1.
Georgia (U.S. state)
–
Georgia is a state in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1733, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies, named after King George II of Great Britain, Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2,1788. It declared its secession from the Union on January 19,1861 and it was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15,1870. Georgia is the 24th largest and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States, from 2007 to 2008,14 of Georgias counties ranked among the nations 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South, Atlanta is the states capital, its most populous city and has been named a global city. Georgia is bordered to the south by Florida, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina, to the west by Alabama, the states northern part is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains system. Georgias highest point is Brasstown Bald at 4,784 feet above sea level, Georgia is the largest state entirely east of the Mississippi River in land area. Before settlement by Europeans, Georgia was inhabited by the mound building cultures, the British colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe on February 12,1733. The colony was administered by the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America under a charter issued by King George II. The Trustees implemented a plan for the colonys settlement, known as the Oglethorpe Plan. In 1742 the colony was invaded by the Spanish during the War of Jenkins Ear, in 1752, after the government failed to renew subsidies that had helped support the colony, the Trustees turned over control to the crown. Georgia became a colony, with a governor appointed by the king. The Province of Georgia was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution by signing the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the State of Georgias first constitution was ratified in February 1777. Georgia was the 10th state to ratify the Articles of Confederation on July 24,1778, in 1829, gold was discovered in the North Georgia mountains, which led to the Georgia Gold Rush and an established federal mint in Dahlonega, which continued its operation until 1861. The subsequent influx of white settlers put pressure on the government to land from the Cherokee Nation. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law, sending many eastern Native American nations to reservations in present-day Oklahoma, including all of Georgias tribes. Despite the Supreme Courts ruling in Worcester v. Georgia that ruled U. S. states were not permitted to redraw the Indian boundaries, President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling. In 1838, his successor, Martin Van Buren, dispatched troops to gather the Cherokee
2.
Florida
–
Florida /ˈflɒrᵻdə/ is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U. S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States, the Miami metropolitan area is Floridas most populous urban area. The city of Tallahassee is the state capital, much of the state is at or near sea level and is characterized by sedimentary soil. The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south, the American alligator, American crocodile, Florida panther, and manatee can be found in the Everglades National Park. It was a location of the Seminole Wars against the Native Americans. Today, Florida is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth, the states economy relies mainly on tourism, agriculture, and transportation, which developed in the late 19th century. Florida is also renowned for amusement parks, orange crops, the Kennedy Space Center, Florida has attracted many writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, and continues to attract celebrities and athletes. It is internationally known for golf, tennis, auto racing, by the 16th century, the earliest time for which there is a historical record, major Native American groups included the Apalachee, the Timucua, the Ais, the Tocobaga, the Calusa and the Tequesta. Florida was the first part of the continental United States to be visited and settled by Europeans, the earliest known European explorers came with the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce de León spotted and landed on the peninsula on April 2,1513 and he named the region La Florida. The story that he was searching for the Fountain of Youth is a myth, in May 1539, Conquistador Hernando de Soto skirted the coast of Florida, searching for a deep harbor to land. He described seeing a wall of red mangroves spread mile after mile, some reaching as high as 70 feet. Very soon, many smokes appeared along the whole coast, billowing against the sky, the Spanish introduced Christianity, cattle, horses, sheep, the Spanish language, and more to Florida. Both the Spanish and French established settlements in Florida, with varying degrees of success, in 1559, Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano established a settlement at present-day Pensacola, making it the first attempted settlement in Florida, but it was abandoned by 1561. Spain maintained tenuous control over the region by converting the tribes to Christianity. The area of Spanish Florida diminished with the establishment of English settlements to the north, the English attacked St. Augustine, burning the city and its cathedral to the ground several times. Florida attracted numerous Africans and African-Americans from adjacent British colonies who sought freedom from slavery, in 1738, Governor Manuel de Montiano established Fort Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose near St
3.
