch and oak mulch of thousands of years has begun to make these trees vulnerable to things like pine beetles and pitch canker disease. It might also be the herbicides and pesticides used on many private gardens and golf courses. Whatever the cause or causes the forests are dying and if we are lucky 5% to 10% of the old trees will still be alive in another 10 years. Many of us are encouraging baby Monterey Pines to grow in our yards so they will be big within 25 to 50 years.

Where I live is very beautiful. I live on a peninsula that stretches out into the Pacific Ocean. The air here comes mainly off the ocean that has been purified for thousands of miles of ocean and storms and precipitation. In the ocean is an upwelling of water that brings nutrients to the area and so the ocean here is very rich with sea life from 5000 feet down in the trench to the shelfs of 100 feet or less on the coast.

Whatever you can do to help keep the balance of nature and the ecology where you live in balance will help future generations enjoy what you enjoy about where you live.