As technology progresses it seems as though our “needs” do as well. In order to meet these needs we have to dig into our earth’s resources. Some of our usage is safe and doesn’t cause much disturbance to the surrounding environment, but a good portion of it leaves permanent results that can be devastating to future life. An example of this would be the mining for coal that produces methane gas in the Powder River Basin located in Wyoming. Methane gas is a natural gas that’s extracted from coal and used in many common household items such as furnaces and stoves for cooking. This project is exploiting land and chasing away farmers in hopes to find less than a year’s worth of product to support the United States while drilling into hundreds of thousands of acres. Many ranchers have lost a sense of peace once found in their land as well as grazing land for their cattle provided by the government. The noise and drilling from the heavy machinery is enough to scare any wildlife away and with that comes change to the environment. Without the fertilization and grazing from the animals, the plants and organisms that can survive will deplete.
Although there are no specific studies to prove the results of such a disruption to the water and fishing, the possibilities are not very positive. It is very possible that the water quality could lower from the mining due to the chemicals being extracted into the air and then into the water. The fish species in this particular area are adapted to very harsh environments but the fish species diversity could decline from the discharge of coal bed natural gas product in water.
Another type of disruption from coal mining is known as mountaintop removal. This is just like it sounds, removing the top of a mountain in pushing it over the top of other parts of the environment. This method of surface mining is one of the most profitable methods due to the low costs involved. However, its consequences to the surrounding environment can be costly. Some toxic inorganic chemicals are naturally released into water from rocks by weathering processes. Humans accelerate the transfer rates in these cycles thousands of times above natural background levels by mining, processing, using, and discarding minerals. Release of these toxins can lower water quality and adversely affect biological communities such as mercury precipitating into water supplies then it bioconcentrates in food webs reaching dangerous levels in top predators. Because of this, Americans are warned not to eat more than one meal of fish per week due to the high mercury levels found in some fish.
I went out to explore the natural resources in my area and an area comparable to it that has not been disrupted for extractions of natural resources. A local example I found of a disturbance for the extraction of natural resources that many people are familiar with is the local fishing area at Fain Park in Prescott Valley, Arizona. Fain Park is home to a dam build in Lynx Creek. In 1863 Lynx Creek was discovered as a good resource of a precious mineral known as gold and has since recorded 108,000 ounces of gold retrieved. The dam was built and piping installed for the purpose of hydraulic mining. Now the dam is left providing little more use than recreational purposes. The town fills the water with fish each year and you can find little bits of history regarding the creek along the trails surrounding Lynx Creek, though Lynx Creek itself is a contribution to a recharge water supply.
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| Sign Posted By Dam |
Presently life on the dam was not very diverse due to the cold weather. A variety of birds lined the dam and a few ducks floated on the top of the creek, but no fish were visible.
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| Birds Lining the Dam |
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| Ducks on Lynx Creek |
The trees surround the area along with shrubs along the trails to allow for a desert scenery with a bit of shade. Prominent life is allowed from water seeping into the ground off the creek.
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| Water Fall on Lynx Creek |
Unfortunately carelessness from visitors leaves a mess at the bottom off the creek off the dam. Access below is not permitted, so removal of waste is not easy and contributes to the depleting quality of the environment.
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| Littering at Bottom of Dam |
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| Lynx Creek at Bottom of Dam |
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| Lynx Creek Map |
On the other hand, this creek meets just southeast of Prescott Valley with the Agua Fria National Monument. This 71,100 acre monument starts at a 2,150 foot elevation and runs all the way up to about 4,600 foot elevation providing an extremely diverse setting for plants and wildlife. This landscape includes a plateau of exposing Precambrian rock along the canyon walls to dormant volcanoes and vegetative life.
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| Agua Fria |
I zoned in on an area behind Cordes Lakes, Arizona where life is quiet and recent fencing keeps motorists on the road to preserve the land.
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| Agua Fria Recovery Plan |
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| Fencing Put up to Keep Motorists Off |
Along these many miles of preserved land you can find wildlife such as coyotes, bobcats, antelope, mule deer, javelina, and a variety of small animals such as rabbits, squirrels, and birds. The soil types around the Agua Fria range from hot, dry desert to grasslands with pine trees and greenery.
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| Agua Fria Landscape |
The Agua Fria has more than 400 recorded archeological sites going back approximately 2,000 years to the Perry Mesa Tradition in 1250 A.D. The national monument boundary runs from Black Mesa all the way up to Sycamore Mesa. People enjoy the land for hobbies allowed by its undisturbed environment such as hiking, bird watching, scenic drives, wildlife viewing and viewing of cultural sites. The main significance of saving our natural habitat is for the culture and life behind it and the future of our environment.
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| Map of Agua Fria |
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