Native Americans understood that what affects even the lowest creature on the totem pole of life, affects everyone, which is why they chose to live in harmony with nature, instead of against it. They never stayed in an area long enough to deplete the land and moved with the seasons to not use up all the resources in one location. But a modern human doesn't live that way and has come up with other methods to positively affect and protect ecosystems in threat of extinction.

Ecosystems are biological communities and exist all around the globe. They serve as small, interconnected worlds that host multiple forms of plant and animal life. Nature recycles everything: Dead plant and animal matter return to the soil to once again produce more trees and plants. Taking a cue from nature, many people understand that recycling offers a positive contribution to the ecosystems of the world by reusing or remaking old products into new ones without having to take resources from nature.

Wildlife preserves and national parks protect scores of ecosystems around the world. Within these zones, animals and plant life thrive under laws that keep them from harm. People, with the help of governments, established these zones to protect specific ecosystems containing threatened plant and animal life.

In the last few decades, many state and local communities created laws that require developers who build homes and commercial buildings to set aside green, open spaces of land to protect them from development. This includes bridges over highways and freeways that allow deer and other creatures to migrate across the developed area without threat of death-by-vehicle. These protected areas represent positive contributions to ecosystems.

While Richard Nixon was president, he established the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 because of the threats to the environment. Environmental laws and management programs have a positive effect on the world's ecosystem when enforced. These laws are in place to keep companies from destroying ecosystems by preventing them from dumping industrial contaminants on the ground, into rivers or streams or other waterways. Environmental laws in some parts of the country also require lumber companies to replant clear-cut forest areas with new plantings. Called reforestation, lumber companies operating in the state of Oregon and others, must replant the area clear cut of trees with new tree growth to replenish the ecosystem within a specific period, generally up to three years after originally clearing the land.