National Natural Landmark
–
The National Natural Landmarks Program recognizes and encourages the conservation of outstanding examples of the natural history of the United States. It is the only national natural areas program that identifies and recognizes the best examples of biological and geological features in both public and private ownership, the program was established on May 18,1962, by United States Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall. The program aims to encourage and support voluntary preservation of sites that illustrate the geological and ecological history of the United States and it also hopes to strengthen the publics appreciation of the countrys natural heritage. As of November 2016,599 sites have been added to the National Registry of National Landmarks, the registry includes nationally significant geological and ecological features in 48 states, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The National Park Service administers the NNL Program and if requested, land acquisition by the federal government is not a goal of this program. National Natural Landmarks are nationally significant sites owned by a variety of land stewards, the legislative authority for the National Natural Landmarks Program stems from the Historic Sites Act of August 21,1935, the program is governed by federal regulations. The NNL Program does not have the features of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Thus, designation of a National Natural Landmark presently constitutes only an agreement with the owner to preserve, insofar as possible, administration and preservation of National Natural Landmarks is solely the owners responsibility. Either party may terminate the agreement after they notify the other, the UKs Site of Special Scientific Interest list is a rough equivalent. The NNL designation is made by the Secretary of the Interior after in-depth scientific study of a potential site, all new designations must have owner concurrence. The selection process is rigorous, to be considered for NNL status, since establishment of the NNL program, a multi-step process has been used to designate a site for NNL status. Since 1970, the steps have constituted the process. A natural area inventory of a region is completed to identify the most promising sites. After landowners are notified that the site is being considered for NNL status, the evaluation report is peer reviewed by other experts to assure its soundness. The report is reviewed further by National Park Service staff, the site is reviewed by the Secretary of the Interiors National Park Advisory Board to determine that the site qualifies as an NNL. The findings are provided to the Secretary of the Interior who approves or declines, landowners are notified a third time informing them that the site has been designated an NNL. Each major natural history theme can be subdivided into various sub-themes. The NNL program does not require designated properties to be owned by public entities, lands under almost all forms of ownership or administration have been designated—federal, state, local, municipal and private
4.
Peat
–
Peat, also called turf, is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter that is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem is the most efficient carbon sink on the planet because peatland plants capture the CO2 which is released from the peat. Sphagnum moss is one of the most common components in peat, soils that contain mostly peat are known as histosols. Peat forms in wetland conditions, where flooding obstructs flows of oxygen from the atmosphere, Peatlands, particularly bogs, are the most important source of peat. That said, other less common types, including fens, pocosins. Landscapes covered in peat are home to specific kinds of plants including Sphagnum moss, ericaceous shrubs, because organic matter accumulates over thousands of years, peat deposits also provide records of past vegetation and climates stored in plant remains like pollen. This allows humans to reconstruct past environments and study changes in land use. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world, by volume, there are about 4 trillion cubic metres of peat in the world, covering a total of around 2% of the global land area, containing about 8 billion terajoules of energy. Over time, the formation of peat is often the first step in the formation of other fossil fuels such as coal. This is also the commonly used in the peat industry. At 106 g CO2/MJ, the carbon dioxide emission intensity of peat is higher than that of coal and natural gas, lastly, peat fires have been responsible for large public health disasters including the 1997 Southeast Asian haze. Peat forms when plant material does not fully decay in acidic and anaerobic conditions and it is composed mainly of wetland vegetation, principally bog plants including mosses, sedges, and shrubs. As it accumulates, the peat holds water and this slowly creates wetter conditions that allow the area of wetland to expand. Peatland features can include ponds, ridges, and raised bogs, most modern peat bogs formed 12,000 years ago in high latitudes after the glaciers retreated at the end of the last ice age. Peat usually accumulates slowly at the rate of about a millimetre per year, using Carbon-dating, scientists found that Peat in peatlands started forming 360 million years ago based on it currently containing 550 Gt of carbon. Peat material is either fibric, hemic, or sapric, fibric peats are the least decomposed and consist of intact fiber. Hemic peats are partially decomposed and sapric are the most decomposed, Phragmites peat is one composed of reed grass, Phragmites australis, and other grasses. It is denser than other types of peat
5.
