Overgrazing

most immediate cause of human-caused desertification is the destruction and/or removal of the land’s stabilizing vegetation — a process known as deflation. This is caused, and acts in concert with, a number of other factors — including drought, overgrazing, deforestation, common agricultural practices, and changes in the climate. With the removal of a region’s vegetation, the soil degrades and erodes very rapidly — leaving an environment that is far less suited to supporting common forms of…

Within recent decades, there has been an experience in the decrease of the soil health and fertility around the world. There are many causes to this, which will be explained later on into this essay. This is a problem that needs to have more focus put on it because soil health and fertility is arguably the basis for all of our foods and without having healthy and fertile soil, there will be a decrease in the amount of crops produced. But not only is the amount of crops produced affected, the…

In North America, agriculture has been responsible for about 66% of the soil lost, while in Africa, overgrazing is responsible for about half of the soil degradation.” (Pimentel) The patterns of land degradation vary by location. In America, farming is the reason for most of the land lost; In Africa, the fact that the animals overgraze is the reason for most…

Homestead Act provided settlers with 160 acres of land in the West (History.com). The issue with this act is that there was no room to expand, causing ranchers to graze their herds on the open range. The only downside to free range is the risk of overgrazing. To counter this, ranchers held biannual roundups, which is another common theme in Hollywood’s Westerns. Though Hollywood’s depiction of a cattle drive is slightly dramatic, it is fairly accurate. The invention of barbed wire helped define…

Through this presentation I learned a lot about Theodore Roosevelt and his conservation efforts. Theodore Roosevelt was passionate about conserving our natural resources, because he knew that one day these resources would be exhausted. So he wanted to preserve these resources for future generations. He saw the need to protect these lands, so generations could see the beauty of the natural lands and its wild life. So Roosevelt dedicated not only his presidency to helping conserve these resources,…

would increase in shrub casing the animal to avoid eating it or getting ill if they did (this made them easy prey items). The decline in numbers would hit in winter due to starvation, once winter was over there was little food growing due to them overgrazing which would cause the numbers to drastically fall. The hare population would hit a nadir 1-2 years after the peak. When this happened there was a shortage of food for the lynx, this caused them to die from malnutrition and starvation and…

ranked state), grassland destruction are under major concern and are directly linked to the survival of the pygmy shrew populations. Grassland destruction has become more prevalent amount the state which directly destroys habits for pygmy shrews. Overgrazing, over use of pesticides, wind impacts, and noxious weeds are all a threat to grasslands with the Dakotas (Gervis,…

I selected to talk about this because of my established feeling for which I was taught to nurture the land. I grew up for a while on a ranch in Coffeeville, KS during my time there I was educated from not just traditional schooling but was also educated on nature and what requirements our world has and how we can respect the animals, plants, and land around us. I have a profound passion for the land around me and have great distaste for people who fail to respect what has been entrusted to them.…

possibly affect another species. Say, if a specie of fish depended on snails to feed them, and the snails went extinct, the fish would most likely die out. Speaking of the food chain, Florida Panthers also balance animal population and prevent overgrazing. If there were too many of one animal, it would disrupt the food chain because there wouldn’t be enough food to feed them. If they consume too much of the food we eat, there wouldn’t be enough for the animals and let’s…

Indians. Approximately “30 million to 60 million” buffalo lived on the Great Plains before the railway (King). From 1875 to 1885 the herds were decimated (Quinn). Cattle moved in as the buffalo died and the “increase in the number of cattle led to overgrazing and destruction of the fragile plains grasses,” and they could not recover (“The Cattle Frontier”). The Plains Indians had used the buffalo before the arrival of cattle and felt this change, as they needed them for clothing and food…