My environment

1. My environment By: Austin Hostetter

2. Community Level How was your county settled? In 1683, Penn purchased from the Indians a part of land which extended from the Delaware to the Susquehanna River. As more settlers in the lands of Chester County increased in number, additional townships were created by the Chester County court. The original three counties, Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester, were made as copies of normal English shires. The conditions of Chester County's backwoods, from which Lancaster was formed was established on May 10, 1729. The land was very fertile which helped the new county to grow in population because of the amount of settlers who wanted to use the lan for farmland and grow crops. What town, borough or village do you reside in? Currently, our family lives in the New Holland borough but are just about on the edge of being on the East Earl brought too.

3. Community Level • Describe the following for your area: • 3 Things you like about the area: • There are miles of farmland so there is a lot of space • Very small population and towns that are near by • The Amish that live around us and how they still live a simple life • 3 Things you don’t like, be sure to stay appropriate: • It is a large tourist that come to see the Amish • The smell of manure when you drive or walk around the borough • Our location is kind of desolate to a larger civilized area • Weather Patterns • We get an average amount of 41.5 inches of rain each year • Average high and low temperature is 87 degrees as high in summer and 26 degrees as a low in winter • Humidity is normally high in the summer and lower in the winter • On a climate map, we are shown as being in “Humidity Continental” • We get about 21-30 inches of snowfall each year

4. Community Level • Which watershed you reside in and what large body of water it feeds into: • The watershed the I would reside in is the New Holland Watershed which is located on Welsh Mountain. The large body of water it would feed into would just be large water towers located in New Holland. • Name 2 human practices that help the water in your watershed: • Have it be nature water that is later purified so it is fresh and safe to drink • Keep litter, trash and even animals out of the water so it can not be contaminated by a disease or with other hurtful things • Name 2 human practices that hurt the water in your watershed: • Pollution can cause acid rain can precipitate which would run off into the watershed and then contaminate the water already in it • Any trash that is laying around that could be washed into the watershed and possibly hurt the water or infect it

5. Community Level • 5 Common Native plants to the area: • Sugar Maple (Tree) • Mountain Laurel (Shrub) • Arrow Wood (Fern) • White Oak (Tree) • Indian Grass (Grass) • 3 Common birds: • Carolina Chickadee • American Black Duck • Bald Eagle • 3 Common mammals: • White Tailed Deer • Eastern Gray Squirrel • Virginia Opossum

6. Community Level • Energy Sources: • Solar Power • Nuclear Power • Wind Power • Environmental problem: • An environmental problem is that major factories are near by which are causing pollution in the air and they also take a lot of energy to fun their factory which uses lots of energy. • 2 other interesting facts about the natural environment: • The soil is very good for growing because of how fertile it was which is why there are lots of fields for crops • Where most of the fields were was actually an open valley and not covered by the trees in the near by forest

7. Your Home And Life • Where does the water in your home come from? • It comes from an underground well in my backyard. • What does your household do with trash? Where does it go if you get it picked up? • It gets picked up by a trash company. The trash would be taken Landsdale Landfill which is where it would be dumped and buried. • Is there recycling in your home? If so explain how and if you have it picked up or dropped off where does it go after that? • Yes, there is recycling. We put all of our plastics, glass, and aluminum that we do not want it put it into a green recycling container which is set outside to be picked up with the trash. The trucks would take it from our house and keep it until they get back to there building where it is dumped off and another truck takes all the recycles to a processing plant.

8. Your Home And Life • Where does your sewage go? Make sure you include how it gets processed and what happens to it after. • Our sewage is help in our sewage tank until it gets to full that it needs pumped into a truck that takes it to a sewage processing plant and is treated there. Chemicals and other treatments will be used to treat all the sewage to remove all the contaminates in the fecal matter. The sewage is then able to be used a fertilizer or it gets disposed somewhere safe to decompose. • What are 3 of the habitats around the outside of your home? Describe them and any role that you or your family plays in those habitats. • Backyard- It is covered in grass and sometimes wildlife that’s walks across it. Our role is to make sure it looks good, we can enjoy being in it, seeing anything that roams around in it. • Flowerbeds- There are plenty of flowers in the flowerbed which is also a place that insects like to be near. Our role is to keep it looking nice, have the flowers be healthy, and enjoy the sight of all the flowers and insects in the bed. • Forest- Plenty of trees that grow, many species of plants, and lots of mammals that have the forest as there home. Our role can be to make sure to preserve some of the forest around us so not only we can enjoy it but the wildlife around us can too.

9. Your Home And Life • Name your top 5 foods (be specific), then you have to research where in the world these foods come from. (the grocery store is not an acceptable response). • Ribeye Steak- A cut of beef that comes from the eye of the prime rib. Normally will come from a local meat store or a factory in North America. • Mashed Potatoes- Come from potatoes which is a starch that grows in the ground. It will normally come from a farm located in in Northern America. • Hamburgers- Made up of ground beef which can come either from a local area in Lancaster County, or it will come from factories close to the Mid-West where plenty of cattle are grown to be slaughtered for the meat to be processed, packaged, and then shipped. • French Fries- Just fried potatoes that cane be homemade or grown on a potato farm located in the Mid-West and the shipped all over the country. • Chocolate- Cocoa beans are imported from India which is then shipped to the factory where it is processed and made into chocolate. Then shipped from Hershey or other chocolate factories to a store where it can be bought to enjoy

10. Things You Do That Are/Are Not Environmentally Friendly • Things I do That are environmentally friendly: • Recycle used cans and bottles • Use a small amount of water when getting ready for school/bed • Don’t drive a car but can walk if it is close by • Things I do That are not environmentally friendly and ways I can change it: • Use lots of electric for my electronics – Use electronics a little more less and also get more efficient items that don’t take as much energy • Get driven to school everyday instead of using bus – Use the bus a little more so instead of driving a whole different vehicle, I can use something that takes me to the same place • Trees get cut down near our house for more room to use – Stop cutting them down because we don’t need the space just for enjoying

11. The How On the left is a picture of Lancaster County for a map of what it looks like. On the right is a picture taken in the air of what some of the geography looks like. Here, at the left, is a drawing of Pennsylvania and the county shaded red shows you where Lancaster County would be. The right caption also shows you some of the geography taken at ground level on a road.