In 200-250 words, explain the biodiversity of your hometown (not State College). Include a description of H.I.P.P.O. and how it impacts this area.

I am from the suburbs of Philadelphia, Bucks County, PA. My hometown has many different types of plants, and animals such as deer, squirrels, and fox. Bucks County used to be a mainly farming area that has been majorly developed within the past 20 years. Since I moved to Newtown, I have seen an incredible amount of housing developments and restaurants be made and less and less dependency on the farms that we have. H.I.P.P.O stands for Habitat loss, Invasive species, Pollution, Human Population, and Overharvesting. Habitat loss is a huge problem in my area. My previous home in Bucks County had woods backing up to our backyard and my family and I would constantly see deer running around all the time. As more and more houses were being built in my neighborhood, I was saddened to see more and more deer roaming the streets and more accidents because their habits were being replaced with home and shopping malls. Another problem that is prevalent in my hometown is human population. I know that this is a large scale issue as well, but more and more people are moving into my area which is causing the need for more homes. This overpopulation is causing traffic in the center of town as well as areas around the highways.

In 200-250 words, describe how you can help improve the biodiversity of your hometown and decrease the different H.I.P.P.O. issues that are prevalent.

Habitat loss is a huge problem in Bucks County that is overlooked more often than not. People do not think about the fact that to be able to create more homes, stores and restaurants for people, they are subsequently destroying the homes of animals that have been there for many many years. I believe that to help fight this problem we need to create protected areas that people cannot build upon to be able to control the areas that animals need to be able to live. There is a park, Tyler State Park in my town that consists of 1,711 acres of land that varies from farms, trails, and the Neshaminy creek. Tyler State Park is a great example of how we should be treating our land and I think that if Bucks County made more areas that not necessarily were as large as Tyler State Park, but had land and waters that were not to be ruined and actively protected. Using ideas from places that have great biodiversity conservation practices, like Costa Rica, such as making a certain percent of the land be protected under national parks and other forms of reserves, it is a great starting point to bring back the rich biodiversity that was once there.