Swamp
–
A swamp is a wetland that is forested. Many swamps occur along rivers where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations. Other swamps occur on the shores of large lakes, some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation. The two main types of swamp are true or swamp forests and transitional or shrub swamps, in the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is colloquially used for what is more correctly termed a bog or muskeg. The water of a swamp may be water, brackish water or seawater. Some of the worlds largest swamps are found along rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi. Swamps are characterized by slow-moving to stagnant waters and they are usually associated with adjacent rivers or lakes. Swamps are features of areas with very low topographic relief, historically, humans have drained swamps to provide additional land for agriculture and to reduce the threat of diseases borne by swamp insects and similar animals. Many swamps have also undergone intensive logging, requiring the construction of drainage ditches and these ditches and canals contributed to drainage and, along the coast, allowed salt water to intrude, converting swamps to marsh or even to open water. Large areas of swamp were therefore lost or degraded, louisiana provides a classic example of wetland loss from these combined factors. Europe has probably lost nearly half its wetlands, New Zealand lost 90 percent of its wetlands over a period of 150 years. Ecologists recognise that swamps provide valuable ecological services including flood control, fish production, water purification, carbon storage, in many parts of the world authorities protect swamps. In parts of Europe and North America, swamp restoration projects are becoming widespread, often the simplest steps to restoring swamps involve plugging drainage ditches and removing levees. Swamps and other wetlands have traditionally held a very low property value compared to fields, prairies and they have a reputation for being unproductive land that cannot easily be utilized for human activities, other than perhaps hunting and trapping. Farmers, for example, typically drained swamps next to their fields so as to more land usable for planting crops. Many societies now realize that swamps are important to providing fresh water and oxygen to all life. Indeed, floodplain swamps are important in fish production. Government environmental agencies are taking steps to protect and preserve swamps, in Europe, major effort is being invested in the restoration of swamp forests along rivers
6.
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
–
The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is a 402, 000‑acre National Wildlife Refuge located in Charlton, Ware, and Clinch Counties of Georgia, and Baker County in Florida, United States. The refuge is administered from offices in Folkston, Georgia, the refuge was established in 1937 to protect a majority of the 438,000 acre Okefenokee Swamp. The name Okefenokee is a Native American word meaning trembling earth, by May 28, more than 580,000 acres had burned in the region, or more than 900 square miles. Nearly 400,000 people visit the refuge each year, making it the 16th most visited refuge in the National Wildlife Refuge System and it is the largest in acreage of any that is not located in a western state. In 1999, the impact of tourism in Charlton, Ware. The refuge has a staff of 16 with a fiscal year 2005 budget of $1,451,000, the refuge also administers the Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The swamp has a human history including Native American settlement, explorations by Europeans, a massive drainage attempt. Native Americans inhabited Okefenokee Swamp as early as 2500 BC, peoples of the Deptford Culture, the Swift Creek Culture and the Weeden Island Culture occupied sites within the Okefenokee. The last tribe to seek sanctuary in the swamp were the Seminoles, troops led by General Charles R. Floyd during the Second Seminole War, 1838–1842, ended the age of the Native Americans in the Okefenokee. The Suwannee Canal Company purchased 238,120 acres of the Okefenokee Swamp from the State of Georgia in 1891 to drain the swamp for rice, sugar cane, when this failed, the company began industrial wetland logging as a source of income. Captain Henry Jackson and his crews spent three years digging the Suwannee Canal 11.5 miles into the swamp, economic recessions led to the company’s bankruptcy and eventual sale to Charles Hebard in 1901. Logging operations, focusing on the cypress, began in 1909 after a railroad was constructed on the northwest area of the swamp, more than 431 million board feet of timber were removed from the Okefenokee by 1927, when logging operations ceased. The Okefenokee Preservation Society, formed in 1918, promoted nationwide interest in the swamp, with the support of State and local interests and numerous conservation and scientific organizations, the Federal Government acquired most of the swamp for refuge purposes in 1936. In 1937, with Executive Order 7593, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt established the refuge, designating it as a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife. In 1974, to ensure the protection of this unique ecosystem. In 1986, the Okefenokee Refuge was designated by the Wetlands Convention as a Wetland of International Importance, Okefenokee NWR has an approved acquisition boundary of 519,480 acres, which is 123,480 acres larger than its current area. Approximately 371,000 acres of the Okefenokee Swamp wetlands are incorporated into the refuge, the Okefenokee Swamp is a vast bog inside a huge, saucer-shaped depression that was once part of the ocean floor. The swamp now lies 103 to 128 feet above sea level
7.
