Ecosystems of Wisconsin

Authors note: I am writing about geography and ecosystems and I thought this would be interesting to work on Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is our home, our happiness, and our life.  We protect it, but we don't really bother to learn much about it. Why is this? If we knew more, we would have more pride to live here because we would be able to say, "Oh, that is in the Northern Highlands."

The Southeast Glacial Plains are where the school is and most of our homes are located. It was created from glacier deposit. It has rich soil for farming and has some small forest patches due to fire suppression. Ten percent of the 4.9 million acres is forest or wooded area. It is the largest area without a coastline.

The Western Coulee and Ridges area is the largest area with a coastline. It borders the Mississippi river. This area of Wisconsin is classified as highly eroded. In this region there is 6.2 million acres but only 3% is publicly owned. 38% is woodland.

Lastly the North Central Forest is the smallest of the three regions I am discussing. It has 6.1 million acres of land, 80% of which is woodland and 44% is publicly owned. It connects to Upper Michigan.
Also in this region there are a variety of wetlands.

These were only three of the sixteen regions of this state. I enjoyed working on this and if you want more information then go to this website: http://dnr.wi.gov/landscapes/.

Sources:

"Ecological Landscapes of Wisconsin - WDNR." Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2011. <http://dnr.wi.gov/landscapes/>.

Comets

Author's note: I was one day wondering when Halley's comet will return so I decided to write about comets.

When you look up at the sky on a clear night what do you see? Stars and the occasional comet. I wonder how they get that streak behind them and how they move through space. I think they are very interesting things because they are constantly moving and they never stop.

Comets are made up of Space Dust and Ice which is weird because if an astronaut took off a helmet in space his blood would boil not freeze. Then the center (or Nucleolus) of the comet releases gases that trail off behind it. And to move they have to use the gravity of other planets and stars to slingshot around and launch back.

Halley's comet is a famous comet causing bad things to happen. Like in 1066 when the comet passed the Norman took over England. Some other things also happened when the comet passed at different times.

Comets are very strange. I really like how comets can keep going forever. In the future I hope to see Halley's comet. It only comes every 76 years and it will next come in 2061.

Sources:

"Curious About Astronomy: When will Halley's Comet return?." Curious About Astronomy? Ask an Astronomer. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2011. <http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=605>.

 century, the middle of the twentieth, this model suffered from a number of shortcomings: in particular, and Fred Lawrence Whipple. "Comet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet>.