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Goal 3: Improve Environmental Stewardship
- Promote renewable energy alternatives
- Conserve natural resources
- Improve parks and natural reserves
- Reduce air, water, land, light and noise pollution
Our environment is the natural world around us. The natural resources, air, water, plants, animals, climate, and soil are interrelated and have connections that hold the web of life together. If one part of an ecosystem is damaged or disappears, it has an impact on everything else.
Life itself is dependent on our natural resources. Examples of the benefits of a healthy ecosystem include:
- wetlands protecting land from floods,
- insects that pollinate crops,
- rains that regenerate soils, and
- forests acting as the lungs of the world which cleanse the air we breathe.
We are inspired by the beauty of nature and rejuvenated by open spaces – be it urban parks, open farmland, forests, beaches, or wilderness areas. We hold these resources in common and we need to protect them.
Our commitment is to conserve and protect these natural resources. Some of our efforts will be directed to, but not limited by:
- preservation of urban forests,
- preservation of diverse farm land,
- preservation of healthy ecosystems,
- preservation of endangered species,
- preservation of clean water,
- preservation of soil, and
- preservation of climate.
The environment also includes the man-made space around us. Physical, chemical and biological factors created by human activities have an effect on our environment and on us. Our impact can be positive or negative, depending upon whether we work in harmony with nature or focus solely on selfish, short-term goals.
Washington County has some of the richest and most productive farmland in the Northwest. If this land is used wisely, our food costs can be reduced by emphasizing local food production that can mitigate the hidden costs of food importation.
Environmental stewardship brings together social, economic, and natural resources to satisfy present and future needs without undermining the natural resource base and environmental quality on which life depends.
Our objective is to educate ourselves and others about the effects of human activities in our natural environment and take action to limit their negative effects. These effects include, but are not limited to:
- Air, water, or soil pollution from biological agents;
- Noise pollution by traffic and growth patterns;
- Electromagnetic pollution by cell phone towers and transmission lines;
- Construction pollution by housing, road and other land use patterns;
- Agricultural pollution by industrial farming;
- Irrigation pollution by heavy water usage; and
- Man-made pollution by climate change.
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