Blackwater river
–
A blackwater river is a type of river with a deep, slow-moving channel flowing through forested swamps or wetlands. As vegetation decays, tannins leach into the water, making a transparent, acidic water that is darkly stained, most major blackwater rivers are in the Amazon Basin and the Southern United States. The term is used in studies, geology, geography, ecology. Not all dark rivers are blackwater in that technical sense, some rivers in temperate regions, which drain or flow through areas of dark black loam, are simply black due to the color of the soil, these rivers are black mud rivers. There are also black mud estuaries, Blackwater rivers are lower in nutrients than whitewater rivers and have ionic concentrations higher than rainwater. The unique conditions lead to flora and fauna that differ both from whitewater and clearwater rivers, where the water types combine is attractive to a diverse group of organisms. Although many Amazonian rivers fall clearly into one of these categories, others show a mix of characteristics and may vary depending on season, Black and white waters differ significantly in their ionic composition, as shown in Table 1. Black waters are acidic, resulting in an aluminum concentration greater than that of the more neutral white waters. The major difference is the concentrations of sodium, magnesium, calcium and potassium, some animals need more calcium than is available in blackwaters, so for example, snails, which need much calcium to build shells, are not abundant in blackwaters. The lack of dissolved ions in black waters results in a low conductivity, Black and white waters differ in their planktonic fauna and flora. Tables 2 and 3 compare the number of animals caught in black. The black water was not as extreme an example as the Rio Negro system, however, it can be seen that the black water held greater numbers of rotifers but fewer crustaceans and mites. These crustaceans are important foods for larval fish, the zones where the two waters mix are attractive to ostracods and young fish. These mixing zones tend to have many animals, the abundance is shown in Table 3, which compares animals in 10 litres of water. The main Amazonian clearwater rivers have their source in the Brazilian Plateau, apaporis River, A tributary of the Japurá River. Arapiuns River, A tributary of the Tapajós River, coari River Potaro River, A tributary of the Mazaruni River. Mazaruni River Mirití-Paraná River Rio Negro, The largest blackwater river in the world, big Cypress, Black Cypress, and Little Cypress and the small rivers in the watershed of Caddo Lake in Texas and Louisiana. Blackwater River, a tributary of the Chowan River in Virginia, Blackwater River, a major river in the western Florida panhandle
8.
Suwannee River
–
The Suwannee River is a major river that runs through South Georgia southward into Florida in the southern United States. It is a blackwater river, about 246 miles long. The Suwannee River is the site of the prehistoric Suwanee Straits which separated peninsular Florida from the panhandle, the headwaters of the Suwanee River are in the Okefenokee Swamp in the town of Fargo, Georgia. The river runs southwestward into the Florida Panhandle, then drops in elevation through limestone layers into a rare Florida whitewater rapid. Past the rapid, the Suwanee turns west near the town of White Springs, Florida, then connects to the confluences of the Alapaha River, starting at the confluences of those three rivers, that confluence forms the southern borderline of Hamilton County, Florida. The Suwanee then bends southward near the town of Ellaville, Florida followed by Luraville, Florida then joins together with the Santa Fe River from the east south of the town of Branford, Florida. The river ends and drains into the Gulf of Mexico on the outskirts of Suwannee, the Spanish recorded the native Timucua name of Guacara for the river that would later become known as the Suwannee. Different etymologies have suggested for the modern name. Brinton first suggested in his 1889 Notes on the Floridian Peninsula that Suwannee was a corruption of the Spanish San Juan. This theory is supported by Jerald Milanich, who states that Suwannee developed through San Juan-ee from the 17th-century Spanish mission of San Juan de Guacara, Shawnee, The migrations of the Shawnee throughout the South have also been connected to the name Suwannee. As early as 1820, the Indian agent John Johnson said the Suwaney river was named after the Shawanoese. Echo, In 1884, Albert S. Gatschet claimed that Suwannee derives from the Creek word sawani, meaning echo, gatschets etymology also survives in more recent publications, often mistaking the language of translation. For example, a University of South Florida website states that the Timucuan Indian word Suwani means Echo River, River of Reeds, Deep Water, or Crooked Black Water. In 2004, William Bright repeats it again, now attributing the name Suwanee to a Cherokee village of Sawani, the Suwannee River area has been inhabited by humans for thousands of years. By 1633, the Spanish had established the missions of San Juan de Guacara, San Francisco de Chuaquin, in the 18th century, Seminoles lived by the river. The steamboat Madison operated on the river before the Civil War, and this river is the subject of the Stephen Foster song Old Folks at Home, in which he calls it the Swanee Ribber. Foster had named the Pedee River of South Carolina in his first lyrics and it has been called Swanee River because Foster had used an alternative contemporary spelling of the name. Foster never actually saw the river he made world-famous, george Gershwins song, with lyrics by Irving Caesar, and made popular by Al Jolson, is also spelled Swanee and boasts that the folks up North will see me no more when I get to that Swanee shore
9.
