For my field trip report, I went to my neighborhood. Actually, I go there everyday because well, that is where I live. I went out and made my observations during the early evening. The urban environment of North Hills is a rather large place and the environment seems quite hostile. There are clear edges and boundaries within my backyard. There is a flat concrete area followed by a wild field of weeds and dirt with some patches of unkempt grass. On the far end of the yard, a chain link fence separates it from the city's shrubs and trees. I moved some large rocks and found that it was quite moist underneath and that there was a worm hanging out there. In the areas that had some grass, I noticed that over spray from the neighbor's sprinkler systems was the cause for such growths. This means that the land is probably fertile and if we wanted a grassy tomorrow, we had hope and should get up and work the land. Our dog Rags, was introduced to our backyard ecosystem roughly three years ago. He has since become a keystone species in that environment. He controls the stray cat population in our fabulous neighborhood. He is also quite vicious and mean looking not unlike Cujo. Many homeless people have probably thought about staying the night in the backyard. However, they wisely do not because he would probably control them in a violent manner as he does the kitty cats. Urban racism plays a role in the environment we are a minority neighborhood near various factories and the freeway. Both of which cause a degree of air pollution. The surrounding neighborhoods are quite filthy the homeless here compete with each other for food. Parasitic commensalisms exist in this ecosystem some members of the homeless community feed off the garbage of the non-homeless and the local businesses. The homeless" ecological niche in this particular environment is to scare the rich people on their way to Northridge and beg for change.