Timucua
–
The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, the various groups of Timucua spoke several dialects of the Timucua language. At the time of European contact, the occupied by speakers of Timucuan dialects occupied about 19,200 square miles. The name Timucua came from the used by the Saturiwa to refer to the Utina. The Spanish came to use the more broadly for other peoples in the area. Eventually it became the term for all peoples who spoke what is known as the Timucuan language. While alliances and confederacies arose between the chiefdoms from time to time, the Timucua were never organized into a political unit. The various groups of Timucua speakers practiced several different cultural traditions, the people suffered severely from the introduction of Eurasian infectious diseases, to which they had no immunity. By 1595, their population was estimated to have reduced from 200,000 to 50,000. By 1700, the population of the tribe had been reduced to 1000, warfare against them by the English colonists and native allies completed their extinction as a tribe soon after the turn of the 19th century. The word Timucuan may derive from Thimogona or Tymangoua, a used by the Saturiwa chiefdom of present-day Jacksonville for their enemies, the Utina. Both groups spoke dialects of the Timucua language, the French followed the Saturiwa in this usage, but the Spanish applied the term Timucua much more widely to groups within a wide section of interior North Florida. In the 16th century they designated the area north of the Santa Fe River between the St. Johns and Suwannee Rivers as the Timucua Province, which they incorporated into the mission system, the dialect spoken in that province became known as Timucua. During the 17th century, the Province of Timucua was extended to include the area between the Suwannee River and the Aucilla River, thus extending its scope, eventually, Timucua was applied to all speakers of the various dialects of the Timucua language. The pre-Columbian era was marked by regular, routine, and probably small tribal wars with neighbors, the Timucua were organized into as many as 35 chiefdoms, each of which had hundreds of people in assorted villages within its purview. They sometimes formed loose political alliances, but did not operate as a political unit. It is the oldest archaeological site in the city, the Timucua may have been the first American natives to see the landing of Juan Ponce de León near St. Augustine in 1513. This notion is up for debate since most historians now agree that the Ponce de León landing point was likely much further south in Ais territory
10.
St. Johns River
–
The St. Johns River is the longest river in the U. S. state of Florida and its most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At 310 miles long, it winds through or borders twelve counties, three of which are the states largest. The drop in elevation from headwaters to mouth is less than 30 feet, like most Florida waterways and it is notable among some that the rivers course flows north, a relatively rare characteristic. Numerous lakes are formed by the river or flow into it, the narrowest point is in the headwaters, an unnavigable marsh in Indian River County. The St. Johns drainage basin of 8,840 square miles includes some of Floridas major wetlands and it is separated into three major basins and two associated watersheds for Lake George and the Ocklawaha River, all managed by the St. Johns River Water Management District. It has been the subject of William Bartrams journals, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings books, when attention was turned to the state, however, much of the land was rapidly overdeveloped in a national zeal for progress. The St. Johns, like many Florida rivers, was altered to make way for agricultural and residential centers and it suffered severe pollution and human interference that has diminished the natural order of life in and around the river. In all,3.5 million people live within the watersheds that feed into the St. Johns River. The St. Johns, named one of 14 American Heritage Rivers in 1998, was included on a list of Americas Ten Most Endangered Rivers in 2008. Restoration efforts are under way for the basins around the St. Johns as Florida continues to deal with population increases in the rivers vicinity, starting in Indian River County and meeting the Atlantic Ocean at Duval County, the St. Johns is Floridas primary commercial and recreational waterway. It flows north from its headwaters, originating in the direction of the Lake Wales Ridge, because of this low elevation drop, the river has a long backwater. It ebbs and flows with tides that pass through the barrier islands, uniquely, it shares the same regional terrain as the parallel Kissimmee River, although the Kissimmee flows south. The St. Johns River is separated into three basins and two associated watersheds managed by the St. Johns River Water Management District, because the river flows in a northerly direction, the upper basin is located in the headwaters of the river at its southernmost point. Indian River County is where the river begins as a network of marshes, the St. Johns River is a blackwater stream, meaning that it is fed primarily by swamps and marshes lying beneath it, water seeps through the sandy soil and collects in a slight valley. The upper basin measures approximately 2,000 square miles, the St. Johns transforms into a waterway in Brevard County. The river touches on the borders of Osceola and Orange Counties, the upper basin of the St. Johns was significantly lowered in the 1920s with the establishment of the Melbourne Tillman drainage project. This drained the St. Johns headwaters eastward to the Indian River through canals dug across the Ten-Mile Ridge near Palm Bay, as of 2015, these past diversions are being partially reversed through the first phase of the Canal 1 Rediversion project. The river is at its narrowest and most unpredictable in this basin, channel flows are not apparent and are usually unmarked
11.
English Americans
–
In the 2014 American Community Survey, English Americans are of the total population. Eight out of the ten most common surnames in the United States are of English origin or having possible mixed British Isles heritage, scotch-Irish Americans are for the most part descendants of Lowland Scots and Northern English settlers who colonized Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century. The English were the top group, with 66% saying they were a good thing for the United States. Ben J. Wattenberg argues that this demonstrates an general American bias against Hispanics. English immigrants in the 19th century, as other groups. They began migrating in large numbers without state support, Americans of English heritage are often seen, and identify, as simply American due to the many historic cultural ties between England and the U. S. and their influence on the countrys population. While there may be reasons for this, after centuries of intermarriage and internal geographic mobility. For these reasons, no part of the pluralist American society is so difficult to describe as a separate entity as the English. The original 17th-century settlers were overwhelmingly English and it was conducted on August 2,1790. The ancestry of the 3,929,214 population in 1790 has been estimated by various sources by sampling last names in the very first United States official census and assigning them a country of origin. The estimate results indicate that people of English ancestry made up about 47. 5% of the population or 60. 9% of the European American population. Some 80. 7% of the total United States population was of European heritage, around 757,208 were of African descent with 697,624 being slaves. Of the remaining population, more than 75% was of British origin, in the 2000 census,24.5 million Americans reported English ancestry,8. 7% of the total U. S. population. This estimate is probably a serious undercount by over 30 million given that, in the 1980 census, as many as 80 million Americans may be wholly or partly of English ancestry. In 1980,23,748,772 Americans claimed wholly English ancestry, in 1860, an estimated 11 million or almost 35% of the population of the United States was wholly or primarily of English ancestry. The population has increased by almost ten times the numbers in 1860, in total, there are estimated to be around 678,000 British born expatriates in the United States with the majority of these being English. English Americans are found in numbers throughout America, particularly in the Northeast, South. Dark blue and purple colours indicate a percentage, highest in the east and west
12.
Wildfire
–
A wildfire or wildland fire is a fire in an area of combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or rural area. Fossil charcoal indicates that wildfires began soon after the appearance of terrestrial plants 420 million years ago, wildfire’s occurrence throughout the history of terrestrial life invites conjecture that fire must have had pronounced evolutionary effects on most ecosystems flora and fauna. Earth is an intrinsically flammable planet owing to its cover of vegetation, seasonally dry climates, atmospheric oxygen, widespread lightning. Wildfires can be characterised in terms of the cause of ignition, their properties, the combustible material present. Wildfires can cause damage to property and human life, but they have beneficial effects on native vegetation, animals. Many plant species depend on the effects of fire for growth, however, wildfire in ecosystems where wildfire is uncommon or where non-native vegetation has encroached may have negative ecological effects. Wildfire behaviour and severity result from the combination of such as available fuels, physical setting. Strategies of wildfire prevention, detection and suppression have varied over the years, one common and inexpensive technique is controlled burning, permitting or even igniting smaller fires to minimise the amount of flammable material available for a potential wildfire. Vegetation may be burned periodically to maintain species diversity and frequent burning of surface fuels limits fuel accumulation. Wildland fire use is the cheapest and most ecologically appropriate policy for many forests, fuels may also be removed by logging, but fuels treatments and thinning have no effect on severe fire behaviour. Wildfires can also be started in communities experiencing shifting cultivation, where land is cleared quickly and farmed until the soil loses fertility, forested areas cleared by logging encourage the dominance of flammable grasses, and abandoned logging roads overgrown by vegetation may act as fire corridors. The most common cause of wildfires throughout the world. In Canada and northwest China, for example, lightning operates as the source of ignition. In other parts of the world, human involvement is a major contributor, in China and in the Mediterranean Basin, human carelessness is a major cause of wildfires. In the United States and Australia, the source of wildfires can be traced both to lightning strikes and to human activities. Coal seam fires burn in the thousands around the world, such as those in Burning Mountain, New South Wales, Centralia, Pennsylvania and they can also flare up unexpectedly and ignite nearby flammable material. The spread of wildfires based on the flammable material present, its vertical arrangement and moisture content. Fuel arrangement and density is governed in part by topography, as land shape determines factors such as available sunlight, overall, fire types can be generally characterized by their fuels as follows, Ground fires are fed by subterranean roots, duff and other buried organic matter
